¹⁶ The priests went into the Lord’s temple to make it pure. They brought out to the temple courtyard everything that was “unclean.” They had found “unclean” things in the Lord’s temple. The Levites took them and carried them out to the Kidron Valley. ¹⁷ On the first day of the first month they began to set everything in the temple apart to the Lord. By the eighth day of the month they reached the Lord’s porch. For eight more days they set the Lord’s temple itself apart to him. They finished on the 16th day of the first month.

¹⁸ Then they went to King Hezekiah. They reported, “We’ve purified the whole temple of the Lord. That includes the altar for burnt offerings and all its tools. It also includes the table for the holy bread and all its objects.