5
Hezekiah said, "Listen to me, Levites. Make yourselves ready for the Lord's service, and make holy the Temple of the Lord, the God of your ancestors. Remove from the Temple everything that makes it impure.
6
Our ancestors were unfaithful to God and did what the Lord said was wrong. They left the Lord and stopped worshiping at the Temple where he lives. They rejected him.
7
They shut the doors of the porch of the Temple, and they let the fire go out in the lamps. They stopped burning incense and offering burnt offerings in the holy place to the God of Israel.
8
So the Lord became very angry with the people of Judah and Jerusalem, and he punished them. Other people are frightened and shocked by what he did to them. So they insult the people of Judah. You know these things are true.
9
That is why our ancestors were killed in battle and our sons, daughters, and wives were taken captive.
10
Now I, Hezekiah, have decided to make an agreement with the Lord, the God of Israel, so he will not be angry with us anymore.
11
My sons, don't waste any more time. The Lord chose you to stand before him, to serve him, to be his servants, and to burn incense to him."
12
These are the Levites who started to work. From the Kohathite family there were Mahath son of Amasai and Joel son of Azariah. From the Merarite family there were Kish son of Abdi and Azariah son of Jehallelel. From the Gershonite family there were Joah son of Zimmah and Eden son of Joah.
13
From Elizaphan's family there were Shimri and Jeiel. From Asaph's family there were Zechariah and Mattaniah.
14
From Heman's family there were Jehiel and Shimei. From Jeduthun's family there were Shemaiah and Uzziel.
15
These Levites gathered their brothers together and made themselves holy for service in the Temple. Then they went into the Temple of the Lord to purify it. They obeyed the king's command that had come from the Lord.