He said to them: “Listen to me, you Levites! Now consecrate yourselves, so you can consecrate the temple of the Lord God of your ancestors! ¹  Remove from the sanctuary what is ceremonially unclean!

Then I said to them, “You are holy to the Lord, just as these vessels are holy. The silver and the gold are a voluntary offering to the Lord, the God of your fathers.

Now give praise to the Lord God of your fathers, and do his will. Separate yourselves from the local residents ¹  and from these foreign wives.”

For the music director; by the Korahites, a well-written song. ²  O God, we have clearly heard; ³  our ancestors ⁴  have told us what you did ⁵  in their days, in ancient times. ⁶ 

You, by your power, ¹  defeated nations and settled our fathers on their land; ²  you crushed ³  the people living there ⁴  and enabled our ancestors to occupy it. ⁵ 

He established a rule ¹  in Jacob; he set up a law in Israel. He commanded our ancestors to make his deeds known to their descendants, ² 

Then they will not be like their ancestors, who were a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that was not committed and faithful to God. ¹ 

Our ancestors in Egypt failed to appreciate your miraculous deeds, they failed to remember your many acts of loyal love, and they rebelled at the sea, by the Red Sea. ¹ 

To this day your people ¹  have shown no contrition! They have not revered me nor followed the laws and statutes I commanded ²  you and your ancestors.’

You must divide it equally just as I vowed to give it to your forefathers; ¹  this land will be assigned as your inheritance. ² 

We have not paid attention to your servants the prophets, who spoke by your authority ¹  to our kings, our leaders, and our ancestors, ²  and to all the inhabitants ³  of the land as well.

O LORD, we have been humiliated ¹  – our kings, our leaders, and our ancestors – because we have sinned against you.

“For the Lord who rules over all says, ‘As I had planned to hurt ¹  you when your fathers made me angry,’ says the Lord who rules over all, ‘and I was not sorry,

And you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, ¹  we would not have participated with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’

Rejoice in that day, and jump for joy, because ¹  your reward is great in heaven. For their ancestors ²  did the same things to the prophets. ³ 

Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, ¹  and you people ²  say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.” ³ 

Then a famine occurred throughout ¹  Egypt and Canaan, causing ²  great suffering, and our ³  ancestors ⁴  could not find food.

For I do not want you to be unaware, ¹  brothers and sisters, ²  that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea,

You know that from your empty way of life inherited from your ancestors you were ransomed – not by perishable things like silver or gold,

and saying, ¹  “Where is his promised return? ²  For ever since ³  our ancestors ⁴  died, ⁵  all things have continued as they were ⁶  from the beginning of creation.”