7
They even shut up the doors of the porch and put out the lamps and have not burned incense nor offered burnt offerings in the sanctuary unto the God of Israel.
8
Therefore, the wrath of the LORD has come upon Judah and Jerusalem, and he has delivered them to trouble, to astonishment, and to hissing, as ye see with your eyes.
9
For, behold, 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 my heart to make a covenant with the LORD God of Israel that his fierce wrath may turn away from us.
11
My sons, do not deceive yourselves, for the LORD has chosen you to stand before him, to serve him, and that ye should be his ministers and burn incense unto him.
12
Then the Levites arose, Mahath, the son of Amasai, and Joel, the son of Azariah, of the sons of Kohath; and of the sons of Merari, Kish, the son of Abdi, and Azariah, the son of Jehalelel; and of the sons of Gershon; Joah, the son of Zimmah, and Eden, the son of Joah;
13
and of the sons of Elizaphan; Shimri and Jeiel; and of the sons of Asaph; Zechariah and Mattaniah;
14
and of the sons of Heman; Jehiel and Shimei; and of the sons of Jeduthun; Shemaiah and Uzziel.
15
And they gathered their brethren and sanctified themselves and entered 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 into 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 into the Brook Kidron.
17
Now they began to sanctify on the first
day of the first month, and on the eighth day of the month they came to the porch of the LORD; and they sanctified the house of the LORD in eight days; and in the sixteenth day of the first month they finished.