20King Hezekiah rose early, gathered the officers of the city, and went up to the House of the LORD. 21They brought seven bulls and seven rams and seven lambs and seven he-goats as a sin offering for the kingdom and for the Sanctuary and for Judah. He ordered the Aaronite priests to offer them on the altar of the LORD. 22The cattle were slaughtered, and the priests received the blood and dashed it against the altar; the rams were slaughtered and the blood was dashed against the altar; the lambs were slaughtered and the blood was dashed against the altar. 23The he-goats for the sin offering were presented to the king and the congregation, who laid their hands upon them. 24The priests slaughtered them and performed the purgation rite with the blood against the altar, to expiate for all Israel, for the king had designated the burnt offering and the sin offering to be for all Israel. 25He stationed the Levites in the House of the LORD with cymbals and harps and lyres, as David and Gad the king’s seer and Nathan the prophet had ordained, for the ordinance was by the LORD through His prophets.
26When the Levites were in place with the instruments of David, and the priests with their trumpets, 27Hezekiah gave the order to offer the burnt offering on the altar.
When the burnt offering began, the song of the LORD and the trumpets began also, together with the instruments of King David of Israel. 28All the congregation prostrated themselves, the song was sung and the trumpets were blown—all this until the end of the burnt offering. 29When the offering was finished, the king and all who were there with him knelt and prostrated themselves. 30King Hezekiah and the officers ordered the Levites to praise the LORD in the words of David and Asaph the seer; so they praised rapturously, and they bowed and prostrated themselves.
31Then Hezekiah said, “Now you have consecrated yourselves to the LORD; come, bring sacrifices and thanksgiving to the House of the LORD.” The congregation brought sacrifices of well-being and thanksgiving, and all who felt so moved brought burnt offerings. 32The number of burnt offerings that the congregation brought was 70 cattle, 100 rams, 200 lambs—all these for burnt offerings to the LORD. 33The sacred offerings were 600 large cattle and 3,000 small cattle. 34The priests were too few to be able to flay all the burnt offerings, so their kinsmen, the Levites, reinforced them till the end of the work, and till the [rest of the] priests sanctified themselves. (The Levites were more conscientious about sanctifying themselves than the priests.) 35For beside the large number of burnt offerings, there were the fat parts of the sacrifices of well-being and the libations for the burnt offerings; so the service of the House of the LORD was properly accomplished. 36Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced over what God had enabled the people to accomplish, because it had happened so suddenly.
30Hezekiah sent word to all Israel and Judah; he also wrote letters to Ephraim and Manasseh to come to the House of the LORD in Jerusalem to keep the Passover for the LORD God of Israel. 2The king and his officers and the congregation in Jerusalem had agreed to keep the Passover in the second month, 3for at the time, they were unable to keep it,a for not enough priests had sanctified themselves, nor had the people assembled in Jerusalem. 4The king and the whole congregation thought it proper 5to issue a decree and proclaim throughout all Israel from Beer-sheba to Dan that they come and keep the Passover for the LORD God of Israel in Jerusalem—not often did they act in accord with what was written. 6The couriers went out with the letters from the king and his officers through all Israel and Judah, by order of the king, proclaiming, “O you Israelites! Return to the LORD God of your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, and He will return to the remnant of you who escaped from the hand of the kings of Assyria. 7Do not be like your fathers and brothers who trespassed against the LORD God of their fathers and He turned them into a horror, as you sec. 8Now do not be stiffnecked like your fathers; submit yourselves to the LORD and come to His sanctuary, which He consecrated forever, and serve the LORD your God so that His anger may turn back from you. 9If you return to the LORD, your brothers and children will be regarded with compassion by their captors, and will return to this land; for the LORD your God is gracious and merciful; He will not turn His face from you if you return to Him.”
10As the couriers passed from town to town in the land of Ephraim and Manasseh till they reached Zebulun, they were laughed at and mocked. 11Some of the people of Asher and Manasseh and Zebulun, however, were contrite, and came to Jerusalem. 12The hand of God was on Judah, too, making them of a single mind to carry out the command of the king and officers concerning the ordinance of the LORD. 13A great crowd assembled at Jerusalem to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread in the second month, a very great congregation. 14They set to and removed the altars that were in Jerusalem, and they removed all the incense stands and threw them into Wadi Kidron. 15They slaughtered the paschal sacrifice on the fourteenth of the second month. The priests and Levites were ashamed, and they sanctified themselves and brought burnt offerings to the House of the LORD. 16They took their stations, as was their rule according to the Teaching of Moses, man of God. The priests dashed the blood [which they received] from the Levites. 17Since many in the congregation had not sanctified themselves, the Levites were in charge of slaughtering the paschal sacrifice for everyone who was not clean, so as to consecrate them to the LORD. 18For most of the people—many from Ephraim and Manasseh, Issachar and Zebulun—had not purified themselves, yet they ate the paschal sacrifice in violation of what was written. Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, “The good LORD will provide atonement for 19everyone who set his mind on worshiping God, the LORD God of his fathers, even if he is not purified for the sanctuary.” 20The LORD heard Hezekiah and healed the people.
21The Israelites who were in Jerusalem kept the Feast of Unleavened Bread seven days, with great rejoicing, the Levites and the priests praising the LORD daily with powerful instruments for the LORD. 22Hezekiah persuaded all the Levites who performed skillfully for the LORD to spend the seven days of the festival making offerings of well-being, and confessing to the LORD God of their fathers. 23All the congregation resolved to keep seven more days, so they kept seven more days of rejoicing. 24King Hezekiah of Judah contributed to the congregation 1,000 bulls and 7,000 sheep. And the officers contributed to the congregation 1,000 bulls and 10,000 sheep. And the priests sanctified themselves in large numbers. 25All the congregation of Judah and the priests and the Levites and all the congregation that came from Israel, and the resident aliens who came from the land of Israel and who lived in Judah, rejoiced. 26There was great rejoicing in Jerusalem, for since the time of King Solomon son of David of Israel nothing like it had happened in Jerusalem. 27The Levite priests rose and blessed the people, and their voice was heard, and their prayer went up to His holy abode, to heaven.
31 When all this was finished, all Israel who were present went out into the towns of Judah and smashed the pillars, cut down the sacred posts, demolished the shrines and altars throughout Judah and Benjamin, and throughout Ephraim and Manasseh, to the very last one. Then all the Israelites returned to their towns, each to his possession.
2Hezekiah reconstituted the divisions of the priests and Levites, each man of the priests and Levites according to his office, for the burnt offerings, the offerings of well-being, to minister, and to sing hymns and praises in the gates of the courts of the LORD; 3also the king’s portion, from his property, for the burnt offerings—the morning and evening burnt offering, and the burnt offerings for sabbaths, and new moons, and festivals, as prescribed in the Teaching of the LORD.
4He ordered the people, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to deliver the portions of the priests and the Levites, so that they might devote themselves to the Teaching of the LORD. 5When the word spread, the Israelites brought large quantities of grain, wine, oil, honey, and all kinds of agricultural produce, and tithes of all, in large amounts. 6The men of Israel and Judah living in the towns of Judah—they too brought tithes of cattle and sheep and tithes of sacred things consecrated to the LORD their God, piling them in heaps. 7In
