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2 Chronicles 29
The TorahRooted Bible (TRB), translated directly from the Hebrew and Greek.
Hezekiah king of Judah
1 Hezekiah began to reign when he was twenty-five years old, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Abijah the daughter of Zechariah. 2 And he did what was right in the sight of Yahweh, according to all that David his father had done.
The house of Yahweh cleansed
3 In the first year of his reign, in the first month, he opened the doors of the house of Yahweh and repaired them. 4 He brought in the priests and the Levites and gathered them in the square on the east. 5 And he said to them, "Hear me, Levites! Sanctify yourselves now, and sanctify the house of Yahweh, the Elohim of your fathers, and carry the impurity out of the holy place. 6 For our fathers have acted unfaithfully and have done what was evil in the sight of Yahweh our Elohim; they have forsaken Him and turned their faces away from the dwelling place of Yahweh, and turned their backs. 7 They also shut the doors of the porch and put out the lamps, and they have not burned incense or offered burnt offerings in the holy place to the Elohim of Israel. 8 Therefore the wrath of Yahweh came upon Judah and Jerusalem, and He has made them a horror, a desolation and a hissing, as you see with your own eyes. 9 For see, our fathers have fallen by the sword, and our sons and our daughters and our wives are in captivity because of this. 10 Now it is in my heart to make a covenant with Yahweh, the Elohim of Israel, that the fierceness of His anger may turn away from us. 11 My sons, do not be negligent now, for Yahweh has chosen you to stand before Him, to minister to Him, and to be His ministers and burn incense."
12 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 Jehallelel; 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 They gathered their brothers, sanctified themselves, and went in, according to the commandment of the king by the words of Yahweh, to cleanse the house of Yahweh. 16 Then the priests went into the inner part of the house of Yahweh to cleanse it, and they brought out all the uncleanness that they found in the temple of Yahweh into the court of the house of Yahweh. And the Levites took it to carry it out to the brook Kidron. 17 They began to sanctify on the first day of the first month, and on the eighth day of the month they came to the porch of Yahweh. Then they sanctified the house of Yahweh in eight days, and on the sixteenth day of the first month they finished. 18 Then they went in to Hezekiah the king and said, "We have cleansed all the house of Yahweh, the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils, and the table of the bread set in rows with all its utensils. 19 Moreover, all the utensils which King Ahaz cast aside during his reign in his unfaithfulness, we have prepared and sanctified; and see, they are before the altar of Yahweh."
The worship restored
20 Then Hezekiah the king rose early, gathered the leaders of the city, and went up to the house of Yahweh. 21 And they brought seven bulls, seven rams, seven lambs and seven male goats as a sin offering for the kingdom, for the sanctuary and for Judah. And he told the sons of Aaron, the priests, to offer them on the altar of Yahweh. 22 So they slaughtered the bulls, and the priests received the blood and threw it against the altar; then they slaughtered the rams and threw the blood against the altar; they also slaughtered the lambs and threw the blood against the altar. 23 Then they brought the male goats for the sin offering before the king and the assembly, and they laid their hands on them. 24 And the priests slaughtered them and made a sin offering with their blood on the altar, to make atonement for all Israel; for the king had commanded that the burnt offering and the sin offering be made for all Israel.
25 And he stationed the Levites in the house of Yahweh with cymbals, harps and lyres, according to the commandment of David and of Gad the king's seer and of Nathan the prophet; for the commandment was from Yahweh through His prophets. 26 The Levites stood with the instruments of David, and the priests with the trumpets. 27 Then Hezekiah commanded them to offer the burnt offering on the altar. And when the burnt offering began, the song of Yahweh also began, with the trumpets and with the instruments of David king of Israel. 28 And all the assembly worshiped, while the singers sang and the trumpeters sounded; all this continued until the burnt offering was finished. 29 When they had finished offering, the king and all who were present with him bowed down and worshiped. 30 Moreover, King Hezekiah and the leaders told the Levites to sing praises to Yahweh with the words of David and of Asaph the seer. So they sang praises with gladness, and they bowed down and worshiped.
31 Then Hezekiah answered and said, "Now you have consecrated yourselves to Yahweh. Come near, and bring sacrifices and thank offerings to the house of Yahweh." So the assembly brought sacrifices and thank offerings, and all who were of a willing heart brought burnt offerings. 32 The number of the burnt offerings which the assembly brought was seventy oxen, a hundred rams and two hundred lambs; all these were for a burnt offering to Yahweh. 33 And the consecrated offerings 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 brothers the Levites helped them until the work was finished and until the priests had sanctified themselves, for the Levites were more upright in heart to sanctify themselves than the priests. 35 The burnt offerings were also in abundance, with the fat of the peace offerings and with the drink offerings for every burnt offering. So the service of the house of Yahweh was established. 36 Then Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced over what Elohim had prepared for the people, for the thing had come about suddenly.
Notes
- 29:1 Kings calls his mother Abi (2 Kings 18:2), most likely a short form of Abijah, "my father is Yah." Kings tells Hezekiah's reign mainly through the Assyrian crisis; Chronicles gives three chapters (29-31) to what he did first: the cleansing of the house of Yahweh, the Passover and the restored service of the priests and Levites.
- 29:3 His father Ahaz had shut the doors of the house of Yahweh (28:24); Hezekiah opens them in his very first month. "Repaired" is literally "strengthened" (chazaq), and many hear in it an echo of the king's own name, Chizkiyyahu, "Yah strengthens."
- 29:17 The work took sixteen days: eight to reach the porch and eight more for the house. It ended on the sixteenth day of the first month, two days after the date the Torah set for the Passover: "In the first month, on the fourteenth of the month, between the evenings, is Yahweh's Passover" (Leviticus 23:5). This is the background of the Passover kept in the second month (30:2-3).
- 29:24 The laying on of hands follows the Torah's sin offering for the whole community: "The elders of the congregation shall lay their hands on the head of the bull before Yahweh" (Leviticus 4:15). Verse 21 named "the kingdom, the sanctuary and Judah," but here the king widens the atonement to "all Israel," and the word is repeated for emphasis. In Chronicles "all Israel" includes the northern tribes, and the next chapter sends the invitation to them (30:1).
- 29:25 The Hebrew says literally that the commandment was "by the hand of Yahweh, by the hand of His prophets." The order of music in the house was not David's own invention: it came through Gad and Nathan, much as David received the pattern of the house: "He made me understand in writing from the hand of Yahweh upon me" (1 Chronicles 28:19). Hezekiah restores worship by the pattern given, not by his own design.
- 29:30 "The words of David and of Asaph" points to psalms: many psalms carry David's name in their headings, and twelve carry Asaph's (Psalms 50 and 73-83). Asaph is called "the seer" (chozeh), the word used for Gad in verse 25: Chronicles presents the songs sung in the house as words given by Elohim, not merely composed by men.