2 Chronicles 29–32

Chapter 29

¹Hezekiah began to reign being twenty-five years old; and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Abijah, daughter of Zechariah. ²And he did what was right in the sight of Jehovah, according to all that David his father had done. ³He, in the first year of his reign, in the first month, opened the doors of the house of Jehovah, and repaired them. ⁴And he brought in the priests and the Levites, and gathered them into the open place eastward; ⁵and he said to them, Hear me, ye Levites: hallow yourselves now, and hallow the house of Jehovah the God of your fathers, and carry forth the filthiness out of the sanctuary. ⁶For our fathers have transgressed, and done evil in the sight of Jehovah our God, and have forsaken him and turned away their faces from the habitation of Jehovah, and have turned their backs. ⁷Also they have shut up the doors of the porch, and put out the lamps, and have not burned incense nor offered up burnt-offerings in the sanctuary to the God of Israel. ⁸Therefore the wrath of Jehovah has been upon Judah and Jerusalem, and he has delivered them to vexation, to desolation, and to hissing, as ye see with your eyes. ⁹And 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 Jehovah the God of Israel, that his fierce anger may turn away from us. ¹¹My sons, be not now negligent; for Jehovah has chosen you to stand before him, to do service unto him, and to be his ministers and incense-burners.

¹²Then the Levites rose up, Mahath the son of Amasai, and Joel the son of Azariah, of the sons of the Kohathites; and of the sons of Merari, Kish the son of Abdi, and Azariah the son of Jehalleleel; and of the Gershonites, 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 hallowed themselves, and came, according to the commandment of the king by the words of Jehovah, to cleanse the house of Jehovah. ¹⁶And the priests went into the inner part of the house of Jehovah to cleanse it, and carried forth all the uncleanness that they found in the temple of Jehovah, into the court of the house of Jehovah. And the Levites took it to carry it forth into the brook Kidron. ¹⁷And they began on the first of the first month to hallow, and on the eighth day of the month they came to the porch of Jehovah; and they hallowed the house of Jehovah eight days; and on the sixteenth day of the first month they made an end. ¹⁸And they went in to king Hezekiah, and said, We have cleansed all the house of Jehovah, and the altar of burnt-offering with all its vessels, and the table of the bread to be set in rows, and all its vessels; ¹⁹and all the vessels that king Ahaz in his reign cast away in his transgression have we prepared and hallowed, and behold, they are before the altar of Jehovah.

²⁰And Hezekiah the king arose early, and gathered the princes of the city, and went up to the house of Jehovah. ²¹And they brought seven bullocks, and seven rams, and seven lambs, and seven he-goats for a sin-offering for the kingdom, and for the sanctuary, and for Judah. And he commanded the priests the sons of Aaron to offer them upon the altar of Jehovah. ²²And they slaughtered the bullocks, and the priests received the blood, and sprinkled it on the altar; and they slaughtered the rams, and sprinkled the blood on the altar; and they slaughtered the lambs, and sprinkled the blood on the altar. ²³And they brought near the he-goats of the sin-offering before the king and the congregation; and they laid their hands upon them. ²⁴And the priests slaughtered them, and they made purification for sin with their blood upon the altar, to make an atonement for all Israel; because for all Israel, said the king, is the burnt-offering and the sin-offering. ²⁵And he set the Levites in the house of Jehovah with cymbals, with lutes, and with harps, according to the commandment of David, and of Gad the king’s seer, and of Nathan the prophet; for the commandment was of Jehovah through his prophets. ²⁶And the Levites stood with the instruments of David, and the priests with the trumpets. ²⁷And Hezekiah commanded to offer up the burnt-offering on the altar. And at the moment the burnt-offering began, the song of Jehovah began, and the trumpets, accompanied by the instruments of David king of Israel. ²⁸And all the congregation worshipped, and the singers sang, and the trumpeters sounded, all the time until the burnt-offering was finished. ²⁹And when they had ended offering the burnt-offering, the king and all that were present with him bowed themselves and worshipped. ³⁰And king Hezekiah and the princes commanded the Levites to sing praise to Jehovah with the words of David, and of Asaph the seer. And they sang praises with gladness, and bowed their heads and worshipped. ³¹And Hezekiah answered and said, Now ye have consecrated yourselves to Jehovah, come near and bring sacrifices and thank-offerings into the house of the Lord. And the congregation brought in sacrifices and thank-offerings; and as many as were of a willing heart, burnt-offerings. ³²And the number of the burnt-offerings, which the congregation brought, was seventy bullocks, a hundred rams, two hundred lambs: all these were for a burnt-offering to Jehovah. ³³And the consecrated things were six hundred oxen and three thousand sheep. ³⁴Only the priests were too few, and they could not flay all the burnt-offerings; therefore their brethren the Levites helped them, until the work was ended, and until the priests had hallowed themselves; for the Levites were more upright in heart to hallow themselves than the priests. ³⁵And also the burnt-offerings were in abundance, with the fat of the peace-offerings, and with the drink-offerings for the burnt-offering. And the service of the house of Jehovah was set in order. ³⁶And Hezekiah rejoiced, and all the people, that God had prepared the people; for the thing was done suddenly.

