8 ^uand with them the Levites, Shemaiah, Nethaniah, Zebadiah, Asahel, Shemiramoth, Jehonathan, Adonijah, Tobijah, and Tobadonijah; and with these Levites, the priests Elishama and Jehoram. 9 And ^tthey taught in Judah, having the Book of the Law of the Lord with them. They went about through all the cities of Judah and taught among the people.

4 After this Joash ^edecided to ^frestore the house of the Lord. 5 And he gathered the priests and the Levites and said to them, “Go out to the cities of ^gJudah and gather from all Israel money to repair the house of your God from year to year, and see that you act quickly.” But the Levites did not act quickly.

8 So the king commanded, and they made a chest and set it outside the gate of the house of the Lord. 9 And ^lproclamation was made throughout Judah and Jerusalem to bring in for the Lord ^hthe tax that Moses the servant of God laid on Israel in the wilderness. 10 And all the princes and all the people rejoiced and brought their tax and dropped it into the chest until they had finished.¹ 11 And whenever the chest was brought to the king’s officers by the Levites, when they saw that there was much money in it, the king’s secretary and the officer of the chief priest would come and empty the chest and take it and return it to its place. Thus they did day after day, and collected money in abundance.

Hezekiah Cleanses the Temple

3 In the first year of his reign, in the first month, he ^lopened 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 ^mconsecrate yourselves, and consecrate the house of the Lord, the God of your fathers, and carry out the filth¹ 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 ⁿhave turned away their faces from the habitation of the Lord and turned their backs. 7 They also ^oshut 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 ^pthe wrath of the Lord came on Judah and Jerusalem, and he has made them ^qan object of horror, of astonishment, ^rand of hissing, as you see with your own eyes. 9 For behold, ^sour fathers have fallen by the sword, and our sons and our daughters and our wives are in captivity for this. 10 Now ^tit is in my heart ^uto 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, ^vfor 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, ^wMahath the son of Amasai, and Joel the son of Azariah, of the sons of ^xthe Kohathites; and of the sons of ^xMerari, Kish the son of Abdi, and Azariah the son of Jehallelel; and of the ^xGershonites, Joah the son of Zimmah, and Eden the son of Joah; 13 and of the sons of ^yElizaphan, Shimri and Jeuel; and of the sons of ^zAsaph, Zechariah and Mattaniah; 14 and of the sons of ^aHeman, Jehuel and Shimei; and of the sons of ^bJeduthun, Shemaiah and Uzziel. 15 They gathered their brothers and ^cconsecrated themselves and went in as the king had commanded, ^dby the words of the Lord, ^eto 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 ^fthe brook Kidron. 17 They began to consecrate ^gon 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 ^hthat 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.”

11 Then Hezekiah commanded them to prepare ^zchambers in the house of the Lord, and they prepared them. 12 And they faithfully brought in the contributions, the tithes, and the dedicated things. The chief officer ^ain charge of them was Conaniah the Levite, with ^bShimei his brother as second, 13 ^bwhile Jehiel, Azaziah, Nahath, Asahel, Jerimoth, Jozabad, Eliel, Ismachiah, ^bMahath, and Benaiah were overseers assisting Conaniah and Shimei his brother, by the appointment of Hezekiah the king and ^xAzariah the chief officer of the house of God. 14 And Kore the son of Imnah the Levite, keeper of the east gate, was over the freewill offerings to God, to apportion the contribution reserved for the Lord and the most holy offerings. 15 ^bEden, Miniamin, Jeshua, Shemaiah, Amariah, and Shecaniah were faithfully assisting him in ^dthe cities of the priests, to distribute the portions to their brothers, old and young alike, by divisions, 16 except those enrolled by genealogy, males from three years old and upward—all who entered the house of the Lord ^eas the duty of each day required—for their service according to their offices, by their divisions. 17 The enrollment of the priests was according to their fathers’ houses; that of the Levites ^ffrom twenty years old and upward was according to their offices, by their divisions. 18 They were enrolled with all their little children, their wives, their sons, and their daughters, the whole assembly, for they were faithful in keeping themselves holy. 19 And for the sons of Aaron, the priests, who were in the fields of common land belonging to their cities, there were men in the several cities who were ^gdesignated by name to distribute portions to every male among the priests and to everyone among the Levites who was enrolled.

9 They came to ^vHilkiah the high priest and gave him the money that had been brought into the house of God, which the Levites, the keepers of the threshold, had collected from ^qManasseh and Ephraim and from all the remnant of Israel and from all Judah and Benjamin and from the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 10 And they gave it to the workmen who were working in the house of the Lord. And the workmen who were working in the house of the Lord gave it for repairing and restoring the house. 11 They gave it to the carpenters and the builders to buy quarried stone, and timber for binders and ^wbeams for the buildings that the kings of Judah had let go to ruin. 12 And the men did the work faithfully. Over them were set Jahath and Obadiah the Levites, of the sons of Merari, and Zechariah and Meshullam, of the sons of the Kohathites, to have oversight. ^xThe Levites, all who were skillful with instruments of music, 13 were over ^ythe burden-bearers and directed all who did work in every kind of service, and some of the Levites were scribes and officials and gatekeepers.