Destruction of idols
31
📚Now when all this was finished, all Israel who were present went out to the cities of Judah and broke the idols in pieces and cut down the idolatrous groves and threw down the high places and the altars throughout all Judah and Benjamin, also in Ephraim and Manasseh, until they had utterly destroyed them all. Then all the children of Israel returned, each man to his possession, to their own cities. Contributions for temple worship
2 📚And Hezekiah appointed the divisions of the priests and the Levites according to their divisions 📖, each man according to his service, the priests and Levites for burnt offerings and for peace offerings, to minister, and to give thanks, and to praise in the gates of the camp of the LORD. 3 📚Also he appointed the king’s portion of his possessions for the burnt offerings, for the morning and evening burnt offerings, and the burnt offerings 📖 for the Sabbaths and for the new moons and for the appointed feasts, as it is written in the law of the LORD. 4 📚Moreover, he commanded the people who lived in Jerusalem to give the portion of the priests and the Levites, so that they might be encouraged in the law of the LORD. 5 📚And as soon as the command went out, the children of Israel brought in an abundance of the firstfruits of grain, wine and oil and honey and of all the produce of the field, and they brought in the tithe of all things in abundance. 6 📚And as for the children of Israel and Judah who lived in the cities of Judah, they also brought in the tithe of oxen and sheep, and the tithe of holy things which were consecrated to the LORD their God, and placed them in heaps. 7 📚In the third month they began making the heaps, and finished them in the seventh month.
31:7 Both the third and seventh months were festival months. See Leviticus chapter 23.⚜
8 📚And when Hezekiah and the officials came and saw the heaps, they praised the LORD and his people Israel.
31:8 Such acts of obedience to God’s Word and love shown for His servants always result in praise and blessing. Compare 2 Cor 9:6-15.⚜
9 Then Hezekiah questioned the priests and the Levites concerning the heaps. 10 📚And Azariah, the chief priest, of the house of Zadok, answered him and said, “Since the people began to bring the offerings to the house of the LORD we have had enough to eat, and have plenty left over, for the LORD has blessed his people. And this great store is what is left over”.
11 📚Then Hezekiah commanded that rooms be prepared in the house of the LORD, and they prepared them, 12 📚and brought in the offerings and the tithes and the dedicated things faithfully 📖. Cononiah the Levite was in charge of this, and Shimei his brother was next. 13 📚And Jehiel and Azaziah and Nahath and Asahel and Jerimoth and Jozabad and Eliel and Ismachiah and Mahath and Benaiah were overseers under the hand of Cononiah and Shimei his brother, at the command of Hezekiah the king; and Azariah was in charge of the house of God.
14 📚And Korah, the son of Imnah the Levite, the gatekeeper at the east gate, was over the freewill offerings of God, to distribute the offerings of the LORD, and the most holy things. 15 📚And next to him were Eden and Miniamin and Jeshua and Shemaiah, Amariah and Shecaniah, in the cities of the priests, in their appointed office, to give to their brethren by divisions, to the great as well as to the small.
16 📚They distributed without regard to their genealogy, to males three years old and above, to every one who entered the house of the LORD, his daily portion for their service in their duties according to their divisions, 17 📚as well as to priests who were in the genealogy, by the house of their fathers, and the Levites twenty years old and above, in their duties by their divisions. 18 📚And in the genealogy were all their little ones, their wives, and their sons, and their daughters, throughout the whole congregation; for in their appointed office they consecrated themselves in holiness.
19 📚And as for the sons of Aaron, the priests, who were in the fields of the pasture lands of their cities, in each city, the men who were named, portions were given to all the males among the priests, and to all who were reckoned by genealogies among the Levites.
20 📚And Hezekiah did this throughout all Judah, and did what was good and right and true before the LORD his God.
21 📚And whatever work he began in the service of the house of God, and in the law and in the commandments, to seek his God, he did it with all his heart, and prospered 📖.