12Then the Levites arose, Mahath the son of Amasai, and Joel the son of Azariah, of the sons of the Kohathites: and of the sons of Merari, Kish the son of Abdi, and Azariah the son of Jehallelel: and of the Gershonites, Joah the son of Zimmah, and Eden the son of Joah: 13and of the sons of Elizaphan, Shimri and Jeuel: and of the sons of Asaph, Zechariah and Mattaniah: 14and of the sons of Heman, Jehuel and Shimei: and of the sons of Jeduthun, Shemaiah and Uzziel. 15And they gathered their brethren, and sanctified themselves, and went in, according to the commandment of the king by the words of the LORD, to cleanse the house of the LORD. 16And the priests went in unto the inner part of the house of the LORD, to cleanse it, and brought out all the uncleanness that they found in the temple of the LORD into the court of the house of the LORD. And the Levites took it, to carry it out abroad to the brook Kidron. 17Now they began on the first day of the first month to sanctify, and on the eighth day of the month came they to the porch of the LORD; and they sanctified the house of the LORD in eight days: and on the
12—19 (not in 2 Kin.). The Cleansing of the Temple.
With this passage cp. 1 Macc. iv. 36—51 (the cleansing of the Temple by Judas Maccabeus).
12. the Levites] The fourteen persons mentioned in these three verses comprise (a) two representatives each of the three great branches of Levi, namely, Kohath, Merari, and Gershon, (b) two representatives of the great Kohathite family of Elizaphan (cp. Num. iii. 30 and 1 Chr. xv. 8), (c) two representatives each of the three divisions of the singers, Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun (1 Chr. xxv. 1).
15. by the words of the LORD] i.e. the king's command was recognised to be in accordance with the Divine will. Read by the word; the plural words is probably only a textual error.
16. the priests] The work was so divided between priests and Levites that only the priests went into the house.
unto the inner part of the house] Render, within the house. The reference is not to the Holy of Holies specially, but to the whole interior of the house.
uncleanness] Cp. ver. 5; Is. xxx. 22.
to the brook Kidron] The brook Kidron is the deep valley on the east of Jerusalem separating it from the Mount of Olives; 2 Sam. xv. 23; John xviii. 1. It was treated as an unclean spot, cp. xv. 16.
17. to sanctify . . . and they sanctified] Two periods of eight days each
