CHAPTER 29

¹Hezekiah became king when he was twenty-five years old, and twenty-nine years he was king in Jerusalem, and his mother’s name was Abijah daughter of Zechariah. ²And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD as all that David his father had done. ³In the first year he was king in the first month he opened the doors of the house of the LORD and reinforced them. ⁴And he brought the priests and the Levites and gathered them in the eastern square. ⁵And he said to them, “Hear me, Levites. Now consecrate yourselves and consecrate the house of the LORD God of your fathers, and take out what is impure from the sacred space. ⁶For our fathers betrayed and did what was evil in the eyes of the LORD and forsook Him, and turned their faces away from the LORD’s sanctuary and turned their backs. ⁷They also closed the doors of the great hall and extinguished the lamps and did not burn incense and did not offer up burnt offerings to the God of Israel. ⁸And the fury of the LORD was upon Judah and Jerusalem, and He turned them into a horror and a desolation and a hissing as you see with your own eyes. ⁹And, look, our fathers fell by the sword, and our sons and our daughters and our wives fell captive because of this. ¹⁰Now it is my intention to seal a covenant with the LORD, God of Israel, that His smoldering wrath turn back from us. ¹¹My sons, do not fall away, for you the LORD has chosen to stand before Him to minister to Him, to be for him ministers and offerers of incense.” ¹²And the Levites arose, Mahath son of Amasai and Joel son of Azariah of the Kohathites, and of the Merarites Kish son of Abdi and Azariah son of Jehalelel, and of the Gershonites, Joah son of Zimmah and Eden son of Joah. ¹³And of the sons of Elizaphan, Shimri and Jeiel, and of the sons of Asaph, Zechariah and Mattaniah. ¹⁴And of the sons of Heman, Jehiel and Shimei. And of the sons of Jeduthun, Shemaiah and Uzziel. ¹⁵And they gathered their brothers and consecrated themselves and came, according to the king’s command by the words of the LORD to purify the house of the LORD. ¹⁶And the priests came inside the house of the LORD to purify, and they took out to the court of the house of the LORD whatever was unclean that they found in the LORD’s temple, and the Levites received it to take it out to the Kidron Wadi. ¹⁷And they began consecrating on the first of the month, and on the eighth day of the month they came into the great hall of the LORD and consecrated the house of the LORD for eight days, and on the sixteenth day of the first month they finished. ¹⁸And they came inside to King Hezekiah and said, “We have purified all the house of the LORD and the altar for burnt offerings and all its vessels and the table for the bread in rows and all its vessels. ¹⁹And all the vessels that King Ahaz had shunted aside during his kingship through his betrayal we have readied and consecrated, and here they are before the altar of the LORD.” ²⁰And King Hezekiah rose early and gathered all the commanders of the city and went up to the house of the LORD. ²¹And they brought seven bulls and seven rams and seven sheep and seven he-goats as an offense offering for the royal house and for the sanctuary and for Judah, and he said to the Aaronide priests to offer them up on the altar of the LORD. ²²And they slaughtered the cattle, and the priests took the blood and sprinkled it on the altar, and they slaughtered the sheep and cast the blood on the altar. ²³And they presented the offense-offering goats to the king and the assembly and placed their hands on them. ²⁴And the priests slaughtered them and purged the altar with their blood to atone for all Israel, for the king had said that the burnt offering and the offense offering were for all Israel. ²⁵And he set the Levites in the house of the LORD with cymbals, with lutes, and with lyres, as by the command of David and Gad the king’s seer and Nathan the prophet, for by the LORD was the command through His prophet. ²⁶And the Levites stood with the instruments of David and the priests with trumpets. ²⁷And Hezekiah said to bring up the burnt offering to the altar, and as the burnt offering began, the song of the LORD began with trumpets and the instruments of David king of Israel. ²⁸And all the assembly were bowing down and the song was sounding forth and the trumpets were playing—all of it till the burnt offering was done. ²⁹And as the offering was finished, the king and all those with him kneeled and bowed down. ³⁰And King Hezekiah, together with the Levite officers, said to praise the LORD with the words of David and of Asaph the seer, and they praised in utmost rejoicing and did obeisance and bowed down. ³¹And Hezekiah spoke out and said, “Now you have consecrated yourselves to the LORD. Approach and bring sacrifices and thanksgiving offerings to the house of the LORD.” And the assembly brought sacrifices and the thanksgiving offerings, and all whose heart urged them—burnt offerings. ³²And the number of the burnt offerings that the assembly brought came to seventy bulls, a hundred rams, two hundred sheep, all these for burnt offering to the LORD. ³³And the consecrated gifts—six hundred bulls and three thousand sheep. ³⁴But the priests were too few and could not flay all the burnt offerings, and their brothers the Levites supported them until the task was finished and until the priests had consecrated themselves, for the Levites were more devoted to consecrate themselves than the priests. ³⁵And besides the abundance of burnt offerings there was the suet of the well-being sacrifices and the libations for the burnt offerings. And the service of the house of the LORD was firmly established. ³⁶And Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced that God had established it for the people, for the thing had come about in a trice.