2 Chronicles 31

Contributions for the priests and Levites

¹When all this was over, all Israel who were there went out to the towns of Judah. They smashed the standing stones, cut down the Asherah poles, and tore down the high places and the altars throughout Judah and Benjamin, and in Ephraim and Manasseh as well, until they had destroyed them all. Then all the Israelites went back to their own towns, each to his own property.

²Hezekiah set the priests and the Levites in their divisions, each man according to his service, both priests and Levites, for burnt offerings and peace offerings, to minister and to give thanks and praise in the gates of the camps of the LORD.^a

³The king’s share from his own possessions went for the burnt offerings: those offered morning and evening, and those for the Sabbaths, the new moons and the appointed festivals, as it is written in the law of the LORD. ⁴He also told the people who lived in Jerusalem to give the priests and the Levites their share, so that they could give themselves fully to the law of the LORD. ⁵As soon as the order went out, the Israelites gave generously of the firstfruits of grain, new wine, oil, honey and all the produce of the fields. They brought in a great amount, a tithe of everything. ⁶The Israelites and the people of Judah who lived in the towns of Judah also brought a tithe of cattle and sheep, and a tithe of the holy things that had been consecrated to the LORD their God, and they piled them up in heap after heap.^b

⁷They began making the heaps in the third month and finished in the seventh month.^c

⁸When Hezekiah and the officials came and looked at the heaps, they blessed the LORD and his people Israel.

⁹Hezekiah asked the priests and the Levites about the heaps. ¹⁰Azariah the chief priest, of the family of Zadok, answered him, “Since the people began to bring the contributions into the house of the LORD, we have eaten our fill, with plenty left over, for the LORD has blessed his people. This great amount is what is left.”

Storerooms and their overseers

¹¹Then Hezekiah gave orders to prepare storerooms in the house of the LORD, and they prepared them. ¹²They faithfully brought in the contributions, the tithes and the holy gifts. Conaniah the Levite was the chief officer over them, with his brother Shimei next in rank. ¹³Jehiel, Azaziah, Nahath, Asahel, Jerimoth, Jozabad, Eliel, Ismachiah, Mahath and Benaiah were overseers under Conaniah and his brother Shimei, appointed by King Hezekiah and by Azariah the chief officer of the house of God. ¹⁴Kore son of Imnah the Levite, keeper of the East Gate, had charge of the freewill offerings made to God, to give out the contributions for the LORD and the most holy gifts. ¹⁵Under him, in the towns of the priests, were Eden, Miniamin, Jeshua, Shemaiah, Amariah and Shecaniah, who faithfully gave out portions to their fellow priests and Levites by their divisions, to the great and the small alike, ¹⁶apart from the males three years old and up who were enrolled in the genealogies, all who came into the house of the LORD to do the work each day required, serving in their duties by their divisions.^{de 17}The priests were enrolled by their ancestral families, and the Levites from twenty years old and up by their duties and their divisions, ¹⁸and to all who were enrolled with them: their little children, their wives, their sons and their daughters, the whole company. For they had been faithful in keeping themselves holy.^{f 19}For the descendants of Aaron, the priests, who lived in the pasturelands around their towns, there were men in every town who were named to give portions to every male among the priests and to everyone enrolled among the Levites. ²⁰Hezekiah did this throughout Judah. He did what was good and right and faithful before the LORD his God. ²¹Every work he took up in the service of the house of God, and in keeping the law and the commandments, he did with all his heart, seeking his God; and he prospered.