2 Chronicles 31

The Portion of the Priests and Levites

1When all this was finished, all the Israelites who were present went out to the cities of Judah and smashed the standing stones, cut down the Asherah poles and pulled down the high places and the altars throughout Judah and Benjamin, and in Ephraim and Manasseh, until they had finished with them all. Then all the Israelites returned, each to his own holding, to their own cities. 2Hezekiah set up the divisions of the priests and the Levites, division by division, each according to his service — the priests and the Levites — for burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, to minister, to give thanks and to praise in the gates of Yahweh’s camp. 3The king assigned a portion from his own property for the burnt offerings: the morning and evening burnt offerings, and the burnt offerings for the Sabbaths, the new moons and the appointed feasts, as it is written in the law of Yahweh. 4He told the people, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to give the portion due to the priests and the Levites, so that they could hold firmly to the law of Yahweh. 5As soon as the order spread, the Israelites brought in great quantities of the firstfruits of grain, new wine, oil and honey, and of everything the fields produced; and they brought in the tithe of it all in abundance. 6The people of Israel and Judah living in the cities of Judah also brought in the tithe of cattle and sheep, and the tithe of the holy gifts consecrated to Yahweh their God, and they stacked them up, heap upon heap. 7In the third month they began to build up the heaps, and in the seventh month they finished. 8Hezekiah came with the officers, saw the heaps, and they gave their blessing to Yahweh and to Israel his people. 9Hezekiah questioned the priests and the Levites about the heaps, 10and Azariah the chief priest, of the house of Zadok, answered him: “From the time the contribution began to be brought to the house of Yahweh there has been enough to eat, and to be full, and plenty left over; for Yahweh has blessed his people, and what is left is this great store.”

The Storerooms and Their Keepers

11Then Hezekiah gave orders to prepare storerooms in the house of Yahweh, and they prepared them. 12They brought in the contribution, the tithe and the holy gifts, faithfully. Kananiah the Levite was the officer in charge of them, with Shimei his brother as second, 13and Jehiel, Azaziah, Nahath, Asahel, Jerimoth, Jozabad, Eliel, Ismachiah, Mahath and Benaiah were supervisors under the hand of Kananiah and Shimei his brother, by the appointment of King Hezekiah and of Azariah the chief officer of the house of God. 14Kore son of Imnah the Levite, the gatekeeper on the east, was over the freewill offerings to God, to hand out the contribution of Yahweh and the most holy gifts. 15Under his hand were Eden, Miniamin, Jeshua, Shemaiah, Amariah and Shecaniah, in the cities of the priests, faithfully distributing to their kinsmen by divisions, to great and small alike — 16apart from those enrolled as males from three years old and upward, that is, everyone who came into the house of Yahweh for the day’s duty on its day, for their service according to their charges and their divisions. 17The priests were enrolled by their ancestral houses, and the Levites from twenty years old and upward, according to their charges and their divisions. 18The enrolment took in all their little ones, their wives, their sons and their daughters, the whole assembly; for they had consecrated themselves in holiness, faithfully. 19As for the priests, the sons of Aaron, in the pasture lands belonging to their cities, in every single city there were men designated by name to give portions to every male among the priests and to everyone enrolled among the Levites. 20This is what Hezekiah did throughout Judah. He did what was good and right and true before Yahweh his God. 21In every work he undertook, in the service of the house of God and in the law and the commandment, he sought his God and acted with all his heart; and he prospered.