2Chronicles:29-30
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Hezekiah began to reign when he was five and twenty years old ,
and he reigned nine and twenty years in Jerusalem .
And his mother '
name was Abijah ,
the daughter of Zechariah .
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And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD ,
according to all that David his father had done .
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He in the first year of his reign ,
in the first month ,
opened the doors of the house of the LORD ,
and repaired them .
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And he brought in the priests and the Levites ,
and gathered them together into the east street ,
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And said to them ,
Hear me ,
you Levites ,
sanctify now yourselves ,
and sanctify the house of the LORD God of your fathers ,
and carry forth the filthiness out of the holy place .
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For our fathers have trespassed ,
and done that which was evil in the eyes of the LORD our God ,
and have forsaken him ,
and have turned away their faces from the habitation of the LORD ,
and turned their backs .
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Also they have shut up the doors of the porch ,
and put out the lamps ,
and have not burned incense nor offered burnt offerings in the holy place to the God of Israel .
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Why the wrath of the LORD was on Judah and Jerusalem ,
and he has delivered them to trouble ,
to astonishment ,
and to hissing ,
as you see with your eyes .
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For ,
see ,
our fathers have fallen by the sword ,
and our sons and our daughters and our wives are in captivity for this .
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Now it is in my heart to make a covenant with the LORD God of Israel ,
that his fierce wrath may turn away from us .
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My sons ,
be not now negligent :
for the LORD has chosen you to stand before him ,
to serve him ,
and that you should minister to him ,
and burn incense .
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Then the Levites arose ,
Mahath the son of Amasai ,
and Joel the son of Azariah ,
of the sons of the Kohathites :
and of the sons of Merari ,
Kish the son of Abdi ,
and Azariah the son of Jehalelel :
and of the Gershonites ;
Joah the son of Zimmah ,
and Eden the son of Joah :
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And of the sons of Elizaphan ;
Shimri ,
and Jeiel :
and of the sons of Asaph ;
Zechariah ,
and Mattaniah :
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And of the sons of Heman ;
Jehiel ,
and Shimei :
and of the sons of Jeduthun ;
Shemaiah ,
and Uzziel .
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And they gathered their brothers ,
and sanctified themselves ,
and came ,
according to the commandment of the king ,
by the words of the LORD ,
to cleanse the house of the LORD .
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And the priests went into the inner part of the house of the LORD ,
to cleanse it ,
and brought out all the uncleanness that they found in the temple of the LORD into the court of the house of the LORD .
And the Levites took it ,
to carry it out abroad into the brook Kidron .
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Now they began on the first day of the first month to sanctify ,
and on the eighth day of the month came they to the porch of the LORD :
so they sanctified the house of the LORD in eight days ;
and in the sixteenth day of the first month they made an end .
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Then they went in to Hezekiah the king ,
and said ,
We have cleansed all the house of the LORD ,
and the altar of burnt offering ,
with all the vessels thereof ,
and the show bread table ,
with all the vessels thereof .
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Moreover all the vessels ,
which king Ahaz in his reign did cast away in his transgression ,
have we prepared and sanctified ,
and ,
behold ,
they are before the altar of the LORD .
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Then Hezekiah the king rose early ,
and gathered the rulers of the city ,
and went up to the house of the LORD .
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And they brought seven bullocks ,
and seven rams ,
and seven lambs ,
and seven he goats ,
for a sin offering for the kingdom ,
and for the sanctuary ,
and for Judah .
And he commanded the priests the sons of Aaron to offer them on the altar of the LORD .
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So they killed the bullocks ,
and the priests received the blood ,
and sprinkled it on the altar :
likewise ,
when they had killed the rams ,
they sprinkled the blood on the altar :
they killed also the lambs ,
and they sprinkled the blood on the altar .
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And they brought forth the he goats for the sin offering before the king and the congregation ;
and they laid their hands on them :
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And the priests killed them ,
and they made reconciliation with their blood on the altar ,
to make an atonement for all Israel :
for the king commanded that the burnt offering and the sin offering should be made for all Israel .
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And he set the Levites in the house of the LORD with cymbals ,
with psalteries ,
and with harps ,
according to the commandment of David ,
and of Gad the king '
seer ,
and Nathan the prophet :
for so was the commandment of the LORD by his prophets .
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And the Levites stood with the instruments of David ,
and the priests with the trumpets .
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And Hezekiah commanded to offer the burnt offering on the altar .
And when the burnt offering began ,
the song of the LORD began also with the trumpets ,
and with the instruments ordained by David king of Israel .
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And all the congregation worshipped ,
and the singers sang ,
and the trumpeters sounded :
and all this continued until the burnt offering was finished .
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And when they had made an end of offering ,
the king and all that were present with him bowed themselves ,
and worshipped .
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Moreover Hezekiah the king and the princes commanded the Levites to sing praise to the LORD with the words of David ,
and of Asaph the seer .
And they sang praises with gladness ,
and they bowed their heads and worshipped .
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Then Hezekiah answered and said ,
Now you have consecrated yourselves to the LORD ,
come near and bring sacrifices and thank offerings into the house of the LORD .
And the congregation brought in sacrifices and thank offerings ;
and as many as were of a free heart burnt offerings .
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And the number of the burnt offerings ,
which the congregation brought ,
was three score and ten bullocks ,
an hundred rams ,
and two hundred lambs :
all these were for a burnt offering to the LORD .
