18. they went back to Hezekiah and said:Your Majesty, we have finished our work. The entire temple is now pure again, and so is the altar and its utensils, as well as the table for the sacred loaves of bread and its utensils.
19. And we have brought back all the things that King Ahaz took from the temple during the time he was unfaithful to God. We purified them and put them back in front of the altar.
20. Straight away, Hezekiah called together the officials of Jerusalem, and they went to the temple.
21. They brought with them seven bulls, seven rams, seven lambs, and seven goats as sacrifices to take away the sins of Hezekiah's family and of the people of Judah, as well as to purify the temple. Hezekiah told the priests, who were descendants of Aaron, to sacrifice these animals on the altar.
22. The priests killed the bulls, the rams, and the lambs, then splattered the blood on the altar.
23. They took the goats to Hezekiah and the worshippers, and they laid their hands on the animals.
24. The priests then killed the goats and splattered the blood on the altar as a sacrifice to take away the sins of everyone in Israel, because Hezekiah had commanded that these sacrifices be made for all the people of Israel.
25. Next, Hezekiah assigned the Levites to their places in the temple. He gave them cymbals, harps, and other stringed instruments, according to the instructions that the Lord had given King David and the two prophets, Gad and Nathan.
26. The Levites were ready to play the instruments that had belonged to David; the priests were ready to blow the trumpets.
27. As soon as Hezekiah gave the signal for the sacrifices to be burnt on the altar, the musicians began singing praises to the Lord and playing their instruments,
28. and everyone worshipped the Lord. This continued until the last animal was sacrificed.
29. After that, Hezekiah and the crowd of worshippers knelt down and worshipped the Lord.
30. Then Hezekiah and his officials ordered the Levites to sing the songs of praise that David and Asaph the prophet had written. And so they bowed down and joyfully sang praises to the Lord.
31. Hezekiah said to the crowd, “Now that you are once again acceptable to the Lord, bring sacrifices and offerings to give him thanks.”The people did this, and some of them voluntarily brought animals to be offered as sacrifices.
32. Seventy bulls, one hundred rams, and two hundred lambs were brought as sacrifices to please the Lord;
33. six hundred bulls and three thousand sheep were brought as sacrifices to ask the Lord's blessing.
34. There were not enough priests to skin all these animals, because many of the priests had not taken the time to go through the ceremony to make themselves clean. However, since all the Levites had made themselves clean, they helped the priests until the last animal was skinned.