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.
18. Then they went to King Hezekiah and said to him, “King Hezekiah, we cleaned all the Lord’S Temple and the altar for burning offerings and all the things in the Temple. We cleaned the table for the rows of bread with all the things used for that table.
19. During the time that Ahaz was king, he rebelled against God. He threw away many of the things that were in the Temple. But we repaired all those things and made them ready for their special use. They are now in front of the Lord’S altar.”
20. King Hezekiah gathered the city officials and went up to the Temple of the Lord early the next morning.
21. They brought seven bulls, seven rams, seven lambs, and seven young male goats. These animals were for a sin offering for the kingdom of Judah, for the Holy Place to make it clean, and for the people of Judah. King Hezekiah commanded the priests who were descendants of Aaron to offer these animals on the Lord’S altar.
22. So the priests killed the bulls and kept the blood. Then they sprinkled the bulls’ blood on the altar. Then they killed the rams and sprinkled the rams’ blood on the altar. Then they killed the lambs and sprinkled the lambs’ blood on the altar.
23-24. Then the priests brought the male goats in front of the king, and the people gathered together. The goats were the sin offering. The priests put their hands on the goats and killed the goats. They made a sin offering with the goats’ blood on the altar. They did this so that God would forgive the sins of the Israelites. The king said that the burnt offering and the sin offering should be made for all the Israelites.
25. King Hezekiah put the Levites in the Lord’S Temple with cymbals, harps, and lyres as David, Gad, the king’s seer, and the prophet Nathan had commanded. This command came from the Lord through his prophets.