2 Chronicles 30:13–27

Passover Reinstituted

¹³Now many people were gathered at Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread ^ain the second month, a very large assembly.

¹⁴They arose and removed the altars which were in Jerusalem; they also ^aremoved all the incense altars and ^bcast them into the brook Kidron.

¹⁵Then ^athey slaughtered the Passover lambs on the fourteenth of the second month. And ^bthe priests and Levites were ashamed of themselves, and consecrated themselves and brought burnt offerings to the house of the Lord.

^16aThey stood at their stations after their custom, according to the law of Moses the man of God; the priests sprinkled the blood which they received from the hand of the Levites.

¹⁷For there were many in the assembly who had not consecrated themselves; therefore, ^athe Levites were over the slaughter of the Passover lambs for everyone who was unclean, in order to consecrate them to the Lord.

¹⁸For a multitude of the people, ^aeven many from Ephraim and Manasseh, Issachar and Zebulun, had not purified themselves, ^byet they ate the Passover ^cotherwise than ¹prescribed. For Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, “May the good Lord pardon

^19aeveryone who prepares his heart to seek God, the Lord God of his fathers, though not according to the purification rules of the sanctuary.”

²⁰So the Lord heard Hezekiah and ^ahealed the people.

²¹The sons of Israel present in Jerusalem ^acelebrated the Feast of Unleavened Bread for seven days with great joy, and the Levites and the priests praised the Lord day after day with loud instruments to the Lord.

²²Then Hezekiah ^aspoke ¹encouragingly to all the Levites who showed good insight in the things of the Lord. So they ate for the appointed seven days, sacrificing peace offerings and ^bgiving thanks to the Lord God of their fathers.

²³Then the whole assembly ^adecided to celebrate the feast another seven days, so they celebrated the seven days with joy.

²⁴For ^aHezekiah king of Judah had contributed to the assembly 1,000 bulls and 7,000 sheep, and the princes had contributed to the assembly 1,000 bulls and 10,000 sheep; and ^ba large number of priests consecrated themselves.

²⁵All the assembly of Judah rejoiced, with the priests and the Levites and ^aall the assembly that came from Israel, both the sojourners who came from the land of Israel and those living in Judah.

²⁶So there was great joy in Jerusalem, because there was nothing like this in Jerusalem ^asince the days of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel.

²⁷Then ^athe Levitical priests arose and ^bblessed the people; and their voice was heard and their prayer came to ^cHis holy dwelling place, to heaven.