Study Desk

^(a)Hezekiah became king when he was twenty-five years old; and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah.

^(b)He did right in the sight of the Lord , according to all that his father David had done.

In the first year of his reign, in the first month, he ^(c)opened the doors of the house of the Lord and repaired them.

He brought in the priests and the Levites and gathered them into the square on the east.

Then he said to them, "Listen to me, O Levites. ^(d)Consecrate yourselves now, and consecrate the house of the Lord , the God of your fathers, and carry the uncleanness out from the holy place.

For our fathers have been unfaithful and have done evil in the sight of the Lord our God, and have forsaken Him and ^(e)turned their faces away from the dwelling place of the Lord , and have ^[a]turned their backs.

They have also ^(f)shut the doors of the porch and put out the lamps, and have not burned incense or offered burnt offerings in the holy place to the God of Israel.

Therefore ^(g)the wrath of the Lord was against Judah and Jerusalem, and He has made them an object of terror, of horror, and of ^(h)hissing, as you see with your own eyes.

For behold, ⁽ⁱ⁾our fathers have fallen by the sword, and our sons and our daughters and our wives are in captivity for this.

Now it is in my heart ^(j)to make a covenant with the Lord God of Israel, that His burning anger may turn away from us.

My sons, do not be negligent now, for ^(k)the Lord has chosen you to stand before Him, to minister to Him, and to be His ministers and burn incense."