Chapter 30

¹And Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Judah, and wrote letters also to Ephraim and Manasseh, that they should come to the house of Jehovah at Jerusalem, to hold the passover to Jehovah the God of Israel. ²And the king took counsel, and his princes, and the whole congregation in Jerusalem, to hold the passover in the second month. ³For they could not keep it at that time, because the priests had not hallowed themselves in sufficient number, neither had the people been gathered together to Jerusalem. ⁴And the thing pleased the king and the whole congregation. ⁵So they established a decree to make proclamation throughout Israel from Beer-sheba even to Dan, that they should come to hold the passover to Jehovah the God of Israel, at Jerusalem; because they had not held it for a long time as it was written. ⁶And the couriers went with the letters from the king and his princes throughout Israel and Judah, and according to the commandment of the king, saying, Ye children of Israel, return to Jehovah the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, and he will return to the remnant of you that are escaped out of the hand of the kings of Assyria. ⁷And be not like your fathers and like your brethren, who transgressed against Jehovah the God of their fathers, so that he gave them up to desolation, as ye see. ⁸Now, harden not your necks, as your fathers; yield yourselves to Jehovah, and come to his sanctuary, which he has sanctified for ever; and serve Jehovah your God, that the fierceness of his anger may turn away from you. ⁹For if ye return to Jehovah, your brethren and your children shall find compassion with those that have carried them captive, so that they shall come again unto this land; for Jehovah your God is gracious and merciful, and will not turn away his face from you, if ye return to him. ¹⁰And the couriers passed from city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh, even to Zebulun; but they laughed them to scorn and mocked them. ¹¹Nevertheless certain of Asher and Manasseh and of Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem. ¹²The hand of God was also upon Judah to give them one heart to do the commandment of the king and of the princes, by the word of Jehovah.

¹³And there assembled at Jerusalem much people to hold the feast of unleavened bread in the second month, a very great congregation. ¹⁴And they rose up and took away the altars that were in Jerusalem; and they took away all the incense-altars, and cast them into the torrent Kidron. ¹⁵And they slaughtered the passover on the fourteenth of the second month; and the priests and the Levites were ashamed, and hallowed themselves; and they brought the burnt-offerings into the house of Jehovah. ¹⁶And they stood in their place after their custom, according to the law of Moses the man of God: the priests sprinkled the blood receiving it from the hand of the Levites. ¹⁷For there were many in the congregation that were not hallowed; therefore the Levites had the charge of the slaughtering of the passover-lambs for every one not clean, to hallow them unto Jehovah. ¹⁸For a multitude of the people, many of Ephraim and Manasseh, Issachar and Zebulun, had not cleansed themselves, and they ate the passover otherwise than it was written. But Hezekiah prayed for them saying, Jehovah, who is good, forgive every one ¹⁹that has directed his heart to seek God, Jehovah the God of his fathers, although not according to the purification of the sanctuary. ²⁰And Jehovah hearkened to Hezekiah, and healed the people.

²¹And the children of Israel, that were present at Jerusalem, held the feast of unleavened bread seven days with great gladness; and the Levites and the priests praised Jehovah day by day, with…