11. "My sons, don't fail to obey the Lord. He has chosen you to stand in front of him and work for him. He wants you to serve him and burn incense to him."
12. Here are the Levites who went to work. Mahath and Joel were from the family line of Kohath. Mahath was the son of Amasai. Joel was the son of Azariah. Kish and Azariah were from the family line of Merari. Kish was the son of Abdi. Azariah was the son of Jehallelel. Joah and Eden were from the family line of Gershon. Joah was the son of Zimmah. Eden was the son of Joah.
13. Shimri and Jeiel were from the family line of Elizaphan. Zechariah and Mattaniah were from the family line of Asaph.
14. Jehiel and Shimei were from the family line of Heman. Shemaiah and Uzziel were from the family line of Jeduthun.
15. All of those Levites gathered the other Levites together. They set themselves apart to the Lord. Then they went in to purify the Lord's temple. That's what the king had ordered them to do. They did what the Lord told them to.
16. The priests went into the Lord's temple to make it pure. They brought out to the temple courtyard everything that was "unclean." They had found "unclean" things in the Lord's temple. The Levites took them and carried them out to the Kidron Valley.
17. On the first day of the first month they began to set everything in the temple apart to the Lord. By the eighth day of the month they reached the Lord's porch. For eight more days they set the Lord's temple itself apart to him. They finished on the 16th day of the first month.
18. Then they went to King Hezekiah. They reported, "We've purified the whole temple of the Lord. That includes the altar for burnt offerings and all of its tools. It also includes the table for the holy bread and all of its articles.
19. We've prepared all of the articles King Ahaz had removed. We've set them apart to the Lord. Ahaz had removed them while he was king. He wasn't faithful to the Lord. The articles are now in front of the Lord's altar."
20. Early the next morning King Hezekiah gathered the city officials together. They went up to the Lord's temple.
21. They brought seven bulls, seven rams, seven male lambs and seven male goats with them. They sacrificed the animals as a sin offering for the kingdom, for the temple and for Judah. The king commanded the priests to offer them on the Lord's altar. The priests were from the family line of Aaron.
22. They killed the bulls. Then they sprinkled the blood on the altar. Next they killed the rams and sprinkled the blood on the altar. Then they killed the lambs and sprinkled the blood on the altar.
23. The goats for the sin offering were brought to the king and the whole community. They placed their hands on them.
24. Then the priests killed the goats. They put the blood on the altar as a sin offering. It paid for the sin of the whole nation of Israel. The king had ordered the burnt offering and the sin offering for the whole nation.
25. He stationed the Levites in the Lord's temple. They had cymbals, harps and lyres. They did everything in the way King David, his prophet Gad, and the prophet Nathan had required. The Lord had given commands about all of those things through his prophets.
26. So the Levites stood ready with David's musical instruments. And the priests had their trumpets ready.
27. Hezekiah gave the order to sacrifice the burnt offering on the altar. The offering began. Singing to the Lord also began. The singing was accompanied by the trumpets and by the instruments of David. He had been king of Israel.