Bible Strands
2 Chronicles 29:16
So the priests went inside the house of the LORD to cleanse it, and they brought out to the courtyard all the unclean things that they found in the temple of the LORD. Then the Levites took these things and carried them out to the Kidron Valley.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The chronicler narrates Hezekiah’s temple restoration, describing the priests and Levites executing the king’s command to purify the sanctuary after years of neglect. This account occurs during the first month of Hezekiah’s reign, marking the initial phase of the eight-day consecration process.
The words — The Hebrew verb לְ/טַהֵר (le./ta.Her) means “to cleanse” or “to purify,” denoting the ritual removal of defilement. The phrase בֵית־יְהוָה (veit-Yahweh) literally identifies the location as the “house of Yahweh,” emphasizing its status as God’s designated dwelling.
The thread — The removal of unclean objects from the temple to the Kidron Valley parallels the reforms in 2 Chronicles 15:16 and echoes the structural separation of holy space outlined in Exodus 26:33. The Kidron Valley also functions as a geographic marker in 2 Samuel 15:23 during royal flight and procession.
Why it lands — The text requires readers to acknowledge that ritual purity must precede worship and that defilement must be physically removed from sacred space rather than concealed. It calls for decisive action against corruption, demanding that communities actively separate what defiles from what is set apart for God.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And the priests went into 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 into the brook Kidron.
Cross-references
- 2 Chronicles 15:16 King Asa also removed his grandmother Maacah from her position as queen mother because she had made a detestable Asherah pole. Asa chopped down the pole, crushed it, and burned it in the Kidron Valley.
- Exodus 26:33 And hang the veil from the clasps and place the ark of the Testimony behind the veil. So the veil will separate the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place.
- 2 Samuel 15:23 Everyone in the countryside was weeping loudly as all the people passed by. And as the king crossed the Kidron Valley, all the people also passed toward the way of the wilderness.
- 1 Kings 6:19 Solomon also prepared the inner sanctuary within the temple to set the ark of the covenant of the LORD there.
- 2 Kings 23:4 Then the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, the priests second in rank, and the doorkeepers to remove from the temple of the LORD all the articles made for Baal, Asherah, and all the host of heaven. And he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron and carried their ashes to Bethel.
- 2 Chronicles 3:8 Then he made the Most Holy Place; its length corresponded to the width of the temple—twenty cubits long and twenty cubits wide. And he overlaid the inside with six hundred talents of fine gold.
- 2 Chronicles 5:7 Then the priests brought the ark of the covenant of the LORD to its place in the inner sanctuary of the temple, the Most Holy Place, beneath the wings of the cherubim.
- Ezekiel 36:29 I will save you from all your uncleanness. I will summon the grain and make it plentiful, and I will not bring famine upon you.
- Matthew 21:12 Then Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those selling doves.
- Matthew 23:27 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and every kind of impurity.