Their children, whom he raised up in their place, were circumcised by Joshua; for they were uncircumcised, because they had not circumcised them on the way.
When they were done circumcising the whole nation, they stayed in their places in the camp until they were healed.
Yahweh said to Joshua, “Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.” Therefore the name of that place was called Gilgal, to this day.
The prince of Yahweh’s army said to Joshua, “Take off your shoes; for the place on which you stand is holy.” Joshua did so.
“Get up! Sanctify the people, and say, ‘Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow, for Yahweh, the God of Israel, says, “There is a devoted thing among you, Israel. You cannot stand before your enemies until you take away the devoted thing from among you.”
Is the iniquity of Peor too little for us, from which we have not cleansed ourselves to this day, although there came a plague on the congregation of Yahweh,
Now therefore please beware and drink no wine nor strong drink, and don’t eat any unclean thing:
Therefore wash yourself, anoint yourself, get dressed, and go down to the threshing floor, but don’t make yourself known to the man until he has finished eating and drinking.
The Levites took down Yahweh’s ark, and the coffer that was with it, in which the jewels of gold were, and put them on the great stone; and the men of Beth Shemesh offered burnt offerings and sacrificed sacrifices the same day to Yahweh.
The men of Beth Shemesh said, “Who is able to stand before Yahweh, this holy God? To whom shall he go up from us?”
The men of Kiriath Jearim came, and took Yahweh’s ark, and brought it into Abinadab’s house on the hill, and consecrated Eleazar his son to keep Yahweh’s ark.
He said, “Peaceably; I have come to sacrifice to Yahweh. Sanctify yourselves, and come with me to the sacrifice.” He sanctified Jesse and his sons, and called them to the sacrifice.
Nevertheless Saul didn’t say anything that day, for he thought, “Something has happened to him. He is not clean. Surely he is not clean.”
The priest answered David, and said, “I have no common bread, but there is holy bread; if only the young men have kept themselves from women.”
David answered the priest, and said to him, “Truly, women have been kept from us as usual these three days. When I came out, the vessels of the young men were holy, though it was only a common journey. How much more then today shall their vessels be holy?”
Then David arose from the earth, and washed, and anointed himself, and changed his clothing; and he came into Yahweh’s house, and worshiped. Then he came to his own house; and when he requested, they set bread before him, and he ate.
Mephibosheth the son of Saul came down to meet the king; and he had neither groomed his feet, nor trimmed his beard, nor washed his clothes, from the day the king departed until the day he came home in peace.
Yahweh rewarded me according to my righteousness. He rewarded me according to the cleanness of my hands.
I was also perfect toward him. I kept myself from my iniquity.
Therefore Yahweh has rewarded me according to my righteousness, According to my cleanness in his eyesight.
He prepared an inner sanctuary in the middle of the house within, to set the ark of Yahweh’s covenant there.
Within the inner sanctuary was twenty cubits in length, and twenty cubits in width, and twenty cubits in its height; and he overlaid it with pure gold; and he covered the altar with cedar.
He overlaid the whole house with gold, until all the house was finished. He also overlaid the whole altar that belonged to the inner sanctuary with gold.
He overlaid the floor of the house with gold, inside and outside.
The great court around had three courses of cut stone, and a course of cedar beams; like the inner court of Yahweh’s house and the porch of the house.
It was a hand width thick. Its brim was worked like the brim of a cup, like the flower of a lily. It held two thousand baths.
He made ten basins of brass. One basin contained forty baths; and every basin was four cubits; and on every one of the ten bases one basin.
the ten bases; the ten basins on the bases;
Solomon made all the vessels that were in Yahweh’s house: the golden altar and the table that the show bread was on, of gold;
and the lamp stands, five on the right side, and five on the left, before the inner sanctuary, of pure gold; and the flowers, the lamps, and the tongs, of gold;
Solomon offered burnt offerings and peace offerings on the altar which he built to Yahweh three times per year, burning incense with them, on the altar that was before Yahweh. So he finished the house.
He put away the sodomites out of the land, and removed all the idols that his fathers had made.
He put the wood in order, and cut the bull in pieces, and laid it on the wood. He said, “Fill four jars with water, and pour it on the burnt offering, and on the wood.”
The remnant of the sodomites, that remained in the days of his father Asa, he put away out of the land.
He went out to the spring of the waters, and threw salt into it, and said, “Yahweh says, ‘I have healed these waters. There shall not be from there any more death or barren wasteland.’”
So the waters were healed to this day, according to Elisha’s word which he spoke.
Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall come again to you, and you shall be clean.”
Aren’t Abanah and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Couldn’t I wash in them, and be clean?” So he turned and went away in a rage.
