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Today's Bible Reading :: 2 Chronicles 32 - 34 (ESV)

2 Chronicles 32Listen to the passage

2 Chronicles 33Listen to the passage

2 Chronicles 34Listen to the passage

2 Chronicles 32

Sennacherib Invades Judah

(2Ki 18:13—19:34; Isa 36:1–22 )
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 32:1 - After these things and these acts of faithfulness, Sennacherib king of Assyria came and invaded Judah and encamped against the fortified cities, thinking to win them for himself.
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 32:2 - And when Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib had come and intended to fight against Jerusalem,
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 32:3 - he planned with his officers and his mighty men to stop the water of the springs that were outside the city; and they helped him.
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 32:4 - A great many people were gathered, and they stopped all the springs and the brook that flowed through the land, saying, “Why should the kings of Assyria come and find much water?”
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 32:5 - He set to work resolutely and built up all the wall that was broken down and raised towers upon it,[fn] and outside it he built another wall, and he strengthened the Millo in the city of David. He also made weapons and shields in abundance.
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 32:6 - And he set combat commanders over the people and gathered them together to him in the square at the gate of the city and spoke encouragingly to them, saying,
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 32:7 - “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or dismayed before the king of Assyria and all the horde that is with him, for there are more with us than with him.
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 32:8 - With him is an arm of flesh, but with us is the LORD our God, to help us and to fight our battles.” And the people took confidence from the words of Hezekiah king of Judah.

Sennacherib Blasphemes

Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 32:9 - After this, Sennacherib king of Assyria, who was besieging Lachish with all his forces, sent his servants to Jerusalem to Hezekiah king of Judah and to all the people of Judah who were in Jerusalem, saying,
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 32:10 - “Thus says Sennacherib king of Assyria, ‘On what are you trusting, that you endure the siege in Jerusalem?
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 32:11 - Is not Hezekiah misleading you, that he may give you over to die by famine and by thirst, when he tells you, “The LORD our God will deliver us from the hand of the king of Assyria”?
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 32:12 - Has not this same Hezekiah taken away his high places and his altars and commanded Judah and Jerusalem, “Before one altar you shall worship, and on it you shall burn your sacrifices”?
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 32:13 - Do you not know what I and my fathers have done to all the peoples of other lands? Were the gods of the nations of those lands at all able to deliver their lands out of my hand?
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 32:14 - Who among all the gods of those nations that my fathers devoted to destruction was able to deliver his people from my hand, that your God should be able to deliver you from my hand?
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 32:15 - Now, therefore, do not let Hezekiah deceive you or mislead you in this fashion, and do not believe him, for no god of any nation or kingdom has been able to deliver his people from my hand or from the hand of my fathers. How much less will your God deliver you out of my hand!’”
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 32:16 - And his servants said still more against the LORD God and against his servant Hezekiah.
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 32:17 - And he wrote letters to cast contempt on the LORD, the God of Israel, and to speak against him, saying, “Like the gods of the nations of the lands who have not delivered their people from my hands, so the God of Hezekiah will not deliver his people from my hand.”
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 32:18 - And they shouted it with a loud voice in the language of Judah to the people of Jerusalem who were on the wall, to frighten and terrify them, in order that they might take the city.
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 32:19 - And they spoke of the God of Jerusalem as they spoke of the gods of the peoples of the earth, which are the work of men’s hands.

The Lord Delivers Jerusalem

(2Ki 19:35–37 )
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 32:20 - Then Hezekiah the king and Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, prayed because of this and cried to heaven.
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 32:21 - And the LORD sent an angel, who cut off all the mighty warriors and commanders and officers in the camp of the king of Assyria. So he returned with shame of face to his own land. And when he came into the house of his god, some of his own sons struck him down there with the sword.
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 32:22 - So the LORD saved Hezekiah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem from the hand of Sennacherib king of Assyria and from the hand of all his enemies, and he provided for them on every side.
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 32:23 - And many brought gifts to the LORD to Jerusalem and precious things to Hezekiah king of Judah, so that he was exalted in the sight of all nations from that time onward.

