2 Chronicles 29
29
King Hezekiah
1-2Hezekiah became king when he was twenty-five years old and was king in Jerusalem for twenty-nine years. His mother was Abijah daughter of Zechariah. In God’s opinion he was a good king; he kept to the standards of his ancestor David.
3-9In the first month of the first year of his reign, Hezekiah, having first repaired the doors of The Temple of God, threw them open to the public. He assembled the priests and Levites in the court on the east side and said, “Levites, listen! Consecrate yourselves and consecrate The Temple of God—give this much-defiled place a good housecleaning. Our ancestors went wrong and lived badly before God—they discarded him, turned away from this house where we meet with God, and walked off. They boarded up the doors, turned out the lights, and canceled all the acts of worship of the God of Israel in the holy Temple. And because of that, God’s anger flared up and he turned those people into a public exhibit of disaster, a moral history lesson—look and read! This is why our ancestors were killed, and this is why our wives and sons and daughters were taken prisoner and made slaves.
10-11“I have decided to make a covenant with the God of Israel and turn history around so that God will no longer be angry with us. Children, don’t drag your feet in this! God has chosen you to take your place before him to serve in conducting and leading worship—this is your life work; make sure you do it and do it well.”
12-17The Levites stood at attention: Mahath son of Amasai and Joel son of Azariah from the Kohathites; Kish son of Abdi and Azariah son of Jehallelel from the Merarites; Joah son of Zimmah and Eden son of Joah from the Gershonites; Shimri and Jeiel sons of Elizaphan; Zechariah and Mattaniah sons of Asaph; Jehiel and Shimei of the family of Heman; Shemaiah and Uzziel of the family of Jeduthun. They presented themselves and their brothers, consecrated themselves, and set to work cleaning up The Temple of God as the king had directed—as God directed! The priests started from the inside and worked out; they emptied the place of the accumulation of defiling junk—pagan rubbish that had no business in that holy place—and the Levites hauled it off to the Kidron Valley. They began the Temple cleaning on the first day of the first month and by the eighth day they had worked their way out to the porch—eight days it took them to clean and consecrate The Temple itself, and in eight more days they had finished with the entire Temple complex.
18-19Then they reported to Hezekiah the king, “We have cleaned up the entire Temple of God, including the Altar of Whole-Burnt-Offering and the Table of the Bread of the Presence with their furnishings. We have also cleaned up and consecrated all the vessels which King Ahaz had gotten rid of during his misrule. Take a look; we have repaired them. They’re all there in front of the Altar of God.”
20-24Then Hezekiah the king went to work: He got all the leaders of the city together and marched to The Temple of God. They brought with them seven bulls, seven rams, seven lambs, and seven he-goats to sacrifice as an Absolution-Offering for the royal family, for the Sanctuary, and for Judah as a whole; he directed the Aaronite priests to sacrifice them on the Altar of God. The priests butchered the bulls and then took the blood and sprinkled it on the Altar, and then the same with the rams and lambs. Finally they brought the goats up; the king and congregation laid their hands upon them. The priests butchered them and made an Absolution-Offering with their blood at the Altar to atone for the sin of all Israel—the king had ordered that the Whole-Burnt-Offering and the Absolution-Offering be for all Israel.
25-26The king ordered the Levites to take their places in The Temple of God with their musical instruments—cymbals, harps, zithers—following the original instructions of David, Gad the king’s seer, and Nathan the prophet; this was God’s command conveyed by his prophets. The Levites formed the orchestra of David, while the priests took up the trumpets.
27-30Then Hezekiah gave the signal to begin: The Whole-Burnt-Offering was offered on the Altar; at the same time the sacred choir began singing, backed up by the trumpets and the David orchestra while the entire congregation worshiped. The singers sang and the trumpeters played all during the sacrifice of the Whole-Burnt-Offering. When the offering of the sacrifice was completed, the king and everyone there knelt to the ground and worshiped. Then Hezekiah the king and the leaders told the Levites to finish things off with anthems of praise to God using lyrics by David and Asaph the seer. They sang their praises with joy and reverence, kneeling in worship.
31-35Hezekiah then made this response: “The dedication is complete—you’re consecrated to God. Now you’re ready: Come forward and bring your sacrifices and Thank-Offerings to The Temple of God.”
And come they did. Everyone in the congregation brought sacrifices and Thank-Offerings and some, overflowing with generosity, even brought Whole-Burnt-Offerings, a generosity expressed in seventy bulls, a hundred rams, and two hundred lambs—all for Whole-Burnt-Offerings for God! The total number of animals consecrated for sacrifice that day amounted to six hundred bulls and three thousand sheep. They ran out of priests qualified to slaughter all the Whole-Burnt-Offerings so their brother Levites stepped in and helped out while other priests consecrated themselves for the work. It turned out that the Levites had been more responsible in making sure they were properly consecrated than the priests had been. Besides the overflow of Whole-Burnt-Offerings there were also choice pieces for the Peace-Offerings and lavish libations that went with the Whole-Burnt-Offerings. The worship in The Temple of God was on a firm footing again!
36Hezekiah and the congregation celebrated: God had established a firm foundation for the lives of the people—and so quickly!
