³ In the first year of his reign, in the first month, he opened the doors of the Lord’s temple and repaired them.^{(A) 4} Then he brought in the priests and Levites and gathered them in the eastern public square.^{(B) 5} He said to them, “Hear me, Levites. Consecrate yourselves^(C) now and consecrate the temple of the Lord, the God of your ancestors. Remove everything impure from the holy place. ⁶ For our ancestors were unfaithful and did what is evil in the sight of the Lord our God. They abandoned him, turned their faces away from the Lord’s dwelling place, and turned their backs on him.^{[a](D) 7} They also closed the doors of the portico, extinguished the lamps, did not burn incense, and did not offer burnt offerings in the holy place of the God of Israel. ⁸ Therefore, the wrath of the Lord was on Judah and Jerusalem, and he made them an object of terror, horror, and mockery,^[b](E) as you see with your own eyes. ⁹ Our fathers fell by the sword, and our sons, our daughters, and our wives are in captivity because of this.^{(F) 10} It is in my heart now to make a covenant with the Lord, the God of Israel^(G) so that his burning anger may turn away from us. ¹¹ My sons, don’t be negligent now, for the Lord has chosen you to stand in his presence, to serve him, and to be his ministers and burners of incense.”^(H)

Cleansing the Temple

¹² Then the Levites stood up:

¹⁵ They gathered their brothers together, consecrated themselves,^(K) and went according to the king’s command by the words of the Lord^(L) to cleanse the Lord’s temple.^(M)

¹⁶ The priests went to the entrance of the Lord’s temple to cleanse it. They took all the unclean things they found in the Lord’s sanctuary to the courtyard of the Lord’s temple. Then the Levites received them and took them outside to the Kidron Valley.^{(N) 17} They began the consecration on the first day of the first month, and on the eighth day of the month they came to the portico of the Lord’s temple. They consecrated the Lord’s temple for eight days, and on the sixteenth day of the first month they finished.

¹⁸ Then they went inside to King Hezekiah and said, “We have cleansed the whole temple of the Lord, the altar of burnt offering and all its utensils, and the table for the rows of the Bread of the Presence and all its utensils. ¹⁹ We have set up and consecrated all the utensils that King Ahaz rejected during his reign^(O) when he became unfaithful. They are in front of the altar of the Lord.”