Hezekiah’s Pride and Achievements

(2Ki 20:1–11; Isa 38:1–8 )
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 32:24 - In those days Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of death, and he prayed to the LORD, and he answered him and gave him a sign.
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 32:25 - But Hezekiah did not make return according to the benefit done to him, for his heart was proud. Therefore wrath came upon him and Judah and Jerusalem.
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 32:26 - But Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart, both he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the wrath of the LORD did not come upon them in the days of Hezekiah.
(2Ki 20:12–21; Isa 39:1–8 )
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 32:27 - And Hezekiah had very great riches and honor, and he made for himself treasuries for silver, for gold, for precious stones, for spices, for shields, and for all kinds of costly vessels;
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 32:28 - storehouses also for the yield of grain, wine, and oil; and stalls for all kinds of cattle, and sheepfolds.
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 32:29 - He likewise provided cities for himself, and flocks and herds in abundance, for God had given him very great possessions.
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 32:30 - This same Hezekiah closed the upper outlet of the waters of Gihon and directed them down to the west side of the city of David. And Hezekiah prospered in all his works.
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 32:31 - And so in the matter of the envoys of the princes of Babylon, who had been sent to him to inquire about the sign that had been done in the land, God left him to himself, in order to test him and to know all that was in his heart.
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 32:32 - Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah and his good deeds, behold, they are written in the vision of Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, in the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel.
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 32:33 - And Hezekiah slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the upper part of the tombs of the sons of David, and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem did him honor at his death. And Manasseh his son reigned in his place.
ESV Footnotes
Vulgate; Hebrew and raised upon the towers

2 Chronicles 33

Manasseh Reigns in Judah

(2Ki 21:1–9 )
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 33:1 - Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem.
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 33:2 - And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to the abominations of the nations whom the LORD drove out before the people of Israel.
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 33:3 - For he rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had broken down, and he erected altars to the Baals, and made Asheroth, and worshiped all the host of heaven and served them.
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 33:4 - And he built altars in the house of the LORD, of which the LORD had said, “In Jerusalem shall my name be forever.”
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 33:5 - And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD.
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 33:6 - And he burned his sons as an offering in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, and used fortune-telling and omens and sorcery, and dealt with mediums and with necromancers. He did much evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking him to anger.
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 33:7 - And the carved image of the idol that he had made he set in the house of God, of which God said to David and to Solomon his son, “In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put my name forever,
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 33:8 - and I will no more remove the foot of Israel from the land that I appointed for your fathers, if only they will be careful to do all that I have commanded them, all the law, the statutes, and the rules given through Moses.”
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 33:9 - Manasseh led Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem astray, to do more evil than the nations whom the LORD destroyed before the people of Israel.

Manasseh’s Repentance

Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 33:10 - The LORD spoke to Manasseh and to his people, but they paid no attention.
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 33:11 - Therefore the LORD brought upon them the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria, who captured Manasseh with hooks and bound him with chains of bronze and brought him to Babylon.
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 33:12 - And when he was in distress, he entreated the favor of the LORD his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers.
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 33:13 - He prayed to him, and God was moved by his entreaty and heard his plea and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD was God.
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 33:14 - Afterward he built an outer wall for the city of David west of Gihon, in the valley, and for the entrance into the Fish Gate, and carried it around Ophel, and raised it to a very great height. He also put commanders of the army in all the fortified cities in Judah.
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 33:15 - And he took away the foreign gods and the idol from the house of the LORD, and all the altars that he had built on the mountain of the house of the LORD and in Jerusalem, and he threw them outside of the city.
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 33:16 - He also restored the altar of the LORD and offered on it sacrifices of peace offerings and of thanksgiving, and he commanded Judah to serve the LORD, the God of Israel.
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 33:17 - Nevertheless, the people still sacrificed at the high places, but only to the LORD their God.
(2Ki 21:17, 18 )
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 33:18 - Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh, and his prayer to his God, and the words of the seers who spoke to him in the name of the LORD, the God of Israel, behold, they are in the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel.
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 33:19 - And his prayer, and how God was moved by his entreaty, and all his sin and his faithlessness, and the sites on which he built high places and set up the Asherim and the images, before he humbled himself, behold, they are written in the Chronicles of the Seers.[fn]
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 33:20 - So Manasseh slept with his fathers, and they buried him in his house, and Amon his son reigned in his place.

Amon’s Reign and Death

(2Ki 21:19–26 )
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 33:21 - Amon was twenty-two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem.
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 33:22 - And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, as Manasseh his father had done. Amon sacrificed to all the images that Manasseh his father had made, and served them.
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 33:23 - And he did not humble himself before the LORD, as Manasseh his father had humbled himself, but this Amon incurred guilt more and more.
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 33:24 - And his servants conspired against him and put him to death in his house.
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 33:25 - But the people of the land struck down all those who had conspired against King Amon. And the people of the land made Josiah his son king in his place.
ESV Footnotes
One Hebrew manuscript, Septuagint; most Hebrew manuscripts of Hozai

2 Chronicles 34

Josiah Reigns in Judah

(2Ki 22:1, 2 )
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 34:1 - Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem.
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 34:2 - And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, and walked in the ways of David his father; and he did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left.
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 34:3 - For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet a boy, he began to seek the God of David his father, and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the Asherim, and the carved and the metal images.
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 34:4 - And they chopped down the altars of the Baals in his presence, and he cut down the incense altars that stood above them. And he broke in pieces the Asherim and the carved and the metal images, and he made dust of them and scattered it over the graves of those who had sacrificed to them.
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 34:5 - He also burned the bones of the priests on their altars and cleansed Judah and Jerusalem.
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 34:6 - And in the cities of Manasseh, Ephraim, and Simeon, and as far as Naphtali, in their ruins[fn] all around,
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 34:7 - he broke down the altars and beat the Asherim and the images into powder and cut down all the incense altars throughout all the land of Israel. Then he returned to Jerusalem.

