6
For our fathers have trespassed, and done that which was evil in the sight of the LORD our God, and have forsaken him, and have turned away their faces from the habitation of the LORD, and turned their backs.
7
Also they have shut up the doors of the porch, and put out the lamps, and have not burned incense nor offered burnt offerings in the holy place to the God of Yisra'el.
8
Therefore the wrath of the LORD was on Yehudah and Yerushalayim, and he has delivered them to be tossed back and forth, to be an astonishment, and a hissing, as you 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, the God of Yisra'el, that his fierce anger may turn away from us.
11
My sons, don't be negligent now; for the LORD has chosen you to stand before him, to minister to him, and that you should be his ministers, and burn incense.
12
Then the Levites arose, Machat, the son of `Amasai, and Yo'el the son of `Azaryah, of the sons of the Kehati; and of the sons of Merari, Kish the son of `Avdi, and `Azaryah the son of Yehallel'el; and of the Gershoni, Yo'ach the son of Zimmah, and `Eden the son of Yo'ach;
13
and of the sons of Elitzafan, Shimri and Ye`u'el; and of the sons of Asaf, Zekharyah and Mattanyah;
14
and of the sons of Heman, Yechi'el and Shim`i; and of the sons of Yedutun, Shemayah and `Uzzi'el.
15
They gathered their brothers, and sanctified themselves, and went in, according to the mitzvah of the king by the words of the LORD, to cleanse the house of the LORD.
16
The Kohanim went in to 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. The Levites took it, to carry it out abroad to the brook Kidron.