2 Chronicles
Chapter 29
1 Hezekiah became king at the age of twenty-five and ruled for twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother was named Abijah, and her father was Zechariah.
2 He did what was right in God’s eyes, just as his father David had done.
3 In the first year and month of his rule, he opened the doors of God’s house and fixed them.
4 He brought the priests and the Levites together on the east street.
5 Listen to me, Levites. Make yourselves pure and clean God’s temple, the one your forefathers used. Remove the uncleanness from the holy place.
6 Our ancestors did wrong and acted badly before God. They left Him and turned away from where God lives, showing Him their backs.
7 They also closed the doors of the entrance, turned off the lights, did not burn incense or make sacrifices in the sacred place for the God of Israel.
8 God was angry with Judah and Jerusalem, so he let them face trouble, shock, and scorn, as you can see with your own eyes.
9 Our ancestors were killed in battle, and now our children, daughters, and wives are prisoners because of this.
10 I want to make a promise with God, the God of Israel, so his strong anger will turn away from us.
11 My sons, don’t be careless now: God has chosen you to stand before Him, to serve Him, and to help Him, and to burn incense.
12 The Levites stood up: Mahath, Amasai’s son, and Joel, Azariah’s son from the Kohath family; Kish, Abdi’s son, and Azariah, Jehalelel’s son from the Merari family; and from the Gershon family, Joah, Zimmah’s son, and Eden, Joah’s son.
13 From Elizaphan’s sons: Shimri and Jeiel. From Asaph’s sons: Zechariah and Mattaniah.
14 Heman’s sons were Jehiel and Shimei, and Jeduthun’s sons were Shemaiah and Uzziel.
15 They brought their relatives together, made themselves holy, and followed the king’s order and God’s words to clean God’s house.
16 The priests went into the most holy place of God’s house to clean it, and they took out all the dirtiness they found in God’s temple into the yard of God’s house. Then the Levites carried it away to throw it into the Kidron Valley.
17 They started to make holy on the first day of the first month, and by the eighth day they reached God’s porch. They made God’s house holy in eight days, and finished on the sixteenth day of the first month.
18 Then they went to King Hezekiah and said, “We have cleaned the whole temple of God, including the altar for burning offerings and all its equipment, and the table for the holy bread and all its equipment.”
19 We have fixed and made holy all the items that King Ahaz threw away when he sinned, and now they are in front of God’s altar.
20 King Hezekiah got up early, brought together the city leaders, and went to God’s house.
21 They brought seven bulls, seven rams, seven lambs, and seven male goats to be a sin offering for the kingdom, the holy place, and for Judah. He told the priests, Aaron’s sons, to sacrifice them on God’s altar.
22 They killed the bulls, and the priests took the blood and splashed it on the altar. In the same way, after they killed the rams, they splashed the blood on the altar. They also killed the lambs and splashed the blood on the altar.
23 They presented the male goats for the sin offering to the king and the people, and they placed their hands on them.
24 The priests slaughtered them and used their blood on the altar to make peace with God, to forgive all of Israel’s sins, because the king had ordered that sacrifices be made for all Israel’s wrongs.
25 He placed the Levites in God’s house with cymbals, psalteries, and harps, as David, Gad the king’s seer, and Nathan the prophet had ordered, following God’s command through his prophets.
26 The Levites stood with David’s instruments and the priests with the trumpets.
27 Hezekiah ordered the burnt offering to be presented on the altar. As the offering started, the song to God started too, along with trumpets and instruments chosen by King David of Israel.
28 The whole group worshiped, the singers sang, and the trumpet players played until the burnt offering was done.
29 After they finished offering, the king and everyone with him knelt down and worshiped.
30 King Hezekiah and the leaders told the Levites to use the songs of David and the prophet Asaph to praise God. So they sang happily and bowed down to worship.
31 Hezekiah replied, “Now that you have dedicated yourselves to God, come and bring sacrifices and thanks to God’s house.” The people brought sacrifices and thanks, and those who wanted to gave burnt offerings.
32 The people gave 70 bulls, 100 rams, and 200 lambs to be burned as offerings to God.
33 The holy offerings were six hundred cows and three thousand sheep.
34 But there weren’t enough priests to skin all the burnt offerings, so their fellow Levites helped them until the job was done and until the other priests had made themselves holy; because the Levites were more committed to making themselves holy than the priests.
35 There were many burnt offerings, along with the fat from the offerings for well-being, and the liquid offerings for each burnt offering. So the work for God’s house was organized.
36 Hezekiah and all the people were happy because God made the people ready; it all happened quickly.