2 Chronicles 29:4-10

4He brought together the priests and the Levites in the yard at the east side of the temple.

5He said to them, ‘Listen to me, you Levites. Make yourselves clean to serve the Lord. Then you can make the temple a holy place again. It is the temple of the Lord, the God of your ancestors. Take out of that holy place anything that is unclean.

6Our ancestors did not serve the Lord faithfully. They did things that the Lord our God saw were evil. They turned away from him. They stopped worshipping him in his temple, where he lives. They completely turned against him.

7They shut the doors at the entrance of the temple. They stopped burning oil in the lamps. They did not offer to Israel's God any incense or burnt offerings in his holy place.

8So the Lord became angry with Judah and Jerusalem. He made them disgusting places which other people insult. You can see this with your own eyes.

9You know that cruel enemies killed our fathers. They took away our sons, our daughters and our wives as their prisoners. That was God's punishment.

10Now I want to make a covenant with the Lord, Israel's God. Then he will stop being angry with us.