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.”

The Book of the Law Found

8 ^sNow in the eighteenth year of his reign, when he had cleansed the land and the house, he sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, and Maaseiah the ^tgovernor of the city, and Joah the son of Joahaz, ^uthe recorder, to repair the house of the Lord his God. 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.