1Hezekiah sent a message to all the people of Israel and Judah. He also wrote letters to the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh. He invited everyone to come to the LORD’s temple in Jerusalem. He wanted them to celebrate the Passover Feast to honour the LORD. He is the God of Israel.2The king, his officials and the whole community in Jerusalem decided to celebrate the Passover Feast in the second month.3They hadn’t been able to celebrate it at the usual time. That’s because there weren’t enough priests who had set themselves apart to the LORD. Also, the people hadn’t gathered together in Jerusalem.4The plan seemed good to the king and the whole community.5They decided to send a message all through Israel. It was sent out from Beersheba all the way to Dan. The message invited the people to come to Jerusalem. It invited them to celebrate the Passover Feast to honour the LORD, the God of Israel. The Passover Feast hadn’t been celebrated by large numbers of people for a long time. It hadn’t been done in keeping with what was written in the law.6Messengers went all through Israel and Judah. They carried letters from the king and his officials. The king had ordered them to do that. The letters said, ‘People of Israel, return to the LORD. He is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel. Return to him. Then he will return to you who are left in the land. You have escaped from the power of the kings of Assyria.7Don’t be like your parents and the rest of your people. They weren’t faithful to the LORD, the God of their people. That’s why he punished them. He made them look so bad that everyone was shocked when they saw them. You can see it for yourselves.8Don’t be stubborn. Don’t be as your people were. Obey the LORD. Come to his temple. He has set it apart to himself for ever. Serve the LORD your God. Then he’ll stop being angry with you.9Suppose you return to the LORD. Then those who captured your relatives and children will be kind to them. In fact, your relatives and children will come back to this land. The LORD your God is kind and tender. He won’t turn away from you if you return to him.’10The messengers went from town to town in Ephraim and Manasseh. They went all the way to Zebulun. But people laughed and made fun of them.11In spite of that, some people from Asher, Manasseh and Zebulun made themselves humble. They went to Jerusalem.12God helped the people of Judah. He helped them agree with one another. So they did what the king and his officials had ordered. They did what the LORD told them to do.13A very large crowd of people gathered together in Jerusalem. They went there to celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread. It took place in the second month.14They removed the altars in Jerusalem. They cleared away the altars for burning incense. They threw all the altars into the Kidron Valley.15They killed the Passover lamb on the 14th day of the second month. The priests and Levites were ashamed of how they had lived. They set themselves apart to the LORD. They brought burnt offerings to his temple.16Then they did their regular tasks just as the Law of Moses, the man of God, required. The Levites gave the blood of the animals to the priests. The priests splashed it against the altar.17Many people in the crowd hadn’t set themselves apart to the LORD. They weren’t ‘clean’. They couldn’t set apart their lambs to him. So the Levites had to kill the Passover lambs for all of them.18Many people came from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar and Zebulun. Most of them hadn’t made themselves pure and ‘clean’. But they still ate the Passover meal. That was against what was written in the law. But Hezekiah prayed for them. He said, ‘The LORD is good. May he forgive everyone19who wants to worship God with all their heart. God is the LORD, the God of their people. May God forgive them even if they aren’t “clean” in keeping with the rules of the temple.’20The LORD answered Hezekiah’s prayer. He healed the people.21The people of Israel who were in Jerusalem celebrated the Feast of Unleavened Bread. They celebrated for seven days with great joy. The Levites and priests praised the LORD every day. They praised the LORD with loud musical instruments. The instruments had been set apart to the LORD.22Hezekiah spoke words that gave hope to all the Levites. They understood how to serve the LORD well. For the seven days of the feast they ate the share given to them. They also sacrificed friendship offerings. They praised the LORD, the God of their people.23Then the whole community agreed to celebrate the feast for seven more days. So for another seven days they celebrated with joy.24Hezekiah, the king of Judah, provided 1,000 bulls and 7,000 sheep and goats for the community. The officials provided 1,000 bulls and 10,000 sheep and goats for them. A large number of priests set themselves apart to the LORD.25The entire community of Judah was filled with joy. So were the priests and Levites. And so were all the people who had gathered together from Israel. That included the outsiders who had come from Israel. It also included those who lived in Judah.26There was great joy in Jerusalem. There hadn’t been anything like it in Israel since the days of Solomon, the son of David. Solomon had been king of Israel.27The priests and Levites gave their blessing to the people. God heard them. Their prayer reached all the way to heaven. It’s the holy place where God lives.
English Standard Version
Passover Celebrated
1Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Judah, and wrote letters also to Ephraim and Manasseh, that they should come to the house of the Lord at Jerusalem to keep the Passover to the Lord, the God of Israel.2For the king and his princes and all the assembly in Jerusalem had taken counsel to keep the Passover in the second month—3for they could not keep it at that time because the priests had not consecrated themselves in sufficient number, nor had the people assembled in Jerusalem—4and the plan seemed right to the king and all the assembly.5So they decreed to make a proclamation throughout all Israel, from Beersheba to Dan, that the people should come and keep the Passover to the Lord, the God of Israel, at Jerusalem, for they had not kept it as often as prescribed.6So couriers went throughout all Israel and Judah with letters from the king and his princes, as the king had commanded, saying, “O people of Israel, return to the Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, that he may turn again to the remnant of you who have escaped from the hand of the kings of Assyria.7Do not be like your fathers and your brothers, who were faithless to the Lord God of their fathers, so that he made them a desolation, as you see.8Do not now be stiff-necked as your fathers were, but yield yourselves to the Lord and come to his sanctuary, which he has consecrated forever, and serve the Lord your God, that his fierce anger may turn away from you.9For if you return to the Lord, your brothers and your children will find compassion with their captors and return to this land. For the Lord your God is gracious and merciful and will not turn away his face from you, if you return to him.”10So the couriers went from city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh, and as far as Zebulun, but they laughed them to scorn and mocked them.11However, some men of Asher, of Manasseh, and of Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem.12The hand of God was also on Judah to give them one heart to do what the king and the princes commanded by the word of the Lord.13And many people came together in Jerusalem to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread in the second month, a very great assembly.14They set to work and removed the altars that were in Jerusalem, and all the altars for burning incense they took away and threw into the brook Kidron.15And they slaughtered the Passover lamb on the fourteenth day of the second month. And the priests and the Levites were ashamed, so that they consecrated themselves and brought burnt offerings into the house of the Lord.16They took their accustomed posts according to the Law of Moses the man of God. The priests threw the blood that they received from the hand of the Levites.17For there were many in the assembly who had not consecrated themselves. Therefore the Levites had to slaughter the Passover lamb for everyone who was not clean, to consecrate it to the Lord.18For a majority of the people, many of them from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun, had not cleansed themselves, yet they ate the Passover otherwise than as prescribed. For Hezekiah had prayed for them, saying, “May the good Lord pardon everyone19who sets his heart to seek God, the Lord, the God of his fathers, even though not according to the sanctuary’s rules of cleanness.”*20And the Lord heard Hezekiah and healed the people.21And the people of Israel who were present at Jerusalem kept the Feast of Unleavened Bread seven days with great gladness, and the Levites and the priests praised the Lord day by day, singing with all their might* to the Lord.22And Hezekiah spoke encouragingly to all the Levites who showed good skill in the service of the Lord. So they ate the food of the festival for seven days, sacrificing peace offerings and giving thanks to the Lord, the God of their fathers.23Then the whole assembly agreed together to keep the feast for another seven days. So they kept it for another seven days with gladness.24For Hezekiah king of Judah gave the assembly 1,000 bulls and 7,000 sheep for offerings, and the princes gave the assembly 1,000 bulls and 10,000 sheep. And the priests consecrated themselves in great numbers.25The whole assembly of Judah, and the priests and the Levites, and the whole assembly that came out of Israel, and the sojourners who came out of the land of Israel, and the sojourners who lived in Judah, rejoiced.26So there was great joy in Jerusalem, for since the time of Solomon the son of David king of Israel there had been nothing like this in Jerusalem.27Then the priests and the Levites arose and blessed the people, and their voice was heard, and their prayer came to his holy habitation in heaven.
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