King Hezekiah Rededicates the Temple^(A)

29 Hezekiah began to rule as king when he was 25 years old. He ruled for 29 years in Jerusalem. His mother was Abijah, daughter of Zechariah. ² He did what the Lord considered right, as his ancestor David had done.

³ In the first month of his first year as king, he opened the doors of the Lord’s temple and repaired them. ⁴ He brought the priests and Levites together in the square on the east side ⌞of the temple⌟.

⁵ He said to them, “Listen to me, Levites. Perform the ceremonies to make the temple of the Lord God of your ancestors holy. Remove anything that has been corrupted from the holy place. ⁶ Our ancestors were unfaithful and did what the Lord our God considered evil. They deserted him. They turned away from the Lord’s tent ^[a] and turned their backs on him. ⁷ They also shut the doors of the ⌞temple’s⌟ entrance hall, extinguished the lamps, and didn’t burn incense or sacrifice burnt offerings in the holy place to the God of Israel. ⁸ So the Lord was angry with Judah and Jerusalem. He made them something that shocks and terrifies people and that people ridicule, as you can see with your own eyes. ⁹ Our fathers were killed in battle, and our sons, daughters, and wives are prisoners because of this. ¹⁰ Now I intend to make a pledge to the Lord God of Israel so that he may turn his burning anger away from us. ¹¹ Don’t be negligent, my sons. The Lord has chosen you to stand in front of him, serve him, be his servants, and burn sacrifices.”

¹² So the Levites started to work.

¹⁵ These men gathered their relatives and performed the ceremonies to make themselves holy. Then they obeyed the king’s order from the Lord’s word and entered the temple to make it clean.^{[b] 16} The priests entered the Lord’s temple to make it clean. They carried into the courtyard every unclean thing that they found in the Lord’s temple. Then the Levites took the unclean items outside the city to the Kidron Brook. ¹⁷ They started on the first day of the first month. On the eighth day they went into the Lord’s entrance hall, and for eight days they performed the ceremonies to make the Lord’s temple holy. They finished on the sixteenth day of the first month.

¹⁸ Then they went to King Hezekiah. They said ⌞to him⌟, “We have made all of the Lord’s temple clean. This includes the altar for burnt offerings, all its utensils, the table for the rows of bread and all its utensils, ¹⁹ and all the utensils King Ahaz refused to use during his reign when he was unfaithful. We have restored them and made them holy. They are in front of the Lord’s altar.”

²⁰ Early in the morning Hezekiah gathered the leaders of the city and went to the Lord’s temple. ²¹ They brought seven bulls, seven rams, seven lambs, and seven male goats as an offering for sin for the kingdom, the holy place, and Judah. Hezekiah told the priests, Aaron’s descendants, to sacrifice the animals on the Lord’s altar.

²² So they slaughtered the bulls, and the priests sprinkled the blood on the altar. Then they slaughtered the rams and sprinkled the blood on the altar. After that, they slaughtered the lambs and sprinkled the blood on the altar. ²³ Then they brought the male goats for the offering for sin in front of the king and the assembly, who laid their hands on them. ²⁴ The priests slaughtered the goats and made their blood an offering for sin at the altar to make peace with the Lord for Israel. The king had said that the burnt offerings and offerings for sin should be for all Israel.

²⁵ He had the Levites stand in the Lord’s temple with cymbals, harps, and lyres as David, the king’s seer ^[c] Gad, and the prophet Nathan had ordered. This command came from the Lord through his prophets. ²⁶ The Levites stood with David’s instruments, and the priests had the trumpets. ²⁷ Then Hezekiah ordered the sacrificing of burnt offerings on the altar. When the burnt offerings started, the songs to the Lord started. These songs were accompanied by trumpets and the instruments of King David of Israel. ²⁸ The whole assembly bowed down with their faces touching the ground, singers began to sing, and the trumpets blew until the burnt offering was finished. ²⁹ When the burnt offerings were finished, the king and everyone who was with him kneeled and bowed down. ³⁰ Then King Hezekiah and the leaders told the Levites to praise the Lord with the words of David and the seer Asaph. They joyfully sang praises, bowed down, and worshiped.

³¹ Hezekiah said, “You have dedicated your lives to the Lord. Come, bring sacrifices and thank offerings to the Lord’s temple.”

