2 Paralipomenon 29

¹Therefore Ezechias began to reign, when he was five and twenty years old, & he reigned nine and twenty years in Jerusalem: the name of his mother was Abia, the daughter of Zacharias.

²And he did that which was pleasing in the sight of our Lord, according to all things that David his father had done.

³He in the first year & month of his reign opened the doors of the house of our Lord, and repaired them.

⁴And he brought the Priests and the Levites, & assembled them in the East street.

⁵And he said to them: Hear me ye Levites, and be sanctified, clean the house of our Lord the God of your fathers, and take away all uncleanness out of the Sanctuary.

⁶Our fathers have sinned and done evil in the sight of our Lord God, forsaking him: they have turned away their faces from the tabernacle of our Lord, & given the back.

⁷They have shut the doors, that were in the porch, and put out the lamps, and have not burnt incense, and have not offered holocausts in the Sanctuary of the God of Israel.

⁸Therefore was the fury of our Lord stirred up upon Juda and Jerusalem, and he hath delivered them into commotion, and into destruction, and to be hissed at, as yourselves see with your eyes.

⁹Behold, our fathers have fallen by the swords, our sons, and our daughters, and wives are led captive for this wickedness.

¹⁰Now therefore it pleaseth me that we make a covenant with our Lord the God of Israel, and he will turn away the fury of his wrath from us.

¹¹My children be not negligent: our Lord hath chosen you to stand before him, and to minister to him, and to worship him, and to burn incense to him.

¹²The Levites therefore arose: Mahath the son of Amasai, and Joel the son of Azarias, of the children of Caath: moreover the children of Merari, Cis the son of Abdi, and Azarias the son of Jalaleel. And of the children of Gerson, Joah the son of Zemma, and Eden the son of Joah.

¹³But of the children of Elisaphan, Samri, and Jahiel. Also of the children of Asaph, Zacharias, and Mathanias.

¹⁴Moreover also of the children of Heman, Jahiel and Semei: yea and of the children of Idithun, Semeias, and Oziel.

¹⁵And they gathered together their brethren, and were sanctified, and went in according to the commandment of the king and the precept of our Lord, to purge the house of God.

¹⁶The Priests also going into the Temple of our Lord to sanctify it, brought out all uncleanness, which they found within the entrance of the house of our Lord, which the Levites took, and carried to the Torrent cedron without.

¹⁷And they began to cleanse it in the first day of the first month, and in the eighth day of the same month they entered into the porch of the temple of our Lord, and they purged the temple in eight days, and in the sixteenth day of the same month, they accomplished that which they began.

¹⁸They entered in also to Ezechias the king, and said to him: We have sanctified all the house of our Lord, and the altar of holocaust, and the vessels thereof, moreover also the table of proposition with all the vessels thereof,

¹⁹and all the furniture of the temple, which king Achaz in his reign had polluted, after that he transgressed; and behold all things are set forth before the altar of our Lord.

²⁰And Ezechias the king rising early, assembled all the Princes of the city, & went up into the house of our Lord:

²¹and they offered together seven oxen, and seven rams, seven lambs, and seven buckgoats for sin, for the Kingdom, for the sanctuary, for Juda, and he said to the Priests the children of Aaron, that they should offer them upon the altar of our Lord.

²²They killed therefore the oxen, & 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 immolated the lambs, and poured the blood upon the altar.

²³They brought the buckgoats for sin before the king, & the whole multitude, & they put their hands upon them:

²⁴& the Priests immolated them, & sprinkled their blood on the altar for an expiation of all Israel: for the king had commanded for all Israel, that holocaust should be made, & for sin.

²⁵He appointed also the Levites in the house of our Lord with cymbals, and psalteries, and harps according to the disposition of David the king, and of Gad the Seer, and of Nathan the Prophet: for it was the precept of our Lord by the hand of his Prophets.

²⁶And the Levites stood, holding the instruments of David, and the Priests trumpets.

²⁷And Ezechias commanded that they should offer holocausts upon the altar: and when holocausts were offered, they began to sing praises to our Lord, and to sound with trumpets, and on diverse instruments, which David the king of Israel had prepared for to sound.

²⁸And all the multitude adoring, the singing men, and they that held the trumpets, were in their office, whiles the holocaust was accomplished.

²⁹And when the oblation was ended, the king bowed, and all that were with him, and adored.

³⁰And Ezechias, and the Princes commanded the Levites, that they should praise our Lord in the words of David, and Asaph the Seer: who praised him with great joy, and bowing the knee adored.

³¹But Ezechias added these words also: You have filled your hands to our Lord, come, and offer victims, and praises in the house of our Lord. All the multitude therefore offered hosts, and praises, and holocausts with a devout mind.

³²Moreover the number of the holocausts, which the multitude offered, was this, oxen seventy, rams an hundred, lambs two hundred.

³³And they sanctified to our Lord oxen six hundred, and sheep three thousand.

³⁴But the Priests were few, neither could they suffice to draw off the skins of the holocausts: wherefore the Levites also their brethren holp them, till the work was accomplished, and the Priests were sanctified, for the Levites are sanctified with an easier rite than the Priests.

³⁵There were holocausts therefore very many, the fat of pacifics, and the libaments of the holocausts, and the service of the house of our Lord was accomplished.

³⁶And Ezechias rejoiced, and all the people, because the ministry of our Lord was accomplished. For it pleased them that the thing should be done of a sudden.