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 gathered them into the public square on the east.

Reforms Begun

⁵ Then he said to them, “Listen to me, you Levites. ^(B)Consecrate yourselves now, and consecrate the house of the Lord, the God of your fathers, and carry the uncleanness out of the holy place. ⁶ For our fathers have been unfaithful and have done evil in the sight of the Lord our God, and they have abandoned Him and ^(C)turned their faces away from the dwelling place of the Lord, and have ^[a]turned their backs. ⁷ They have also ^(D)shut the doors of the porch and extinguished the lamps, and have not burned incense nor offered burnt offerings in the holy place to the God of Israel. ⁸ Therefore ^(E)the wrath of the Lord 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 For behold, ^(G)our fathers have fallen by the sword, and our sons, our daughters, and our wives are in captivity because of this. ¹⁰ Now it is in my heart ^(H)to make a covenant with the Lord God of Israel, so that His burning anger may turn away from us. ¹¹ My sons, do not be negligent now, for ^(I)the Lord has chosen you to stand before Him, to serve Him, and to be His ministers and burn incense.”

¹² Then the Levites arose: ^(J)Mahath the son of Amasai and Joel the son of Azariah, from the sons of ^(K)the Kohathites; and from the sons of Merari, Kish the son of Abdi and Azariah the son of Jehallelel; and from the Gershonites, Joah the son of Zimmah and Eden the son of Joah; ¹³ and from the sons of Elizaphan, Shimri and ^[b]Jeiel; and from the sons of Asaph, Zechariah and Mattaniah; ¹⁴ and from the sons of Heman, ^[c]Jehiel and Shimei; and from the sons of Jeduthun, Shemaiah and Uzziel. ¹⁵ They assembled their brothers, ^(L)consecrated themselves, and went in ^(M)to cleanse the house of the Lord, according to the commandment of the king ^(N)by the words of the Lord. ¹⁶ So the priests went into the inner part of the house of the Lord to cleanse it, and they brought every unclean thing which they found in the temple of the Lord out to the courtyard of the house of the Lord. Then the Levites received it to carry out to ^(O)the Kidron ^[d]Valley. ¹⁷ Now they began ^[e]the consecration ^(P)on the first day of the first month, and on the eighth day of the month they entered the porch of the Lord. Then they consecrated the house of the Lord in eight days, and finished 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 the Lord, the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils, and the table of the showbread with all of its utensils. ¹⁹ Moreover, ^(Q)all the utensils which King Ahaz had discarded during his reign in his unfaithfulness, we have prepared and consecrated; and behold, they are before the altar of the Lord.”