2 Chronicles 29:16 Explained in Context

Selected verse

Verse 16. 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.

King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions

Quick Meaning

This verse advances the thought unit through its next action, speech, or consequence: “And the priests went into the inner part of the house of the LORD, to cleanse it, and….” Its responsible meaning belongs to the complete movement “Named Levites cleanse and inventory the temple.”

Read It With

2 Chronicles 29:12–19

Read 2 Chronicles 29:16 with 29:12–19. The selected wording supplies one step in the thought unit through its next action, speech, or consequence; the surrounding verses supply the causes, responses, and outcome summarized here: Levitical families gather, sanctify themselves, remove uncleanness, cleanse the house over sixteen days, and report every restored vessel and altar to Hezekiah.

Why This Verse Appears Here

Within “Named Levites cleanse and inventory the temple,” 2 Chronicles 29:16 advances the thought unit through its next action, speech, or consequence through the wording “And the priests went into the inner part of the house of the LORD, to cleanse it, and….” Its placement is governed by this reviewed relationship: The narrative slows to name workers, sequence, timing, and completion rather than crediting the king alone. 2 Chronicles 29:1–11 has just established this prior movement: Hezekiah begins well, opens and repairs temple doors, names ancestral unfaithfulness and its communal consequences, and calls chosen Levites to remove filth and resume service. Together those details explain why “Named Levites cleanse and inventory the temple” belongs here rather than merely following a database record.

Read 2 Chronicles 29:12–19 together

Why these verses belong together: 2 Chronicles 29:12–19 forms the complete movement “Named Levites cleanse and inventory the temple”: Levitical families gather, sanctify themselves, remove uncleanness, cleanse the house over sixteen days, and report every restored vessel and altar to Hezekiah.

Verse 12. Then 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 Jehalelel: and of the Gershonites; Joah the son of Zimmah, and Eden the son of Joah:

Verse 13. And of the sons of Elizaphan; Shimri, and Jeiel: and of the sons of Asaph; Zechariah, and Mattaniah:

Verse 14. And of the sons of Heman; Jehiel, and Shimei: and of the sons of Jeduthun; Shemaiah, and Uzziel.

Verse 15. And they gathered their brethren, and sanctified themselves, and came, according to the commandment of the king, by the words of the LORD, to cleanse the house of the LORD.

Verse 17. Now 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: so they sanctified the house of the LORD in eight days; and in the sixteenth day of the first month they made an end.

Verse 18. Then they went in to Hezekiah the king, and said, We have cleansed all the house of the LORD, and the altar of burnt offering, with all the vessels thereof, and the shewbread table, with all the vessels thereof.

Verse 19. Moreover all the vessels, which king Ahaz in his reign did cast away in his transgression, have we prepared and sanctified, and, behold, they are before the altar of the LORD.

Follow the Context

Levitical families gather, sanctify themselves, remove uncleanness, cleanse the house over sixteen days, and report every restored vessel and altar to Hezekiah.
The narrative slows to name workers, sequence, timing, and completion rather than crediting the king alone.

What This Verse Is Not Saying

2 Chronicles 29:16 does not permit the wording “And the priests went into the inner part of the house of the LORD, to cleanse it, and…” to be read apart from the selected verse's context. Religious renewal is not one leader's performance, and purification language must not be used to shame bodies, ethnic groups, or abuse survivors.

What Remains True

Reform joins worship, generosity, welcome, administration, practical preparation, prayer, humility, and truthful limits; neither prosperity nor deliverance proves permanent immunity. This unit tests that truth through the narrated movement: Levitical families gather, sanctify themselves, remove uncleanness, cleanse the house over sixteen days, and report every restored vessel and altar to Hezekiah. In 2 Chronicles 29:16, the concrete line “And the priests went into the inner part of the house of the LORD, to cleanse it, and…” keeps that truth accountable to the narrated evidence.

How It Can Shape Life

The evidence to keep visible in this verse is “And the priests went into the inner part of the house of the LORD, to cleanse it, and….” Pair worship and prayer with safe facilities, inclusive teaching, transparent distribution, verified crisis preparation, truthful communication, and humility after success. This response follows from the unit's own movement: Levitical families gather, sanctify themselves, remove uncleanness, cleanse the house over sixteen days, and report every restored vessel and altar to Hezekiah.

Teach It Back

Explain why 2 Chronicles 29:16 moves uncleanness from inner house through court to the Kidron. Use 29:12–19, paraphrase “And the priests went into the inner part of the house of the LORD, to cleanse it, and…,” state one source or reconstruction limit, identify one person or group power can obscure, and reject one conclusion this verse does not authorize.

Explain the verse in context

Your explanation stays in this browser. It is not sent or saved.

Continue in Context

The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.

Read 2 Chronicles 29:12–19 — Named Levites cleanse and inventory the temple

Sources used for this Verse Lens

How certain is this explanation? probable

Where care is needed

The received text's literary claim is clear, while source history, exact chronology, numbers, speech wording, and event-level reconstruction remain questions of graded historical judgment.

These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.

Biblical text

King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006

eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society

USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.

Supports: Exact KJV wording, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage for this thought unit.

Exact location: 2 Chronicles 29:12–19, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus

Open source ↗

hebrew text and morphology

Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: 2 Chronicles

Open Scriptures

Open Scriptures, release 2.2

Supports: Hebrew wording, morphology, names, clauses, regnal formulas, temple vocabulary, older-English controls, and translation limits.

Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/2Chr.xml, Masoretic words and morphology for 29:12–19

Open source ↗

translation and translator notes

NET Bible Full Notes: 2 Chronicles

Biblical Studies Press

Biblical Studies Press; STEP Bible presentation, 2019 edition; current web presentation

Supports: Unit-bounded translation comparisons and only those lexical, textual, grammatical, numerical, historical, and parallel-passage notes attached to these verses.

Exact location: STEP Bible NET2full, 2 Chronicles 29:12–19, verse-attached translation and translator notes

Open source ↗

Open the complete thought-unit research record