The Book of the Law Found

(2Ki 22:3–20 )
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 34:8 - Now in the eighteenth year of his reign, when he had cleansed the land and the house, he sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, and Maaseiah the governor of the city, and Joah the son of Joahaz, the recorder, to repair the house of the LORD his God.
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 34:9 - They came to Hilkiah the high priest and gave him the money that had been brought into the house of God, which the Levites, the keepers of the threshold, had collected from Manasseh and Ephraim and from all the remnant of Israel and from all Judah and Benjamin and from the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 34:10 - And they gave it to the workmen who were working in the house of the LORD. And the workmen who were working in the house of the LORD gave it for repairing and restoring the house.
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 34:11 - They gave it to the carpenters and the builders to buy quarried stone, and timber for binders and beams for the buildings that the kings of Judah had let go to ruin.
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 34:12 - And the men did the work faithfully. Over them were set Jahath and Obadiah the Levites, of the sons of Merari, and Zechariah and Meshullam, of the sons of the Kohathites, to have oversight. The Levites, all who were skillful with instruments of music,
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 34:13 - were over the burden-bearers and directed all who did work in every kind of service, and some of the Levites were scribes and officials and gatekeepers.
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 34:14 - While they were bringing out the money that had been brought into the house of the LORD, Hilkiah the priest found the Book of the Law of the LORD given through[fn] Moses.
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 34:15 - Then Hilkiah answered and said to Shaphan the secretary, “I have found the Book of the Law in the house of the LORD.” And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan.
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 34:16 - Shaphan brought the book to the king, and further reported to the king, “All that was committed to your servants they are doing.
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 34:17 - They have emptied out the money that was found in the house of the LORD and have given it into the hand of the overseers and the workmen.”
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 34:18 - Then Shaphan the secretary told the king, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.” And Shaphan read from it before the king.
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 34:19 - And when the king heard the words of the Law, he tore his clothes.
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 34:20 - And the king commanded Hilkiah, Ahikam the son of Shaphan, Abdon the son of Micah, Shaphan the secretary, and Asaiah the king’s servant, saying,
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 34:21 - “Go, inquire of the LORD for me and for those who are left in Israel and in Judah, concerning the words of the book that has been found. For great is the wrath of the LORD that is poured out on us, because our fathers have not kept the word of the LORD, to do according to all that is written in this book.”

Huldah Prophesies Disaster

Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 34:22 - So Hilkiah and those whom the king had sent[fn] went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tokhath, son of Hasrah, keeper of the wardrobe (now she lived in Jerusalem in the Second Quarter) and spoke to her to that effect.
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 34:23 - And she said to them, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: ‘Tell the man who sent you to me,
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 34:24 - Thus says the LORD, Behold, I will bring disaster upon this place and upon its inhabitants, all the curses that are written in the book that was read before the king of Judah.
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 34:25 - Because they have forsaken me and have made offerings to other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the works of their hands, therefore my wrath will be poured out on this place and will not be quenched.
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 34:26 - But to the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the LORD, thus shall you say to him, Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Regarding the words that you have heard,
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 34:27 - because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before God when you heard his words against this place and its inhabitants, and you have humbled yourself before me and have torn your clothes and wept before me, I also have heard you, declares the LORD.
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 34:28 - Behold, I will gather you to your fathers, and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace, and your eyes shall not see all the disaster that I will bring upon this place and its inhabitants.’” And they brought back word to the king.
(2Ki 23:1–20 )
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 34:29 - Then the king sent and gathered together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem.
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 34:30 - And the king went up to the house of the LORD, with all the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the priests and the Levites, all the people both great and small. And he read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant that had been found in the house of the LORD.
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 34:31 - And the king stood in his place and made a covenant before the LORD, to walk after the LORD and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes, with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of the covenant that were written in this book.
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 34:32 - Then he made all who were present in Jerusalem and in Benjamin join in it. And the inhabitants of Jerusalem did according to the covenant of God, the God of their fathers.
Unchecked Copy Box2Ch 34:33 - And Josiah took away all the abominations from all the territory that belonged to the people of Israel and made all who were present in Israel serve the LORD their God. All his days they did not turn away from following the LORD, the God of their fathers.
ESV Footnotes
The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain
Hebrew by the hand of
Syriac, Vulgate; Hebrew lacks had sent
ESV

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001, 2007, 2011, 2016, 2025 by Crossway Books and Bibles, a Publishing Ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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