2.Chronik 29 | New International Reader’s Version

Hezekiah purifies the temple

1 Hezekiah was 25 years old when he became king. He ruled in Jerusalem for 29 years. His mother’s name was Abijah. She was the daughter of Zechariah. 2 Hezekiah did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, just as King David had done. 3 In the first month of Hezekiah’s first year as king, he opened the doors of the LORD’s temple. He repaired them. 4 He brought the priests and Levites in. He gathered them together in the open area on the east side of the temple. 5 He said, ‘Levites, listen to me! Set yourselves apart to the LORD. Set apart the temple of the LORD. He’s the God of your people who lived long ago. Remove anything “unclean” from the temple. 6 Our people weren’t faithful. They did what was evil in the eyes of the LORD our God. They deserted him. They turned their faces away from the place where he lives. They turned their backs on him. 7 They also shut the doors of the temple porch. They put the lamps out. They didn’t burn incense at the temple. They didn’t sacrifice burnt offerings there to the God of Israel. 8 So the LORD has become angry with Judah and Jerusalem. He has made them look so bad that everyone is shocked when they see them. They laugh at them. You can see it with your own eyes. 9 That’s why our fathers have been killed by swords. That’s why our sons and daughters and wives have become prisoners. 10 So I’m planning to make a covenant with the LORD, the God of Israel. Then he’ll stop being angry with us. 11 My sons, don’t fail to obey the LORD. He has chosen you to stand in front of him and work for him. He wants you to serve him and burn incense to him.’ 12 Here are the Levites who went to work. Mahath and Joel were from the family line of Kohath. Mahath was the son of Amasai. Joel was the son of Azariah. Kish and Azariah were from the family line of Merari. Kish was the son of Abdi. Azariah was the son of Jehallelel. Joah and Eden were from the family line of Gershon. Joah was the son of Zimmah. Eden was the son of Joah. 13 Shimri and Jeiel were from the family line of Elizaphan. Zechariah and Mattaniah were from the family line of Asaph. 14 Jehiel and Shimei were from the family line of Heman. Shemaiah and Uzziel were from the family line of Jeduthun. 15 All these Levites gathered the other Levites together. They set themselves apart to the LORD. Then they went in to purify the LORD’s temple. That’s what the king had ordered them to do. They did what the LORD told them to. 16 The priests went into the LORD’s temple to make it pure. They brought out to the temple courtyard everything that was ‘unclean’. They had found ‘unclean’ things in the LORD’s temple. The Levites took them and carried them out to the Kidron Valley. 17 On the first day of the first month they began to set everything in the temple apart to the LORD. By the eighth day of the month they reached the LORD’s porch. For eight more days they set the LORD’s temple itself apart to him. They finished on the 16th day of the first month. 18 Then they went to King Hezekiah. They reported, ‘We’ve purified the whole temple of the LORD. That includes the altar for burnt offerings and all its tools. It also includes the table for the holy bread and all its objects. 19 We’ve prepared all the things King Ahaz had removed. We’ve set them apart to the LORD. Ahaz had removed them while he was king. He wasn’t faithful to the LORD. Those things are now in front of the LORD’s altar.’ 20 Early the next morning King Hezekiah gathered together the city officials. They all went up to the LORD’s temple. 21 They brought seven bulls, seven rams, seven male lambs and seven male goats with them. They sacrificed the animals as a sin offering for the kingdom, for the temple and for Judah. The king commanded the priests to offer them on the LORD’s altar. The priests were from the family line of Aaron. 22 They killed the bulls. Then they splashed the blood against the altar. Next they killed the rams and splashed the blood against the altar. Then they killed the lambs and splashed the blood against the altar. 23 The goats for the sin offering were brought to the king and the whole community. They placed their hands on them. 24 Then the priests killed the goats. They put the blood on the altar as a sin offering. It paid for the sin of the whole nation of Israel. The king had ordered the burnt offering and the sin offering for the whole nation. 25 Hezekiah stationed the Levites in the LORD’s temple. They had cymbals, harps and lyres. They did everything in the way King David, his prophet Gad, and Nathan the prophet had required. The LORD had given commands about all these things through his prophets. 26 So the Levites stood ready with David’s musical instruments. And the priests had their trumpets ready. 27 Hezekiah gave the order to sacrifice the burnt offering on the altar. The offering began. Singing to the LORD also began. The singing was accompanied by the trumpets and by the instruments of David. He had been king of Israel. 28 The whole community bowed down. They worshipped the LORD. At the same time the musicians played their musical instruments. The priests blew their trumpets. All of that continued until the burnt offering had been sacrificed. 29 So the offerings were finished. King Hezekiah got down on his knees. He worshipped the LORD. So did everyone who was with him. 30 The king and his officials ordered the Levites to praise the LORD. They used the words of David and Asaph the prophet. They sang praises with joy. They bowed down and worshipped the LORD. 31 Then Hezekiah said, ‘You have set yourselves apart to the LORD. Come and bring sacrifices and thank-offerings to his temple.’ So the whole community brought sacrifices and thank-offerings. Everyone who wanted to brought burnt offerings. 32 The whole community brought 70 bulls, 100 rams and 200 male lambs. They brought all of them as burnt offerings to the LORD. 33 The total number of animals set apart as sacrifices to the LORD was 600 bulls and 3,000 sheep and goats. 34 But there weren’t enough priests to skin all the burnt offerings. So their relatives, the Levites, helped them. They worked until the task was finished. By that time other priests had been set apart to the LORD. The Levites had been more careful than the priests when they set themselves apart. 35 There were large numbers of burnt offerings, along with the drink offerings and the fat from the friendship offerings. They were offered along with the burnt offerings. So the service of the LORD’s temple was started up again. 36 Hezekiah and all the people were filled with joy. That’s because everything had been done so quickly. God had provided for his people in a wonderful way.

