2 Chronicles 29:5

5 He said to them, "Listen to me, Levites! Sanctify yourselves, and sanctify the house of the Lord, the God of your ancestors, and carry out the filth from the holy place.

2 Chronicles 29:5 Meaning and Commentary

2 Chronicles 29:5

And said unto them, hear me, ye Levites; sanctify yourselves,
&c.] By washing their bodies and their garments, that no pollution might attend them in their service, see ( Isaiah 52:11 )

and sanctify the house of the Lord God of your fathers;
by carrying out of it all manner of uncleanness, as they did, ( 2 Chronicles 29:16 ) ,

and carry forth the filthiness out of the holy place;
or the abomination; the altar, like that at Damascus, which Ahaz, removing the altar of the Lord, had placed in the court of the priests; or, as Kimchi thinks, an idol, which he had set upon that altar.

2 Chronicles 29:5 In-Context

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 He brought in the priests and the Levites and assembled them in the square on the east.
5 He said to them, "Listen to me, Levites! Sanctify yourselves, and sanctify the house of the Lord, the God of your ancestors, and carry out the filth from the holy place.
6 For our ancestors have been unfaithful and have done what was evil in the sight of the Lord our God; they have forsaken him, and have turned away their faces from the dwelling of the Lord, and turned their backs.
7 They also shut the doors of the vestibule and put out the lamps, and have not offered incense or made burnt offerings in the holy place to the God of Israel.
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.