2 Chronicles 29

¹Hezekiah was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem; and the name of his mother was Abijah, daughter of Zechariah.

²And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, according to all that David his father had done.

³He, in the first year of his reign, in the first month, opened the doors of the house of the LORD and repaired them.

⁴And he brought the priests and the Levites and gathered them at the eastern square.

⁵And he said to them, 'Hear me, O Levites! Now consecrate yourselves, and consecrate the house of the LORD, the God of your fathers, and carry out the impurity from the sanctuary.'

⁶For our fathers acted unfaithfully and did what was bad in the eyes of the LORD our God, and they forsook him and turned their faces from the tabernacle of the LORD and turned their backs.

⁷Also they shut the doors of the vestibule and quenched the lamps; and incense they did not burn, and a burnt offering they did not offer up in the sanctuary to the God of Israel.

⁸And the wrath of the LORD was upon Judah and Jerusalem, and he delivered them to terror, desolation, and scorn, as you yourselves see with your own eyes.

⁹And behold, our fathers have fallen by the sword, and our sons and our daughters and our wives are in captivity on account of this.

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

¹¹My sons, do not be negligent now, for the LORD has chosen you to stand before him and to minister to him, and to be his ministers and those who make offerings.

¹²Then the Levites arose: Mahath son of Amasai and Joel son of Azariah, from the sons of the Kohathites; and from the sons of Merari, Kish son of Abdi and Azariah son of Jehallelel; and from the Gershonites, Joah son of Zimmah and Eden son of Joah.

¹³And from the sons of Elizaphan, Shimri and Jeuel and Jeiel; and from the sons of Asaph, Zechariah and Mattaniah.

¹⁴And from the sons of Heman: Jeiel and Shimei. And from the sons of Jeduthun: Shemaiah and Uzziel.

¹⁵And they gathered their brothers, and consecrated themselves, and came according to the commandment of the king, by the word of the LORD, to cleanse the house of the LORD.

¹⁶And the priests entered the inner part of the house of the LORD to cleanse it, and they brought out all the impurity that they found in the temple of the LORD to the court of the house of the LORD. And the Levites received it to carry it out to the Kidron Wadi outside.

¹⁷They began on the first day of the first month to consecrate, and on the eighth day of the month they came to the porch of the LORD, and they consecrated the house of the LORD in eight days; and on the sixteenth day of the first month they finished.

¹⁸And they came inside to Hezekiah the king and said, 'We have purified all the house of the LORD, the altar of burnt offering and all its vessels, the table of the showbread and all its vessels.'

¹⁹And all the vessels that King Ahaz cast aside in his reign in his unfaithfulness we have prepared and consecrated; and behold, they are before the altar of the LORD.

²⁰And King Hezekiah rose early and gathered the officials of the city and went up to the house of the LORD.

²¹And they brought seven bulls, seven rams, seven lambs, and seven male goats as a sin offering for the kingdom and for the sanctuary and for Judah; and he told the sons of Aaron the priests to offer them up on the altar of the LORD.

²²And they slaughtered the cattle, and the priests received the blood and threw it against the altar; and they slaughtered the rams and threw the blood against the altar; and they slaughtered the lambs and threw the blood against the altar.

²³And they brought forward the male goats for the sin offering before the king and the assembly, and they laid their hands upon them.

²⁴And the priests slaughtered them and made a sin offering with their blood on the altar, to make atonement for all Israel; for the king had said the burnt offering and the sin offering are for all Israel.

²⁵He stationed the Levites in the house of the LORD with cymbals, with harps, and with lyres, according to the commandment of David and Gad the seer of the king and Nathan the prophet; for the commandment was from the LORD through his prophets.

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

²⁷And Hezekiah gave the command to offer the burnt offering on the altar. And at the time the burnt offering began, the song of the LORD began, with the trumpets and with the instruments of David king of Israel.

²⁸And all the assembly was bowing down, and the singing was being sung, and the trumpets were sounding — all this until the burnt offering was finished.

²⁹And when the offering had been completed, the king and all who were present with him knelt and prostrated themselves.

³⁰And King Hezekiah and the officials commanded the Levites to praise the LORD with the words of David and Asaph the seer. And they praised with joy, and they bowed and prostrated themselves.

³¹Then Hezekiah answered and said, 'Now you have filled your hands for the LORD; come near and bring sacrifices and thank offerings to the house of the LORD.' And the assembly brought sacrifices and thank offerings, and all who were willing of heart brought burnt offerings.

³²And the number of the burnt offerings that the assembly brought was: seventy cattle, one hundred rams, two hundred lambs — all these for a burnt offering to the LORD.

³³And the consecrated animals were six hundred cattle and three thousand of the flock.

³⁴But the priests were too few and could not skin all the burnt offerings, so their brothers the Levites assisted them until the work was finished and until the priests consecrated themselves — for the Levites were more upright in heart to consecrate themselves than the priests.

³⁵And also the burnt offering was in abundance, along with the fat portions of the peace offerings and the drink offerings for the burnt offering; and the service of the house of the LORD was set in order.

³⁶And Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced over what God had prepared for the people, for the thing had come about suddenly.