 1 When all this was finished, all Israel who were present went to the cities of Judah and broke the images in pieces, and cut down the Asherahs, and threw down the high places and the altars out of all Judah and Benjamin, also in Ephraim and Manasseh, even to the end. Then all the children of Israel returned, each to his possession into their own cities. 2 Hezekiah set the courses of the priests and the Levites according to their divisions, each according to his service, the priests and Levites for burnt offerings and for peace offerings, to minister and to give thanks, and to praise in the gates of the tents of the Lord. 3 The king's portion from his goods was for burnt offerings, and for burnt offerings, of the morning and the evening and the burnt offerings of the Sabbaths, and for the new moons, and for the set feasts, as it is written in the law of the Lord. 4 He commanded the people who lived in Jerusalem to give the portion of the priests and the Levites so that they might be strong in the law of the Lord. 5 As the command spread, the children of Israel brought plentifully of the firstfruits of corn, wine, and oil, and honey, and of all the increase of the field. And the tithe of all things they brought in abundance. 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 holy things that were consecrated to the Lord their God, and laid it up by heaps. 7 In the third month they began to lay the foundation of the heaps, and finished in the seventh month. 8 Hezekiah and the rulers came and saw the heaps, and they blessed the Lord and His people Israel. 9 Hezekiah asked 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 had enough to eat and have plenty left. For the Lord has blessed His people, and this great store is left. 11 Hezekiah commanded storehouses to be prepared in the house of the Lord and they were prepared. 12 They brought in the offerings and the tithes and the things dedicated to God faithfully. Over them was Cononiah the Levite ruler and Shimei his brother the next. 13 Jehiel, Azaziah, Nahath, Asahel, Jerimoth, Jozabad, Eliel, Ismachiah, Mahath, and Benaiah, were overseers under the hand of Cononiah and Shimei his brother at the command of King Hezekiah and Azariah the ruler of the house of God. 14 Kore the son of Imnah the Levite, the gatekeeper toward the east, was over the freewill offerings of God, to distribute the sacrifices of the Lord and the most holy things. 15 Next to him Eden, and Miniamin, and Jeshua, and Shemaiah, Amariah, and Shecaniah, in the cities of the priests, in their set office, to give to their brothers by divisions, to the great as well as to the small, 16 besides registering the males from three years and upward, to everyone who enters into the house of the Lord, giving his daily portion for their service in their charges according to their divisions 17 both to the genealogy of the priests by the house of their fathers, and the Levites from 20 years old and upward, and their charges by their divisions, 18 and to the genealogy of all their little children, their wives and their sons and their daughters, through all the congregation. For in their set office they set themselves apart in holiness. 19 To the sons of Aaron, the priests, in the fields of the open lands of their cities, in each separate city were the men who were named by name, to give shares to all the males among the priests, and to all who were counted by genealogies among the Levites. 20 Hezekiah did throughout all Judah, and did the good and the right and the true 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.
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