2 Mambo ya Nyakati 29

Hezekiah cleanses the temple

¹Hezekiah became king when he was twenty-five years old, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Abijah daughter of Zechariah. ²He did what was right in the sight of the LORD, in every way as his ancestor David had done. ³In his first year as king, in the first month, he opened the doors of the house of the LORD and made them strong again. ⁴He brought in the priests and the Levites and gathered them in the open square on the east side. ⁵He said to them, “Listen to me, you Levites! Consecrate yourselves now. Then consecrate the house of the LORD, the God of your ancestors, and carry everything impure out of the holy place. ⁶Our fathers were unfaithful and did what was evil in the sight of the LORD our God. They forsook him; they turned their faces from the place where the LORD dwells and showed it their backs. ⁷They even shut the doors of the porch and put out the lamps. They did not burn incense or offer burnt offerings in the holy place to the God of Israel. ⁸So the wrath of the LORD came upon Judah and Jerusalem, and he made them an object of terror, horror and hissing, as you can see with your own eyes. ⁹Because of this our fathers have fallen by the sword, and our sons, our daughters and our wives are in captivity. ¹⁰I have now set my heart on making a covenant with the LORD, the God of Israel, in the hope that the heat of his anger will turn away from us. ¹¹My sons, do not be negligent now, for the LORD has chosen you to stand before him and serve him, to be his ministers and to burn incense.”

¹²Then the Levites set to work: from the descendants of the Kohathites, Mahath son of Amasai and Joel son of Azariah; from the descendants of Merari, Kish son of Abdi and Azariah son of Jehallelel; from the Gershonites, Joah son of Zimmah and Eden son of Joah, ¹³from the descendants of Elizaphan, Shimri and Jeiel; from the descendants of Asaph, Zechariah and Mattaniah,

¹⁴from the descendants of Heman, Jehiel and Shimei; and from the descendants of Jeduthun, Shemaiah and Uzziel. ¹⁵They gathered their relatives and consecrated themselves, and they came to cleanse the house of the LORD, as the king had commanded by the words of the LORD. ¹⁶The priests entered the inner part of the LORD’s house to cleanse it. Everything unclean that they found in the temple of the LORD they brought out into the court of the LORD’s house, and the Levites took it from them and carried it outside to the Kidron Valley. ¹⁷The consecration began on the first day of the first month, and by the eighth day of the month they had come as far as the porch of the LORD. Then for eight days they consecrated the house of the LORD, and on the sixteenth day of the first month they finished.

¹⁸Then they went in to King Hezekiah and said, “We have cleansed the whole house of the LORD: the altar of burnt offering together with all its utensils, and the table for the rows of bread together with all its utensils, ¹⁹and all the utensils that King Ahaz discarded during his reign, when he was unfaithful, we have prepared and consecrated. They are there in front of the altar of the LORD.”

Temple worship restored

²⁰King Hezekiah rose early and gathered the officials of the city, and he went up to the LORD’s house. ²¹Seven bulls, seven rams, seven lambs and seven male goats were brought as a sin offering on behalf of the kingdom, the sanctuary and Judah. The king told the priests, Aaron’s descendants, to offer them up on the LORD’s altar.^{a 22}So they slaughtered the bulls, and the priests received the blood and splashed it against the altar. Next they slaughtered the rams and splashed their blood against the altar, and then they slaughtered the lambs and splashed their blood against the altar. ²³Then the goats for the sin offering were brought before the king and the assembly, and these laid their hands on them. ²⁴The priests slaughtered the goats and applied their blood to the altar as a sin offering, making atonement for all Israel. The king had said that the burnt offering and the sin offering were to be for all Israel. ²⁵He placed the Levites in the LORD’s house with cymbals, harps and lyres, as David had commanded, together with Gad the king’s seer and Nathan the prophet. The command had come from the LORD through his prophets.

²⁶The Levites stood ready with David’s instruments, and the priests with the trumpets.

²⁷Then Hezekiah ordered the burnt offering to be offered on the altar. When the burnt offering began, the song to the LORD began too, with the trumpets, accompanied by the instruments of David king of Israel. ²⁸The whole assembly bowed down in worship while the singers sang and the trumpeters sounded the trumpets. All this went on until the burnt offering was finished. ²⁹When the offering was finished, the king and everyone present with him knelt down and worshiped. ³⁰King Hezekiah and the officials told the Levites to praise the LORD using the words of David and of Asaph the seer. They praised joyfully, and they bowed their heads and worshiped.

³¹Then Hezekiah said, “Now you have dedicated yourselves to the LORD. Come near; bring sacrifices and thank offerings to the LORD’s house.” The assembly brought their sacrifices and thank offerings, and all who were willing at heart brought burnt offerings.^{b 32}The number of burnt offerings that the assembly brought was seventy bulls, 100 rams and 200 lambs. All these were for burnt offerings to the LORD. ³³The consecrated offerings were 600 bulls and 3,000 sheep. ³⁴But the priests were too few to skin all the burnt offerings. So their relatives the Levites helped them until the task was done and the priests had consecrated themselves, for the Levites were more upright in heart to consecrate themselves than the priests. ³⁵Burnt offerings were also plentiful, together with the fat of the peace offerings and the drink offerings that went with each burnt offering. In this way the service of the LORD’s house was set in order. ³⁶Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced over what God had prepared for the people, for the thing had come about suddenly.