Chapter 29

Reforms of Hezekiah.^{[a] 1} Hezekiah was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem for twenty-nine years. His mother was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah. ² He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his ancestor David had done.

³ In the first month of the first year of his reign, he opened the doors of the temple of the Lord and repaired them. ⁴ Next he brought in the priests and the Levites and assembled them in the square on the east. ⁵ Then he said to them: “Listen to me, you Levites. Sanctify yourselves first. Then sanctify the house of the Lord, the God of your ancestors, and remove the filth from the sanctuary. ⁶ For our ancestors were unfaithful and did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, our God. They abandoned him, turned away their faces from him, and turned their backs on him. ⁷ They also shut the doors of the vestibule and extinguished the lamps, and they ceased to burn incense or present any burnt offerings in the sanctuary to the God of Israel.

⁸ “Therefore, the anger of the Lord fell upon Judah and Jerusalem, and he has made them an object of terror, astonishment, and derision, as you can see with your own eyes. ⁹ Our fathers have fallen by the sword, and our sons and daughters and our wives have been taken captive as a result. ¹⁰ Now I am determined to make a covenant with the God of Israel, in the hope that his fierce anger may turn away from us. ¹¹ Therefore, my sons, do not be negligent any longer, for the Lord has chosen you to sit in his presence and to serve him, to be his ministers, and to offer incense before him.”

¹² The Levites immediately set to work: from the sons of the Kohathites: Mahath, son of Amasai, and Joel, son of Azariah; from the sons of Merari: Kish, son of Abdi, and Azariah, son of Jehallel; from the Gershonites: Joah, son of Zimmah, and Eden, son of Joah; ¹³ from the sons of Elizaphan: Shimri and Jeuel; from the sons of Asaph: Zechariah and Mattaniah; ¹⁴ from the sons of Heman: Jehuel and Shimei; from the sons of Jeduthun: Shemaiah and Uzziel. ¹⁵ They gathered their brothers together and sanctified themselves; then, in obedience to the king’s order in accordance with the Lord’s command, they proceeded to purify the house of the Lord.

¹⁶ The priests entered the inner part of the Lord’s house to cleanse it, and they brought all the unclean things that they found in the temple of the Lord and deposited them in the court of the house of the Lord, where the Levites collected them and carried them out to the Kidron Valley. ¹⁷ They began the rites of sanctification on the first day of the first month, and on the eighth day of the month they had arrived at the vestibule of the Lord. Then for eight days they sanctified the Lord’s house, and on the sixteenth day of the first month they had finished.

¹⁸ Their work having been completed, they went in to King Hezekiah and said: “We have cleansed the entire house of the Lord, the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils, and the table for setting out the consecrated bread with all its utensils. ¹⁹ We have restored and consecrated all the articles that King Ahaz had cast aside during his reign because of his infidelity. They are now in place before the altar of the Lord.”

²⁰ The Rite of Expiation. King Hezekiah rose early the next morning, assembled the officials of the city, and went up to the house of the Lord. ²¹ They brought with them seven bulls, seven rams, seven lambs, and seven male goats as a sin offering for the kingdom, for the sanctuary, and for Judah, and he ordered the priests, the sons of Aaron, to offer them on the altar of the Lord.

²² Therefore, after the city officials slaughtered the bulls, the priests received the blood and sprinkled it on the altar. Then the rams were slaughtered, and, the priests sprinkled the blood on the altar. After that, the lambs were slaughtered, and the priests sprinkled the blood on the altar.

²³ Finally the he-goats for the sin offering were brought before the king and the assembly, who laid their hands on them. ²⁴ Then the priests slaughtered them and used their blood as a sin offering at the altar in order 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 The king stationed the Levites in the house of the Lord with cymbals, harps, and lyres, according to the ordinance prescribed by David, by Gad the king’s seer, and by Nathan the prophet. This commandment was prescribed by the Lord through his prophets. ²⁶ The Levites were stationed with the instruments of David while the priests stood ready with the trumpets. ²⁷ Then Hezekiah commanded that the burnt offering be presented on the altar. And at the moment when the burnt offering began, the song to the Lord began also, to the accompaniment of the trumpets and the instruments of King David of Israel. ²⁸ The entire assembly bowed in worship while the singers sang and the trumpeters sounded, all of this continuing until the burnt offering had been completed.

²⁹ When the burnt offering was finished, the king and all those who were present with him bowed down and worshiped. ³⁰ King Hezekiah and his officials commanded the Levites to sing praises to the Lord in the words of David and of the seer, Asaph. They joyfully sang their praises, after which they knelt down and prostrated themselves in worship.

³¹ Then Hezekiah issued this command: “Now that you have consecrated yourselves to the Lord, come forward and bring your sacrifices and thank offerings to the house of the Lord.”

Therefore, the assembly brought sacrifices and thank offerings, and all those who had generous hearts brought burnt offerings. ³² The number of burnt offerings that the assembly brought was seventy bulls, one hundred rams, and two hundred lambs. All these were designated as a burnt offering to the Lord. ³³ The consecrated offerings were six hundred bulls and three hundred sheep.

³⁴ However, the priests were too few in number to be able to skin the burnt offerings. Therefore, their brethren the Levites were clearly more conscientious than the priests in sanctifying themselves. ³⁵ In addition to a great number of burnt offerings, there was also the fat of the fellowship offerings and the libations for the burnt offerings. Thus the service of the house of the Lord was restored. ³⁶ Then Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced over what God had done for the people and how suddenly all this had been completed.