King Hezekiah
29
📚Hezekiah began to reign when he was twenty-five years old, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Abijah. She was the daughter of Zechariah. 2 📚And he did what was right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that David his father had done.Hezekiah cleanses and repairs the temple
3 📚In the first year of his reign, in the first month, he opened the doors of the house of the LORD and repaired them. 4 📚And he brought in the priests and the Levites, and gathered them together in the square on the east, 5 📚and said to them, “Hear me, you Levites. Now consecrate yourselves, and consecrate 📖 the house of the LORD God of your fathers, and carry the filthiness out of the Holy Place. 6 📚For our fathers have trespassed and done what was evil in the eyes of the LORD our God, and have forsaken him and have turned away their faces from the dwelling place of the LORD and turned their backs. 7 📚Also they have shut up the doors of the portico, and put out the lamps, and have not burned incense or offered burnt offerings at the holy place to the God of Israel. 8 📚Therefore the wrath 📖 of the LORD has been on Judah and Jerusalem, and he has handed them over to trouble, to astonishment, and to hissing 📖, as you see with your eyes. 9 📚For, see, our fathers have fallen by the sword, and our sons and our daughters and our wives are in captivity for this. 10 📚Now it is in my heart to make a covenant with the LORD God of Israel, so that his fierce wrath may turn away from us.
29:10 2 Chron 15:12; 2 Chron 23:16. God’s anger could be turned away only by repentance and renewal of the covenant to be His faithful people. Without this they could rightly expect only the curses of the broken covenant to come on them (Deut 28:15-18).⚜
11 📚My sons, do not be negligent now, for the LORD has chosen you to stand before him, to serve him, and to minister to him, and burn incense”.
12 📚Then the Levites rose up, 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; 13 📚and of the sons of Elizaphan, Shimri, and Jeiel; and of the sons of Asaph, Zechariah, and Mattaniah; 14 📚and of the sons of Heman, Jehiel, and Shimei; and of the sons of Jeduthun, Shemaiah, and Uzziel.
15 📚And in accordance with the command of the king, by the words of the LORD, they gathered their brethren, and consecrated themselves, and came to cleanse the house of the LORD.
29:15 Verse 5.⚜
16 📚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 courtyard of the house of the LORD. And the Levites took it and carried it out to the brook Kidron. 17 📚Now they began the consecration on the first day of the first month, and on the eighth day of the month they came to the portico of the LORD’s temple. So in eight days they consecrated the house of the LORD, and on the sixteenth day of the first month they finished.
29:17 Careless, sinful leaders had allowed such filth to collect in the temple that it took 16 days to get rid of it. Sometimes Christians are as careless and sinful about the New Testament temples of God – their bodies and hearts (1 Cor 3:16-17; 6:18-20).⚜
18 📚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 its articles, and the table of Showbread, with all its articles. 19 📚Moreover, we have made ready and consecrated all the articles which King Ahaz threw away during his reign, in his transgression, and, see, they are before the altar of the LORD”.
Temple worship reestablished
20 📚Then Hezekiah the king rose early, and gathered the rulers of the city, and went up to the house of the LORD. 21 📚And they brought seven bulls and seven rams and seven lambs and seven male goats as 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. 22 📚So they killed the bulls, and the priests took the blood and sprinkled it on the altar. In the same way, when they had killed the rams, they sprinkled the blood on the altar. They also killed the lambs and sprinkled the blood 📖 on the altar. 23 📚And they brought out the male goats for the sin offering before the king and the congregation, and they laid their hands on them 📖, 24 📚and the priests killed them, and they made a sin offering with their blood on the altar, to make atonement for all Israel. For the king commanded that the burnt offering and the sin offering should be made for all Israel.
29:24 Notes on atonement at Ex 29:33.⚜
25 📚And he placed the Levites in the house of the LORD with cymbals, with lyres and with harps, according to the command of David and of Gad, the king’s seer, and of Nathan the prophet; for such was the command of the LORD through his prophets. 26 📚And the Levites stood with the instruments of David, and the priests with the trumpets.
27 📚And Hezekiah commanded that the burnt offering be offered on the altar. And when the burnt offering 📖 began, the song of the LORD also began with the trumpets, and with the instruments ordained by David, king of Israel. 28 📚And all the congregation worshipped, and the singers sang, and the trumpeters sounded, and all this continued until the burnt offering was finished.
29 📚And when they had finished offering, the king and all who were present with him bowed down and worshipped 📖.
29:1-2 2 Kings 18:1-3. Except for these opening verses none of the material in this chapter and the next is found in Kings.⚜
30 📚Moreover, Hezekiah the king and the leaders 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.
31 📚Then Hezekiah responded 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 whoever had a willing heart brought burnt offerings.
32 📚And the number of the burnt offerings which the congregation brought was seventy bulls, a hundred rams, and two hundred lambs. All these were for a burnt offering to the LORD. 33 And the consecrated things were six hundred oxen and three thousand sheep. 34 📚But the priests were too few, so that they could not skin all the burnt offerings. Therefore their brethren, the Levites, helped them until the work was finished, and until the other priests had consecrated themselves; for the Levites had been more conscientious in consecrating themselves than the priests. 35 📚And also there was an abundance of burnt offerings, 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. 36 📚And Hezekiah rejoiced, and all the people, that God had prepared the people; for the thing was done suddenly 📖.