2 Chronicles 29

1 Hezekiah became king at twenty-five years old, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Abba, the daughter of Zechariah. [a] 2 And he did what was right before the Lord, according to everything that David his father had done. 3 And when he was established over his kingdom, in the first month, he opened the doors of the house of the Lord and repaired them. [b] 4 And he brought in the priests and the Levites and set them on the east side,

5 and he said to them, “Listen, you Levites. Now make yourselves pure, and make the house of the Lord, the God of your fathers, pure, and throw the uncleanness out of the holy places. [c] 6 For our fathers turned away and did what was evil before the Lord our God. They left him, and they turned their faces away from the tent of the Lord, and gave him their backs. 7 And they shut the doors of the temple, and put out the lamps, and burned no incense, and brought up no whole burnt offerings in the holy place to the God of Israel.

8 And the Lord became very angry with Judah and with Jerusalem, and he made them a horror, and a waste, and a thing to hiss at, as you see with your own eyes. [d] 9 And look — your fathers have been struck down by the sword, and your sons and your daughters and your wives are in captivity in a land not their own, as it still is now. 10 So now it is on my heart to make a covenant with the Lord, the God of Israel, and he will turn the heat of his anger away from us. 11 And now do not hold back, for the Lord has chosen you to stand before him and serve — to be the men who serve him and burn the incense.”

12 Then the Levites rose up: Mahath son of Amasai and Joel son of Azariah, of the sons of Kohath; and of the sons of Merari, Kish son of Abdi and Azariah son of Jehallelel; and from the sons of Gershon, Joah son of Zimmah and Jodan son of Joaha; [e] 13 and of the sons of Elzaphan, Shimri and Jeiel; and of the sons of Asaph, Zechariah and Mattaniah; [f] 14 and of the sons of Heman, Jeiel and Shimei; and of the sons of Jeduthun, Shemaiah and Uzziel.

15 And they gathered their brothers, and they made themselves pure, according to the command of the king, by the decree of the Lord, to make the house of the Lord clean. 16 And the priests went inside, into the house of the Lord, to make it pure, and they threw out all the uncleanness that was found in the house of the Lord into the court of the house of the Lord; and the Levites took it up to throw it outside, into the brook Kidron. 17 And they began on the first day, the new moon of the first month, to make it pure; and on the eighth day of the month they came into the temple of the Lord, and they made the house of the Lord pure in eight days; and on the sixteenth day of the first month they finished. [g]

18 And they went inside to Hezekiah the king and said, “We have made everything in the house of the Lord pure — the altar of the whole burnt offering and its vessels, and the table of the setting-out and its vessels; 19 and all the vessels that King Ahaz defiled during his reign, when he turned away, we have made ready and made pure. Look — they are in front of the altar of the Lord.”

20 And Hezekiah the king rose early and gathered the rulers of the city, and went up to the house of the Lord. 21 And he brought up seven young bulls, seven rams, seven lambs, and seven male goats as an offering for sin — for the kingdom, and for the holy things, and for Israel. And he told the sons of Aaron, the priests, to go up to the altar of the Lord. 22 And they slaughtered the young bulls, and the priests took the blood and poured it out on the altar. And they slaughtered the rams and poured the blood on the altar. And they slaughtered the lambs and poured the blood around the altar.

23 And they brought the male goats of the offering for sin before the king and the assembly, and they laid their hands on them; 24 and the priests slaughtered them and made atonement with their blood at the altar, and they made atonement for all Israel; for the king said, “The whole burnt offering and the offering for sin are for all Israel.” [h]

25 And he stationed the Levites in the house of the Lord with cymbals and with harps and with lyres, according to the command of David the king, and of Gad the king’s seer, and of Nathan the prophet; for the decree came by the command of the Lord, through the hand of the prophets. 26 And the Levites stood with the instruments of David, and the priests with the trumpets.

27 And Hezekiah gave the word to bring the whole burnt offering up onto the altar. And when they began to bring the whole burnt offering up, they began to sing to the Lord, and the trumpets sounded alongside the instruments of David king of Israel. 28 And the whole assembly bowed down, and the singers of the psalms were singing, and the trumpets were sounding, until the whole burnt offering was finished. 29 And when they had finished bringing it up, the king and all who were there knelt down and bowed down. 30 And Hezekiah the king and the rulers told the Levites to sing hymns to the Lord in the words of David and of Asaph the prophet. And they sang hymns with gladness, and they fell down and bowed down. [i]

31 Then Hezekiah answered and said, “Now you have filled your hands for the Lord. Come near, and bring sacrifices, sacrifices of praise, into the house of the Lord.” And the assembly brought sacrifices, sacrifices of praise, into the house of the Lord, and everyone whose heart was willing brought whole burnt offerings. [j] 32 And the number of the whole burnt offerings that the assembly brought was seventy young bulls, a hundred rams, two hundred lambs; all of these were for a whole burnt offering to the Lord. 33 And the young bulls made holy were six hundred, and the sheep three thousand.

34 But the priests were few, and they could not skin all the whole burnt offerings; so their brothers the Levites took hold of the work with them, until it was finished and until the priests had made themselves pure — for the Levites had made themselves pure more readily than the priests. 35 And the whole burnt offering was abundant, with the fat of the offering of well-being that completed it, and with the drink offerings of the whole burnt offering. And the work in the house of the Lord was set in order. [k] 36 And Hezekiah rejoiced, and all the people with him, because God had made things ready for the people; for the thing came about suddenly.