2 Chronicles 29
29
1 And so Hezekiah began to reign when he was twenty-five years old. And he reigned for twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. The name of his mother was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah.
2 And he did what was pleasing in the sight of the Lord, in accord with all that his father David had done.
3 In the first year and month of his reign, he opened the double doors of the house of the Lord, and he repaired them.
4 And he brought together the priests and Levites. And he gathered them in the wide eastern street.
5 And he said to them: "Listen to me, O Levites, and be sanctified. Cleanse the house of the Lord, the God of your fathers, and take away every uncleanness from the sanctuary.
6 Our fathers sinned and did evil in the sight of the Lord our God, abandoning him. They turned their faces away from the tabernacle of the Lord, and they presented their backs.
7 They closed up the doors which were in the portico, and they extinguished the lamps. And they did not burn incense, and they did not offer holocausts, in the sanctuary of the God of Israel.
8 And so the fury of the Lord was stirred up against Judah and Jerusalem, and he handed them over to turmoil, and to destruction, and to hissing, just as you discern with your own eyes.
9 Lo, our fathers have fallen by the sword. Our sons, and our daughters and wives have been led away as captives because of this wickedness.
10 Now therefore, it is pleasing to me that we should enter into a covenant with the Lord, the God of Israel. And he will turn away the fury of his indignation from us.
11 My sons, do not choose to be negligent. The Lord has chosen you so that you would stand before him, and minister to him, and worship him, and burn incense to him."
12 Therefore, the Levites rose up, Mahath, the son of Amasai, and Joel, the son of Azariah, from the sons of Kohath; then, from the sons of Merari, Kish, the son of Abdi, and Azariah, the son of Jehallelel; and from the sons of Gershon, Joah, the son of Zimmah, and Eden, the son of Joah;
13 and truly, from the sons of Elizaphan, Shimri and Jeuel; also, from the sons of Asaph, Zechariah and Mattaniah;
14 indeed also, from the sons of Heman, Jehuel and Shimei; then too, from the sons of Jeduthun, Shemaiah and Uzziel.
15 And they gathered together their brothers. And they were sanctified. And they entered in accord with the command of the king and the order of the Lord, so that they might expiate the house of God.
16 And the priests, entering the temple of the Lord so that they might sanctify it, took every uncleanness, which they had found inside, out to the vestibule of the house of the Lord; and the Levites took it away and transported it outside, to the torrent Kidron.
17 Now they began to cleanse on the first day of the first month. And on the eighth day of the same month, they entered the portico of the temple of the Lord. And then they expiated the temple over eight days. And on the sixteenth day of the same month, they finished what they had begun.
18 Also, they entered to king Hezekiah, and they said to him: "We have sanctified the entire house of the Lord, and the altar of holocaust, and its vessels, indeed also the table of the presence, with all its vessels,
19 and all the equipment of the temple, which king Ahaz, during his reign, had polluted after his transgression. And behold, these have all been set forth before the altar of the Lord."
20 And rising up at first light, king Hezekiah joined as one all the leaders of the city, and they ascended to the house of the Lord.
21 And together they offered seven bulls and seven rams, seven lambs and seven he-goats, for sin, for the kingdom, for the Sanctuary, for Judah. And he spoke to the priests, the sons of Aaron, so that they would offer these upon the altar of the Lord.
22 And so they slaughtered the bulls. And the priests took up the blood, and they poured it upon the altar. Then they also slaughtered the rams, and they poured their blood upon the altar. And they immolated the lambs, and they poured the blood upon the altar.
23 They brought the he-goats for sin before the king and the entire multitude. And they laid their hands upon them.
24 And the priests immolated them, and they sprinkled their blood before the altar, for the expiation of all Israel. For certainly the king had instructed that the holocaust and the sin offering should be made on behalf of all Israel.
25 Also, he situated the Levites in the house of the Lord, with cymbals, and psalteries, and harps, according to the disposition of king David, and of the seer Gad, and of the prophet Nathan. For indeed, this was the precept of the Lord, by the hand of his prophets.
26 And the Levites stood, holding the musical instruments of David, and the priests held the trumpets.
27 And Hezekiah ordered that they should offer holocausts upon the altar. And when the holocausts were being offered, they began to sing praises to the Lord, and to sound the trumpets, and to play various musical instruments, which David, the king of Israel, had prepared.
28 Then the entire crowd was adoring, and the singers and those who were holding the trumpeters were exercising their office, until the holocaust was completed.
29 And when the oblation was finished, the king, and all who were with him, bowed down and adored.
30 And Hezekiah and the rulers instructed the Levites to praise the Lord with the words of David, and of Asaph, the seer. And they praised him with great joy, and kneeling down, they adored.
31 And now Hezekiah also added: "You have filled your hands for the Lord. Draw near, and offer victims and praises in the house of the Lord." Therefore, the entire multitude offered victims and praises and holocausts, with devout intention.
32 Now the number of the holocausts that the multitude offered was seventy bulls, one hundred rams, two hundred lambs.
33 And they sanctified to the Lord six hundred oxen and three thousand sheep.
34 Truly, the priests were few; neither were they sufficient to remove the pelts from the holocausts. Therefore, the Levites, their brothers, also assisted them, until the work was completed, and the priests, who were of higher rank, were sanctified. For indeed, the Levites are sanctified with an easier ritual than the priests.
35 Thus, there were very numerous holocausts, with the fat of the peace offerings and the libations of the holocausts. And the service of the house of the Lord was completed.
36 And Hezekiah and all the people were joyful because the ministry of the Lord was accomplished. For certainly, it had pleased them to do this suddenly.
