God

Now you intend to force the people from Y'hudah and Yerushalayim into subjection as your slaves; but haven't you guilty deeds of your own that you committed against ADONAI your God?

Therefore listen to me now; and send the captives back, the people you have taken captive from your kinsmen; because the fierce anger of ADONAI is on you."

saying to them, "Don't bring the captives here, because you intend to do something that will bring guilt on us against ADONAI. It will only add to our sins and guilt, for our guilt is great, and there is fierce anger against Isra'el."

For ADONAI brought Y'hudah low because of Achaz king of Isra'el, since he had caused disturbances in Y'hudah and acted very treacherously against ADONAI.

even though Achaz had stripped the house of ADONAI and the palaces of the king and princes and had given the plunder to the king of Ashur, it didn't help him at all.

During his time of distress this same King Achaz added to his treachery against ADONAI

Achaz collected the equipment from the house of God, broke to pieces the equipment from the house of God and sealed the doors of the house of ADONAI; then he made himself altars in every corner of Yerushalayim.

In every city of Y'hudah he made high places for offering to other gods, thus provoking ADONAI the God of his ancestors.

He did what was right from ADONAI's perspective, following the example of everything David his ancestor had done.

In the first month of the first year of his reign, he reopened the doors of the house of ADONAI and repaired them.

and said to them, "Listen to me, L'vi'im: consecrate yourselves now, consecrate the house of ADONAI the God of your ancestors, and remove the filth from the Holy Place.

For our ancestors acted treacherously, they did what is evil from the perspective of ADONAI our God, they abandoned him, they turned their faces away from where ADONAI lives and turned their backs on him.

They sealed the doors of the vestibule, put out the lamps and stopped burning incense and offering burnt offerings in the Holy Place to the God of Isra'el.

"Because of this, ADONAI's anger has settled on Y'hudah and Yerushalayim; and he has made them an object of horror, astonishment and mocking - as you can see with your own eyes.

"Now it is in my heart to make a covenant with ADONAI the God of Isra'el, so that his furious anger will turn away from us.

My sons, now is not a time for being negligent; for you are the ones ADONAI chose to stand before him and serve him as his ministers, offering him incense."

They gathered their kinsmen, consecrated themselves and, in keeping with the king's order and ADONAI's words, went in to cleanse the house of ADONAI.

The cohanim went in to cleanse the inner part of the house of ADONAI; all the unclean things they found in the sanctuary of ADONAI they brought out into the courtyard of the house of ADONAI, where the L'vi'im took and carried them out to Vadi Kidron.

They began consecrating on the first day of the first month, and on the eighth day of the month they reached the vestibule of ADONAI. Then they consecrated the house of ADONAI in eight more days; so that on the sixteenth day of the first month, they had finished.

Then they went to Hizkiyahu the king in [the palace] and said, "We have cleansed all the house of ADONAI, including the altar for burnt offerings, with all its equipment, and the table for the showbread, with all its equipment.

Moreover, we have reconditioned and consecrated all the articles that King Achaz threw out during his reign, when he was sinning; and they are there, in front of the altar of ADONAI."

Next morning, Hizkiyahu the king got up early, gathered the leading men of the city and went up to the house of ADONAI.

They brought seven bulls, seven rams, seven lambs and seven male goats as a sin offering for the kingdom, for the sanctuary and for Y'hudah; and he ordered the cohanim to offer them on the altar of ADONAI.

He stationed the L'vi'im in the house of ADONAI with cymbals, lyres and lutes, in keeping with the order of David, Gad the king's seer and Natan the prophet; for the mitzvah had come from ADONAI through his prophets.

Hizkiyahu ordered that the burnt offering should be offered on the altar. The moment the burnt offering began, the song of ADONAI also began, accompanied by the trumpets and the instruments of David king of Isra'el.