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.
They started the purification work on the first day of the first month. By the eighth day, they had reached the entrance hall of the LORD's temple. It took them eight days to purify the entire temple, and they finished everything on the sixteenth day of the first month.
The workers took sixteen days total to completely purify and restore God's temple - eight days for the main temple and eight more days to finish all the work.
📚 Historical Context
This describes King Hezekiah's restoration of the Jerusalem temple around 715 BC, after his father King Ahaz had allowed it to fall into disrepair and idolatrous practices. The temple had been closed and defiled, so extensive purification was needed before proper worship could resume. This was part of Hezekiah's major religious reforms to bring Judah back to worshiping the true God.
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