Then went he down, and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God; and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.
The money for the trespass offerings, and the money for the sin offerings was not brought into Yahweh’s house. It was the priests’.
The king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, and the priests of the second order, and the keepers of the threshold, to bring out of Yahweh’s temple all the vessels that were made for Baal, for the Asherah, and for all the army of the sky, and he burned them outside of Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron, and carried their ashes to Bethel.
The king broke down the altars that were on the roof of the upper room of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of Yahweh’s house, and beat them down from there, and cast their dust into the brook Kidron.
but in the eighteenth year of king Josiah, this Passover was kept to Yahweh in Jerusalem.
Moreover Josiah removed those who had familiar spirits, the wizards, and the teraphim, and the idols, and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, that he might confirm the words of the law which were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in Yahweh’s house.
But Aaron and his sons offered on the altar of burnt offering, and on the altar of incense, for all the work of the most holy place, and to make atonement for Israel, according to all that Moses the servant of God had commanded.
Some of the sons of the priests prepared the mixing of the spices.
and said to them, “You are the heads of the fathers’ households of the Levites. Sanctify yourselves, both you and your brothers, that you may bring the ark of Yahweh, the God of Israel, up to the place that I have prepared for it.
So the priests and the Levites sanctified themselves to bring up the ark of Yahweh, the God of Israel.
For their office was to wait on the sons of Aaron for the service of Yahweh’s house, in the courts, and in the rooms, and in the purifying of all holy things, even the work of the service of God’s house;
He decorated the house with precious stones for beauty. The gold was gold from Parvaim.
He also made ten basins, and put five on the right hand, and five on the left, to wash in them. The things that belonged to the burnt offering were washed in them; but the sea was for the priests to wash in.
and the lamp stands with their lamps, to burn according to the ordinance before the inner sanctuary, of pure gold;
and the flowers, the lamps, and the tongs of gold that was perfect gold;
and the snuffers, the basins, the spoons, and the fire pans of pure gold. As for the entry of the house, its inner doors for the most holy place and the doors of the main hall of the temple were of gold.
When the priests had come out of the holy place (for all the priests who were present had sanctified themselves, and didn’t keep their divisions;
also the Levites who were the singers, all of them, even Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun, and their sons and their brothers, arrayed in fine linen, with cymbals and stringed instruments and harps, stood at the east end of the altar, and with them one hundred twenty priests sounding with trumpets);
Moreover Solomon made the middle of the court that was before Yahweh’s house holy; for there he offered the burnt offerings, and the fat of the peace offerings, because the bronze altar which Solomon had made was not able to receive the burnt offering, the meal offering, and the fat.
Also he took away out of all the cities of Judah the high places and the sun images; and the kingdom was quiet before him.
His heart was lifted up in the ways of Yahweh. Furthermore, he took away the high places and the Asherah poles out of Judah.
But let no one come into Yahweh’s house, except the priests and those who minister of the Levites. They shall come in, for they are holy, but all the people shall follow Yahweh’s instructions.
He set the gatekeepers at the gates of Yahweh’s house, that no one who was unclean in anything should enter in.
He brought in the priests and the Levites, and gathered them together into the wide place on the east,
and said to them, “Listen to me, you Levites! Now sanctify yourselves, and sanctify Yahweh, the God of your fathers’ house, and carry the filthiness out of the holy place.
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.
They gathered their brothers, sanctified themselves, and went in, according to the commandment of the king by Yahweh’s words, to cleanse Yahweh’s house.
The priests went into the inner part of Yahweh’s house to cleanse it, and brought out all the uncleanness that they found in Yahweh’s temple into the court of Yahweh’s house. The Levites took it from there to carry it out to the brook Kidron.
Now they began on the first day of the first month to sanctify, and on the eighth day of the month they came to Yahweh’s porch. They sanctified Yahweh’s house in eight days, and on the sixteenth day of the first month they finished.
Then they went in to Hezekiah the king within the palace, and said, “We have cleansed all Yahweh’s house, including the altar of burnt offering with all its vessels, and the table of show bread with all its vessels.
Then Hezekiah the king arose early, gathered the princes of the city, and went up to Yahweh’s house.
They brought seven bulls, seven rams, seven lambs, and seven male goats, for a sin offering for the kingdom, for the sanctuary, and for Judah. He commanded the priests the sons of Aaron to offer them on Yahweh’s altar.
So they killed the bulls, and the priests received the blood, and sprinkled it on the altar. They killed the rams, and sprinkled the blood on the altar. They also killed the lambs, and sprinkled the blood on the altar.
They brought near the male goats for the sin offering before the king and the assembly; and they laid their hands on them.
