1
Now when all this was finished, all Israel went out, those that were present, to the cities of Judah and broke the images in pieces and cut down the groves and threw down the high places and the altars out of all Judah and Benjamin, in Ephraim also and Manasseh, until they had utterly destroyed them all. Then all the sons of Israel returned, each man to his possession, into their own cities.
2
And Hezekiah appointed the courses of the priests and the Levites after their courses, each man according to his service, the priests and Levites for burnt offerings and for peace
offerings, to minister and to give thanks and to praise in the gates of the tents of the LORD.
3
The king’s portion of his substance for the burnt offerings was the morning and evening burnt offerings and the burnt offerings for the sabbaths and for the new moons and for the solemn feasts, as
it is written in the law of the LORD.
4
Moreover, he commanded the people that dwelt in Jerusalem to give the portion of the priests and the Levites, that they might be encouraged in the law of the LORD.
5
And as soon as the commandment burst
forth and multiplied, an abundance of firstfruits of grain, wine, and oil, and honey, and of all the increase of the field was multiplied unto the sons of Israel; and likewise, they brought in the tithe, of all things in abundance.
6
Also the sons of Israel and Judah, that dwelt in the cities of Judah, gave in the same manner the tithe of the cows and the sheep, and the tithe of that which was sanctified of the things which had been promised unto the LORD their God, and laid
them in heaps.
7
In the third month they began to found those heaps, and they finished
them in the seventh month.
8
And when Hezekiah and the princes came and saw the heaps, they blessed the LORD and his people Israel.
9
Then Hezekiah questioned the priests and the Levites concerning the heaps.
10
And Azariah, the high priest of the house of Zadok, answered him and said, Since
the people began to bring the offerings into the house of the LORD, we have eaten and been satisfied and have had an abundance left over; for the LORD has blessed his people, and that which is left
is this great store.
11
Then Hezekiah commanded that they prepare chambers in the house of the LORD, and they prepared
them
12
and brought in the offerings and the tithes and the dedicated
things faithfully, over which Cononiah, the Levite,
was ruler and Shimei, his brother,
was second.
13
And Jehiel, Azaziah, Nahath, Asahel, Jerimoth, Jozabad, Eliel, Ismachiah, Mahath, and Benaiah
were overseers under the hand of Cononiah and Shimei his brother, at the commandment of Hezekiah, the king, and Azariah the ruler of the house of God.
14
And Kore, the son of Imnah, the Levite, the porter toward the east,
was over the freewill offerings of God, to distribute the offerings of the LORD and the most holy things.
15
And at his hand
were Eden, Miniamin, Jeshua, Shemaiah, Amariah, and Shecaniah in the cities of the priests, to faithfully give their brethren
their parts according to their courses, to the great the same as to the small.
16
Besides that which is counted for the males from three years old and upward, unto all that entered into the house of the LORD, his daily portion for their ministry in their charges according to their courses;
17
both to those numbered among the priests by the house of their fathers and among the Levites from twenty years old and upward, in their charges by their courses;
18
and likewise unto those of their generation with all their little ones, their wives, and their sons and daughters, through all the congregation, for in their faithfulness they sanctified themselves in holiness.
19
Likewise, to the sons of Aaron, the priests,
who were in the fields of the suburbs of their cities, in all the cities, the men that were expressed by name, gave portions to all the males among the priests and to all the lineage of the Levites.
20
And thus did Hezekiah throughout all Judah and wrought
that which was good and right and true before the LORD his God.
21
And in every work that he began in the service of the house of God and in the law and in the commandments, he sought God and he did
it with all his heart and was prospered.