1Now when all this was finished, all Israel who were present went out to the cities of Judah and broke in pieces the standing-stones, and cut down the Asherah poles and broke down the shrines and the altars out of all Judah and Benjamin and in Ephraim also and Manasseh until they had destroyed them all. Then all the children of Israel returned, every man to his property, to their own cities.
2Hezekiah appointed the divisions of the priests and the Levites according to their divisions, every man according to his service, both the priests and the Levites, for burnt offerings and for peace offerings, to minister and to give thanks and to praise in the gates of the camp of Yahweh.
3And the king appointed a portion of his property for the burnt offerings, for the morning and evening burnt offerings and the burnt offerings for the Sabbaths, and for the new moons, and for the designated feasts as it is written in the law of Yahweh.
4And he commanded the people who lived in Jerusalem to give the required portion of the priests and the Levites, so that they could give themselves to the law of Yahweh.
5As soon as the commandment went out, the children of Israel gave in abundance the firstfruits of grain, new wine and oil and honey, and of all the increase of the field; and they brought in an abundance, the tithe of everything.
6The children of Israel and Judah who lived in the cities of Judah, they also brought in the tithe of cattle and sheep and the tithe of dedicated things that had been dedicated to Yahweh their God, and placed them in large piles.
7In the third month they began to make the piles, and they finished them in the seventh month.
8When Hezekiah and the officials came and saw the piles, they blessed Yahweh and his people Israel.
9Then Hezekiah questioned the priests and the Levites about the piles.
10Azariah the chief priest of the house of Zadok answered him and said, “Since people began to bring the offerings into the house of Yahweh, we have eaten and had enough and have plenty remaining, for Yahweh has blessed his people, and this great abundance remains.”
11Then Hezekiah commanded them to prepare storerooms in the house of Yahweh, and they prepared them.
12They faithfully brought in the offerings and the tithes and the dedicated things, and Conaniah the Levite was ruler over them, and Shimei his brother was second.
13Jehiel and Azaziah, and Nahath, and Asahel, and Jerimoth, and Jozabad, and Eliel, and Ismachiah, and Mahath, and Benaiah were overseers under the authority of Conaniah and Shimei his brother by the appointment of Hezekiah the king and Azariah the ruler of the house of God.
14Kore the son of Imnah the Levite, the gatekeeper at the east gate, was over the freewill offerings of God, to give the contribution reserved for Yahweh, even the most holy offerings.
15Under him were Eden, and Miniamin, and Jeshua, and Shemaiah, Amariah and Shecaniah in the cities of the priests, faithfully giving to their brothers by divisions, to the old and young alike,
16in addition to those who were reckoned by genealogy, males from three years old and upward, everyone who entered into the house of Yahweh for their service in their responsibilities according to their divisions, as the duty of every day required;
17and those who were reckoned by genealogy of the priests according to their fathers’ houses, and the Levites from 20 years old and upward, in their responsibilities according to their divisions;
18and those who were reckoned by genealogy—along with all their small children, their wives and their sons and their daughters, throughout the whole congregation: for they faithfully sanctified themselves as holy.
19And as for the sons of Aaron the priests who were in the fields of the open land belonging to their cities, in every city there were men who were mentioned by name to give portions to all the males among the priests and to everyone who was reckoned by genealogy among the Levites.
20Hezekiah did this throughout all Judah, and he did what was good and right and faithful before Yahweh his God.
21In every work that he began in the service of the house of God, and in accordance with the law and the commandments to seek his God, he did it with all his heart and prospered.
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