Hezekiah Purifies the Temple^(A)

29 Hezekiah^(B) was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-nine years. His mother’s name was Abijah daughter of Zechariah. ² He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father David^(C) had done.

31 When all this had ended, the Israelites who were there went out to the towns of Judah, smashed the sacred stones and cut down^(A) the Asherah poles. They destroyed the high places and the altars throughout Judah and Benjamin and in Ephraim and Manasseh. After they had destroyed all of them, the Israelites returned to their own towns and to their own property.

²⁰ This is what Hezekiah did throughout Judah, doing what was good and right and faithful^(A) before the Lord his God. ²¹ In everything that he undertook in the service of God’s temple and in obedience to the law and the commands, he sought his God and worked wholeheartedly. And so he prospered.^(B)

³ Shalmaneser^(A) king of Assyria came up to attack Hoshea, who had been Shalmaneser’s vassal and had paid him tribute.^{(B) 4} But the king of Assyria discovered that Hoshea was a traitor, for he had sent envoys to So^[a] king of Egypt,^(C) and he no longer paid tribute to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year. Therefore Shalmaneser seized him and put him in prison.^{(D) 5} The king of Assyria invaded the entire land, marched against Samaria and laid siege^(E) to it for three years. ⁶ In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria^(F) captured Samaria^(G) and deported^(H) the Israelites to Assyria. He settled them in Halah, in Gozan^(I) on the Habor River and in the towns of the Medes.

Israel Exiled Because of Sin

⁷ All this took place because the Israelites had sinned^(J) against the Lord their God, who had brought them up out of Egypt^(K) from under the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. They worshiped other gods