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2 Chronicles 29: CPDV
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2 Chronicles 29
29
King Hezekiah and the Assyrian invasion
King Hezekiah of Judah
(2 Kings 18.1-3)
1Hezekiah was twenty-five years old when he became king of Judah, and he ruled twenty-nine years from Jerusalem. His mother was Abijah daughter of Zechariah. 2Hezekiah obeyed the LORD by doing right, just as his ancestor David had done.
The temple is purified
3In the first month#29.3 first month: Abib (also called Nisan), the first month of the Hebrew calendar, from about mid-March to mid-April. of the first year of Hezekiah's rule, he unlocked the doors to the LORD's temple and had them repaired.#29.3 he unlocked the doors…repaired: King Ahaz had locked the doors and stopped everyone from worshipping the LORD (see 28.24,25). 4Then he called the priests and Levites to the east courtyard of the temple 5and said:
It's time to purify the temple of the LORD God of our ancestors. You Levites must first go through the ceremony to make yourselves clean, then go into the temple and bring out everything that is unclean and unacceptable to the LORD. 6Some of our ancestors were unfaithful and disobeyed the LORD our God. Not only did they turn their backs on the LORD, but they also completely ignored his temple. 7They locked the doors, then let the lamps go out and stopped burning incense and offering sacrifices to him. 8The LORD became terribly angry with the people of Judah and Jerusalem, and everyone was shocked and horrified at what he did to punish them. Not only were 9our ancestors killed in battle, but our own children and wives were taken captive.
10So I have decided to renew our agreement with the LORD God of Israel. Perhaps then he will stop being so angry with us. 11Let's not waste any time, my friends. You are the ones who were chosen to be the LORD's priests and to offer him sacrifices.
12-14When Hezekiah finished talking, the following Levite leaders went to work:
Mahath son of Amasai and Joel son of Azariah from the Kohath clan; Kish son of Abdi and Azariah son of Jehallelel from the Merari clan; Joah son of Zimmah and Eden son of Joah from the Gershon clan; Shimri and Jeuel from the Elizaphan clan; Zechariah and Mattaniah from the Asaph clan; Jehuel and Shimei from the Heman clan; Shemaiah and Uzziel from the Jeduthun clan.
15These leaders gathered together the rest of the Levites, and they all went through the ceremony to make themselves clean. Then they began to purify the temple according to the Law of the LORD, just as Hezekiah had commanded.
16The priests went into the temple and carried out everything that was unclean. They put these things in the courtyard, and from there, the Levites carried them outside the city to Kidron Valley.
17The priests and Levites began their work on the first day of the first month.#29.17 first month: See the note at 29.3. It took them one week to purify the courtyards of the temple and another week to purify the temple. So on the sixteenth day of that same month 18they went back to Hezekiah and said:
Your Majesty, we have finished our work. The entire temple is now pure again, and so is the altar and its utensils, as well as the table for the sacred loaves of bread and its utensils. 19And we have brought back all the things that King Ahaz took from the temple during the time he was unfaithful to God. We purified them and put them back in front of the altar.
Worship in the temple
20Straight away, Hezekiah called together the officials of Jerusalem, and they went to the temple. 21They brought with them seven bulls, seven rams, seven lambs, and seven goats#29.21 goats: Hebrew “male goats”. as sacrifices to take away the sins of Hezekiah's family and of the people of Judah, as well as to purify the temple. Hezekiah told the priests, who were descendants of Aaron, to sacrifice these animals on the altar.
22The priests killed the bulls, the rams, and the lambs, then splattered the blood on the altar. 23They took the goats to Hezekiah and the worshippers, and they laid their hands on the animals. 24The priests then killed the goats and splattered the blood on the altar as a sacrifice to take away the sins of everyone in Israel, because Hezekiah had commanded that these sacrifices be made for all the people of Israel.
25Next, Hezekiah assigned the Levites to their places in the temple. He gave them cymbals, harps, and other stringed instruments, according to the instructions that the LORD had given King David and the two prophets, Gad and Nathan. 26The Levites were ready to play the instruments that had belonged to David; the priests were ready to blow the trumpets.
27As soon as Hezekiah gave the signal for the sacrifices to be burnt on the altar, the musicians began singing praises to the LORD and playing their instruments, 28and everyone worshipped the LORD. This continued until the last animal was sacrificed.
29After that, Hezekiah and the crowd of worshippers knelt down and worshipped the LORD. 30Then Hezekiah and his officials ordered the Levites to sing the songs of praise that David and Asaph the prophet had written. And so they bowed down and joyfully sang praises to the LORD.
31Hezekiah said to the crowd, “Now that you are once again acceptable to the LORD, bring sacrifices and offerings to give him thanks.”
The people did this, and some of them voluntarily brought animals to be offered as sacrifices. 32Seventy bulls, one hundred rams, and two hundred lambs were brought as sacrifices to please the LORD;#29.32 sacrifices to please the LORD: See the note at 1.6. 33six hundred bulls and three thousand sheep were brought as sacrifices to ask the LORD's blessing.#29.33 sacrifices to ask the LORD's blessing: These sacrifices have traditionally been called “peace offerings” or “offerings of well-being”. A main purpose was to ask for the LORD's blessing, and so in the CEV they are sometimes called “sacrifices to ask the LORD's blessing”. 34There were not enough priests to skin all these animals, because many of the priests had not taken the time to go through the ceremony to make themselves clean. However, since all the Levites had made themselves clean, they helped the priests until the last animal was skinned. 35Besides all the sacrifices that were burnt on the altar, the fat from the other animal sacrifices was burnt, and the offerings of wine were poured over the altar.
So the temple was once again used for worshipping the LORD. 36Hezekiah and the people of Judah celebrated, because God had helped them make this happen so quickly.
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© British and Foreign Bible Society 2012