⁵and spoke to them there. He said, “You Levites are to consecrate yourselves and purify the Temple of the Lord, the God of your ancestors. Remove from the Temple everything that defiles it. ⁶Our ancestors were unfaithful to the Lord our God and did what was displeasing to him. They abandoned him and turned their backs on the place where he dwells. ⁷They closed the doors of the Temple, let the lamps go out, and failed to burn incense or offer burnt offerings in the Temple of the God of Israel. ⁸Because of this the Lord has been angry with Judah and Jerusalem, and what he has done to them has shocked and frightened everyone. You know this very well. ⁹Our fathers were killed in battle, and our wives and children have been taken away as prisoners.

¹⁰“I have now decided to make a covenant with the Lord, the God of Israel, so that he will no longer be angry with us. ¹¹My sons, do not lose any time. You are the ones that the Lord has chosen to burn incense to him and to lead the people in worshipping him.”

^12–14The following Levites were there:

From the clan of Kohath, Mahath son of Amasai and Joel son of Azariah

From the clan of Merari, Kish son of Abdi and Azariah son of Jehallelel

From the clan of Gershon, Joah son of Zimnah and Eden son of Joah

From the clan of Elizaphan, Shimri and Jeuel

From the clan of Asaph, Zechariah and Mattaniah

From the clan of Heman, Jehuel and Shimei

From the clan of Jeduthun, Shemaiah and Uzziel

¹⁵These men assembled their fellow-Levites, and they all made themselves ritually clean. Then, as the king had commanded them to do, they began to make the Temple ritually clean, according to the Law of the Lord.^q

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Footnotes

qThen, as the king … Lord; or Then they began to make the Temple ritually clean, as the king, who was acting at the Lord’s command, had ordered them to do.