2 Chronicles 29:1–32:33

The Reign of Hezekiah

29Hezekiah became king when he was twenty-five years old,^a and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. And the name of his mother was Abijah the daughter of Zechariah. ²And he did that which was right in the eyes of Yahweh, according to all that David his father had done.

³In the first year of his kingship, in the first month, he opened the doors of the house of Yahweh and strengthened them. ⁴And he brought in the priests and the Levites, and he gathered them into the eastern square. ⁵And he said to them, “Hear me, O Levites! Sanctify yourselves now, and sanctify the house of Yahweh, the God of your ancestors,^b and bring out the defilement from the sanctuary. ⁶For our ancestors^c acted unfaithfully and did evil in the sight of Yahweh our God, and have forsaken him and turned away their faces from the dwelling place of Yahweh. They have turned their backs^d on it. ⁷They also shut the doors of the portico and extinguished the lamps. And they did not burn incense or offer burnt offerings in the sanctuary to the God of Israel. ⁸And the wrath of Yahweh was upon Judah and Jerusalem. And he made them as an abhorrence, as a desolation and an object of scorn, as you see with your own eyes. ⁹Now behold, our fathers have fallen by the sword, and our sons and our daughters and our wives are in captivity on account of this. ¹⁰Now it is in my heart^e to make^f a covenant with Yahweh, the God of Israel, so that his fierce anger might turn away from him. ¹¹Now, my sons, do not be negligent, for Yahweh has chosen you to stand before him to serve him and to be his servants and incense burners.”

¹²Then the Levites arose—Mahath the son of Amasai and Joel the son of Azariah, from the Kohathites; and Kish the son of Abdi and Azariah the son of Jehallelel from the Merarites; and Joah son of Zimmah and Eden son of Joah, from the Gershonites. ¹³And from the descendants^g of Elizaphan: Shimri and Jeiel; and from the descendants^h of Asaph: Zechariah and Mattaniah; ¹⁴and from the descendantsⁱ of Heman: Jeiel and Shimei; and from the descendants^j of Jeduthun: Shemaiah and Uzziel— ¹⁵and they gathered their brothers and sanctified themselves, and they went in according to the command of the king because of the words of Yahweh, to purify the house of Yahweh. ¹⁶And the priests went into the inner part of the house of Yahweh to purify it. And they brought out all the impurity that they found in the temple of Yahweh out to the courtyard of the house of Yahweh. And the Levites took them to bring them outside to the Wadi^k Kidron. ¹⁷And they began to sanctify themselves on the first day of the first month. And on the eighth day of the month they came to the portico of Yahweh. And they sanctified the house of Yahweh for eight days, and on the sixteenth day of the first month they finished. ¹⁸And they went into the inner part to King Hezekiah and said, “We have cleansed all the house of Yahweh: the altar of burnt offering, all its objects, the table of the rows of bread and all its objects, ¹⁹and all the objects that King Ahaz discarded in his reign when he sinned, we have prepared and sanctified. Look, they are before the altar of Yahweh.”

²⁰Then King Hezekiah rose early and gathered the officials of the city, and he went up to the house of Yahweh. ²¹And they brought seven bulls, seven rams, seven lambs, and seven male goats as a purification offering for the kingdom, for the sanctuary, and for Judah. And he commanded the descendants^l of Aaron, the priests, to offer them on the altar of Yahweh. ²²And they slaughtered the cattle, and the priests received the blood and threw it toward the altar. Then they slaughtered the rams and threw the blood toward the altar, and then they slaughtered the lambs and threw the blood toward the altar. ²³Then they brought the goats of the sin offering before the king and the assembly, and they laid hands upon them. ²⁴And the priest killed them and offered their blood against the altar to make atonement for all Israel, for the king had commanded the burnt offering and the sin offering for all Israel.

²⁵And he stood the Levites in the house of Yahweh with cymbals, harps, and lyres, according to the command of David and Gad, the seer of the king, and Nathan the prophet, for the command was by the hand of Yahweh by the hand of his prophets. ²⁶When the Levites stood with the objects of David and the priests with the trumpets, ²⁷Hezekiah commanded to offer the burnt offering upon the altar. And at the time the burnt offering began, the song of Yahweh began, and also the trumpets, at the hands of the instruments of David king of Israel. ²⁸Then all the assembly bowed down, and the song was sung, and the trumpeters trumpeted—all together until the end of the burnt offering. ²⁹And when the offering was finished, the king and all who were found with him knelt down and bowed themselves. ³⁰Then King Hezekiah and the princes commanded the Levites to praise Yahweh with the words of David and Asaph the seer. So they offered praise with joy, and they bowed down and worshiped.

