8. Because of this the Lord has been angry with Judah and Jerusalem, and what he has done to them has shocked and frightened everyone. You know this very well.
9. Our fathers were killed in battle, and our wives and children have been taken away as prisoners.
10. “I have now decided to make a covenant with the Lord, the God of Israel, so that he will no longer be angry with us.
11. My sons, do not lose any time. You are the ones that the Lord has chosen to burn incense to him and to lead the people in worshipping him.”
15. These men assembled their fellow-Levites, and they all made themselves ritually clean. Then, as the king had commanded them to do, they began to make the Temple ritually clean, according to the Law of the Lord.