And said to them: Hezekiah’s speech to the assembled religious leaders continues to the end of verse 11.

Hear me, Levites!: The words Hear me draw attention to Hezekiah’s speech (compare 2 Chr 13.4 and 20.20). It is not clear whether he uses the name Levites in a broad sense to refer to both the priests and the Levites or only to the Levites. The former interpretation seems better, since the priests are not addressed separately, and the action of the priests in verse 16 corresponds to the instructions given here to the Levites.

Now sanctify yourselves: See the comments on 1 Chr 15.12. The first duty of the religious leaders was to ensure their own personal ritual purity. The Hebrew verb here is reflexive and has the same root as the word for “holy.” Other possible renderings for sanctify are “Consecrate” (New International Version), “purify” (Moffatt), “cleanse” (Knox), and “Hallow” (Revised English Bible). For this whole clause New Century Version has “Make yourselves ready for the LORD’s service.”

And sanctify the house of the LORD: The second duty of the religious leaders was to purify the Temple. They could only do this after purifying themselves.

The God of your fathers may be rendered “the God whom your ancestors worshiped.”

And carry out the filth from the holy place: In this context the filth does not refer to garbage, but rather to the filth of idol worship. The Hebrew word for filth sometimes refers to the bleeding of a woman during her monthly period, which made her ritually impure (see Lev 12.2-5; 15.19-33). Translations that attempt to maintain the aspect of ritual impurity include “impure objects” (Parole de Vie), “what is ceremonially unclean” ( NET Bible), and “defilement” (Revised English Bible). The holy place refers to the middle part of the Temple (that is, the nave) and not to the Holy of Holies (see the introductory comments on 1 Chr 3.1-14).

Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on 1-2 Chronicles, Volume 1. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2014. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .