²For the king and his officials and all the assembly in Jerusalem had taken counsel to keep the Passover in the second month^* ³(for they could not keep it at its proper time because the priests had not sanctified themselves in sufficient number, nor had the people assembled in Jerusalem).^* ⁴The plan seemed right to the king and all the assembly. ⁵So they decreed to make a proclamation throughout all Israel, from Beer-sheba 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 in great numbers as prescribed.^* ⁶So couriers went throughout all Israel and Judah with letters from the king and his officials, as the king had commanded, saying, “O people of Israel, return to the Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, so 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 ancestors and your kindred, who were faithless to the Lord God of their ancestors, so that he made them a desolation, as you see.^* ⁸Do not now be stiff-necked as your ancestors were, but yield yourselves to the Lord and come to his sanctuary, which he has sanctified forever, and serve the Lord your God, so that his fierce anger may turn away from you.^* ⁹For as you return to the Lord, your kindred 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.^* ¹¹Only a few from Asher, Manasseh, and 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 officials commanded by the word of the Lord.

¹³Many people came together 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 that were in Jerusalem, and all the altars for offering incense they took away and threw into the Wadi Kidron.^* ¹⁵They slaughtered the Passover lamb on the fourteenth day of the second month. The priests and the Levites were ashamed, and they sanctified themselves and brought burnt offerings into the house of the Lord.^*

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Cross references

*vv 13, 15; Num 9:10, 11
*Ex 12:6, 18; 2 Chr 29:34
*Judg 20:1
*2 Chr 20:8; Esth 8:14; Job 9:25; Jer 51:31
*2 Chr 29:8; Ezek 20:18
*Ex 32:9; 2 Chr 29:10
*Ex 34:6, 7; Deut 30:2; Isa 55:7; Mic 7:18
*2 Chr 36:16
*vv 18, 21, 25
*v 2
*2 Chr 28:24
*vv 2, 3; 2 Chr 29:34