16The priests went into the sanctuary of the LORD to purify it. They brought out to the courtyard of the LORD ’s temple everything unclean that they found in the temple of the LORD . The Levites took it and carried it out to the Kidron Valley.
17They began the consecration on the first day of the first month, and by the eighth day of the month they reached the portico of the LORD . For eight more days they consecrated the temple of the LORD itself, finishing on the sixteenth day of the first month.