Hezekiah Cleanses the Father's House
In his first month Hezekiah reopens the doors his father shut, and has the Levites carry the filth out of the Holy Place. Offerings, cymbals, harps and trumpets come back, and the service of our Father's house is restored — suddenly, to everyone's joy.
29 1Hezekiah became king at twenty-five, reigning twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother: Abijah, daughter of Zechariah. 2He did right in our Father's eyes, just as his father David had done. 3In his reign's first year, first month, he opened the doors of our Father's house and repaired them. 4He brought in the priests and the Levites and gathered them in the eastern square. 5He told them, "Hear me, Levites! Dedicate yourselves now, and dedicate our Father's house, the God of your fathers, and remove the filth from the Holy Place. 6Our ancestors were unfaithful, doing evil in our Father's eyes; they abandoned him, turned their faces from our Father's dwelling, and turned their backs." 7They also shut the entrance hall doors, extinguished the lamps, and did not burn incense or offer burnt offerings in the sanctuary to our Father, the God of Israel. 8So our Father's anger fell on Judah and Jerusalem, making them an object of terror, horror, and scorn, as you see with your own eyes. 9For our fathers fell by the sword; our sons, daughters, and wives are captive for this. 10Now I intend to make a covenant with our Father, the God of Israel, so his fierce anger turns from us. 11My sons, don't be negligent now — our Father chose you to stand before him, serve him, be his servants, and burn incense.
12The Levites stood: Kohathites—Mahath, Amasai's son, and Joel, Azariah's son; Merarites—Kish, Abdi's son, and Azariah, Jehallelel's son; Gershonites—Joah, Zimmah's son, and Eden, Joah's son; 13of the sons of Elizaphan, Shimri and Jeiel; of the sons of Asaph, Zechariah and Mattaniah; 14of the sons of Heman, Jehiel and Shimei; and of the sons of Jeduthun, Shemaiah and Uzziel. 15They gathered their brothers, made themselves holy, and went to clean our Father's house, as the king commanded by our Father's words. 16The priests entered our Father's inner house to cleanse it, bringing all the impurity they found in our Father's temple out to the courtyard. The Levites carried it out to the Kidron brook. 17They began dedicating the first day of month one; by the eighth day of that month, they reached our Father's entrance hall. They dedicated the house of our Father eight days, finishing the sixteenth day of month one. 18Then they came in to King Hezekiah and said, "We have cleaned all of our Father's house—the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils, and the table of the Bread of the Presence with all its utensils. a a v18 The Bread of the Presence: twelve loaves kept on a special table in the Holy Place as a continual offering before God. 19All the utensils King Ahaz discarded during his unfaithful reign we have prepared and dedicated—they stand before our Father's altar."
Worship Returns to the Father's House
20King Hezekiah rose early, gathered the city's officials, and went up to our Father's house. 21They brought seven bulls, seven rams, seven lambs, seven male goats as a sin offering for the kingdom, sanctuary, and Judah, and he commanded Aaron's sons, the priests, to offer them on our Father's altar. 22They killed the bulls; the priests took the blood and splashed it on the altar. They killed the rams and splashed the blood on the altar, then killed the lambs and splashed the blood on the altar. 23They brought the sin-offering goats before the king and assembly, and laid their hands on them. 24The priests slaughtered them and made a sin offering with their blood on the altar to atone for all Israel, because the king had ordered the burnt offering and sin offering for all Israel.
25He stationed the Levites in our Father's house with cymbals, harps, and lyres, as David, Gad the king's seer, and Nathan the prophet commanded — for the command came from our Father through his prophets. 26The Levites stood with the instruments of David, and the priests with the trumpets. 27Hezekiah ordered the burnt offering on the altar; when it began, the song of our Father began too, with the trumpets and the instruments of David, king of Israel. 28The whole assembly bowed, the singers sang, the trumpeters sounded, until the burnt offering was finished.
29When the offering ended, the king and all present with him bowed and worshiped. 30King Hezekiah and the officials had the Levites praise our Father with words from David and Asaph the seer. They sang for joy, bowed low, and worshiped.
31Then Hezekiah said, "You have now dedicated yourselves to our Father. Come near, bring sacrifices and thank offerings to our Father's house." So the assembly brought sacrifices and thank offerings; all willing hearts brought burnt offerings. 32The assembly brought seventy bulls, one hundred rams, 200 lambs — all as a burnt offering to our Father. 33And the consecrated offerings were 600 bulls and 3,000 sheep. 34The priests were too few to skin all the burnt offerings, so their Levite brothers helped them until the work was done and until the priests made themselves holy; the Levites were more honest in heart to make themselves holy than the priests. 35Besides the many burnt offerings, there was fat from peace offerings and drink offerings for them. So the service of our Father's house was restored. 36Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced over what our Father prepared for them, since it happened suddenly.
