2 Chronicles 30:1-27
30 And Hezekiah sent word to all Israel and Judah, and also wrote letters for Ephraim and Manasseh, to come to Jehovah’s house at Jerusalem to celebrate a passover to Israel’s God Jehovah.
2 And the king and the generals and all the assembly in Jerusalem came to the decision to celebrate the passover in the second month;
3 for they were not able to celebrate it at that time because the priests had not put themselves in sacred condition in sufficient numbers and the people had not come together at Jerusalem;
4 and the proposition seemed right to the king and to all the assembly,
5 and they adopted a resolution to pass the cry through all Israel from Beer-Shebaʽ to Dan to come to celebrate a passover to Israel’s God Jehovah at Jerusalem, for they had not celebrated it in great numbers as is written.
6 * And the runners went throughout Israel and Judah with the letters from the hands of the king and his generals as ordered by the king, saying “Sons of Israel, come back to Jehovah, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, that he may come back to the survivors whom you have remaining out of the hands of the king of Assyria,
7 and do not be like your fathers and like your brothers, who were unfaithful to their fathers’ God Jehovah and he gave them to be a desolation, as you see for yourselves.
8 Now do not stiffen your necks as your fathers did; give homage to Jehovah and come to his sanctuary which he has hallowed forever, and worship your fathers’ God Jehovah and have his anger turn back from you;
9 ** for when you turn back to Jehovah your brothers and sons will become objects of sympathy to their captors and will be coming back to this country, because your God Jehovah is kindly and tenderhearted and will not take his face away from you if you turn back to him.”
10 And the runners went through from city to city in the country of Ephraim and Manasseh and as far as Zebulun, but they laughed at them and made fun of them;
11 only individuals out of Asher and Manasseh and Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem;
12 Judah too had God’s hand upon it to give them unanimity to live up to the command of the king and the generals by Jehovah’s word,
13 and there came together at Jerusalem numerous people to celebrate the feast of matzoth in the second month, a very numerous assembly.
14 And they stood up and removed the altars in Jerusalem, and removed all the stands for incense-burning and threw them into Kidron Arroyo;
15 and they slaughtered the passover on the fourteenth of the second month. And the priests and the Levites were humiliated and put themselves in sacred condition and brought burnt-offerings to Jehovah’s house,
16 * and stood at their posts as was their duty in accordance with the code of Moses the man of God, the priests throwing the blood as they received it from the Levites’ hands.
17 For there were numbers in the assembly who had not put themselves in sacred condition, and the Levites were engaged in slaughtering the passovers for everyone who was not clean, to hallow them for Jehovah.
18 * For the majority of the people, a great many from Ephraim and Manasseh, Issacar and Zebulun, had not been cleansed but ate the passover without conforming to the prescription; for Hezekiah had prayed for them “Jehovah, may the good cause purge
19 everyone who has fixed his heart on devoting himself to God, his fathers’ God Jehovah, but not in accordance with the purification for sacred things”;
20 and Jehovah listened to Hezekiah and rectified the people.
21 * And the sons of Israel who were present in Jerusalem celebrated the feast of matzoth seven days with great gladness, and the Levites and the priests praised Jehovah day by day with all energy,
22 * and Hezekiah complimented all the Levites who brought out the sense well for Jehovah. And they ate the ordinance seven days, sacrificing welfare-sacrifices and giving thanks to their fathers’ God Jehovah;
23 and all the assembly came to the decision to celebrate another seven days, and they celebrated seven days with merrymaking.
24 For King Hezekiah contributed for the assembly a thousand steers and seven thousand sheep and goats, and the generals contributed for the assembly a thousand steers and ten thousand sheep and goats, and priests in great numbers put themselves in sacred condition.
25 And all the assembly of Judah, and the priests and the Levites, and all the assembly that had come from Israel, and the immigrants that had come from the Israelite country and were living in Judah, made merry;
26 and there was a great merrymaking in Jerusalem. For since the time of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel, it had not been like this in Jerusalem.
27 * And the Levite priests stood up and blessed the people, and God heard, and their prayer came into his holy dwelling heaven.
Footnotes
^ 30:6 Var. and with the king’s command, saying
^ 30:9 Or for by your turning back
^ 30:9 Conj. not veil his face from
^ 30:16 Lit. throwing the blood from the
^ 30:18 Lit. Jehovah, may the good purge Or May good Jehovah purge
^ 30:21 Codd. day by day with instruments of energy for Jehovah
^ 30:22 Var. finished the ordinance
^ 30:27 Codd. and they were obeyed, and their prayer came
