2 Chronicles 29

Hezekiah Cleanses the House of Yahweh

1Hezekiah became king at the age of twenty-five, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Abijah daughter of Zechariah. 2He did what was right in the eyes of Yahweh, following everything David his father had done. 3In the first month of the first year of his reign he opened the doors of the house of Yahweh and repaired them. 4He brought in the priests and the Levites and assembled them in the open square on the east side. 5He said to them: “Hear me, Levites. Consecrate yourselves now, and consecrate the house of Yahweh, the God of your ancestors, and carry the defilement out of the holy place. 6Our ancestors broke faith and did what was evil in the eyes of Yahweh our God. They abandoned him, they turned their faces away from the dwelling of Yahweh and gave it their backs. 7They even shut the doors of the portico and put out the lamps; they burned no incense and offered no burnt offering in the holy place to the God of Israel. 8So the wrath of Yahweh came upon Judah and Jerusalem, and he made them a thing of horror, of desolation and of scorn, as you can see with your own eyes. 9Look: our ancestors have fallen by the sword, and our sons, our daughters and our wives are in captivity because of this. 10Now it is in my heart to cut a covenant with Yahweh, the God of Israel, so that his burning anger may turn away from us. 11My sons, do not be slack now, for Yahweh has chosen you to stand before him and serve him, to be those who minister to him and burn incense.” 12Then the Levites set to work: Mahath son of Amasai and Joel son of Azariah, from the Kohathites; from the Merarites, Kish son of Abdi and Azariah son of Jehallelel; from the Gershonites, Joah son of Zimmah and Eden son of Joah; 13from the sons of Elizaphan, Shimri and Jeiel; from the sons of Asaph, Zechariah and Mattaniah; 14from the sons of Heman, Jehiel and Shimei; and from the sons of Jeduthun, Shemaiah and Uzziel. 15They gathered their kinsmen and consecrated themselves, and they came, as the king had commanded by the words of Yahweh, to purify the house of Yahweh. 16The priests went into the inner part of the house of Yahweh to purify it, and everything unclean that they found in the temple of Yahweh they carried out to the courtyard of the house of Yahweh. The Levites took it from there and carried it outside, to the Kidron ravine. 17They began the consecration on the first day of the first month, and on the eighth day of the month they reached the portico of Yahweh. For eight days they consecrated the house of Yahweh, and on the sixteenth day of the first month they finished. 18Then they went in to King Hezekiah and said, “We have purified the whole house of Yahweh — the altar of burnt offering with all its vessels, and the table for the rows of bread with all its vessels. 19And all the vessels that King Ahaz threw aside during his reign, in his unfaithfulness, we have made ready and consecrated. They are there now, in front of the altar of Yahweh.”

Worship Restored

20King Hezekiah rose early, gathered the officers of the city and went up to the house of Yahweh. 21They 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 he told the priests, the sons of Aaron, to offer them on the altar of Yahweh. 22So they slaughtered the cattle, and the priests received the blood and threw it against the altar; they slaughtered the rams and threw the blood against the altar; they slaughtered the lambs and threw the blood against the altar. 23Then they brought the goats of the sin offering before the king and the assembly, and they laid their hands on them. 24The 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 that the burnt offering and the sin offering were for all Israel. 25He stationed the Levites in the house of Yahweh with cymbals, harps and lyres, according to the command of David and of Gad the king’s seer and Nathan the prophet; for the command came from Yahweh through his prophets. 26The Levites took their places with David’s instruments, and the priests with the trumpets. 27Hezekiah gave the order to offer the burnt offering on the altar, and the moment the burnt offering began, the song of Yahweh began too, with the trumpets and with the instruments of David king of Israel. 28The whole assembly bowed in worship while the singers sang and the trumpeters sounded, all of it until the burnt offering was complete. 29When the offering was finished, the king and everyone present with him knelt and bowed in worship. 30King Hezekiah and the officers told the Levites to praise Yahweh in the words of David and of Asaph the seer. They praised him with delight, and they knelt and bowed in worship. 31Then Hezekiah spoke up: “Now that you have filled your hands for Yahweh, come forward and bring sacrifices and thank offerings to the house of Yahweh.” So the assembly brought sacrifices and thank offerings, and everyone with a willing heart brought burnt offerings. 32The number of burnt offerings the assembly brought was seventy cattle, a hundred rams and two hundred lambs, all of them as a burnt offering to Yahweh. 33The consecrated gifts came to six hundred cattle and three thousand sheep. 34The priests, however, were too few to skin all the burnt offerings, so their kinsmen the Levites supported them until the work was done and until the priests had consecrated themselves; for the Levites had been more upright of heart in consecrating themselves than the priests. 35There were also burnt offerings in abundance, with the fat of the fellowship offerings and the drink offerings that go with the burnt offering. So the service of the house of Yahweh was set in order. 36Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced at what God had put in place for the people, for it had all come about so suddenly.