2 Chroniques 30

Hezekiah calls Israel to the Passover

¹Hezekiah sent word to all Israel and Judah, and wrote letters as well to Ephraim and Manasseh, calling them to come to Jerusalem, to the house of the LORD, to keep the Passover for the LORD, the God of Israel. ²The king, his officials and the whole assembly in Jerusalem decided to keep the Passover in the second month.^{a 3}They had not been able to keep it at the usual time, because too few priests had consecrated themselves and the people had not yet gathered in Jerusalem. ⁴The plan seemed right to the king and to the whole assembly. ⁵So they issued a decree to send a proclamation throughout all Israel, from Beersheba to Dan, that the people should come to Jerusalem to keep the Passover for the LORD, the God of Israel. For they had not kept it in great numbers, as it is written.^{b 6}The couriers went throughout all Israel and Judah with the letters from the king and his officials. As the king had commanded, they said, “Israelites, return to the LORD, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, and he will return to those of you who are left, who escaped from the grasp of the kings of Assyria. ⁷Do not be like your ancestors and your relatives, who were unfaithful to the LORD, the God of their ancestors, so that he made them an object of horror, as you see for yourselves. ⁸Now do not stiffen your necks as your ancestors did. Give yourselves to the LORD and come to his sanctuary, which he has made holy forever. Serve the LORD your God, so that his burning anger may turn away from you. ⁹For if you return to the LORD, your relatives and your children will be shown compassion by those who took them captive, and they will come back to this land. The LORD your God is gracious and compassionate, and he will not turn his face away from you if you turn back to him.”^c

¹⁰The couriers passed from town to town in the land of Ephraim and Manasseh and on as far as Zebulun, but people laughed at them and mocked them. ¹¹Yet some people from Asher, Manasseh and Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem. ¹²In Judah too the hand of God was at work, giving them one heart to carry out the command of the king and the officials, which followed the word of the LORD. ¹³A great crowd gathered in Jerusalem to keep the Festival of Unleavened Bread in the second month, a very large assembly. ¹⁴They set to work and removed the altars in Jerusalem. They also removed all the incense altars and threw them into the Kidron Valley. ¹⁵They slaughtered the Passover lamb on the fourteenth day of the second month. Ashamed, the priests and the Levites consecrated themselves and brought burnt offerings into the house of the LORD. ¹⁶They took their usual places as the law of Moses the man of God prescribes, and the priests splashed the blood that they received from the Levites. ¹⁷Since many in the assembly had not consecrated themselves, the Levites took charge of slaughtering the Passover lambs for all who were not clean, to consecrate them to the LORD. ¹⁸A large part of the people, many of them from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar and Zebulun, had not purified themselves, and yet they ate the Passover in a way that did not keep to what is written. But Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, “May the LORD, who is good, pardon ¹⁹everyone who sets their heart on seeking God, the LORD, the God of their ancestors, even if they are not clean as the sanctuary requires.”

²⁰The LORD heard Hezekiah and healed the people.^d

The festival kept for fourteen days

²¹The Israelites who were present in Jerusalem kept the Festival of Unleavened Bread for seven days with great joy, while the Levites and the priests praised the LORD day after day, playing loud instruments for the LORD.^e

²²Hezekiah spoke encouragingly to all the Levites who showed good skill in the service of the LORD. For the seven days of the festival they ate the festival meals, offering peace offerings and giving thanks to the LORD, the God of their ancestors.^f

²³Then the whole assembly decided to keep the festival for another seven days, and they kept seven more days with joy. ²⁴Hezekiah king of Judah provided 1,000 bulls and 7,000 sheep for the assembly, and the officials provided 1,000 bulls and 10,000 sheep. A great number of priests consecrated themselves. ²⁵The whole assembly of Judah rejoiced, together with the priests and the Levites, the whole assembly that had come from Israel, and the outsiders who had come from the land of Israel or who lived in Judah. ²⁶So there was great joy in Jerusalem, because nothing like this had happened in Jerusalem since the time of Solomon son of David, king of Israel.

²⁷Then the Levitical priests stood and blessed the people. Their voice was heard, and their prayer reached heaven, his holy dwelling place.^g