2 Chronicles 29 - EasyEnglish Bible 2024（EASY）

Chapter 29Hezekiah rules Judah as king

1Hezekiah was 25 years old when he became king. He ruled Judah as king in Jerusalem for 29 years. His mother's name was Abijah. She was the daughter of Zechariah.

2Hezekiah did things that the Lord said were good, as his ancestor King David had done.

The Levites make the temple a holy place again

3In the first month of the year that Hezekiah became king, he opened the doors of the Lord's temple. He repaired the doors.

4He brought together the priests and the Levites in the yard at the east side of the temple.

5He said to them, ‘Listen to me, you Levites. Make yourselves clean to serve the Lord. Then you can make the temple a holy place again. It is the temple of the Lord, the God of your ancestors. Take out of that holy place anything that is unclean.

6Our ancestors did not serve the Lord faithfully. They did things that the Lord our God saw were evil. They turned away from him. They stopped worshipping him in his temple, where he lives. They completely turned against him.

7They shut the doors at the entrance of the temple. They stopped burning oil in the lamps. They did not offer to Israel's God any incense or burnt offerings in his holy place.

8So the Lord became angry with Judah and Jerusalem. He made them disgusting places which other people insult. You can see this with your own eyes.

9You know that cruel enemies killed our fathers. They took away our sons, our daughters and our wives as their prisoners. That was God's punishment.

10Now I want to make a covenant with the Lord, Israel's God. Then he will stop being angry with us.

11My sons, the Lord has chosen you to serve him in his temple and to offer sacrifices. So do your work well.’

12Then these Levites started to work in the temple:

From Kohath's clan: Amasai's son Mahath and Azariah's son Joel.

From Merari's clan: Abdi's son Kish and Jehallelel's son Azariah.

From Gershon's clan: Zimmah's son Joah and Joah's son Eden.

13From Elizaphan's clan: Shimri and Jeiel.

From Asaph's clan: Zechariah and Mattaniah.

14From Heman's clan: Jehiel and Shimei.

From Jeduthun's clan: Shemaiah and Uzziel.

15Those men brought all the Levites together. They all made themselves clean to serve the Lord. Then they went into the temple to make it a holy place again, as the king had commanded them. They obeyed the Lord's command.

16Then the priests went into the inside room of the Lord's temple to make it holy. They found some things in the temple that were unclean. They carried all those things out to the temple yard. Then the Levites took the unclean things out of the city to the Kidron Valley.

17They began this work on the first day of the first month. On the 8th day of the month they reached the entrance room of the temple. They worked to make the temple a holy place for eight more days. On the 16th day of the first month they had finished the work.

18Then they went to King Hezekiah and they said, ‘We have made the whole temple clean and holy. That includes the altar for burnt offerings and all its tools. It also includes the table for the special bread and all its tools.

19When Ahaz was king, he removed many things from the temple when he turned away from the Lord. We have made all those things clean again. We have put them in front of the Lord's altar so that the priests can use them again.’

People worship God again in his temple

20King Hezekiah got up early the next morning. He brought the city's officers together. They all went up to the Lord's temple.

21They took with them seven bulls, seven male sheep, seven lambs and seven male goats. They offered these animals as a sin offering for the kingdom, for the holy place and for the people of Judah. The king told the priests, Aaron's descendants, to offer sacrifices on the Lord's altar.

22So they killed the bulls. The priests took the blood and they splashed it on the altar. Then they killed the male sheep. The priests splashed their blood on the altar too. Then they killed the lambs. The priests also splashed their blood on the altar.

23Finally, the priests brought the male goats in front of King Hezekiah and the people who were there. The king and the people put their hands on the goats.

24Then the priests killed the goats as a sin offering. They offered their blood on the altar as a sacrifice. Then all the people of Israel would no longer be guilty for their sins. This was because the king had said that the burnt offerings and the sin offerings would be for all Israel.

25The king told the Levites to stand in the Lord's temple with their cymbals, harps and lyres to make music. They stood at the places where King David, David's prophet Gad and the prophet Nathan had told the Levites to stand. This was the Lord's command that he had given to his prophets.

26The Levites held the musical instruments that King David had provided. The priests held their trumpets.

27Then Hezekiah told the priests to offer the burnt offering on the altar. When they began to offer the sacrifice, the singers started to sing to praise the Lord. The trumpets and the musical instruments of King David of Israel also started to make music.

28All the people there were worshipping the Lord. At the same time the singers were singing and the priests were making music with their trumpets. They all continued to do that until the priests finished making the burnt offering.

29When the priests finished offering the sacrifices, the king and everyone with him bent down low to worship God.

30King Hezekiah and his officers told the Levites to sing songs to praise the Lord. They told them to sing the songs that King David and the prophet Asaph had written. So the Levites praised God in that way. They were very happy and they bent down low to worship God.

31Then Hezekiah said, ‘Now you have made yourselves clean to serve the Lord. So come to the Lord's temple and bring sacrifices and offerings to thank the Lord.’ So all the people brought their sacrifices and their offerings to thank the Lord. Everyone who wanted to offer burnt offerings brought animals for that too.

32For their burnt offerings, the people brought 70 bulls, 100 male sheep and 200 lambs to offer to the Lord.

33They also brought 600 bulls and 3,000 sheep to offer to the Lord.

34But there were not enough priests to prepare all the animals for the sacrifices. So their relatives, the Levites, helped them until they had finished the work. By that time more priests had made themselves clean to serve the Lord. (The Levites had been more careful than the priests to make themselves clean for the Lord.)

35The people brought a lot of animals for burnt offerings. There was also the fat from the friendship offerings. And there were drink offerings too. The priests offered all those with the burnt offerings.

That is how they started to worship the Lord again in his temple.

36Hezekiah and all the people were happy because God had helped them. They had been able to do the work on the temple very quickly.