2 Chronicles
31
- When all this had ended, the Israelites
who were there went out to the towns of Judah, smashed the sacred stones and
cut down the Asherah poles. They destroyed the high places and the altars
throughout Judah and Benjamin and in Ephraim and Manasseh. After they had
destroyed all of them, the Israelites returned to their own towns and to their
own property.
- Hezekiah assigned the priests and Levites
to divisions -- each of them according to their duties as priests or Levites
-- to offer burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, to minister, to give
thanks and to sing praises at the gates of the LORD'S dwelling.
- The king contributed from his own possessions
for the morning and evening burnt offerings and for the burnt offerings on
the Sabbaths, New Moons and appointed feasts as written in the Law of the
LORD.
- He ordered the people living in Jerusalem
to give the portion due the priests and Levites so they could devote themselves
to the Law of the LORD.
- As soon as the order went out, the Israelites
generously gave the firstfruits of their grain, new wine, oil and honey and
all that the fields produced. They brought a great amount, a tithe of everything.
- The men of Israel and Judah who lived in
the towns of Judah also brought a tithe of their herds and flocks and a tithe
of the holy things dedicated to the LORD their God, and they piled them in
heaps.
- They began doing this in the third month
and finished in the seventh month.
- When Hezekiah and his officials came and
saw the heaps, they praised the LORD and blessed his people Israel.
- Hezekiah asked the priests and Levites about
the heaps;
- and Azariah the chief priest, from the family
of Zadok, answered, "Since the people began to bring their contributions
to the temple of the LORD, we have had enough to eat and plenty to spare,
because the LORD has blessed his people, and this great amount is left over."
- Hezekiah gave orders to prepare storerooms
in the temple of the LORD, and this was done.
- Then they faithfully brought in the contributions,
tithes and dedicated gifts. Conaniah, a Levite, was in charge of these things,
and his brother Shimei was next in rank.
- Jehiel, Azaziah, Nahath, Asahel, Jerimoth,
Jozabad, Eliel, Ismakiah, Mahath and Benaiah were supervisors under Conaniah
and Shimei his brother, by appointment of King Hezekiah and Azariah the official
in charge of the temple of God.
- Kore son of Imnah the Levite, keeper of
the East Gate, was in charge of the freewill offerings given to God, distributing
the contributions made to the LORD and also the consecrated gifts.
- Eden, Miniamin, Jeshua, Shemaiah, Amariah
and Shecaniah assisted him faithfully in the towns of the priests, distributing
to their fellow priests according to their divisions, old and young alike.
- In addition, they distributed to the males
three years old or more whose names were in the genealogical records -- all
who would enter the temple of the LORD to perform the daily duties of their
various tasks, according to their responsibilities and their divisions.
- And they distributed to the priests enrolled
by their families in the genealogical records and likewise to the Levites
twenty years old or more, according to their responsibilities and their divisions.
- They included all the little ones, the wives,
and the sons and daughters of the whole community listed in these genealogical
records. For they were faithful in consecrating themselves.
- As for the priests, the descendants of Aaron,
who lived on the farm lands around their towns or in any other towns, men
were designated by name to distribute portions to every male among them and
to all who were recorded in the genealogies of the Levites.
- This is what Hezekiah did throughout Judah,
doing what was good and right and faithful before the LORD his God.
- In everything that he undertook in the service
of God's temple and in obedience to the law and the commands, he sought his
God and worked wholeheartedly. And so he prospered.
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