2 Chronicles: Chapter 31
1. Now when all this was finished, all Israel who
were present went out to the cities of Judah, and broke in pieces the pillars, and
hewed down the Asherim, and broke down the high places and the altars out of
all Judah and Benjamin, in Ephraim also and Manasseh, until they had destroyed
them all. Then all the children of Israel returned, every man to his
possession, into their own cities.
2. Hezekiah appointed the divisions of the priests
and the Levites after 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 The
Lord.
3. [He appointed] also the king's portion of his
substance for the burnt offerings, [to wit], for the morning and evening burnt
offerings, and the burnt offerings for the Sabbaths, and for the new moons, and
for the set feasts, as it is written in the law of The Lord.
4. Moreover he commanded the people who lived in
Jerusalem to give the portion of the priests and the Levites, that they might give
themselves to the law of The Lord.
5. As soon as the commandment came abroad, the
children of Israel gave in abundance the first fruits of grain, new wine, and
oil, and honey, and of all the increase of the field; and the tithe of all
things brought they in abundantly.
6. The children of Israel and Judah, who lived in
the cities of Judah, they also brought in the tithe of oxen and sheep, and the
tithe of dedicated things which were consecrated to The Lord their God, and
laid them by heaps.
7. In the third month they began to lay the
foundation of the heaps, and finished them in the seventh month.
8. When Hezekiah and the princes came and saw the
heaps, they blessed The Lord, and his people Israel.
9. Then Hezekiah questioned the priests and the
Levites concerning the heaps.
10. Azariah the chief priest, of the house of Zadok,
answered him and said, Since [the people] began to bring the offerings into the
house of The Lord, we have eaten and had enough, and have left plenty: for The
Lord has blessed his people; and that which is left is this great store.
11. Then Hezekiah commanded to prepare chambers in the
house of The Lord; and they prepared them.
12. They brought in the offerings and the tithes and
the dedicated things faithfully: and over them Conaniah the Levite was ruler, and
Shimei his brother was second.
13. Jehiel, and Azaziah, and Nahath, and Asahel, and
Jerimoth, and Jozabad, and Eliel, and Ismachiah, and Mahath, and Benaiah, were
overseers under the hand of Conaniah and Shimei his brother, by the appointment
of Hezekiah the king, and Azariah the ruler of the house of God.
14. Kore the son of Imnah the Levite, the porter at
the east [gate], was over the freewill offerings of God, to distribute the
offerings of The Lord, and the most holy things.
15. Under him were Eden, and Miniamin, and Jeshua, and
Shemaiah, Amariah, and Shecaniah, in the cities of the priests, in their office
of trust, to give to their brothers by divisions, as well to the great as to
the small:
16. besides those who were reckoned by genealogy of
males, from three years old and upward, even everyone who entered into the
house of The Lord, as the duty of every day required, for their service in
their offices according to their divisions;
17. and those who were reckoned by genealogy of the priests
by their fathers' houses, and the Levites from twenty years old and upward, in
their offices by their divisions;
18. and those who were reckoned by genealogy of all
their little ones, their wives, and their sons, and their daughters, through
all the congregation: for in their office of trust they sanctified themselves
in holiness.
19. Also for the sons of Aaron the priests, who were
in the fields of the suburbs of 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 all who were reckoned by genealogy among the Levites.
20. Thus did Hezekiah throughout all Judah; and he
worked that which was good and right and faithful before The Lord his God.
21. In every work that he began in the service of the
house of God, and in the law, and in the commandments, to seek his God, he did
it with all his heart, and prospered.