³ In the first year of his reign, in the first month, he ^(A)opened the doors of the house of Yahweh and repaired them. ⁴ And he brought in the priests and the Levites and gathered them into the square on the east.

Hezekiah Sets the House of God as Holy

⁵ Then he said to them, “Listen to me, O Levites. ^(B)Set yourselves apart now as holy, and set apart as holy the house of Yahweh, the God of your fathers, and bring out the impurity from the holy place. ⁶ For our fathers have been unfaithful and have done what is evil in the sight of Yahweh our God, and have forsaken Him and ^(C)turned their faces away from the dwelling place of Yahweh, and have ^[a]turned their backs. ⁷ They have also ^(D)shut the doors of the porch 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 Yahweh was against Judah and Jerusalem, and He has made them an object of terror, of horror, and of ^(F)hissing, as you see with your own eyes. ⁹ And behold, ^(G)our fathers have fallen by the sword, and our sons and our daughters and our wives are in captivity for this. ¹⁰ Now it is in my heart ^(H)to cut a covenant with Yahweh, the God of Israel, that His burning anger may turn away from us. ¹¹ My sons, do not be at ease now, for ^(I)Yahweh has chosen you to stand before Him, to minister to Him, and to be His ministers and offer offerings up in smoke.”

¹² Then the Levites arose:

¹⁵ And they gathered their brothers, ^(L)set themselves apart as holy, and went in ^(M)to cleanse the house of Yahweh, according to the commandment of the king ^(N)by the words of Yahweh. ¹⁶ So the priests went in to the inner part of the house of Yahweh to cleanse it, and every unclean thing which they found in the temple of Yahweh they brought out to the court of the house of Yahweh. Then the Levites received it to bring out to ^(O)the Kidron ^[d]valley, to an outer area. ¹⁷ Then they began ^[e]to set it apart as holy ^(P)on the first day of the first month, and on the eighth day of the month they entered the porch of Yahweh. Then they set apart the house of Yahweh as holy in eight days, and completed it on the sixteenth day of the first month. ¹⁸ Then they went in to King Hezekiah and said, “We have cleansed the whole house of Yahweh, the altar of burnt offering with all of its utensils, and the table of showbread with all of its utensils. ¹⁹ Moreover, ^(Q)all the utensils which King Ahaz had rejected during his reign in his unfaithfulness, we have prepared and set apart as holy; and behold, they are before the altar of Yahweh.”