⁷ They also shut the doors to the Temple’s entry room, and they snuffed out the lamps. They stopped burning incense and presenting burnt offerings at the sanctuary of the God of Israel.

²⁴ The king took the various articles from the Temple of God and broke them into pieces. He shut the doors of the Lord’s Temple so that no one could worship there, and he set up altars to pagan gods in every corner of Jerusalem.

² “Command the people of Israel to bring you pure oil of pressed olives for the light, to keep the lamps burning continually. ³ This is the lampstand that stands in the Tabernacle, in front of the inner curtain that shields the Ark of the Covenant.^[a] Aaron must keep the lamps burning in the Lord’s presence all night. This is a permanent law for you, and it must be observed from generation to generation. ⁴ Aaron and the priests must tend the lamps on the pure gold lampstand continually in the Lord’s presence.

⁵ “You must bake twelve flat loaves of bread from choice flour, using four quarts^[b] of flour for each loaf. ⁶ Place the bread before the Lord on the pure gold table, and arrange the loaves in two stacks, with six loaves in each stack. ⁷ Put some pure frankincense near each stack to serve as a representative offering, a special gift presented to the Lord. ⁸ Every Sabbath day this bread must be laid out before the Lord as a gift from the Israelites; it is an ongoing expression of the eternal covenant.

¹⁰ “How I wish one of you would shut the Temple doors so that these worthless sacrifices could not be offered! I am not pleased with you,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, “and I will not accept your offerings.

Hezekiah Reopens the Temple

³ In the very first month of the first year of his reign, Hezekiah reopened the doors of the Temple of the Lord and repaired them.

¹⁷ Then the king removed the side panels and basins from the portable water carts. He also removed the great bronze basin called the Sea from the backs of the bronze oxen and placed it on the stone pavement. ¹⁸ In deference to the king of Assyria, he also removed the canopy that had been constructed inside the palace for use on the Sabbath day,^[a] as well as the king’s outer entrance to the Temple of the Lord.