2 Chronicles 29:5–15

⁵and said to them, “Hear me, Levites! Now ^mconsecrate yourselves, and consecrate the house of the Lord, the God of your fathers, and carry out the filth² from the Holy Place. ⁶For our fathers have been unfaithful and have done what was evil in the sight of the Lord our God. They have forsaken him and ⁿhave turned away their faces from the habitation of the Lord and turned their backs. ⁷They also ^oshut the doors of the vestibule and put out the lamps and have not burned incense or offered burnt offerings in the Holy Place to the God of Israel. ⁸Therefore ^pthe wrath of the Lord came on Judah and Jerusalem, and he has made them ^qan object of horror, of astonishment, ^rand of hissing, as you see with your own eyes. ⁹For behold, ^sour fathers have fallen by the sword, and our sons and our daughters and our wives are in captivity for this. ¹⁰Now ^tit is in my heart ^uto make a covenant with the Lord, the God of Israel, in order that his fierce anger may turn away from us. ¹¹My sons, do not now be negligent, ^vfor the Lord has chosen you to stand in his presence, to minister to him and to be his ministers and make offerings to him.”

¹²Then the Levites arose, ^wMahath the son of Amasai, and Joel the son of Azariah, of the sons of ^xthe Kohathites; and of the sons of ^xMerari, Kish the son of Abdi, and Azariah the son of Jehallelel; and of the ^xGershonites, Joah the son of Zimmah, and Eden the son of Joah; ¹³and of the sons of ^yElizaphan, Shimri and Jeuel; and of the sons of ^zAsaph, Zechariah and Mattaniah; ¹⁴and of the sons of ^aHeman, Jehuel and Shimei; and of the sons of ^bJeduthun, Shemaiah and Uzziel. ¹⁵They gathered their brothers and ^cconsecrated themselves and went in as the king had commanded, ^dby the words of the Lord, ^eto cleanse the house of the Lord.