2 Chronicles 29:3-11

English Standard Version

Hezekiah Cleanses the Temple

³ In the first year of his reign, in the first month, he ^(A)opened the doors of the house of the Lord and repaired them. ⁴ He brought in the priests and the Levites and assembled them in the square on the east ⁵ and said to them, “Hear me, Levites! Now ^(B)consecrate yourselves, and consecrate the house of the Lord, the God of your fathers, and carry out the filth^[a] from the Holy Place. ⁶ For our fathers have been unfaithful and have done what was evil in the sight of the Lord our God. They have forsaken him and ^(C)have turned away their faces from the habitation of the Lord and turned their backs. ⁷ They also ^(D)shut the doors of the vestibule and put out the lamps and have not burned incense or offered burnt offerings in the Holy Place to the God of Israel. ⁸ Therefore ^(E)the wrath of the Lord came on Judah and Jerusalem, and he has made them ^(F)an object of horror, of astonishment, ^(G)and of hissing, as you see with your own eyes. ⁹ For behold, ^(H)our fathers have fallen by the sword, and our sons and our daughters and our wives are in captivity for this. ¹⁰ Now ^(I)it is in my heart ^(J)to make a covenant with the Lord, the God of Israel, in order that his fierce anger may turn away from us. ¹¹ My sons, do not now be negligent, ^(K)for the Lord has chosen you to stand in his presence, to minister to him and to be his ministers and make offerings to him.”