⁴ He commanded Judah to ^(A)seek the Lord God of their fathers, and to observe the law and the commandment.

A Call to Repentance

⁴ For thus says the Lord to the house of Israel:

⁹ Then I commanded them to ^(A)cleanse the rooms; and I brought back into them the articles of the house of God, with the grain offering and the frankincense.

²⁹ these joined with their brethren, their nobles, ^(A)and entered into a curse and an oath ^(B)to walk in God’s Law, which was given by Moses the servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of the Lord our Lord, and His ordinances and His statutes: ³⁰ We would not give ^(C)our daughters as wives to the peoples of the land, nor take their daughters for our sons; ^31 (D)if the peoples of the land brought ^[a]wares or any grain to sell on the Sabbath day, we would not buy it from them on the Sabbath, or on a holy day; and we would forego the ^(E)seventh year’s produce and the ^(F)exacting^[b] of every debt.

³² Also we made ordinances for ourselves, to exact from ourselves yearly ^(G)one-third of a shekel for the service of the house of our God: ³³ for ^(H)the showbread, for the regular grain offering, for the ^(I)regular burnt offering of the Sabbaths, the New Moons, and the set feasts; for the holy things, for the sin offerings to make atonement for Israel, and all the work of the house of our God. ³⁴ We cast lots among the priests, the Levites, and the people, ^(J)for bringing the wood offering into the house of our God, according to our fathers’ houses, at the appointed times year by year, to burn on the altar of the Lord our God ^(K)as it is written in the Law.

³⁵ And we made ordinances ^(L)to bring the firstfruits of our ground and the firstfruits of all fruit of all trees, year by year, to the house of the Lord; ³⁶ to bring the ^(M)firstborn of our sons and our cattle, as it is written in the Law, and the firstborn of our herds and our flocks, to the house of our God, to the priests who minister in the house of our God; ^37 (N)to bring the firstfruits of our dough, our offerings, the fruit from all kinds of trees, the new wine and oil, to the priests, to the storerooms of the ^[c]house of our God; and to bring ^(O)the tithes of our land to the Levites, for the Levites should receive the tithes in all our farming communities. ³⁸ And the priest, the descendant of Aaron, shall be with the Levites ^(P)when the Levites receive tithes; and the Levites shall bring up a tenth of the tithes to the house of our God, to ^(Q)the rooms of the storehouse.

³⁹ For the children of Israel and the children of Levi ^(R)shall bring the offering of the grain, of the new wine and the oil, to the storerooms where the articles of the sanctuary are, where the priests who minister and the gatekeepers ^(S)and the singers are; and we will not ^(T)neglect the house of our God.

⁷ And they issued a proclamation throughout Judah and Jerusalem to all the descendants of the captivity, that they must gather at Jerusalem, ⁸ and that whoever would not come within three days, according to the instructions of the leaders and elders, all his property would be confiscated, and he himself would be separated from the assembly of those from the captivity.

⁹ So all the men of Judah and Benjamin gathered at Jerusalem within three days. It was the ninth month, on the twentieth of the month; and ^(A)all the people sat in the open square of the house of God, trembling because of this matter and because of heavy rain. ¹⁰ Then Ezra the priest stood up and said to them, “You have ^[a]transgressed and ^[b]have taken pagan wives, adding to the guilt of Israel. ¹¹ Now therefore, ^(B)make confession to the Lord God of your fathers, and do His will; ^(C)separate yourselves from the peoples of the land, and from the pagan wives.”

¹² Then all the assembly answered and said with a loud voice, “Yes! As you have said, so we must do.

³² And he made all who were present in Jerusalem and Benjamin take a stand. So the inhabitants of Jerusalem did according to the covenant of God, the God of their fathers. ³³ Thus Josiah removed all the ^(A)abominations from all the country that belonged to the children of Israel, and made all who were present in Israel ^[a]diligently serve the Lord their God. ^(B)All his days they did not depart from following the Lord God of their fathers.