English Standard Version

Hezekiah Reigns in Judah

1 Hezekiah began to reign when he was twenty-five years old, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Abijah* the daughter of Zechariah. 2 And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that David his father had done.

Hezekiah Cleanses the Temple

3 In the first year of his reign, in the first month, he opened the doors of the house of the Lord and repaired them. 4 He brought in the priests and the Levites and assembled them in the square on the east 5 and said to them, “Hear me, Levites! Now consecrate yourselves, and consecrate the house of the Lord, the God of your fathers, and carry out the filth* from the Holy Place. 6 For our fathers have been unfaithful and have done what was evil in the sight of the Lord our God. They have forsaken him and have turned away their faces from the habitation of the Lord and turned their backs. 7 They also shut the doors of the vestibule and put out the lamps and have not burned incense or offered burnt offerings in the Holy Place to the God of Israel. 8 Therefore the wrath of the Lord came on Judah and Jerusalem, and he has made them an object of horror, of astonishment, and of hissing, as you see with your own eyes. 9 For behold, our fathers have fallen by the sword, and our sons and our daughters and our wives are in captivity for this. 10 Now it is in my heart to make a covenant with the Lord, the God of Israel, in order that his fierce anger may turn away from us. 11 My sons, do not now be negligent, for the Lord has chosen you to stand in his presence, to minister to him and to be his ministers and make offerings to him.” 12 Then the Levites arose, Mahath the son of Amasai, and Joel the son of Azariah, of the sons of the Kohathites; and of the sons of Merari, Kish the son of Abdi, and Azariah the son of Jehallelel; and of the Gershonites, Joah the son of Zimmah, and Eden the son of Joah; 13 and of the sons of Elizaphan, Shimri and Jeuel; and of the sons of Asaph, Zechariah and Mattaniah; 14 and of the sons of Heman, Jehuel and Shimei; and of the sons of Jeduthun, Shemaiah and Uzziel. 15 They gathered their brothers and consecrated themselves and went in as the king had commanded, by the words of the Lord, to cleanse the house of the Lord. 16 The priests went into the inner part of the house of the Lord to cleanse it, and they brought out all the uncleanness that they found in the temple of the Lord into the court of the house of the Lord. And the Levites took it and carried it out to the brook Kidron. 17 They began to consecrate on the first day of the first month, and on the eighth day of the month they came to the vestibule 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. 18 Then they went in to Hezekiah the king and said, “We have cleansed all the house of the Lord, the altar of burnt offering and all its utensils, and the table for the showbread and all its utensils. 19 All the utensils that King Ahaz discarded in his reign when he was faithless, we have made ready and consecrated, and behold, they are before the altar of the Lord.”

Hezekiah Restores Temple Worship

20 Then Hezekiah the king rose early and gathered the officials of the city and went up to the house of the Lord. 21 And they brought seven bulls, seven rams, seven lambs, and seven male goats for a sin offering for the kingdom and for the sanctuary and for Judah. And he commanded the priests, the sons of Aaron, to offer them on the altar of the Lord. 22 So they slaughtered the bulls, and the priests received the blood and threw it against the altar. And they slaughtered the rams, and their blood was thrown against the altar. And they slaughtered the lambs, and their blood was thrown against the altar. 23 Then the goats for the sin offering were brought to the king and the assembly, and they laid their hands on them, 24 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 commanded that the burnt offering and the sin offering should be made for all Israel. 25 And he stationed the Levites in the house of the Lord with cymbals, harps, and lyres, according to the commandment of David and of Gad the king’s seer and of Nathan the prophet, for the commandment was from the Lord through his prophets. 26 The Levites stood with the instruments of David, and the priests with the trumpets. 27 Then Hezekiah commanded that the burnt offering be offered on the altar. And when the burnt offering began, the song to the Lord began also, and the trumpets, accompanied by the instruments of David king of Israel. 28 The whole assembly worshiped, and the singers sang, and the trumpeters sounded. All this continued until the burnt offering was finished. 29 When the offering was finished, the king and all who were present with him bowed themselves and worshiped. 30 And Hezekiah the king and the officials commanded the Levites to sing praises to the Lord with the words of David and of Asaph the seer. And they sang praises with gladness, and they bowed down and worshiped. 31 Then Hezekiah said, “You have now consecrated yourselves to* the Lord. Come near; bring sacrifices and thank offerings to the house of the Lord.” And the assembly brought sacrifices and thank offerings, and all who were of a willing heart brought burnt offerings. 32 The number of the burnt offerings that the assembly brought was 70 bulls, 100 rams, and 200 lambs; all these were for a burnt offering to the Lord. 33 And the consecrated offerings were 600 bulls and 3,000 sheep. 34 But the priests were too few and could not flay all the burnt offerings, so until other priests had consecrated themselves, their brothers the Levites helped them, until the work was finished—for the Levites were more upright in heart than the priests in consecrating themselves. 35 Besides the great number of burnt offerings, there was the fat of the peace offerings, and there were the drink offerings for the burnt offerings. Thus the service of the house of the Lord was restored. 36 And Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced because God had provided for the people, for the thing came about suddenly.

2.Chronik 29 | New International Reader’s Version English Standard Version

Hezekiah purifies the temple

Hezekiah Reigns in Judah

Hezekiah Cleanses the Temple

Hezekiah Restores Temple Worship