Print

Print


2 Chronicles 30:13-27

Many people came together in Jerusalem to keep the festival of unleavened
bread in the second month, a very large assembly.  They 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.  They 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.  They took their accustomed
posts according to the law of Moses the man of God; the priests dashed the
blood that they received from the hands of the Levites.  For there were
many in the assembly who had not sanctified themselves; therefore the
Levites had to slaughter the passover lamb for everyone who was not clean,
to make it holy to the LORD.  For a multitude 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.  But
Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, "The good LORD pardon all who set their
hearts to seek God, the LORD the God of their ancestors, even though not
in accordance with the sanctuary's rules of cleanness."  The LORD heard
Hezekiah, and healed the people.  The people of Israel who were present at
Jerusalem kept the festival of unleavened bread seven days with great
gladness; and the Levites and the priests praised the LORD day by day,
accompanied by loud instruments for the LORD.  Hezekiah spoke
encouragingly to all the Levites who showed good skill in the service of
the LORD. So the people ate the food of the festival for seven days,
sacrificing offerings of well-being and giving thanks to the LORD the God
of their ancestors.

Then the whole assembly agreed together to keep the festival for another
seven days; so they kept it for another seven days with gladness.  For
King Hezekiah of Judah gave the assembly a thousand bulls and seven
thousand sheep for offerings, and the officials gave the assembly a
thousand bulls and ten thousand sheep.  The priests sanctified themselves
in great numbers.  The whole assembly of Judah, the priests and the
Levites, and the whole assembly that came out of Israel, and the resident
aliens who came out of the land of Israel, and the resident aliens who
lived in Judah, rejoiced.  There was great joy in Jerusalem, for since the
time of Solomon son of King David of Israel there had been nothing like
this in Jerusalem.  Then the priests and the Levites stood up and blessed
the people, and their voice was heard; their prayer came to his holy
dwelling in heaven.