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THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.
2 Chronicles 29
29
2 Chronicles 29
1¶ Hezekiah began to reign when he was twenty-five years old, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah.
2And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that David, his father, had done.
3In the first year of his reign, in the first month, he opened the doors of the house of the Lord and repaired them.
4And he brought in the priests and the Levites and gathered them together into the east plaza
5and said unto them, Hear me, ye Levites, sanctify now yourselves, and ye shall sanctify the house of the Lord God of your fathers and carry forth the filthiness out of the sanctuary.
6For our fathers have rebelled and done that which was evil in the eyes of the Lord our God, for they have forsaken him, and have turned away their faces from the habitation of the Lord and turned their backs.
7They even shut up the doors of the porch and put out the lamps and have not burned incense nor offered burnt offerings in the sanctuary unto the God of Israel.
8Therefore, the wrath of the Lord has come upon Judah and Jerusalem, and he has delivered them to trouble, to astonishment, and to hissing, as ye see with your eyes.
9For, behold, our fathers have fallen by the sword, and our sons and our daughters and our wives are in captivity for this.
10Now it is in my heart to make a covenant with the Lord God of Israel that his fierce wrath may turn away from us.
11My sons, do not deceive yourselves, for the Lord has chosen you to stand before him, to serve him, and that ye should be his ministers and burn incense unto him.
12¶ Then the Levites arose, Mahath, the son of Amasai, and Joel, the son of Azariah, of the sons of Kohath; and of the sons of Merari, Kish, the son of Abdi, and Azariah, the son of Jehalelel; and of the sons of Gershon; Joah, the son of Zimmah, and Eden, the 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 brethren and sanctified themselves and entered in, according to the commandment of the king, by the words of the Lord, to cleanse the house of the Lord.
16And the priests went into the inner part of the house of the Lord, to cleanse it, and brought out all the uncleanness that they found in the temple of the Lord into the court of the house of the Lord. And the Levites took it, to carry it out abroad into the Brook Kidron.
17Now they began to sanctify on the first day of the first month, and on the eighth day of the month they came to the porch of the Lord; and they sanctified the house of the Lord in eight days; and in the sixteenth day of the first month they finished.
18Then they went in to Hezekiah, the king, and said, We have cleansed all the house of the Lord and the altar of burnt offering, with all its vessels, and the showbread table with all its vessels.
19Likewise we have prepared and sanctified all the vessels, which King Ahaz in his reign cast away in his transgression, and, behold, they are before the altar of the Lord.
20¶ Then Hezekiah, the king, rose early and gathered the rulers of the city and went up to the house of the Lord.
21And they offered seven bullocks and seven rams and seven lambs and seven he goats, for the sin of the kingdom and of the sanctuary and of Judah. And he commanded the priests, the sons of Aaron, to offer them on the altar of the Lord.
22So they killed the bullocks, and the priests received the blood and sprinkled it on the altar; likewise, when they had killed the rams, they sprinkled the blood upon the altar; they also killed the lambs, and they sprinkled the blood upon the altar.
23And they brought forth the he goats of the sin before the king and the congregation, and they laid their hands upon them;
24and the priests killed them, and they removed the sin with their blood upon the altar, to reconcile all Israel, for the king commanded that the burnt offering and the atonement for sin should be offered for all Israel.
25And he set the Levites in the house of the Lord with cymbals, with psalteries, and with harps, according to the commandment of David, and of Gad, the king’s seer, and of Nathan, the prophet, for that commandment was by the hand of the Lord, by the hand of his prophets.
26And the Levites stood with the instruments of David, and the priests with the trumpets.
27 Then Hezekiah commanded to offer the burnt offering upon the altar. And when the burnt offering began, the song of the Lord began also with the trumpets and with the instruments of David, king of Israel.
28And all the congregation worshipped, and the singers sang, and the trumpets sounded; and all this continued until the burnt offering was finished.
29And when they had finished offering, the king and all that were present with him bowed themselves and worshipped.
30Moreover, Hezekiah, the king, and the princes commanded the Levites to sing praise unto the Lord with the words of David and of Asaph, the seer. And they sang praises with gladness, and they bowed down and worshipped.
31Then Hezekiah answered and said, Now ye have consecrated yourselves unto the Lord, come near and bring sacrifices and praises in the house of the Lord. And the congregation brought in sacrifices and praises, and as many as were of a free heart burnt offerings.
32And the number of the burnt offerings, which the congregation brought, was seventy bullocks, one hundred rams, and two hundred lambs; all these were for the burnt offering of the Lord.
33And the consecrated things were six hundred oxen and three thousand sheep.
34But the priests were too few so that they could not flay all the burnt offerings; therefore, their brethren, the Levites, helped them until the work was ended and until the other priests had sanctified themselves, for the Levites were more upright in heart to sanctify themselves than the priests.
35And also the burnt offerings were in abundance, with the fat of the peace offerings and the drink offerings for every burnt offering. So the service of the house of the Lord was set in order.
36And Hezekiah rejoiced, and all the people, that God had prepared the people, for the thing was done suddenly.
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