CHAPTER 31
1 And when these things were done rightfully, all Israel went out, that was found in the cities of Judah; and they brake [the] simulacra, and cutted down [maumet] woods, and wasted [the] high places, and destroyed [the] altars, not only of all Judah and Benjamin, but also of Ephraim and Manasseh, till that they had destroyed those altars or their idols utterly. And then all the sons of Israel turned again into their possessions and cities.
2 And Hezekiah ordained companies of priests and deacons [or Levites] by their partings, each man in his own office, that is, as well of priests as of deacons [or Levites], to burnt sacrifices and peaceable sacrifices, that they should minister, and acknowledge, and sing in the gates of the castles [or tents] of the Lord.
3 And the part of the king’s sacrifice was, that of his own substance, or chattel, burnt sacrifice should be offered evermore in the morrowtide and in the eventide, also in sabbaths, and calends, and in other solemnities, as it is written in the law of Moses.
4 Also he commanded to the people of them that dwelled in Jerusalem, to give parts to the priests and deacons [or Levites], that they might give attention to the law of the Lord.
5 And when this was known in the ears of the multitude, the sons of Israel offered full many first fruits of wheat, of wine, of oil, and of honey; and of all things which the earth bringeth forth, they offered tithes.
6 But also the sons of Israel and of Judah, that dwelled in the cities of Judah, offered tithes of oxen, and of sheep, and the tithes of holy things, which they avowed [or vowed] to their Lord God, and they brought all things, and made full many heaps.
7 In the third month they began to lay the foundaments of the heaps, and in the seventh month they filled, or ended, those heaps.
8 And when Hezekiah and his princes had entered, they saw the heaps, and they blessed the Lord, and the people of Israel.
9 And Hezekiah asked the priests and deacons [or Levites] why the heaps lay so.
10 And Azariah, the first, or chief, priest of the generation of Zadok, answered to him and said, Since the first fruits began to be offered in the house of the Lord, we have eaten of those fruits, and been fulfilled, and full many things be left; for the Lord hath blessed his people; and this plenty, which thou seest, is of the remnants.
11 Therefore Hezekiah commanded, that they should make ready barns in the house of the Lord; and when they had done this thing,
12 they brought in faithfully both the first fruits, and tithes, and whatever things they had avowed [or vowed]. And Conaniah, the deacon [or Levite], was [the] sovereign of those things; and Shimei, his brother was the second, next to him;
13 after whom Jehiel, and Azaziah, and Nahath, and Asahel, and Jerimoth, and Jozabad, and Eliel, and Ismachiah, and Mahath, and Benaiah, were sov-ereigns under the hands, or powers, of Conaniah and Shimei, his brother, by the commandment of Hezekiah the king, and of Azariah, the bishop of the house of the Lord, to whom all things pertained.
14 But Kore, the son of Imnah, deacon [or Levite], and porter of the east gate, was sovereign of those things that were offered by free will to the Lord, and of the first fruits, and of [the] things hallowed into the holy things of the number of holy things;
15 and under his care, were Eden, and Miniamin, Jeshua, and Shemaiah, and Amariah, and Shecaniah, in the cities of priests, that they should part faithfully to their brethren the parts, to the less and to the greater,
16 besides males from three years and above, these things to all that entered into the temple of the Lord, and whatever thing by each day was hired in the service and observances, by their partings.
17 To priests by their families, and to deacons [or Levites] from twenty years and above, by their orders and companies,
18 and to all the multitude, that is, both to the wives, and the free children of them of ever either kind, meats,, were given faithfully of these things that were hallowed.
19 But also men of the sons of Aaron were ordained, by the fields and by suburbs of all the cities, which men should deal parts to all the male kind of priests, and deacons [or Levites].
20 Therefore Hezekiah did all these things, which we have said, in all Judah, and he wrought that, that was rightful [or right] and good and true before the Lord his God,
21 in all the religion of the service of the house of the Lord, by the law and by the ceremonies; and he would seek his Lord God in all his heart, and he did so, and had prosperity.