Then the priests killed them, and they made a sin offering with their blood on the altar, to make atonement for all Israel; for the king commanded that the burnt offering and the sin offering should be made for all Israel.
Then Hezekiah answered, “Now you have consecrated yourselves to Yahweh. Come near and bring sacrifices and thank offerings into Yahweh’s house.” The assembly brought in sacrifices and thank offerings, and as many as were of a willing heart brought burnt offerings.
The number of the burnt offerings which the assembly brought was seventy bulls, one hundred rams, and two hundred lambs. All these were for a burnt offering to Yahweh.
But the priests were too few, so that they could not flay all the burnt offerings. Therefore their brothers the Levites helped them, until the work was ended, and until the priests had sanctified themselves; for the Levites were more upright in heart to sanctify themselves than the priests.
Also the burnt offerings were in abundance, with the fat of the peace offerings, and with the drink offerings for every burnt offering. So the service of Yahweh’s house was set in order.
For they could not keep it at that time, because the priests had not sanctified themselves in sufficient number, and the people had not gathered themselves together to Jerusalem.
Many people assembled at Jerusalem to keep the feast of unleavened bread in the second month, a very great assembly.
They arose and took away the altars that were in Jerusalem, and they took away all the altars for incense and threw them into the brook Kidron.
Then they killed the Passover on the fourteenth day of the second month. The priests and the Levites were ashamed, and sanctified themselves, and brought burnt offerings into Yahweh’s house.
For there were many in the assembly who had not sanctified themselves: therefore the Levites were in charge of killing the Passovers for everyone who was not clean, to sanctify them to Yahweh.
For a multitude of the people, even many of Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun, had not cleansed themselves, yet they ate the Passover other than the way it is written. For Hezekiah had prayed for them, saying, “May the good Yahweh pardon everyone
who sets his heart to seek God, Yahweh, the God of his fathers, even if they aren’t clean according to the purification of the sanctuary.”
For Hezekiah king of Judah gave to the assembly for offerings one thousand bulls and seven thousand sheep; and the princes gave to the assembly a thousand bulls and ten thousand sheep: and a great number of priests sanctified themselves.
Now when all this was finished, all Israel who were present went out to the cities of Judah, and broke the pillars in pieces, cut down the Asherah poles, and broke down the high places and the altars out of all Judah and Benjamin, also in Ephraim and Manasseh, until they had destroyed them all. Then all the children of Israel returned, every man to his possession, into their own cities.
He took away the foreign gods, and the idol out of Yahweh’s house, and all the altars that he had built in the mountain of Yahweh’s house, and in Jerusalem, and cast them out of the city.
For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young, he began to seek after the God of David his father; and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places, the Asherah poles, the engraved images, and the molten images.
They broke down the altars of the Baals in his presence; and he cut down the incense altars that were on high above them. He broke the Asherah poles, the engraved images, and the molten images in pieces, made dust of them, and scattered it on the graves of those who had sacrificed to them.
He burned the bones of the priests on their altars, and purged Judah and Jerusalem.
He broke down the altars, and beat the Asherah poles and the engraved images into powder, and cut down all the incense altars throughout all the land of Israel, then returned to Jerusalem.
Now in the eighteenth year of his reign, when he had purged the land and the house, he sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, and Maaseiah the governor of the city, and Joah the son of Joahaz the recorder, to repair Yahweh his God’s house.
Kill the Passover, sanctify yourselves, and prepare for your brothers, to do according to Yahweh’s word by Moses.”
They roasted the Passover with fire according to the ordinance. They boiled the holy offerings in pots, in cauldrons, and in pans, and carried them quickly to all the children of the people.
So all the service of Yahweh was prepared the same day, to keep the Passover, and to offer burnt offerings on Yahweh’s altar, according to the commandment of king Josiah.
There was no Passover like that kept in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet, nor did any of the kings of Israel keep such a Passover as Josiah kept, with the priests, the Levites, and all Judah and Israel who were present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
The governor told them that they should not eat of the most holy things until a priest stood up to serve with Urim and with Thummim.
Now in the second year of their coming to God’s house at Jerusalem, in the second month, Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and the rest of their brothers the priests and the Levites, and all those who had come out of the captivity to Jerusalem, began the work and appointed the Levites, from twenty years old and upward, to have the oversight of the work of Yahweh’s house.
They offered at the dedication of this house of God one hundred bulls, two hundred rams, four hundred lambs; and for a sin offering for all Israel, twelve male goats, according to the number of the tribes of Israel.
Because the priests and the Levites had purified themselves together, all of them were pure. They killed the Passover for all the children of the captivity, for their brothers the priests, and for themselves.












