Bible Text & Cross-references:
Ezechias purifieth the temple, and restoreth religion.
1 Now *Ezechias began to reign, when he was five and twenty years old,
and he reigned nine and twenty years in Jerusalem: the name of his mother was Abia, the daughter of Zacharias.
2 And he did that which was pleasing in the sight of the Lord, according
to all that David, his father, had done.
3 In the first year and month of his reign he opened the doors of the
house of the Lord, and repaired them.
4 And he brought the priests and the Levites, and assembled them in the
east street.
5 And he said to them: Hear me, ye Levites, and be sanctified, purify
the house of the Lord, the God of your fathers, and take away all filth out of the sanctuary.
6 Our fathers have sinned, and done evil in the sight of the Lord God,
forsaking him: they have turned away their faces from the tabernacle of the Lord, and turned their backs.
7 They have shut up the doors that were in the porch, and put out the
lamps, and have not burnt incense, nor offered holocausts in the sanctuary of the God of Israel.
8 Therefore, the wrath of the Lord hath been stirred up against Juda
and Jerusalem, and he hath delivered them to trouble, and to destruction, and to be hissed at, as you see with your eyes.
9 Behold, our fathers are fallen by the sword, our sons, and our daughters,
and wives, are led away captives for this wickedness.
10 Now, therefore, I have a mind, that we make a covenant with the Lord,
the God of Israel, and he will turn away the wrath of his indignation from us.
11 My sons, be not negligent: the Lord hath chosen you to stand before
him, and to minister to him, and to worship him, and to burn incense to him.
12 Then the Levites arose: Mahath, the son of Amasai, and Joel, the son
of Azarias, of the sons of Caath: and of the sons of Merari, Cis, the son of Abdi, and Azarias, the son of Jalaleel. And of
the sons of Gerson, Joah, the son of Zemma, and Eden, the son of Joah.
13 And of the sons of Elisaphan, Samri, and Jahiel. Also, of the sons
of Asaph, Zacharias, and Mathanias.
14 And of the sons of Heman, Jahiel, and Semei: and of the sons of Idithun,
Semeias, and Oziel.
15 And they gathered together their brethren, and sanctified themselves,
and went in according to the commandment of the king, and the precept of the Lord, to purify the house of God.
16 And the priests went into the temple of the Lord to sanctify it, and
brought out all the uncleanness, that they found within, to the entrance of the house of the Lord, and the Levites took it
away, and carried it out abroad, to the torrent Cedron.
17 And they began to cleanse on the first day of the first month, and,
on the eighth day of the same month, they came into the porch of the temple of the Lord, and they purified the temple in eight
days, and on the sixteenth day of the same month, they finished what they had begun.
18 And they went in to king Ezechias, and said to him: We have sanctified
all the house of the Lord, and the altar of holocaust, and the vessels thereof, and the table of proposition, with all its
vessels.
19 And all the furniture of the temple, which king Achaz, in his reign,
had defiled, after his transgression; and behold they are all set forth before the altar of the Lord.
20 And king Ezechias, rising early, assembled all the rulers of the city,
and went up into the house of the Lord:
21 And they offered together seven bullocks, and seven rams, and seven
lambs, and seven he-goats, for sin, for the kingdom, for the sanctuary, for Juda: and he spoke to the priests, the sons of
Aaron, to offer them upon the altar of the Lord.
22 Therefore they killed the bullocks, and the priests took the blood,
and poured it upon the altar, they killed also the rams, and their blood they poured also upon the altar, and they killed
the lambs, and poured the blood upon the altar.
23 And they brought the he-goats, for sin, before the king, and the whole
multitude, and they laid their hand upon them:
24 And the priests immolated them, and sprinkled their blood before the
altar, for an expiation of all Israel: for the king had commanded that the holocaust and the sin-offering should be made for
all Israel.
25 And he set the Levites, in the house of the Lord, with cymbals, and
psalteries, and harps, according to the regulation of David, the king, and of Gad, the seer, and of Nathan, the prophet: for
it was the commandment of the Lord, by the hand of his prophets.
26 And the Levites stood with the instruments of David, and the priests
with trumpets.
27 And Ezechias commanded that they should offer holocausts upon the
altar: and when the holocausts were offered, they began to sing praises to the Lord, and to sound with trumpets, and divers
instruments, which David, the king of Israel, had prepared.
28 And all the multitude adored, and the singers, and the trumpeters,
were in their office, till the holocaust was finished.
29 And when the oblation was ended, the king, and all that were with
him, bowed down, and adored.
30 And Ezechias, and the princes, commanded the Levites to praise the
Lord with the words of David, and Asaph, the seer: and they praised him with great joy, and bowing the knee, adored.
31 And Ezechias added, and said: You have filled your hands to the Lord,
come and offer victims, and praises in the house of the Lord. And all the multitude offered victims, and praises, and holocausts,
with a devout mind.
32 And the number of the holocausts which the multitude offered, was
seventy bullocks, a hundred rams, and two hundred lambs.
33 And they consecrated to the Lord six hundred oxen, and three thousand
sheep.
34 But the priests were few, and were not enough to slay the holocausts:
wherefore the Levites, their brethren, helped them till the work was ended, and priests were sanctified, for the Levites are
sanctified with an easier rite than the priests.
35 So there were many holocausts, and the fat of peace-offerings, and
the libations of holocausts: and the service of the house of the Lord was completed,
36 And Ezechias, and all the people rejoiced because the ministry of
the Lord was accomplished. For the resolution of doing this thing was taken suddenly.
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*
1: Year of the World 3278, Year before Christ 726.;
4 Kings xviii. 1.