2 Chronicles 29:3-19 - Hezekiah Cleanses The Temple

³ In the first month of his first year as king, he opened the doors of Jehovah's temple and repaired them. ⁴ He assembled the priests and Levites in the square on the east side of the temple. ⁵ He said: Listen to me, Levites. Perform the ceremonies to make the temple of Jehovah the God of your ancestors holy. Remove anything that has been corrupted from the holy place. ⁶ Our ancestors were unfaithful and did what Jehovah our God considered evil. They deserted him. They turned away from Jehovah's tent and turned their backs on him. ⁷ They also shut the doors of the temple's entrance hall. They extinguished the lamps, and did not burn incense or sacrifice burnt offerings in the holy place to the God of Israel. ⁸ Jehovah was angry with Judah and Jerusalem. He made them something that shocks and terrifies people and that people ridicule, as you can see with your own eyes. ⁹ Our fathers were killed in battle. Our sons, daughters, and wives are prisoners because of this. ¹⁰ Now I intend to make a pledge to Jehovah the God of Israel so that he may turn his burning anger away from us. ¹¹ Do not be negligent, my sons. Jehovah has chosen you to stand in front of him, serve him, be his servants, and burn sacrifices.

¹² So the Levites started to work. From Kohath's descendants were Mahath, son of Amasai, and Joel, son of Azariah. From Merari's descendants were Kish, son of Abdi, and Azariah, son of Jehallelel. From Gershon's descendants were Joah, son of Zimmah, and Eden, son of Joah. ¹³ From Elizaphan's descendants were Shimri and Jeiel. From Asaph's descendants were Zechariah and Mattaniah. ¹⁴ From Heman's descendants were Jehiel and Shimei. From Jeduthun's descendants were Shemaiah and Uzziel.

¹⁵ These men gathered their relatives and performed the ceremonies to make themselves holy. They obeyed the king's order from Jehovah's word and entered the Temple to make it clean.

¹⁶ The priests entered Jehovah's temple to make it clean. They carried into the courtyard every unclean thing that they found in Jehovah's Temple. Then the Levites took the unclean items outside the city to the Kidron Brook. ¹⁷ They started on the first day of the first month. On the eighth day they went into Jehovah's entrance hall. For eight days they performed the ceremonies to make Jehovah's Temple holy. They finished on the sixteenth day of the first month.

¹⁸ Then they went to King Hezekiah. They said: We have made Jehovah's entire temple clean. This includes the altar for burnt offerings, all its utensils, the table for the rows of bread and all its utensils, ¹⁹ and all the utensils King Ahaz refused to use during his reign when he was unfaithful. We have restored them and made them holy. They are in front of Jehovah's altar.