42 He chose honest and faithful priests
43 and put them in charge of cleaning out the temple.The priests hauled away the unclean stones to a garbage heap.
44-45 And they wondered what to do about the altar for offering sacrifices, because it had been polluted by the Gentiles who had sacrificed unclean animals on it. Finally, they decided to remove this disgrace by tearing down the altar and hauling away the stones.
46 They piled them in a special place on the temple hill, believing that God would someday send a prophet who would know what to do with them.
47 The priests did just as the Law of Moses commands. They found stones that had never been cut, and they set up a new altar exactly like the old one.
48 The priests also rebuilt the inside and the outside of the temple, and they cleaned the temple courtyard, making it a proper place for worship once again.
49 The priests made some new bowls to be used in worship, and they took into the temple the lampstand, the incense altar, and the table for the sacred bread.