Chapter 31

¹ And when all these things were finished, all Israel that were found in the cities of Juda went out, and broke in pieces the ¹pillars, and cut down the groves, and tore down the high places and the altars out of all Judea and Benjamin, also of Ephraim and Manasse, till they made an end: and all Israel returned, every one to his inheritance, and to their cities.

² And Ezekias appointed the ²courses of the priests and the Levites, and the courses of each one according to his ministry, to the priests and to the Levites, for the whole-burnt-offering, and for the peace-offering, and to praise, and to give thanks, and to minister in the gates, and in the courts of the house of the Lord. ³ And the king's proportion out of his substance was appointed for the whole-burnt-offerings, the morning and the evening one, and the whole-burnt-offerings for the sabbaths, and for the new moons, and for the feasts that were ordered in the law of the Lord.

⁴ And they told the people who dwelt in Jerusalem, to give the portion of the priests and the Levites, that they might be strong in the ministry of the house of the Lord. ⁵ And as he gave the command, Israel brought abundantly first-fruits of corn, and wine, and oil, and honey, and every fruit of the field: and the children of Israel and Juda brought tithes of everything abundantly. ⁶ And they that dwelt in the cities of Juda themselves also brought tithes of calves and sheep, and tithes of goats, and consecrated them to the Lord their God, and they brought them and laid them ³in heaps. ⁷ In the third month the heaps began to be piled, and in the seventh month they were finished. ⁸ And Ezekias and the

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princes came and saw the heaps, and blessed the Lord, and his people Israel. ⁹ Then Ezekias enquired of the priests and the Levites concerning the heaps. ¹⁰ And Azarias the priest, the chief over the house of Sadoc, spoke to him, and said, From the time that the first-fruits began to be brought into the house of the Lord, we have eaten and drunk, and left even abundantly; for the Lord has blessed his people, and we have left to this amount.

¹¹ And Ezekias told them yet farther to prepare chambers for the house of the Lord; and they prepared them, ¹² and they brought thither the first-fruits and the tithes faithfully: and Chonenias the Levite was superintendent over them, and Semei his brother was next. ¹³ and Jeiel, and Ozias, and Naeth, and Asael, and Jerimoth, and Jozabad, and Eliel, and Samachia, and Maath, and Banaias, and his sons, were appointed by Chonenias and Semei his brother, as Ezekias the king, and Azarias who was over the house of the Lord commanded.

¹⁴ And Core, the son of Jemna the Levite, the porter eastward, was over the gifts, to distribute the first-fruits of the Lord, and the most holy things, ¹⁵ by the hand of Odom, and Benjamin, and Jesus, and Semei, and Amarias, and Sechonias, by the hand of the priests faithfully, to give to their brethren according to the courses, as well to great as small; ¹⁶ besides the increase of males from three years old and upward, to every one entering into the house of the Lord, a portion according to a daily rate, for service in the daily courses of their order. ¹⁷ This is the distribution of the priests according to the houses of their families; and the Levites in their daily courses from twenty years old and upward were in their order, ¹⁸ to assign stations for all the increase of their sons and their daughters, for the whole number: for they faithfully sanctified the holy place. ¹⁹ As for the sons of Aaron that executed the priests' office,--even those from their cities the men in each several city who were named expressly,--were appointed to give a portion to every male among the priests, and to every one reckoned among the Levites.

²⁰ And Ezekias did so through all Juda, and did that which was good and right before the Lord his God. ²¹ And in every work which he began in service in the house of the Lord, and in the law, and in the ordinances, he sought his God with all his soul, and ⁴wrought, and prospered.