Ezechias purifieth the temple, and restoreth religion.
29:1. 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.
29:2. And he did that which was pleasing in the sight of the Lord,
according to all that David his father had done.
29:3. In the first year and month of his reign he opened the doors of
the house of the Lord, and repaired them.
29:4. And he brought the priests and the Levites, and assembled them in
the east street.
29:5. 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.
29:6. 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.
29:7. 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.
29:8. 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.
29:9. Behold, our fathers are fallen by the sword, our sons, and our
daughters, and wives are led away captives for this wickedness.
29:10. 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.
29:11. 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.
29:12. 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.
29:13. And of the sons of Elisaphan, Samri, and Jahiel. Also of the sons
of Asaph, Zacharias, and Mathanias.
29:14. And of the sons of Heman, Jahiel, and Semei: and of the sons of
Idithun, Semeias, and Oziel.
29:15. 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.
29:16. 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.
29:17. 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.
29:18. 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,
29:19. 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.
29:20. And king Ezechias rising early, assembled all the rulers of the
city, and went up into the house of the Lord:
29:21. 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.
29:22. 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.
29:23. And they brought the he-goats for sin before the king, and the
whole multitude, and they laid their hand upon them:
29:24. 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.
29:25. 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.
29:26. And the Levites stood, with the instruments of David, and the
priests with trumpets.
29:27. 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.
29:28. And all the multitude adored, and the singers, and the
trumpeters, were in their office till the holocaust was finished.
29:29. And when the oblation was ended, the king, and all that were with
him bowed down and adored.
29:30. 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.
29:31. 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.
29:32. And the number of the holocausts which the multitude offered, was
seventy bullocks, a hundred rams, and two hundred lambs.
29:33. And they consecrated to the Lord six hundred oxen, and three
thousand sheep.
29:34. But the priests were few, and were not enough to flay 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.
29:35. 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.
29:36. 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.