The assembly brought sacrifices and thank offerings, and everyone who was willing brought burnt offerings. ³² The burnt offerings brought by the assembly totaled 70 bulls, 100 rams, and 200 lambs. All of these were burnt offerings to the Lord. ³³ The animals dedicated as holy sacrifices were 600 bulls and 3,000 sheep. ³⁴ But the priests needed more help to skin all the burnt offerings. So their relatives, the Levites, helped them until the work was completed and the priests could make themselves holy. The Levites were more diligent in making themselves holy than the priests were. ³⁵ There were many burnt offerings in addition to the fat of the fellowship offerings and wine offerings that accompanied the burnt offerings. So the worship in the Lord’s temple was reestablished. ³⁶ Hezekiah and all the people were overjoyed because of what God had done for the people. Everything had happened so quickly.

Hezekiah Celebrates the Passover

30 Hezekiah sent a message to all Israel and Judah and wrote letters to the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh. He invited them to come to the Lord’s temple in Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover of the Lord God of Israel.

² The king, his officials, and the whole assembly in Jerusalem decided to celebrate the Passover in the second month. ³ They couldn’t celebrate it at the regular time because not enough priests had performed the ceremonies to make themselves holy and the people hadn’t gathered in Jerusalem. ⁴ The king and the whole assembly considered their plan to be the right thing to do. ⁵ So they decided to send an announcement throughout Israel from Beersheba to Dan. They summoned everyone to come to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover of the Lord God of Israel. These people had not celebrated it in large numbers as the written instructions said they should.

⁶ Messengers took letters from the king and his officials throughout Israel and Judah. The king’s order said, “Israelites, return to the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel. Then he will return to the few of you who escaped from the power of the kings of Assyria. ⁷ Don’t be like your ancestors and your relatives who were unfaithful to the Lord God of their ancestors. He made them something that shocks people, as you have seen. ⁸ Don’t be impossible to deal with like your ancestors. Reach out for the Lord. Come to his holy place that he made holy forever. Serve the Lord your God, and he will turn his burning anger away from you. ⁹ When you return to the Lord, your relatives and children will find compassion from those who captured them. They will return to this land. The Lord your God is merciful and compassionate. He will not turn his face away from you if you return to him.”

¹⁰ So the messengers went from city to city in the territories of Ephraim and Manasseh, as far as Zebulun. But the people ridiculed them. ¹¹ However, some people from Asher, Manasseh, and Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem. ¹² Also, God guided the people of Judah so that they united to carry out the command which the king and the leaders gave from the Lord’s word.

¹³ Many people gathered in Jerusalem to celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread in the second month. They formed a large assembly.

¹⁴ Then the people got rid of the ⌞idols’⌟ altars in Jerusalem. They got rid of all the altars for incense by dumping them in the Kidron Valley.

¹⁵ They slaughtered the Passover lamb on the fourteenth day of the second month. The priests and Levites were ashamed, so they performed the ceremonies to make themselves holy. Then they brought burnt offerings to the Lord’s temple. ¹⁶ They stood in their regular places as instructed by Moses’ Teachings. (Moses was a man of God.) The priests sprinkled the blood they received from the Levites. ¹⁷ Many people in the assembly had not made themselves holy. So the Levites had to kill the Passover lambs for all who weren’t clean ^[d] and couldn’t make their lambs holy for the Lord.

¹⁸ Many people from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun had not made themselves clean. So they ate the Passover, but not in the way the written instructions said they should. Hezekiah prayed for them: “May the good Lord forgive ¹⁹ those who have their hearts set on dedicating their lives to serving God. May the Lord God of their ancestors do this for those who are not clean as required for the holy place.” ²⁰ The Lord listened to Hezekiah and healed the people.

²¹ So the Israelites in Jerusalem celebrated the Festival of Unleavened Bread for seven days with great joy. Each day the Levites and priests praised the Lord in song. They played the Lord’s instruments loudly. ²² Hezekiah spoke encouraging words to all the Levites who had the skills to serve the Lord. They ate the festival meals for seven days, sacrificed fellowship offerings, and confessed their sins to the Lord God of their ancestors.

²³ Then the whole assembly decided to celebrate the festival for seven more days. So they joyfully celebrated for seven more days. ²⁴ King Hezekiah of Judah provided 1,000 bulls and 7,000 sheep as sacrifices for the assembly. The leaders provided 1,000 bulls and 10,000 sheep for the assembly. So a large number of priests were able to perform the ceremonies to make themselves holy.

