29 ⁴ He brought in the priests and the Levites, and assembled them in the square on the east, 29 ⁵ and said to them, "Hear me, Levites! Now sanctify yourselves, and sanctify the house of Yahweh, the God of your fathers, and carry out the filth from the holy place. 29 ⁶ For our fathers have been unfaithful and have done what was evil in the sight of Yahweh our God; they have forsaken him, and have turned away their faces from the habitation of Yahweh, and turned their backs. 29 ⁷ They also shut the doors of the vestibule and put out the lamps, and have not burned incense or offered burnt offerings in the holy place to the God of Israel. 29 ⁸ Therefore the wrath of Yahweh came on Judah and Jerusalem, and he has made them an object of horror, of astonishment, and of hissing, as you see with your own eyes. 29 ⁹ For lo, our fathers have fallen by the sword and our sons and our daughters and our wives are in captivity for this. 29 ¹⁰ Now it is in my heart to make a covenant with Yahweh, the God of Israel, that his fierce anger may turn away from us. 29 ¹¹ My sons, do not now be negligent, for Yahweh has chosen you to stand in his presence, to minister to him, and to be his ministers and burn incense to him."

29 ¹² Then the Levites arose, Mahath the son of Amasai, and Joel the son of Azariah, of the sons of the Kohathites; and of the sons of Merari, Kish the son of Abdi, and Azariah the son of Jehallelel; and of the Gershonites, Joah the son of Zimmah, and Eden the son of Joah; 29 ¹³ and of the sons of Elizaphan, Shimri and Jeuel; and of the sons of Asaph, Zechariah and Mattaniah; 29 ¹⁴ and of the sons of Heman, Jehuel and Shimei; and of the sons of Jeduthun, Shemaiah and Uzziel. 29 ¹⁵ They gathered their brethren, and sanctified themselves, and went in as the king had commanded, by the words of Yahweh, to cleanse the house of Yahweh. 29 ¹⁶ The priests went into the inner part of the house of Yahweh to cleanse it, and they brought out all the uncleanness that they found in the temple of Yahweh into the court of the house of Yahweh; and the Levites took it and carried it out to the brook Kidron. 29 ¹⁷ They began to sanctify on the first day of the first month, and on the eighth day of the month they came to the vestibule of Yahweh; then for eight days they sanctified the house of Yahweh, and on the sixteenth day of the first month they finished.