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The Second
Book of Paralipomenon 29
Now Ezechias began to reign, when he was five and twenty
years old, and he reigned nine and twenty years in Jerusalem:
the name of his mother was Abia, the daughter of Zacharias.
And he did that which was pleasing in the sight of the
Lord, according to all that David his father had done.
In the first year and month of his reign he opened the
doors of the house of the Lord, and repaired them.
And he brought the priests and the Levites, and assembled
them in the east street.
And he said to them: Hear me, ye Levites, and be sanctified,
purify the house of the Lord the God of your fathers,
and take away all filth out of the sanctuary.
Our fathers have sinned and done evil in the sight of
the Lord God, forsaking him: they have turned away their
faces from the tabernacle of the Lord, and turned their
backs.
They have shut up the doors that were in tile porch,
and put out the lamps. and have not burnt incense, nor
offered holocausts in the sanctuary of the God of Israel.
Therefore the wrath of the Lord hath been stirred up
against Juda and Jerusalem, and he hath delivered them
to trouble, and to destruction, and to be hissed at,
as you see with your eyes.
Behold, our fathers are fallen by the sword, our sons,
and our daughters, and wives are led away captives for
this wickedness.
Now therefore I have a mind that we make a covenant
with the Lord the God of Israel, and he will turn away
the wrath of his indignation from us.
My sons, be not negligent: the Lord hath chosen you
to stand before him, and to minister to him, and to
worship him, and to burn incense to him.
Then the Levites arose, Mahath the son of Amasai, and
Joel the son of Azarias, of the sons of Caath: and of
the sons of Merari, Cis the son of Abdi, and Azarias
the son of Jalaleel. And of the sons of Gerson, Joah
the son of Zemma, and Eden the son of Joah.
And of the sons of Elisaphan, Samri, and Jahiel. Also
of the sons of Asaph, Zacharias, and Mathanias.
And of the sons of Heman, Jahiel, and Semei: and of
the sons of Idithun, Semeias, and Oziel.
And they gathered together their brethren, and sanctified
themselves, and went in according to the commandment
of the king, and the precept of the Lord, to purify
the house of God.
And the priests went into the temple of the Lord to
sanctify it, and brought out all the uncleanness that
they found within to the entrance of the house of the
Lord, and the Levites took it away, and carried it out
abroad to the torrent Cedron.
And they began to cleanse on the first day of the first
month, and on the eighth day of the same month they
came into the porch of the temple of the Lord, and they
purified the temple in eight days, and on the sixteenth
day of the same month they finished what they had begun.
And they went is to king Ezechias, and said to him:
We have sanctified all the house of the Lord, and the
altar of holocaust, and the vessels thereof, and the
table of proposition with all its vessels,
And all the furniture of the temple, which king Achaz
in his reign had defiled, after his transgression; and
behold they are all set forth before the altar of the
Lord.
And king Ezechias rising early, assembled all the rulers
of the city, and went up into the house of the Lord:
And they offered together seven bullocks, and seven
rams, and seven lambs, and seven he goats for sin, for
the kingdom, for the sanctuary, for Juda: and he spoke
to the priests the sons of Aaron, to offer them upon
the altar of the Lord.
Therefore they killed the bullocks, and the priests
took the blood, and poured it upon the altar; they killed
also the rams, and their blood they poured also upon
the altar, and they killed the lambs, and poured the
blood upon the altar.
And they brought the he goats for sin before the king,
and the whole multitude, and they laid their hand upon
them:
And the priests immolated them, and sprinkled their
blood before the altar for an expiation of all Israel:
for the king had commanded that the holocaust and the
sin offering should be made for all Israel.
And he set the Levites in the house of the Lord with
cymbals, and psalteries, and harps according to the
regulation of David the king, and of Gad the seer, and
of Nathan the prophet: for it was the commandment of
the Lord by the hand of his prophets.
And the Levites stood, with the instruments of David,
and the priests with trumpets.
And Ezechias commanded that they should offer holocausts
upon the altar: and when the holocausts were offered,
they began to sing praises to the Lord, and to sound
with trumpets, and divers instruments which David the
king of Israel had prepared.
And all the multitude adored, and the singers, and the
trumpeters, were in their office till the holocaust
was finished.
And when the oblation was ended, the king, and all that
were with him bowed down and adored.
And Ezechias and the princes commanded the Levites to
praise the Lord with the words of David, and Asaph the
seer: and they praised him with great joy, and bowing
the knee adored.
And Ezechias added, and said: You have filled your hands
to the Lord, come and offer victims, and praises in
the house of the Lord. And all the multitude offered
victims, and praises, and holocausts with a devout mind.
And the number of the holocausts which the multitude
offered, was seventy bullocks, a hundred rams, and two
hundred lambs.
And they consecrated to the Lord six hundred oxen, and
three thousand sheep.
But the priests were few, and were not enough to flay
the holocausts: wherefore the Levites their brethren
helped them, till the work was ended, and priests were
sanctified, for the Levites are sanctified with an easier
rite than the priests.
So there were many holocausts, and the fat of peace
offerings, and the libations of holocausts: and the
service of the house of the Lord was completed.
And Ezechias, and all the people rejoiced because the
ministry of the Lord was accomplished. For the resolution
of doing this thing was taken suddenly. |
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