³¹Then Hezekiah answered and said, “Now you have consecrated yourselves^m to Yahweh. Come near and bring sacrifices and thank offerings to the house of Yahweh!” And the assembly brought sacrifices and thank offerings, and all who were willing in heart brought burnt offerings. ³²And the number of burnt offerings that the assembly brought was seventy cattle, one hundred rams, two hundred lambs—all these were to offer to Yahweh. ³³And the consecrated offerings of cattle were six hundred cattle and three thousand sheep. ³⁴But the priests were too few, and they were not able to offer all the burnt offerings, so their brothers, the Levites, strengthened them to finish the work, and until the rest of the priests consecrated themselves. (For the Levites were more conscientiousⁿ to sanctify themselves than the priests.) ³⁵And beside the many burnt offerings was the fat of the peace offerings and the libations for the burnt offerings. So the service of the house of Yahweh was established. ³⁶And Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced over what God had established with the people, for the matter happened suddenly.

Hezekiah Celebrates Passover

30Then Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Judah, and he also wrote letters to Ephraim and Manasseh, to come to the house of Yahweh in Jerusalem to make a Passover feast to Yahweh the God of Israel. ²Now the king and his princes, and all the assembly in Jerusalem had taken counsel to make the Passover feast in the second month—³but they were not able to make it at that time, for the priests had not consecrated themselves in sufficient numbers,^a and the people had not been assembled in Jerusalem—⁴and the plan seemed right in the eyes of the king and in the eyes of all the assembly. ⁵So they let the decree stand, to make a proclamation^b throughout all Israel, from Beersheba to Dan, to come to make a Passover feast to Yahweh the God of Israel in Jerusalem, for they had not kept it as often as prescribed.^{c 6}And the runners went with the letter from the hand of the king and his princes throughout all Israel and Judah according to the command of the king, saying, “O sons of Israel, return to Yahweh, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, that he may turn again to the remnant of you who escaped from the hand of the kings of Assyria. ⁷Do not be like your fathers and like your brothers, who acted unfaithfully before Yahweh, the God of their ancestors,^d so that he made them as a desolation, as you see. ⁸Now, do not stiffen your neck as your fathers,^e but give a hand to Yahweh and come to his sanctuary, which he has consecrated forever, and serve Yahweh your God that his fierce anger may turn away from you. ⁹For when you return to Yahweh, your brothers and your children will find compassion before their captors and return to this land, for Yahweh your God is gracious and compassionate, and he will not turn away his face from you if you return to him.”

¹⁰And it happened that the runners were passing from city to city in the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, and up to Zebulun, but they were laughing at them and mocking them. ¹¹Only men from Asher, Manasseh, and Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem. ¹²The hand of God was also upon Judah, to give them one heart to obey the command of the king and the princes concerning the word of Yahweh.

¹³So many people gathered in Jerusalem to hold the Feast of Unleavened Bread in the second month; it was a very great assembly. ¹⁴And they rose up and removed the altars that were in Jerusalem. And they removed all the incense altars and threw them away in the Wadi^f Kidron. ¹⁵And they slaughtered the Passover lamb on the fourteenth day of the second month. And the priests and the Levites were disgraced, so they consecrated themselves and brought burnt offerings into the house of Yahweh. ¹⁶Then they stood at their positions according to custom, according to the law of Moses the man of God. The priests were sprinkling the blood from the hand of the Levites. ¹⁷For there were many in the assembly who did not consecrate themselves, so the Levites were over the killing of the Passover sacrifices for all who were not clean, to consecrate them to Yahweh. ¹⁸For a majority of the people, many from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun, had not cleansed themselves. But they ate the Passover sacrifice otherwise than prescribed,^g but Hezekiah had prayed for them, saying, “May the good Yahweh make atonement unto ¹⁹everyone whose heart is set to seek God, Yahweh the God of his ancestors,^h though not according to the cleansing for the sanctuary.” ²⁰And Yahweh listened to Hezekiah, and he healed the people. ²¹And the Israelitesⁱ who were found in Jerusalem kept the Feast of Unleavened Bread seven days with great joy. And the Levites and the priests were offering praise to Yahweh day by day, with powerful instruments to Yahweh. ²²And Hezekiah spoke to…