He gave him the regulations ¹  for the divisions of priests and Levites, for all the assigned responsibilities within the Lord’s temple, and for all the items used in the service of the Lord’s temple.

He made ten washing basins; he put five on the south side and five on the north side. In them they rinsed the items used for burnt sacrifices; the priests washed in “The Sea.”

The priests brought the ark of the covenant of the Lord to its assigned ¹  place in the inner sanctuary of the temple, in the most holy place under the wings of the cherubs.

All the Levites who were musicians, including Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun, and their sons and relatives, wore linen. They played cymbals and stringed instruments as they stood east of the altar. They were accompanied by 120 priests who blew trumpets.

Now ascend, O Lord God, to your resting place, you and the ark of your strength! May your priests, O Lord God, experience your deliverance! ¹  May your loyal followers rejoice in the prosperity you give! ² 

The Levites even left their pasturelands and their property behind and came to Judah and Jerusalem, for Jeroboam and his sons prohibited them from serving as the Lord’s priests.

But as for us, the Lord is our God and we have not rejected him. Aaron’s descendants serve as the Lord’s priests and the Levites assist them with the work. ¹ 

The men of Judah turned around and realized they were being attacked from the front and the rear. ¹  So they cried out for help to the Lord. The priests blew their trumpets,

No one must enter the Lord’s temple except the priests and Levites who are on duty. They may enter because they are ceremonially pure. All the others should carry out their assigned service to the Lord.

When Azariah the high priest and the other priests looked at ¹  him, there was a skin disease on his forehead. They hurried him out of there; even the king ²  himself wanted to leave quickly because the Lord had afflicted him.

The priests then entered the Lord’s temple to purify it; they brought out to the courtyard of the Lord’s temple every ceremonially unclean thing they discovered inside. ¹  The Levites took them out to the Kidron Valley.

They slaughtered the bulls, and the priests took the blood and splashed it on the altar. Then they slaughtered the rams and splashed the blood on the altar; next they slaughtered the lambs and splashed the blood on the altar.

Then the priests slaughtered them. They offered their blood as a sin offering on the altar to make atonement for all Israel, because the king had decreed ¹  that the burnt sacrifice and sin offering were for all Israel.

They slaughtered the Passover lamb on the fourteenth day of the second month. The priests and Levites were ashamed, so they consecrated themselves and brought burnt sacrifices to the Lord’s temple.

They stood at their posts according to the regulations outlined in the law of Moses, the man of God. The priests were splashing the blood as the Levites handed it to them. ¹ 

The Israelites who were in Jerusalem observed the Feast of Unleavened Bread for seven days with great joy. The Levites and priests were praising the Lord every day with all their might. ¹ 

King Hezekiah of Judah supplied 1,000 bulls and 7,000 sheep ¹  for the assembly, while the officials supplied them ²  with 1,000 bulls and 10,000 sheep. Many priests consecrated themselves.

The celebration included ¹  the entire assembly of Judah, the priests, the Levites, the entire assembly of those who came from Israel, the resident foreigners who came from the land of Israel, and the residents of Judah.

Hezekiah appointed the divisions of the priests and Levites to do their assigned tasks ¹  – to offer burnt sacrifices and present offerings and to serve, give thanks, and offer praise in the gates of the Lord’s sanctuary. ² 

They made disbursements to the priests listed in the genealogical records by their families, and to the Levites twenty years old and up, according to their duties as assigned to their divisions,