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So Uzziah the king was a leper. He could not enter the Lord 's Temple. His son Jotham controlled the king's palace and became governor for the people.

Jotham also fought against the king of the Ammonites and his army and defeated them. So each year for three years the Ammonites gave Jotham 3 3/4 tons of silver, 62,000 bushels of wheat, and 62,000 bushels of barley.

And now you plan to keep the people of Judah and Jerusalem as slaves. But you are as guilty as they are for sinning against the Lord your God.

In every town in Judah Ahaz made high places for burning incense to worship other gods. Ahaz made the Lord , the God his ancestors obeyed, very angry.

Hezekiah called the priests and Levites together in one assembly. He had a meeting with them in the courtyard on the east side of the Temple. Hezekiah said to them, "Listen to me, Levites! Make yourselves ready for holy service. Make the Temple of the Lord God ready for holy service. He is the God your ancestors obeyed. Take away the things from the Temple that don't belong in there. These things make the Temple unclean.

Then these Levites gathered their brothers together and made themselves ready for holy service in the Temple. They obeyed the king's command that came from the Lord . They went into the Lord 's Temple to clean it.

On the first day of the first month, the Levites began to make the Temple ready for holy service. By the eighth day, they had finished cleaning all the area up to the porch of the Lord 's Temple. For eight more days they cleaned the Lord 's Temple itself to make it ready for holy use. They finished on the 16th day of the first month.

Then they went to King Hezekiah and said to him, "King Hezekiah, we cleaned all the Lord 's Temple and the altar for burning offerings and all the things in the Temple. We cleaned the table for the rows of bread with all the things used for that table.

During the time that Ahaz was king, he rebelled against God. He threw away many of the things that were in the Temple. But we repaired all those things and made them ready for their special use. They are now in front of the Lord 's altar."

They brought seven bulls, seven rams, seven lambs, and seven young male goats. These animals were for a sin offering for the kingdom of Judah, for the Holy Place to make it clean, and for the people of Judah. King Hezekiah commanded the priests who were descendants of Aaron to offer these animals on the Lord 's altar.

Then the priests brought the male goats in front of the king, and the people gathered together. The goats were the sin offering. The priests put their hands on the goats and killed the goats. They made a sin offering with the goats' blood on the altar. They did this so that God would forgive the sins of the Israelites. The king said that the burnt offering and the sin offering should be made for all the Israelites.

But there were not enough priests to skin and cut up all the animals for the burnt offerings. So their relatives, the Levites, helped them until the work was finished and until other priests could make themselves ready for holy service. The Levites had been more serious than the priests about making themselves ready to serve.

Hezekiah and the people were very happy about the things God prepared for his people. And they were happy he did it so quickly!

King Hezekiah sent messages to all the people of Israel and Judah. He wrote letters to the people of Ephraim and Manasseh also. He invited all these people to come to the Lord 's Temple in Jerusalem so that they all could celebrate the Passover for the Lord , the God of Israel.

They could not celebrate the Passover Festival at the regular time, because not enough priests had made themselves ready for holy service and the people had not gathered in Jerusalem.

So they sent the announcement throughout Israel, from the town of Beersheba all the way to the town of Dan. They told the people to come to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover for the Lord , the God of Israel. Not many people had been celebrating it as it was described in the law.

The people took away the altars in Jerusalem that were for false gods and all the incense altars that were for false gods. They threw them into the Kidron Valley.

Then they killed the Passover lamb on the 14th day of the second month. The priests and the Levites felt ashamed. They made themselves ready for holy service. The priests and the Levites brought burnt offerings into the Lord 's Temple.

There were many people in the group who had not made themselves ready for holy service, so they were not permitted to kill the Passover lambs. That is why the Levites were responsible for killing the Passover lambs for everyone who was not clean. The Levites made each lamb holy for the Lord .

Many people from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun had not prepared themselves in the right way for the Passover Festival. They did not celebrate the Passover the right way, as the Law of Moses says. But Hezekiah prayed for the people. So he said this prayer, " Lord God, you are good. These people sincerely wanted to worship you in the right way, but they did not make themselves clean as the law says. Please forgive these people. You are the Lord , the God our ancestors worshiped. Forgive them, even if some did not make themselves clean as the rules of the Most Holy Place say."