1. Hezekiah became king when he was 25 years old. He ruled 29 years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Abijah. Abijah was Zechariah’s daughter.
2. Hezekiah did what the Lord wanted him to do. He did what was right just as David his ancestor had done.
3. Hezekiah repaired the doors of the Lord’S Temple and made them strong. He opened the Temple again. He did this in the first month of the first year after he became king.
4-5. Hezekiah called the priests and Levites together in one assembly. He had a meeting with them in the courtyard on the east side of the Temple. Hezekiah said to them, “Listen to me, Levites! Make yourselves ready for holy service. Make the Temple of the Lord God ready for holy service. He is the God your ancestors obeyed. Take away the things from the Temple that don’t belong in there. These things make the Temple unclean.
6. Our ancestors were not faithful and did what the Lord says is evil. They stopped following him. They no longer paid any attention to the Lord’S house and turned their backs on him.
7. They shut the doors of the porch of the Temple and let the fire go out in the lamps. They stopped burning incense and offering burnt offerings in the Holy Place to the God of Israel.
8. So the Lord became very angry with the people of Judah and Jerusalem. He punished them so badly that it shocks and scares people to hear about it. But then they just laugh and shout their own insults against Judah. You know this is true. You have seen it happen.
9. That is why our ancestors were killed in battle. Our sons, daughters, and wives were made prisoners.
10. So now I, Hezekiah, have decided to make an agreement with the Lord, the God of Israel. Then he will not be angry with us anymore.
11. So my sons, don’t be lazy or waste any more time. The Lord chose you to serve him in the Temple and to burn incense.”
12-14. This is a list of the Levites who started to work: From the Kohath family there were Mahath son of Amasai and Joel son of Azariah. From the Merari family there were Kish son of Abdi and Azariah son of Jehallelel. From the Gershon family there were Joah son of Zimmah and Eden son of Joab. From Elizaphan’s descendants there were Shimri and Jeiel. From Asaph’s descendants there were Zechariah and Mattaniah. From Heman’s descendants there were Jehiel and Shimei. From Jeduthun’s descendants there were Shemaiah and Uzziel.
15. Then these Levites gathered their brothers together and made themselves ready for holy service in the Temple. They obeyed the king’s command that came from the Lord. They went into the Lord’S Temple to clean it.
16. The priests went into the inside part of the Lord’S Temple to clean it. They took out all the unclean things they found there. They brought the unclean things out to the courtyard of the Lord’S Temple. Then the Levites took these things out to the Kidron Valley.
17. On the first day of the first month, the Levites began to make the Temple ready for holy service. By the eighth day, they had finished cleaning all the area up to the porch of the Lord’S Temple. For eight more days they cleaned the Lord’S Temple itself to make it ready for holy use. They finished on the 16th day of the first month.