2 Chronicles 29:4-17

4He brought in the priests and the Levites and gathered them into the public square on the east. 5Then he said to them, “Listen to me, you Levites. 1Consecrate yourselves now, and consecrate the house of the Lord, the God of your fathers, and carry the uncleanness out of the holy place. 6For our fathers have been unfaithful and have done evil in the sight of the Lord our God, and they have abandoned Him and 2turned their faces away from the dwelling place of the Lord, and have 3turned their backs. 7They have also 4shut the doors of the porch and extinguished the lamps, and have not burned incense nor offered burnt offerings in the holy place to the God of Israel. 8Therefore 5the wrath of the Lord was against Judah and Jerusalem, and He has made them an object of terror, of horror, and of 6hissing, as you see with your own eyes. 9For behold, 7our fathers have fallen by the sword, and our sons, our daughters, and our wives are in captivity because of this. 10Now it is in my heart 8to make a covenant with the Lord God of Israel, so that His burning anger may turn away from us. 11My sons, do not be negligent now, for 9the Lord has chosen you to stand before Him, to serve Him, and to be His ministers and burn incense.”

12Then the Levites arose: 10Mahath the son of Amasai and Joel the son of Azariah, from the sons of 11the Kohathites; and from the sons of Merari, Kish the son of Abdi and Azariah the son of Jehallelel; and from the Gershonites, Joah the son of Zimmah and Eden the son of Joah; 13and from the sons of Elizaphan, Shimri and 12Jeiel; and from the sons of Asaph, Zechariah and Mattaniah; 14and from the sons of Heman, 13Jehiel and Shimei; and from the sons of Jeduthun, Shemaiah and Uzziel. 15They assembled their brothers, 14consecrated themselves, and went in 15to cleanse the house of the Lord, according to the commandment of the king 16by the words of the Lord. 16So the priests went into the inner part of the house of the Lord to cleanse it, and they brought every unclean thing which they found in the temple of the Lord out to the courtyard of the house of the Lord. Then the Levites received it to carry out to 17the Kidron 18Valley. 17Now they began 19the consecration 20on the first day of the first month, and on the eighth day of the month they entered the porch of the Lord. Then they consecrated the house of the Lord in eight days, and finished on the sixteenth day of the first month.