²⁵ The whole assembly from Judah, the priests, the Levites, the whole assembly from Israel, the foreigners who came from Israel, and those who lived in Judah rejoiced. ²⁶ The city of Jerusalem was filled with joy. Nothing like this had happened in Jerusalem since the days of King Solomon of Israel.

²⁷ Then the Levitical priests blessed the people. Their voices were heard, and their prayers went to God’s holy place in heaven.

Hezekiah Reforms Judah’s Worship

31 When this was over, all the Israelites who were there went to the cities in Judah. They crushed the sacred stones, cut down the poles dedicated to the goddess Asherah, and tore down the illegal places of worship and the altars throughout Judah, Benjamin, Ephraim, and Manasseh. The Israelites destroyed all of these things. Then all the Israelites returned to their own cities. Each person went to his own property.

² Hezekiah assigned the priests and the Levites to divisions. Each priest or Levite was put in a division based on the service he performed: sacrificing burnt offerings, sacrificing fellowship offerings, serving, giving thanks, or praising within the gates of the Lord’s camp.

³ He set aside part of the king’s property for burnt offerings, the morning and evening offerings, burnt offerings on the weekly days of rest—holy days, the New Moon Festivals, and the annual festivals, as it is written in the Lord’s Teachings. ⁴ He told the people living in Jerusalem to give the priests and Levites the portions they were due so that they could devote themselves to the Lord’s Teachings. ⁵ As soon as the word spread, the Israelites brought plenty of offerings from the first of their produce: grain, new wine, fresh olive oil, honey, and every crop from the fields. They brought large quantities, a tenth of everything. ⁶ The people of Israel and Judah who were living in the cities of Judah brought a tenth of their cattle and sheep and a tenth of the holy things they had dedicated to the Lord their God. They piled these holy things in heaps. ⁷ In the third month they started piling them up, and in the seventh month they finished. ⁸ When Hezekiah and the leaders saw the heaps, they praised the Lord and his people Israel.

⁹ Hezekiah asked the priests and the Levites about the heaps. ¹⁰ The chief priest Azariah from Zadok’s family said, “Since the people started to bring the offerings to the Lord’s temple, we have had all we wanted to eat and plenty to spare. The Lord has blessed his people, and there’s a lot left over.”

¹¹ Then Hezekiah told them to prepare storerooms in the Lord’s temple. After they had prepared them, ¹² they faithfully brought in the contributions, the offerings of one-tenth of the crops, and the gifts dedicated to God. The Levite Conaniah was in charge of these things, and his brother Shimei was his assistant. ¹³ King Hezekiah and Azariah, who was in charge of God’s temple, appointed Jehiel, Azaziah, Nahath, Asahel, Jerimoth, Jozabad, Eliel, Ismachiah, Mahath, and Benaiah to serve under Conaniah and his brother Shimei. ¹⁴ Kore, son of Imnah the Levite, was the gatekeeper at East Gate and had to take care of the freewill offerings made to God. His responsibility was to distribute the offerings made to the Lord and the holy gifts dedicated to God. ¹⁵ Eden, Miniamin, Jeshua, Shemaiah, Amariah, and Shecaniah served under him in the cities belonging to the priests. They were to distribute the offerings faithfully to all their relatives, young and old, by their divisions. ¹⁶ They were appointed to distribute them to males who were at least three years old. The way they were enrolled in the genealogical records did not matter. The six men who served under Kore were to distribute the offerings to everyone who went to the Lord’s temple to perform the daily service that each division was responsible for. ¹⁷ They were to distribute offerings to the priests who were enrolled by families and to the Levites who were at least 20 years old. Distribution was based on the way they served in their divisions. ¹⁸ The priests and Levites were enrolled with their wives, sons, daughters, and other people who depended on them—the whole community. The priests and Levites had to be faithful in keeping themselves holy for the holy work. ¹⁹ Men were appointed to give a portion of the offerings to all the males in the priestly families and to everyone listed in the genealogies of the Levites. These men were Aaron’s descendants, priests who lived in the pasturelands of every Levite city.

²⁰ This is what Hezekiah did throughout Judah. He did what was good and right and true to the Lord his God. ²¹ Hezekiah incorporated Moses’ Teachings and commands into worship and dedicated his life to serving God. Whatever he did for the worship in God’s temple, he did wholeheartedly, and he succeeded.