5 and said to them, “Listen to me, you Levites! Now sanctify yourselves, and sanctify the Lord, the God of your fathers’ house, and carry the filthiness out of the holy place.
6 For our fathers were unfaithful, and have done that which was evil in the Lord our God’s sight, and have forsaken him, and have turned away their faces from the habitation of the Lord, and turned their backs.
7 Also they have shut up the doors of the porch, and put out the lamps, and have not burnt incense nor offered burnt offerings in the holy place to the God of Israel.
8 Therefore the Lord’s wrath was on Judah and Jerusalem, and he has delivered them to be tossed back and forth, to be an astonishment, and a hissing, as you see with your eyes.
9 For, behold, our fathers have fallen by the sword, and our sons and our daughters and our wives are in captivity for this.
10 Now it is in my heart to make a covenant with the Lord, the God of Israel, that his fierce anger may turn away from us.
11 My sons, don’t be negligent now; for the Lord has chosen you to stand before him, to minister to him, and that you should be his ministers, and burn incense.”