Hebrew-English Text
I. Summary
Hezekiah orders the priests and Levites to purify the temple. Hezekiah and the people offer sacrifices and everyone rejoices.
II. Photo
The temple is overcrowded: “The priests were too few to be able to flay all the burnt offerings, so their kinsmen, the Levites, reinforced them till the end of the work” (v. 34a)
III. Select Verses
4-6: He summoned the priests and the Levites and assembled them in the east square. He said to them, “Listen to me, Levites! Sanctify yourselves and sanctify the House of the LORD God of your fathers, and take the abhorrent things out of the holy place. For our fathers trespassed and did what displeased the LORD our God; they forsook Him and turned their faces away from the dwelling-place of the LORD, turning their backs on it.
9: Our fathers died by the sword, and our sons and daughters and wives are in captivity on account of this.
18-19: Then they went into the palace of King Hezekiah and said, “We have purified the whole House of the LORD and the altar of burnt offering and all its utensils, and the table of the bread of display and all its utensils; and all the utensils that King Ahaz had befouled during his reign, when he trespassed, we have made ready and sanctified. They are standing in front of the altar of the LORD.”
21: They brought seven bulls and seven rams and seven lambs and seven he-goats as a sin offering for the kingdom and for the Sanctuary and for Judah. He ordered the Aaronite priests to offer them on the altar of the LORD.
36: Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced over what God had enabled the people to accomplish, because it had happened so suddenly.
IV. Outline
1. Introduction
2. Hezekiah’s righteousness
3. Temple repairs
4-11. Message to the Levites: restore proper YHWH service in the temple
12-15. The Levites come according to their clans
16-17. Sanctifying the temple and its objects
18-19. Message to Hezekiah
20-24. Expiatory offerings
25-26. Levitical musicians
27-30. Offering, music, prayer, prostration
31. Hezekiah calls for sacrifices
32-33. The people’s offerings
34-35. The Levites assist the Priests in flaying the animals
36. Rejoicing
V. Comment
No comment today. Stay tuned.
VI. Works Used
(see “Commentaries” page)
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