2 Chronicles 29:3-19
The Voice
He “strengthens” the relationship between God and the Southern Kingdom, just as his name implies.
3 Hezekiah’s first action when he began to reign was reopening and repairing the Eternal’s temple. 4 He called all the priests and the Levites into the square east of the temple.
Hezekiah (to the Levites): 5 Listen to me. First, you must sanctify yourselves so that you can sanctify the temple of the Eternal One, the True God of your ancestors, and remove the immoral and ungodly items that are there.
6 The previous generations forgot the laws of the Eternal One, our True God, and were unfaithful—abandoning the temple, ignoring Him with their backs turned, 7 closing the doors of the front of the temple so no one else could worship there, extinguishing the temple lamps, and stopping the incense and burnt offerings to the True God of Israel. 8 For these offenses, the Eternal has punished us, Judah and Jerusalem, as you have witnessed, with deaths, disasters, and derision. 9 Our fathers were slaughtered in the wars with the Arameans and the Northern Kingdom, and our wives and children are still prisoners of those wars.
10 But I want to renew a covenant with the Eternal, God of Israel, and follow His ways again so that he will not continue to be angry with us. 11 Now that we have made this commitment, we must not abandon the Eternal, who expects us to be in His presence, serve Him, minister on His behalf to others, and burn incense continually.
12 Then seven Levite families sent forward representatives. From the main Levite lines: Mahath (son of Amasai and Joel the son of Azariah) from the Kohathites, Kish (son of Abdi and Azariah the son of Jehallelel) from the sons of Merari, Joah (son of Zimmah and Eden the son of Joah) from the Gershonites, 13 and Shimri and Jeiel from the sons of Elizaphan. From the Levitical singers: Zechariah and Mattaniah from the sons of Asaph, 14 Jehiel and Shimei from the sons of Heman, and Shemaiah and Uzziel from the sons of Jeduthun.
15 The representatives gathered all of their kinsmen, sanctified themselves, then sanctified the Eternal’s temple as the king commanded and as the Eternal desired. 16 The priests cleansed the most holy place in the Eternal’s temple, taking every unclean thing outside into the temple courts, from where the Levites then took them to the Kidron Valley to be discarded. 17 This cleansing began on the first day of the first month and ended on the eighth day of the month, when they were finally able to enter the Eternal’s temple porch. Then they blessed the Eternal’s temple, which took eight more days and ended on the sixteenth day of the first month. 18 Then they told King Hezekiah all they had done.
Levites: We have cleansed all of the Eternal’s temple: the altar of burnt offering, the table of unleavened bread, and all of the utensils. 19 Also we have recovered and sanctified all the utensils which King Ahaz disposed of during his despicable reign. Now they, too, are at the Eternal’s altar.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
