Hezekiah Purifies the Temple

¹Hezekiah was 25 years old when he became king. He ruled in Jerusalem for 29 years. His mother’s name was Abijah. She was the daughter of Zechariah. ² Hezekiah did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as King David had done.

³ In the first month of Hezekiah’s first year as king, he opened the doors of the Lord’s temple. He repaired them. ⁴ He brought the priests and Levites in. He gathered them together in the open area on the east side of the temple. ⁵ He said, “Levites, listen to me! Set yourselves apart to the Lord. Set apart the temple of the Lord. He’s the God of your people who lived long ago. Remove anything ‘unclean’ from the temple. ⁶ Our people weren’t faithful. They did what was evil in the eyes of the Lord our God. They deserted him. They turned their faces away from the place where he lives. They turned their backs on him. ⁷ They also shut the doors of the temple porch. They put the lamps out. They didn’t burn incense at the temple. They didn’t sacrifice burnt offerings there to the God of Israel. ⁸ So the Lord has become angry with Judah and Jerusalem. He has made them look so bad that everyone is shocked when they see them. They laugh at them. You can see it with your own eyes. ⁹ That’s why our fathers have been killed by swords. That’s why our sons and daughters and wives have become prisoners. ¹⁰ So I’m planning to make a covenant with the Lord, the God of Israel. Then he’ll stop being angry with us. ¹¹ My sons, don’t fail to obey the Lord. He has chosen you to stand in front of him and work for him. He wants you to serve him and burn incense to him.”

¹² Here are the Levites who went to work.

¹⁵ All these Levites gathered the other Levites together. They set themselves apart to the Lord. Then they went in to purify the Lord’s temple. That’s what the king had ordered them to do. They did what the Lord told them to. ¹⁶ The priests went into the Lord’s temple to make it pure. They brought out to the temple courtyard everything that was “unclean.” They had found “unclean” things in the Lord’s temple. The Levites took them and carried them out to the Kidron Valley. ¹⁷ On the first day of the first month they began to set everything in the temple apart to the Lord. By the eighth day of the month they reached the Lord’s porch. For eight more days they set the Lord’s temple itself apart to him. They finished on the 16th day of the first month.

¹⁸ Then they went to King Hezekiah. They reported, “We’ve purified the whole temple of the Lord. That includes the altar for burnt offerings and all its tools. It also includes the table for the holy bread and all its objects. ¹⁹ We’ve prepared all the things King Ahaz had removed. We’ve set them apart to the Lord. Ahaz had removed them while he was king. He wasn’t faithful to the Lord. Those things are now in front of the Lord’s altar.”

²⁰ Early the next morning King Hezekiah gathered together the city officials. They all went up to the Lord’s temple. ²¹ They brought seven bulls, seven rams, seven male lambs and seven male goats with them. They sacrificed the animals as a sin offering for the kingdom, for the temple and for Judah. The king commanded the priests to offer them on the Lord’s altar. The priests were from the family line of Aaron. ²² They killed the bulls. Then they splashed the blood against the altar. Next they killed the rams and splashed the blood against the altar. Then they killed the lambs and splashed the blood against the altar. ²³ The goats for the sin offering were brought to the king and the whole community. They placed their hands on them. ²⁴ Then the priests killed the goats. They put the blood on the altar as a sin offering. It paid for the sin of the whole nation of Israel. The king had ordered the burnt offering and the sin offering for the whole nation.

²⁵ Hezekiah stationed the Levites in the Lord’s temple. They had cymbals, harps and lyres. They did everything in the way King David, his prophet Gad, and Nathan the prophet had required. The Lord had given commands about all these things through his prophets. ²⁶ So the Levites stood ready with David’s musical instruments. And the priests had their trumpets ready.

²⁷ Hezekiah gave the order to sacrifice the burnt offering on the altar. The offering began. Singing to the Lord also began. The singing was accompanied by the trumpets and by the instruments of David. He had been king of Israel. ²⁸ The whole community bowed down. They worshiped the Lord. At the same time the musicians played their musical instruments. The priests blew their trumpets. All of that continued until the burnt offering had been sacrificed.

²⁹ So the offerings were finished. King Hezekiah got down on his knees. He worshiped the Lord. So did everyone who was with him. ³⁰ The king and his officials ordered the Levites to praise the Lord. They used the words of David and Asaph the prophet. They sang praises with joy. They bowed down and worshiped the Lord.

³¹ Then Hezekiah said, “You have set yourselves apart to the Lord. Come and bring sacrifices and thank offerings to his temple.” So the whole community brought sacrifices and thank offerings. Everyone who wanted to brought burnt offerings.

³² The whole community brought 70 bulls, 100 rams and 200 male lambs. They brought all of them as burnt offerings to the Lord. ³³ The total number of animals set apart as sacrifices to the Lord was 600 bulls and 3,000 sheep and goats. ³⁴ But there weren’t enough priests to skin all the burnt offerings. So their relatives, the Levites, helped them. They worked until the task was finished. By that time other priests had been set apart to the Lord. The Levites had been more careful than the priests when they set themselves apart. ³⁵ There were large numbers of burnt offerings, along with the drink offerings and the fat from the friendship offerings. They were offered along with the burnt offerings.

So the service of the Lord’s temple was started up again. ³⁶ Hezekiah and all the people were filled with joy. That’s because everything had been done so quickly. God had provided for his people in a wonderful way.