7. 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 unto the God of Israel.
8. Wherefore the wrath of the LORD was upon Judah and Jerusalem, and he hath delivered them to be tossed to and fro, to be an astonishment, and an hissing, as ye see with your eyes.
9. For, lo, 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 mine heart to make a covenant with the LORD, the God of Israel, that his fierce anger may turn away from us.
11. My sons, be not now negligent: for the LORD hath chosen you to stand before him, to minister unto him, and that ye should 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 Jeuel: and of the sons of Asaph, Zechariah and Mattaniah:
14. and of the sons of Heman, Jehuel and Shimei: and of the sons of Jeduthun, Shemaiah and Uzziel.
15. And they gathered their brethren, and sanctified themselves, and went in, according to the commandment of the king by the words of the LORD, to cleanse the house of the LORD.
16. And the priests went in unto 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 to the brook Kidron.
17. 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; and they sanctified the house of the LORD in eight days: and on the sixteenth day of the first month they made an end.
18. Then they went in to Hezekiah the king within the palace, and said, We have cleansed all the house of the LORD, and the altar of burnt offering, with all the vessels thereof, and the table of shewbread, with all the vessels thereof.