A reading from the book of Second Chronicles.

Hezekiah began to reign when he was 25 years old, and he reigned 29 years in Jerusalem.

His mother's name was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah, and he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that David his father had done.

In the first year of his reign, in the first month,

he opened the doors of the house of the Lord and repaired them. He brought in the priests and the

Levites and assembled them in the square on the east, and said to them, hear me, Levites,

now consecrate yourselves and consecrate the house of the Lord, the God of your fathers,

and carry out the filth from the holy place,

for our fathers have been unfaithful, and have done what was evil in the sight of the Lord

our God. They have forsaken him, and have turned away their faces from the habitation of the Lord,

and turned their backs. They also shut the doors of the vestibule, and put out the lamps,

and have not burned incense, or offered burnt offerings in the holy place to the God of Israel vestibule and put out the lamps and have not burned incense or offered burnt

offerings in the holy place to the God of Israel. Therefore the wrath of the Lord came on Judah

in Jerusalem and he has made them an object of horror, of astonishment, and of hissing,

as you see with your own eyes. For behold, 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 to make a covenant with the Lord, the God of Israel, in order that his fierce anger may turn away from us.

My sons do not now be negligent, for the Lord has chosen you to stand in his presence, to minister to him, and to be his ministers and make offerings

to him. Then the Levites arose, Mayath, the son of Amasai, and Joel, the son of Azariah, of the

sons of the Cothites, and of the sons of Marariah, Kish, the son of Abdi, and Nazariah, the son of

Jahalel, and of the Gershanites, Joa, the son of Zima, and Eden, the son of Joa, and of the sons of Elizafan, Shemry and Juel, and of the sons of Asaph, Zechariah and Madania, and of the sons of Heman, Jihul and Shemaiah, and of the sons of Juduthan, Shimea and Yusiel. They gathered their brothers and consecrated

themselves, and went in as the king had commanded, by the words of the Lord, to cleanse the

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