28:17. And the Edomites came and slew many of Juda, and took a great booty. 28:18. The Philistines also spread themselves among the cities of the plains, and to the south of Juda: and they took Bethsames, and Aialon, and Gaderoth, and Socho, and Thamnan, and Gamzo, with their villages, and they dwelt in them. 28:19. For the Lord had humbled Juda because of Achaz the king of Juda, for he had stripped it of help, and had contemned the Lord. For he had stripped it of help... That is, Achaz stripped the kingdom of Juda of the divine assistance by his wickedness, and by his introducing idolatry. 28:20. And he brought against him Thelgathphalnasar king of the Assyrians, who also afflicted him, and plundered him without any resistance. 28:21. And Achaz stripped the house of the Lord, and the house of the kings, and of the princes, and gave gifts to the king of the Assyrians, and yet it availed him nothing. 28:22. Moreover also in the time of his distress he increased contempt against the Lord: king Achaz himself by himself, 28:23. Sacrificed victims to the gods of Damascus that struck him, and he said: The gods of the kings of Syria help them, and I will appease them with victims, and they will help me; whereas on the contrary they were the ruin of him, and of all Israel. 28:24. Then Achaz having taken away all the vessels of the house of God, and broken them, shut up the doors of the temple of God, and made himself altars in all the corners of Jerusalem. 28:25. And in all the cities of Juda he built altars to burn frankincense, and he provoked the Lord the God of his fathers to wrath. 28:26. But the rest of his acts, and all his works first and last are written in the book of the kings of Juda and Israel. 28:27. And Achaz slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of Jerusalem: for they received him not into the sepulchres of the kings of Israel. And Ezechias his son reigned in his stead. 2 Paralipomenon Chapter 29 Ezechias purifieth the temple, and restoreth religion. 29:1. Now Ezechias began to reign, when he was five and twenty years old, and he reigned nine and twenty years in Jerusalem: the name of his mother was Abia, the daughter of Zacharias. 29:2. And he did that which was pleasing in the sight of the Lord, according to all that David his father had done. 29:3. In the first year and month of his reign he opened the doors of the house of the Lord, and repaired them. 29:4. And he brought the priests and the Levites, and assembled them in the east street. 29:5. And he said to them: Hear me, ye Levites, and be sanctified, purify the house of the Lord the God of your fathers, and take away all filth out of the sanctuary. 29:6. Our fathers have sinned and done evil in the sight of the Lord God, forsaking him: they have turned away their faces from the tabernacle of the Lord, and turned their backs.