Hezekiah Cleanses the Temple
Hezekiah became king when he was twenty-five years old, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah.
And he did the upright in the eyes of the LORD, according to all that David his father had done.
He, in the first year of his reign, in the first month, opened the doors of the house of the LORD and strengthened them.
And he brought in the priests and the Levites, and gathered them into the open square on the east,
and said to them: “Hear me, Levites! Now consecrate yourselves, and consecrate the house of the LORD, the God of your fathers; and bring the impurity out of the holy place.
For our fathers broke faith, and did the evil in the eyes of the LORD our God, and abandoned him; and they turned their faces away from the dwelling place of the LORD, and gave their backs.
They even shut the doors of the porch, and put out the lamps; and incense they did not burn, and burnt offering they did not offer in the holy place to the God of Israel.
And the wrath of the LORD came on Judah and Jerusalem; and he made them an object of trembling, of horror, and of hissing — as you see with your own eyes.
And look — our fathers have fallen by the sword, and our sons and our daughters and our wives are in captivity because of this.
Now it is with my heart to cut a covenant with the LORD, the God of Israel, so that the burning of his anger may turn back from us.
My sons, do not now be negligent — for the LORD has chosen you to stand before him, to minister to him, and to be his ministers and burners of incense.”
And the Levites rose: Mahath the son of Amasai, and Joel the son of Azariah, of the sons of the Kohathite; and of the sons of Merari, Kish the son of Abdi, and Azariah the son of Jehallelel; and of the Gershonite, Joah the son of Zimmah, and Eden the son of Joah;
and of the sons of Elizaphan, Shimri and Jeuel; and of the sons of Asaph, Zechariah and Mattaniah;
and of the sons of Heman, Jehiel and Shimei; and of the sons of Jeduthun, Shemaiah and Uzziel.
And they gathered their brothers, and consecrated themselves; and they came, according to the commandment of the king by the words of the LORD, to purify the house of the LORD.
And the priests went into the inner part of the house of the LORD to purify it; and they brought out all the uncleanness they found in the temple of the LORD into the court of the house of the LORD. And the Levites received it, to carry it out to the ravine of the Kidron, outside.
And they began on the first day of the first month to consecrate; and on the eighth day of the month they came to the porch of the LORD; and they consecrated the house of the LORD in eight days; and on the sixteenth day of the first month they finished.
And they went in to Hezekiah the king and said: “We have purified all the house of the LORD — the altar of the burnt offering and all its vessels, and the table of the arrangement and all its vessels.
And all the vessels that King Ahaz cast aside in his reign, in his faithlessness, we have prepared and consecrated; and look, they are before the altar of the LORD.”
Hezekiah Restores Temple Worship
And Hezekiah the king rose early, and gathered the officials of the city, and went up to the house of the LORD.
And they brought seven bulls, and seven rams, and seven lambs, and seven male goats, as a sin offering for the kingdom, and for the sanctuary, and for Judah. And he told the priests, the sons of Aaron, to offer them up on the altar of the LORD.
And they slaughtered the oxen, and the priests received the blood and threw it against the altar; and they slaughtered the rams and threw the blood against the altar; and they slaughtered the lambs and threw the blood against the altar.
And they brought near the goats of the sin offering before the king and the assembly; and they laid their hands on them.
And the priests slaughtered them, and made a sin offering with their blood on the altar, to make atonement for all Israel — for the king had said the burnt offering and the sin offering were for all Israel.
And he set standing the Levites in the house of the LORD, with cymbals, with harps, and with lyres — by the commandment of David, and of Gad, the seer of the king, and of Nathan the prophet; for the commandment was by the hand of the LORD, by the hand of his prophets.
And the Levites stood with the instruments of David, and the priests with the trumpets.
And Hezekiah said to offer up the burnt offering on the altar. And at the time the burnt offering began, the song of the LORD began, and the trumpets — at the hands of the instruments of David, king of Israel.
And all the assembly was bowing down, and the song was sounding, and the trumpets were blowing — all of it until the completion of the burnt offering.
And when the offering was finished, the king and all who were present with him knelt and bowed down.
And Hezekiah the king and the officials told the Levites to praise the LORD in the words of David and of Asaph the seer. And they praised with gladness, and they bowed low and worshiped.
And Hezekiah answered and said: “Now you have filled your hand for the LORD. Come near, and bring sacrifices and thank offerings to the house of the LORD.” And the assembly brought sacrifices and thank offerings; and everyone willing of heart, burnt offerings.
And the number of the burnt offerings that the assembly brought was seventy oxen, a hundred rams, two hundred lambs — all these for a burnt offering to the LORD;
and the consecrated things: six hundred oxen and three thousand sheep.
Only, the priests were too few, and they could not skin all the burnt offerings; and their brothers the Levites strengthened them until the work was finished, and until the priests had consecrated themselves — for the Levites were more upright of heart to consecrate themselves than the priests.
And also the burnt offerings were in abundance, with the fat of the peace offerings, and with the drink offerings for the burnt offering. So the service of the house of the LORD was set firm.
And Hezekiah rejoiced, and all the people, over what God had prepared for the people — for the thing had come about suddenly.