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.