2 Chronicles29

¹Hezekiah became king when he was twenty-five years old; and he reigned for twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah.

²He did what was right in the sight of the Lord, in accordance with everything that his father David had done.

³In the first year of his reign, in the first month, he opened the doors of the house of the Lord and repaired them.

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

⁵Then he said to them, “Listen to me, you Levites. Consecrate yourselves now, and consecrate the house of the Lord, the God of your fathers, and carry the uncleanness out of the holy place.

⁶For our fathers have been unfaithful and have done evil in the sight of the Lord our God, and they have abandoned Him and turned their faces away from the dwelling place of the Lord, and have turned their backs.

⁷They have also shut the doors of the porch and extinguished the lamps, and have not burned incense nor offered burnt offerings in the holy place to the God of Israel.

⁸Therefore the wrath of the Lord was against Judah and Jerusalem, and He has made them an object of terror, of horror, and of hissing, as you see with your own eyes.

⁹For behold, our fathers 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 make a covenant with the Lord God of Israel, so that His burning anger may turn away from us.

¹¹My sons, do not be negligent now, for the Lord has chosen you to stand before Him, to serve Him, and to be His ministers and burn incense.”

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

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

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

¹⁵They assembled their brothers, consecrated themselves, and went in to cleanse the house of the Lord, according to the commandment of the king by the words of the Lord.

¹⁶So the priests went into the inner part of the house of the Lord to cleanse it, and they brought every unclean thing which they found in the temple of the Lord out to the courtyard of the house of the Lord. Then the Levites received it to carry out to the Kidron Valley.

¹⁷Now they began the consecration on the first day of the first month, and on the eighth day of the month they entered the porch of the Lord. Then they consecrated the house of the Lord in eight days, and finished on the sixteenth day of the first month.

¹⁸Then they went in to King Hezekiah and said, “We have cleansed the whole house of the Lord, the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils, and the table of the showbread with all of its utensils.

¹⁹Moreover, all the utensils which King Ahaz had discarded during his reign in his unfaithfulness, we have prepared and consecrated; and behold, they are before the altar of the Lord.”

²⁰Then King Hezekiah got up early and assembled the princes of the city, and went up to the house of the Lord.

²¹They brought seven bulls, seven rams, seven lambs, and seven male goats as a sin offering for the kingdom, the sanctuary, and Judah. And he ordered the priests, the sons of Aaron, to offer them on the altar of the Lord.

²²So they slaughtered the bulls, and the priests took the blood and sprinkled it on the altar. They also slaughtered the rams and sprinkled the blood on the altar; they slaughtered the lambs as well, and sprinkled the blood on the altar.

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

²⁴The priests slaughtered them and purified the altar with their blood to atone for all Israel, because the king ordered the burnt offering and the sin offering for all Israel.

²⁵He then stationed the Levites in the house of the Lord with cymbals, harps, and lyres, according to the command of David and of Gad, the king’s seer, and of Nathan the prophet; for the command was from the Lord through His prophets.

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

²⁷Then Hezekiah gave the order to offer the burnt offering on the altar. When the burnt offering began, the song to the Lord also began with the trumpets, accompanied by the instruments of David, king of Israel.

²⁸While the whole assembly worshiped, the singers also sang and the trumpets sounded; all this continued until the burnt offering was finished.

²⁹Now at the completion of the burnt offerings, the king and all who were present with him bowed down and worshiped.

³⁰Moreover, King Hezekiah and the officials ordered the Levites to sing praises to the Lord with the words of David and Asaph the seer. So they sang praises with joy, and bowed down and worshiped.

³¹Then Hezekiah said, “Now that you have consecrated yourselves to the Lord, come forward and bring sacrifices and thanksgiving offerings to the house of the Lord.” So the assembly brought sacrifices and thanksgiving offerings, and everyone who was willing brought burnt offerings.

³²The number of the burnt offerings which the assembly brought was seventy bulls, a hundred rams, and two hundred lambs; all of these were for a burnt offering to the Lord.

³³The consecrated offerings were six hundred bulls and three thousand sheep.

³⁴But the priests were too few, so that they were unable to skin all the burnt offerings; therefore their brothers the Levites helped them until the work was finished and the other priests had consecrated themselves. For the Levites were more conscientious to consecrate themselves than the priests.

³⁵There were also many burnt offerings with the fat of the peace offerings and the drink offerings for the burnt offerings. So the service of the house of the Lord was established again.

³⁶Then Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced over what God had prepared for the people, because the thing came about suddenly.