2 Chronicles 29:4-17

4He brought the priests and Levites together in the square on the east side ⌞of the temple⌟.

5He said to them, “Listen to me, Levites. Perform the ceremonies to make the temple of the Lord God of your ancestors holy. Remove anything that has been corrupted from the holy place.

6Our ancestors were unfaithful and did what the Lord our God considered evil. They deserted him. They turned away from the Lord’s tent  and turned their backs on him.

7They also shut the doors of the ⌞temple’s⌟ entrance hall, extinguished the lamps, and didn’t burn incense or sacrifice burnt offerings in the holy place to the God of Israel.

8So the Lord was angry with Judah and Jerusalem. He made them something that shocks and terrifies people and that people ridicule, as you can see with your own eyes.

9Our fathers were killed in battle, and our sons, daughters, and wives are prisoners because of this.

10Now I intend to make a pledge to the Lord God of Israel so that he may turn his burning anger away from us.

11Don’t be negligent, my sons. The Lord has chosen you to stand in front of him, serve him, be his servants, and burn sacrifices.”

12So the Levites started to work. From Kohath’s descendants were Mahath, son of Amasai, and Joel, son of Azariah. From Merari’s descendants were Kish, son of Abdi, and Azariah, son of Jehallelel. From Gershon’s descendants were Joah, son of Zimmah, and Eden, son of Joah.

13From Elizaphan’s descendants were Shimri and Jeiel. From Asaph’s descendants were Zechariah and Mattaniah.

14From Heman’s descendants were Jehiel and Shimei. From Jeduthun’s descendants were Shemaiah and Uzziel.

15These men gathered their relatives and performed the ceremonies to make themselves holy. Then they obeyed the king’s order from the Lord’s word and entered the temple to make it clean.

16The priests entered the Lord’s temple to make it clean. They carried into the courtyard every unclean thing that they found in the Lord’s temple. Then the Levites took the unclean items outside the city to the Kidron Brook.

17They started on the first day of the first month. On the eighth day they went into the Lord’s entrance hall, and for eight days they performed the ceremonies to make the Lord’s temple holy. They finished on the sixteenth day of the first month.