Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Longing for the Temple Worship.

For the choir director; ^[a]on the Gittith. A Psalm of the sons of Korah.

Hezekiah Succeeds Ahaz in Judah

29 ^(A)Hezekiah became king when he was twenty-five years old; and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah. ^2 (B)He did right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father David had done.

³ In the first year of his reign, in the first month, he ^(C)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 square on the east.

Reforms Begun

⁵ Then he said to them, “Listen to me, O Levites. ^(D)Consecrate yourselves now, and consecrate the house of the Lord, the God of your fathers, and carry the uncleanness out from the holy place. ⁶ For our fathers have been unfaithful and have done evil in the sight of the Lord our God, and have forsaken Him and ^(E)turned their faces away from the dwelling place of the Lord, and have ^[a]turned their backs. ⁷ They have also ^(F)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 ^(G)the wrath of the Lord was against Judah and Jerusalem, and He has made them an object of terror, of horror, and of ^(H)hissing, as you see with your own eyes. ⁹ For behold, ^(I)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 ^(J)to make a covenant with the Lord God of Israel, that His burning anger may turn away from us. ¹¹ My sons, do not be negligent now, for ^(K)the Lord has chosen you to stand before Him, to minister to Him, and to be His ministers and burn incense.”

¹⁶ So the priests went in to the inner part of the house of the Lord to cleanse it, and every unclean thing which they found in the temple of the Lord they brought out to the court of the house of the Lord. Then the Levites received it to carry out to ^(A)the Kidron ^[a]valley. ¹⁷ Now they began ^[b]the consecration ^(B)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 of its utensils, and the table of showbread with all of its utensils. ¹⁹ Moreover, ^(C)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.”

²³ Therefore it was necessary for the ^(A)copies of the things in the heavens to be cleansed with these, but ^(B)the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. ²⁴ For Christ ^(C)did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of ^(D)the true one, but into ^(E)heaven itself, now ^(F)to appear in the presence of God for us; ²⁵ nor was it that He would offer Himself often, as ^(G)the high priest enters ^(H)the holy place ^(I)year by year with blood that is not his own. ²⁶ Otherwise, He would have needed to suffer often since ^(J)the foundation of the world; but now ^(K)once at ^(L)the consummation of the ages He has been ^(M)manifested to put away sin ^[a](N)by the sacrifice of Himself. ²⁷ And inasmuch as ^(O)it is ^[b]appointed for men to die once and after this ^(P)comes judgment, ²⁸ so Christ also, having been ^(Q)offered once to ^(R)bear the sins of many, will appear ^(S)a second time for ^(T)salvation ^(U)without reference to sin, to those who ^(V)eagerly await Him.