2 Chronicles 29

¹ Hezekiah became king when he was twenty-five years old, 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 had done.

³ In the first month of the first year of his reign, he opened the doors of the temple of the LORD and repaired them.

⁴ He brought in the priests and the Levites and gathered them in the square on the east side.

⁵ He said to them: "Listen to me, Levites! Consecrate yourselves now, consecrate the temple of the LORD, the God of your ancestors, and carry every defiled thing out of the sanctuary.

⁶ For our fathers were unfaithful. They did what was evil in the eyes of the LORD our God and abandoned him. They turned their faces away from the LORD's dwelling place and turned their backs on him.

⁷ They even shut the doors of the portico and put out the lamps. They did not burn incense or present burnt offerings in the sanctuary to the God of Israel.

⁸ So the anger of the LORD fell on Judah and Jerusalem, and he made them an object of dread, of horror, and of scorn, as you can see with your own eyes.

⁹ That is why our fathers have fallen by the sword, and why our sons, our daughters, and our wives are in captivity.

¹⁰ Now it is in my heart to make a covenant with the LORD, the God of Israel, so that his fierce anger will turn away from us.

¹¹ My sons, do not be negligent now, for the LORD has chosen you to stand in his presence and serve him, to be his ministers and to burn incense."

¹² Then these Levites set to work: from the Kohathites, Mahath son of Amasai and Joel son of Azariah; from the Merarites, Kish son of Abdi and Azariah son of Jehallelel; from the Gershonites, Joah son of Zimmah and Eden son of Joah;

¹³ from the descendants of Elizaphan, Shimri and Jeiel; from the descendants of Asaph, Zechariah and Mattaniah;

¹⁴ and from the descendants of Heman, Jehiel and Shimei; and from the descendants of Jeduthun, Shemaiah and Uzziel.

¹⁵ They gathered their fellow Levites and consecrated themselves. Then they went in to purify the temple of the LORD, as the king had commanded, in keeping with the words of the LORD.

¹⁶ The priests went into the inner part of the temple of the LORD to purify it, and they brought out into the courtyard of the LORD's temple every unclean thing they found in the temple of the LORD. The Levites took it all and carried it outside to the Kidron Valley.

¹⁷ They began the consecration on the first day of the first month, and by the eighth day of the month they had reached the portico of the LORD. Then for eight more days they consecrated the temple of the LORD itself, and on the sixteenth day of the first month they finished.

¹⁸ Then they went in to King Hezekiah and reported: "We have purified the whole temple of the LORD — the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils and the table for the rows of bread with all its utensils.

¹⁹ And all the articles that King Ahaz discarded during his reign, in his unfaithfulness, we have prepared and consecrated. They are now in front of the altar of the LORD."

²⁰ Early the next morning King Hezekiah gathered the officials of the city and went up to the temple of the LORD.

²¹ They brought seven bulls, seven rams, seven lambs, and seven male goats as a sin offering for the kingdom, for the sanctuary, and for Judah, and the king told the priests, the descendants of Aaron, to offer them on the altar of the LORD.

²² So they slaughtered the bulls, and the priests took the blood and splashed it against the altar. Then they slaughtered the rams and splashed the blood against the altar; then they slaughtered the lambs and splashed the blood against the altar.

²³ Then the goats for the sin offering were brought before the king and the assembly, and they laid their hands on them.

²⁴ The priests slaughtered them and presented their blood on the altar as a sin offering, to make atonement for all Israel, because the king had ordered the burnt offering and the sin offering for all Israel.

²⁵ He stationed the Levites in the temple of the LORD with cymbals, harps, and lyres, as David, Gad the king's seer, and Nathan the prophet had directed, for the command had come from the LORD through his prophets.

²⁶ So the Levites stood ready with the instruments of David, and the priests with the trumpets.

²⁷ Then Hezekiah gave the order to offer the burnt offering on the altar, and as the offering began, the song of the LORD began as well, with the trumpets and with the instruments of David king of Israel.

²⁸ The whole assembly bowed in worship, the singers sang, and the trumpets sounded, and all this continued until the burnt offering was finished.

²⁹ When the offering was completed, the king and everyone present with him knelt down and worshiped.

³⁰ King Hezekiah and his officials ordered the Levites to praise the LORD in the words of David and of Asaph the seer. So they sang praises with joy, and they bowed their heads and worshiped.

³¹ Then Hezekiah said, "You have now consecrated yourselves to the LORD. Come near, and bring sacrifices and thank offerings to the temple of the LORD." So the assembly brought sacrifices and thank offerings, and everyone whose heart was willing brought burnt offerings.

³² The number of burnt offerings the assembly brought was seventy bulls, a hundred rams, and two hundred lambs — all of them as a burnt offering to the LORD.

³³ The consecrated offerings came to six hundred bulls and three thousand sheep and goats.

³⁴ But the priests were too few to skin all the burnt offerings, so their fellow Levites helped them until the work was done and until other priests had consecrated themselves, for the Levites had been more conscientious than the priests about consecrating themselves.

³⁵ There were burnt offerings in abundance, along with the fat of the fellowship offerings and the drink offerings that went with the burnt offerings. So the service of the temple of the LORD was restored.

³⁶ Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced over what God had prepared for the people, for it had all happened so suddenly.