1Hezekiah sent word to all Israel and Judah. He also wrote letters to Ephraim and Manasseh, asking them to come to the house of the LORD at Jerusalem, to keep the passover to the LORD God of Israel.
2For the king had talked it over with his princes and with all the people gathered in Jerusalem, and they agreed to keep the passover in the second month.
3They could not keep it at the proper time, because not enough of the priests had made themselves holy, and the people had not gathered together at Jerusalem.
4The plan pleased the king and all the people gathered there.
5So they made a decree to send word through all Israel, from Beersheba to Dan, that the people should come to Jerusalem to keep the passover to the LORD God of Israel. For they had not kept it for a long time in the way it was written.
6So the messengers went with the letters from the king and his princes through all Israel and Judah, and they said, as the king had commanded, "You children of Israel, turn back to the LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel. Then he will return to the few of you who are left, who have escaped from the hand of the kings of Assyria."
7"Do not be like your fathers and like your brothers, who sinned against the LORD God of their fathers. So he gave them up to ruin, as you see."
8"Now do not be stubborn, as your fathers were. Give yourselves to the LORD, and come into his sanctuary, which he has made holy for ever. Serve the LORD your God, so that the heat of his anger may turn away from you."
9"For if you turn back to the LORD, your brothers and your children will be treated with compassion by those who took them captive, and they will come back into this land. For the LORD your God is gracious and merciful, and he will not turn his face away from you, if you return to him."
10So the messengers went from city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh, and as far as Zebulun. But the people laughed at them and mocked them.
11Even so, some people from Asher and Manasseh and Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem.
12In Judah too the hand of God was at work, to give them one heart to do what the king and the princes had commanded by the word of the LORD.
13Many people came together at Jerusalem to keep the feast of unleavened bread in the second month. It was a very great gathering.
14They got up and took away the altars that were in Jerusalem. They also took away all the altars for incense, and threw them into the brook Kidron.
15Then they killed the passover lamb on the fourteenth day of the second month. The priests and the Levites were ashamed, so they made themselves holy and brought burnt offerings into the house of the LORD.
16They stood in their places as they were meant to, following the law of Moses the man of God. The priests sprinkled the blood, which they took from the hand of the Levites.
17For there were many in the gathering who had not made themselves holy. So the Levites had the task of killing the passover lambs for everyone who was not clean, to make them holy to the LORD.
18For a great many of the people, many from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun, had not made themselves clean, yet they ate the passover in a way other than what was written. But Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, "May the good LORD pardon everyone"
19"who sets his heart to seek God, the LORD God of his fathers, even if he is not clean as the rules of the sanctuary require."
20And the LORD listened to Hezekiah, and healed the people.
21The children of Israel who were present at Jerusalem kept the feast of unleavened bread for seven days with great gladness. Day by day the Levites and the priests praised the LORD, singing to the LORD with loud instruments.
22Hezekiah spoke kindly to all the Levites who taught the good knowledge of the LORD. So they ate through the seven days of the feast, offering peace offerings and confessing to the LORD God of their fathers.
23Then the whole assembly agreed to keep another seven days, and they kept another seven days with gladness.
24For Hezekiah king of Judah gave the gathered people a thousand bullocks and seven thousand sheep, and the princes gave them a thousand bullocks and ten thousand sheep. And a great number of priests made themselves holy.
25All the gathered people of Judah were glad, with the priests and the Levites, and all the people who came out of Israel, and the strangers who came out of the land of Israel and who lived in Judah.
26So there was great joy in Jerusalem. Since the time of Solomon the son of David king of Israel there had been nothing like it in Jerusalem.
27Then the priests the Levites stood up and blessed the people. Their voice was heard, and their prayer came up to his holy dwelling place, to heaven.