1. Hezekiah became king at the age of twenty-five, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem; his mother's name was Abijah daughter of Zechariah.
2. He did what was pleasing to the LORD, just as his father David had done.
3. He, in the first month of the first year of his reign, opened the doors of the House of the LORD and repaired them.
4. He summoned the priests and the Levites and assembled them in the east square.
5. He said to them, "Listen to me, Levites! Sanctify yourselves and sanctify the House of the LORD God of your fathers, and take the abhorrent things out of the holy place.
6. For our fathers trespassed and did what displeased the LORD our God; they forsook Him and turned their faces away from the dwelling-place of the LORD, turning their backs on it.
7. They also shut the doors of the porch and put out the lights; they did not offer incense and did not make burnt offerings in the holy place to the God of Israel.
8. The wrath of the LORD was upon Judah and Jerusalem; He made them an object of horror, amazement, and hissing as you see with your own eyes.
9. Our fathers died by the sword, and our sons and daughters and wives are in captivity on account of this.
10. Now I wish to make a covenant with the LORD God of Israel, so that His rage may be withdrawn from us.
11. Now, my sons, do not be slack, for the LORD chose you to attend upon Him, to serve Him, to be His ministers and to make offerings to Him."
12. So the Levites set to -- Mahath son of Amasai and Joel son of Azariah of the sons of Kohath; and of the sons of Merari, Kish son of Abdi and Azariah son of Jehallelel; and of the Gershonites, Joah son of Zimmah and Eden son of Joah;
13. and of the sons of Elizaphan, Shimri and Jeiel; and of the sons of Asaph, Zechariah and Mattaniah;
14. and of the sons of Heman, Jehiel and Shimei; and of the sons of Jeduthun, Shemaiah and Uzziel --
15. and, gathering their brothers, they sanctified themselves and came, by a command of the king concerning the LORD's ordinances, to purify the House of the LORD.
16. The priests went into the House of the LORD to purify it, and brought all the unclean things they found in the Temple of the LORD out into the court of the House of the LORD; [there] the Levites received them, to take them outside to Wadi Kidron.
17. They began the sanctification on the first day of the first month; on the eighth day of the month they reached the porch of the LORD. They sanctified the House of the LORD for eight days, and on the sixteenth day of the first month they finished.
18. Then they went into the palace of King Hezekiah and said, "We have purified the whole House of the LORD and the altar of burnt offering and all its utensils, and the table of the bread of display and all its utensils;
19. and all the utensils that King Ahaz had befouled during his reign, when he trespassed, we have made ready and sanctified. They are standing in front of the altar of the LORD."
20. King Hezekiah rose early, gathered the officers of the city, and went up to the House of the LORD.
21. They brought seven bulls and seven rams and seven lambs and seven he-goats as a sin offering for the kingdom and for the Sanctuary and for Judah. He ordered the Aaronite priests to offer them on the altar of the LORD.
22. The cattle were slaughtered, and the priests received the blood and dashed it against the altar; the rams were slaughtered and the blood was dashed against the altar; the lambs were slaughtered and the blood was dashed against the altar.
23. The he-goats for the sin offering were presented to the king and the congregation, who laid their hands upon them.
24. The priests slaughtered them and performed the purgation rite with the blood against the altar, to expiate for all Israel, for the king had designated the burnt offering and the sin offering to be for all Israel.
25. He stationed the Levites in the House of the LORD with cymbals and harps and lyres, as David and Gad the king's seer and Nathan the prophet had ordained, for the ordinance was by the LORD through His prophets.
26. When the Levites were in place with the instruments of David, and the priests with their trumpets,
27. Hezekiah gave the order to offer the burnt offering on the altar. When the burnt offering began, the song of the LORD and the trumpets began also, together with the instruments of King David of Israel.
28. All the congregation prostrated themselves, the song was sung and the trumpets were blown -- all this until the end of the burnt offering.
29. When the offering was finished, the king and all who were there with him knelt and prostrated themselves.
30. King Hezekiah and the officers ordered the Levites to praise the LORD in the words of David and Asaph the seer; so they praised rapturously, and they bowed and prostrated themselves.
31. Then Hezekiah said, "Now you have consecrated yourselves to the LORD; come, bring sacrifices of well-being and thanksgiving to the House of the LORD." The congregation brought sacrifices of well-being and thanksgiving, and all who felt so moved brought burnt offerings.
32. The number of burnt offerings that the congregation brought was 70 cattle, 100 rams, 200 lambs -- all these for burnt offerings to the LORD.
33. The sacred offerings were 600 large cattle and 3000 small cattle.
34. The priests were too few to be able to flay all the burnt offerings, so their kinsmen, the Levites, reinforced them till the end of the work, and till the [rest of the] priests sanctified themselves. (The Levites were more conscientious about sanctifying themselves than the priests.)
35. For beside the large number of burnt offerings, there were the fat parts of the sacrifices of well-being and the libations for the burnt offerings; so the service of the House of the LORD was properly accomplished.
36. Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced over what God had enabled the people to accomplish, because it had happened so suddenly.
| 
