to submission, and ordered him
to pay an appointed tribute. Now, in the fourth year of the reign of
Hoshea, Hezekiah, the son of Ahaz, began to reign in Jerusalem; and his
mother's name was Abijah, a citizen of Jerusalem. His nature was good,
and righteous, and religious; for when he came to the kingdom, he
thought that nothing was prior, or more necessary, or more advantageous
to himself, and to his subjects, than to worship God. Accordingly, he
called the people together, and the priests, and the Levites, and made
a speech to them, and said, "You are not ignorant how, by the sins of
my father, who transgressed that sacred honor which was due to God, you
have had experience of many and great miseries, while you were corrupted
in your mind by him, and were induced to worship those which he supposed
to be gods; I exhort you, therefore, who have learned by sad experience
how dangerous a thing impiety is, to put that immediately out of your
memory, and to purify yourselves from your former pollutions, and to
open the temple to these priests and Levites who are here convened, and
to cleanse it with the accustomed sacrifices, and to recover all to the
ancient honor which our fathers paid to it; for by this means we may
render God favorable, and he will remit the anger he hath had to us."

2. When the king had said this, the priests opened the temple; and when
they had set in order the vessels of God, and east out what was impure,
they laid the accustomed sacrifices upon the altar. The king also sent
to the country that was under him, and called the people to Jerusalem to
celebrate the feast of unleavened bread, for it had been intermitted a
long time, on account of the wickedness of the forementioned kings.
He also sent to the Israelites, and exhorted them to leave off their
present way of living, and return to their ancient practices, and to
worship God, for that he gave them leave to come to Jerusalem, and to
celebrate, all in one body, the feast of unleavened bread; and this
he said was by way of invitation only, and to be done of their own
good-will, and for their own advantage, and not out of obedience to him,
because it would make them happy. But the Israelites, upon the coming
of the ambassadors, and upon their laying before them what they had in
charge from their own king, were so far from complying therewith, that
they laughed the ambassadors to scorn, and mocked them as fools: as also
they affronted the prophets, w