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| 1 And when all this was finished, all Israel that were present went out to the cities of Judah, and broke the columns, and hewed down the Asherahs, and demolished the high places and the altars in all Judah and Benjamin, in Ephraim also and Manasseh, until they had destroyed them all. And all the children of Israel returned every man to his possession, into their cities. |
Brake the images – One of these idols is sectarianism; another is money; another is lust; another, selfish ambition. They are legion with one family name, selfishness. R2381:4
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| 2 And Hezekiah appointed the divisions of the priests, and the Levites after their divisions, every man according to his service, as well the priests as the Levites, for burnt-offerings and for peace-offerings, to serve and to give thanks and to praise in the gates of the courts of Jehovah.
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| 3 And he ordered that the king's portion should be taken from his substance for the burnt-offerings: for the morning and evening burnt-offerings, for the burnt-offerings of the sabbaths, and of the new moons, and of the set feasts, as it is written in the law of Jehovah. |
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| 4 And he commanded the people that dwelt in Jerusalem to give the portion of the priests and the Levites, that they might be encouraged in the law of Jehovah. |
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| 5 And as soon as the commandment was published, the children of Israel gave in abundance the firstfruits of corn, new wine and oil and honey, and of all the increase of the field; and they brought in abundantly the tithe of all things2. |
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| 6 And the children of Israel and of Judah, that dwelt in the cities of Judah, they also brought the tithe of oxen and sheep, and the tithe of holy things which were consecrated to Jehovah their God, and laid them by heaps. |
Israel and Judah – The more religious in Ephraim removed to Judah and identified themselves therewith. Thus Judah eventually represented the cream of the nation. R3464:2
God's dealings with nominal spiritual Israel are gradually separating to the Lord an overcoming class. R3464:5
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| 7 In the third month they began to lay the heaps, and finished them in the seventh month. |
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| 8 And Hezekiah and the princes came and saw the heaps, and they blessed Jehovah, and his people Israel. |
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| 9 And Hezekiah questioned the priests and the Levites concerning the heaps. |
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| 10 And Azariah the chief priest of the house of Zadok spoke to him and said, Since they began to bring the heave-offerings into the house of Jehovah, we have eaten and been satisfied and have left plenty; for Jehovah has blessed his people; and what is left is this great store. |
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| 11 And Hezekiah commanded to prepare chambers in the house of Jehovah; and they prepared them, |
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| 12 and brought in the heave-offerings and the tithes and the dedicated things faithfully; and over these Cononiah the Levite was ruler, and Shimei his brother was second. |
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| 13 And Jehiel, and Azaziah, and Nahath, and Asahel, and Jerimoth, and Jozabad, and Eliel, and Jismachiah, and Mahath, and Benaiah were overseers under the hand of Cononiah and Shimei his brother, at the command of Hezekiah the king and Azariah the ruler of the house of God. |
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| 14 And Kore the son of Jimnah the Levite, the doorkeeper toward the east, was over the voluntary-offerings of God, to distribute the heave-offerings of Jehovah, and the most holy things. |
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| 15 And under him were Eden and Miniamin and Jeshua and Shemaiah, Amariah and Shecaniah, in the cities of the priests, in their set trust, to make distributions to their brethren by their divisions, to the great as to the small, |
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| 16 besides those from three years old and upward who as males were entered in the genealogical register, --all that came into the house of Jehovah, as the duty of every day required, for their service in their charges, according to their divisions, |
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| 17 --both to the priests enregistered according to their fathers' houses, and to the Levites from twenty years old and upward, in their charges, by their divisions; |
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| 18 and to all their little ones, their wives, and their sons, and their daughters, the whole congregation of those entered in the register; for in their trust they hallowed themselves to be holy. |
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| 19 And for the sons of Aaron the priests who were in the country, in the suburbs of their cities, there were, in every several city, men expressed by name, to give portions to all the males among the priests, and to all the Levites that were entered in the register. |
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| 20 And thus did Hezekiah throughout Judah, and wrought what was good and right and true before Jehovah his God. |
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| 21 And in every work that he undertook in the service of the house of God, and in the law, and in the commandments, to seek his God, he did it with all his heart and prospered. |
With all his heart – Hezekiah claimed, as all should be able to, that he walked before the Lord with a perfect heart, with a perfect will, with thoroughly good intentions. R3588:4
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