2 Chronicles 31

1When all this was finished, all Israel who were present went out to the cities of Judah and smashed the sacred pillars, cut down the Asherah poles, 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 Israelites returned to their cities, each to his own property.

2Hezekiah assigned the priests and the Levites to their divisions, each according to his service, the priests and the Levites for burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, to minister, to give thanks, and to praise in the gates of the camps of Yahweh.

3The king’s contribution from his own possessions was for the burnt offerings: the morning and evening burnt offerings, and the burnt offerings for the Sabbaths, the new moons, and the appointed festivals, as it is written in the law of Yahweh.

4He commanded the people who lived in Jerusalem to give the portion due to the priests and the Levites, so that they could devote themselves to the law of Yahweh.

5As soon as the order spread, the Israelites gave generously the firstfruits of grain, new wine, olive oil, honey, and all the produce of the field. They brought in a tithe of everything in great quantity.

6The people of Israel and Judah who lived in the cities of Judah also brought a tithe of cattle and sheep and a tithe of the holy things that had been consecrated to Yahweh their God, and they laid them in heap after heap.

7They began piling up the heaps in the third month and finished in the seventh month.

8When Hezekiah and the officials came and saw the heaps, they blessed Yahweh and his people Israel.

9Hezekiah asked the priests and the Levites about the heaps.

10Azariah the chief priest, of the house of Zadok, answered him, “Since the people began to bring the contributions into the house of Yahweh, we have had enough to eat and plenty left over, for Yahweh has blessed his people. This great amount is what is left over.”

11Then Hezekiah gave orders to prepare storerooms in the house of Yahweh, and they prepared them.

12They faithfully brought in the contributions, the tithes, and the consecrated things. Conaniah the Levite was the officer in charge of them, and his brother Shimei was second.

13Jehiel, Azaziah, Nahath, Asahel, Jerimoth, Jozabad, Eliel, Ismachiah, Mahath, and Benaiah were overseers under Conaniah and his brother Shimei, by appointment of King Hezekiah and of Azariah the officer in charge of the house of God.

14Kore son of Imnah the Levite, the gatekeeper at the east gate, was in charge of the freewill offerings to God, to distribute the contributions for Yahweh and the most holy things.

15Under him were Eden, Miniamin, Jeshua, Shemaiah, Amariah, and Shecaniah in the cities of the priests, faithfully distributing portions to their brothers by divisions, to great and small alike.

16This was in addition to the males recorded in the genealogies, three years old and upward, all who entered the house of Yahweh for their daily duty, for their service in their assignments by their divisions.

17The priests were recorded in the genealogies by their ancestral houses, and the Levites twenty years old and upward by their assignments and their divisions.

18They were recorded with all their little ones, their wives, their sons, and their daughters, the whole company, for they were faithful in keeping themselves holy.

19As for the priests, the sons of Aaron, who lived in the pasturelands around their cities, in every city there were men designated by name to distribute portions to every male among the priests and to everyone recorded in the genealogies among the Levites.

20Hezekiah did this throughout all Judah. He did what was good and right and faithful before Yahweh his God.

21In every work that he undertook in the service of the house of God, and in the law and the commandments, to seek his God, he acted with all his heart, and he prospered.