1When all this was finished, all Israel who were present went out to the cities of Judah and shattered the sacred pillars, cut down the Asherim, and tore down the high places and the altars throughout all Judah and Benjamin, and in Ephraim and Manasseh, until they had destroyed them all. Then all the sons of Israel returned, each to his own possession, to their cities.
2Hezekiah appointed the divisions of the priests and the Levites, division by division, each according to his service—the priests and the Levites—for burnt offerings and for peace offerings, to minister, to give thanks, and to praise in the gates of Yahweh’s camps.
3And the king’s portion from his own property was for the burnt offerings: the morning and evening burnt offerings, and the burnt offerings for the Sabbaths, the new moons, and the appointed feasts, as written in the law of Yahweh.
4He also commanded the people who lived in Jerusalem to give the portion due the priests and the Levites, so that they might hold firmly to the law of Yahweh.
5As soon as the word spread, the sons of Israel gave abundantly the firstfruits of grain, new wine, fresh oil, and honey, and all the produce of the field; and the tithe of everything they brought in abundance.
6And the sons of Israel and Judah who lived in the cities of Judah, they too brought in the tithe of cattle and sheep, and the tithe of the holy things that were consecrated to Yahweh their God, and they laid them in heap upon heap.
7In the third month they began to pile up the heaps, and in the seventh month they finished.
8When Hezekiah and the officials came and saw the heaps, they blessed Yahweh and his people Israel.
9Then Hezekiah inquired of the priests and the Levites concerning the heaps.
10And Azariah the chief priest, of the house of Zadok, said to him, “Since the contributions began to be brought into the house of Yahweh, we have eaten and been satisfied and have plenty left over, for Yahweh has blessed his people; and this great abundance is what is left.”
11Then Hezekiah commanded them to prepare storerooms in the house of Yahweh, and they prepared them.
12They faithfully brought in the contributions, the tithe, and the holy things; and over them Conaniah the Levite was chief officer, and Shimei his brother was second.
13And Jehiel, Azaziah, Nahath, Asahel, Jerimoth, Jozabad, Eliel, Ismachiah, Mahath, and Benaiah were overseers under the hand of Conaniah and Shimei his brother, by the appointment of Hezekiah the king and of Azariah, the chief officer of the house of God.
14And Kore son of Imnah the Levite, the gatekeeper on the east, was over the freewill offerings of God, to distribute the contribution of Yahweh and the most holy things.
15Under his authority were Eden, Miniamin, Jeshua, Shemaiah, Amariah, and Shecaniah, in the cities of the priests, faithfully distributing to their brothers by divisions, to great and small alike.
16This was apart from those enrolled by genealogy—the males from three years old and upward—everyone who entered the house of Yahweh, as each day’s duty required, for their service in their charges according to their divisions.
17And they enrolled the priests by their fathers’ houses, and the Levites from twenty years old and upward, according to their charges by their divisions.
18And to enroll by pedigree all their little ones, their wives, their sons, and their daughters, for the whole assembly, for they consecrated themselves in holiness in their faithfulness.
19Also for the sons of Aaron, the priests, in the fields of the pasturelands of their cities, in every single city, there were men designated by name to give portions to every male among the priests and to everyone enrolled among the Levites.
20Thus Hezekiah did throughout all Judah, and he did what was good and right and faithful before Yahweh his God.
21And in every work that he began in the service of the house of God, and in the law, and in the commandment, seeking his God, he did it with all his heart, and he prospered.
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