¹⁷ They 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.

³⁴ The priests, however, were too few to skin all the burnt offerings;^(A) so their relatives the Levites helped them until the task was finished and until other priests had been consecrated,^(B) for the Levites had been more conscientious in consecrating themselves than the priests had been.