¹¹ He answered and said to them, “Because ^(A)it has been given to you to know the ^[a]mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.

Jesus Gives True Rest^(A)

^25 (B)At that time Jesus answered and said, “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that ^(C)You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent ^(D)and have revealed them to babes.

¹⁵ and that from childhood you have known ^(A)the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

^16 (B)All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, ^(C)and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for ^[a]instruction in righteousness, ^17 (D)that the man of God may be complete, ^(E)thoroughly equipped for every good work.

²⁴ Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!

²⁵ “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! ^(A)For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and ^[a]self-indulgence. ²⁶ Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also.

²⁷ “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! ^(B)For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. ²⁸ Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

^29 (C)“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build the tombs of the prophets and ^[b]adorn the monuments of the righteous, ³⁰ and say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.’

³¹ “Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that ^(D)you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. ^32 (E)Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers’ guilt. ³³ Serpents, ^(F)brood^[c] of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell? ^34 (G)Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes: ^(H)some of them you will kill and crucify, and ^(I)some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city, ^35 (J)that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, ^(K)from the blood of righteous Abel to ^(L)the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. ³⁶ Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.

Spiritual Immaturity

¹² For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the ^[a]oracles of God; and you have come to need ^(A)milk and not solid food.

²² And Hezekiah gave encouragement to all the Levites ^(A)who taught the good knowledge of the Lord; and they ate throughout the feast seven days, offering peace offerings and ^(B)making confession to the Lord God of their fathers.

¹⁵ And they gathered their brethren, ^(A)sanctified^[a] themselves, and went according to the commandment of the king, at the words of the Lord, ^(B)to cleanse the house of the Lord. ¹⁶ Then the priests went into the inner part of the house of the Lord to cleanse it, and brought out all the debris that they found in the temple of the Lord to the court of the house of the Lord. And the Levites took it out and carried it to the Brook ^(C)Kidron.

¹⁷ Now they began to ^[b]sanctify on the first day of the first month, and on the eighth day of the month they came to the vestibule of the Lord. So they sanctified the house of the Lord in eight days, and on the sixteenth day of the first month they finished.

¹⁸ Then they went in to King Hezekiah and said, “We have cleansed all the house of the Lord, the altar of burnt offerings with all its articles, and the table of the showbread with all its articles. ¹⁹ Moreover all the articles which King Ahaz in his reign had ^(D)cast aside in his transgression we have prepared and ^[c]sanctified; and there they are, before the altar of the Lord.”

Hezekiah Restores Temple Worship

²⁰ Then King Hezekiah rose early, gathered the rulers of the city, and went up to the house of the Lord. ²¹ And they brought seven bulls, seven rams, seven lambs, and seven male goats for a ^(E)sin offering for the kingdom, for the sanctuary, and for Judah. Then he commanded the priests, the sons of Aaron, to offer them on the altar of the Lord. ²² So they killed the bulls, and the priests received the blood and ^(F)sprinkled it on the altar. Likewise they killed the rams and sprinkled the blood on the altar. They also killed the lambs and sprinkled the blood on the altar. ²³ Then they brought out the male goats for the sin offering before the king and the assembly, and they laid their ^(G)hands on them. ²⁴ And the priests killed them; and they presented their blood on the altar as a sin offering ^(H)to make an atonement for all Israel, for the king commanded that the burnt offering and the sin offering be made for all Israel.

^25 (I)And he stationed the Levites in the house of the Lord with cymbals, with stringed instruments, and with harps, ^(J)according to the commandment of David, of ^(K)Gad the king’s seer, and of Nathan the prophet; ^(L)for thus was the commandment of the Lord by His prophets. ²⁶ The Levites stood with the instruments ^(M)of David, and the priests with ^(N)the trumpets. ²⁷ Then Hezekiah commanded them to offer the burnt offering on the altar. And when the burnt offering began, ^(O)the song of the Lord also began, with the trumpets and with the instruments of David king of Israel. ²⁸ So all the assembly worshiped, the singers sang, and the trumpeters sounded; all this continued until the burnt offering was finished. ²⁹ And when they had finished offering, ^(P)the king and all who were present with him bowed and worshiped. ³⁰ Moreover King Hezekiah and the leaders commanded the Levites to sing praise to the Lord with the words of David and of Asaph the seer. So they sang praises with gladness, and they bowed their heads and worshiped.

³¹ Then Hezekiah answered and said, “Now that you have consecrated yourselves to the Lord, come near, and bring sacrifices and ^(Q)thank offerings into the house of the Lord.” So the assembly brought in sacrifices and thank offerings, and as many as were of a ^(R)willing heart brought burnt offerings. ³² And the number of the burnt offerings which the assembly brought was seventy bulls, one hundred rams, and two hundred lambs; all these were for a burnt offering to the Lord. ³³ The consecrated things were six hundred bulls and three thousand sheep. ³⁴ But the priests were too few, so that they could not skin all the burnt offerings; therefore ^(S)their brethren the Levites helped them until the work was ended and until the other priests had ^[d]sanctified themselves, ^(T)for the Levites were ^(U)more diligent in ^(V)sanctifying themselves than the priests. ³⁵ Also the burnt offerings were in abundance, with ^(W)the fat of the peace offerings and with ^(X)the drink offerings for every burnt offering.

So the service of the house of the Lord was set in order. ³⁶ Then Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced that God had prepared the people, since the events took place so suddenly.