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And the consecrated things were six hundred oxen and three thousand sheep .
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But the priests were too few ,
so that they could not flay all the burnt offerings :
why their brothers the Levites did help them ,
till the work was ended ,
and until the other priests had sanctified themselves :
for the Levites were more upright in heart to sanctify themselves than the priests .
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And also the burnt offerings were in abundance ,
with the fat of the peace offerings ,
and the drink offerings for every burnt offering .
So the service of the house of the LORD was set in order .
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And Hezekiah rejoiced ,
and all the people ,
that God had prepared the people :
for the thing was done suddenly .
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And Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Judah ,
and wrote letters also to Ephraim and Manasseh ,
that they should come to the house of the LORD at Jerusalem ,
to keep the passover to the LORD God of Israel .
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For the king had taken counsel ,
and his princes ,
and all the congregation in Jerusalem ,
to keep the passover in the second month .
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For they could not keep it at that time ,
because the priests had not sanctified themselves sufficiently ,
neither had the people gathered themselves together to Jerusalem .
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And the thing pleased the king and all the congregation .
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So they established a decree to make proclamation throughout all Israel ,
from Beersheba even to Dan ,
that they should come to keep the passover to the LORD God of Israel at Jerusalem :
for they had not done it of a long time in such sort as it was written .
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So the posts went with the letters from the king and his princes throughout all Israel and Judah ,
and according to the commandment of the king ,
saying ,
You children of Israel ,
turn again to the LORD God of Abraham ,
Isaac ,
and Israel ,
and he will return to the remnant of you ,
that are escaped out of the hand of the kings of Assyria .
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And be not you like your fathers ,
and like your brothers ,
which trespassed against the LORD God of their fathers ,
who therefore gave them up to desolation ,
as you see .
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Now be you not stiff necked ,
as your fathers were ,
but yield yourselves to the LORD ,
and enter into his sanctuary ,
which he has sanctified for ever :
and serve the LORD your God ,
that the fierceness of his wrath may turn away from you .
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For if you turn again to the LORD ,
your brothers and your children shall find compassion before them that lead them captive ,
so that they shall come again into this land :
for the LORD your God is gracious and merciful ,
and will not turn away his face from you ,
if you return to him .
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So the posts passed from city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh even to Zebulun :
but they laughed them to scorn ,
and mocked them .
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Nevertheless divers of Asher and Manasseh and of Zebulun humbled themselves ,
and came to Jerusalem .
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Also in Judah the hand of God was to give them one heart to do the commandment of the king and of the princes ,
by the word of the LORD .
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And there assembled at Jerusalem much people to keep the feast of unleavened bread in the second month ,
a very great congregation .
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And they arose and took away the altars that were in Jerusalem ,
and all the altars for incense took they away ,
and cast them into the brook Kidron .
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Then they killed the passover on the fourteenth day of the second month :
and the priests and the Levites were ashamed ,
and sanctified themselves ,
and brought in the burnt offerings into the house of the LORD .
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And they stood in their place after their manner ,
according to the law of Moses the man of God :
the priests sprinkled the blood ,
which they received of the hand of the Levites .
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For there were many in the congregation that were not sanctified :
therefore the Levites had the charge of the killing of the passovers for every one that was not clean ,
to sanctify them to the LORD .
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For a multitude of the people ,
even many of Ephraim ,
and Manasseh ,
Issachar ,
and Zebulun ,
had not cleansed themselves ,
yet did they eat the passover otherwise than it was written .
But Hezekiah prayed for them ,
saying ,
The good LORD pardon every one
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That prepares his heart to seek God ,
the LORD God of his fathers ,
though he be not cleansed according to the purification of the sanctuary .
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And the LORD listened to Hezekiah ,
and healed the people .
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And the children of Israel that were present at Jerusalem kept the feast of unleavened bread seven days with great gladness :
and the Levites and the priests praised the LORD day by day ,
singing with loud instruments to the LORD .
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And Hezekiah spoke comfortably to all the Levites that taught the good knowledge of the LORD :
and they did eat throughout the feast seven days ,
offering peace offerings ,
and making confession to the LORD God of their fathers .
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And the whole assembly took counsel to keep other seven days :
and they kept other seven days with gladness .
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For Hezekiah king of Judah did give to the congregation a thousand bullocks and seven thousand sheep ;
and the princes gave to the congregation a thousand bullocks and ten thousand sheep :
and a great number of priests sanctified themselves .
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And all the congregation of Judah ,
with the priests and the Levites ,
and all the congregation that came out of Israel ,
and the strangers that came out of the land of Israel ,
and that dwelled in Judah ,
rejoiced .
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So there was great joy in Jerusalem :
for since the time of Solomon the son of David king of Israel there was not the like in Jerusalem .
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Then the priests the Levites arose and blessed the people :
and their voice was heard ,
and their prayer came up to his holy dwelling place ,
even to heaven .
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Now when all this was finished ,
all Israel that were present went out to the cities of Judah ,
and broke the images in pieces ,
and cut down the groves ,
and threw down the high places and the altars out of all Judah and Benjamin ,
in Ephraim also and Manasseh ,
until they had utterly destroyed them all .
Then all the children of Israel returned ,
every man to his possession ,
into their own cities .