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 the third month the heaps began to accumulate, and were finished in the seventh month. 8When Hezekiah and the officers came and saw the heaps, they blessed the LORD and his people Israel. 9Hezekiah asked the priests and Levites about the heaps. 10The chief priest Azariah, of the house of Zadok, replied to him, saying, “Ever since the gifts began to be brought to the House of the LORD, people have been eating to satiety and leaving over in great amounts, for the LORD has blessed His people; this huge amount is left over!” 11Hezekiah then gave orders to prepare store-chambers in the House of the LORD; and they were prepared. 12They brought in the gifts and the tithes and the sacred things faithfully.
Their supervisor was Conaniah the Levite, and Shimei his brother was second in rank. 13Jehiel and Azaziah and Nahath and Asahel and Jerimoth and Jozabad and Eliel and Ismachiah and Mahath and Benaiah were commissioners under Conaniah and Shimei his brother by appointment of King Hezekiah; Azariah was supervisor of the House of God. 14Kore son of Imnah the Levite, the keeper of the East Gate, was in charge of the freewill offerings to God, of the allocation of gifts to the LORD, and the most sacred things. 15Under him were Eden, Miniamin, Jeshua, Shemaiah, Amariah, and Shecaniah, in offices of trust in the priestly towns, making allocation to their brothers by divisions, to great and small alike; 16besides allocating their daily rations to those males registered by families from three years old and up, all who entered the House of the LORD according to their service and their shift by division; 17and in charge of the registry of priests by clans, and of the Levites, from twenty years old and up, by shifts, in their divisions; 18and the registry of the dependents of their whole company—wives, sons, and daughters— for, relying upon them, they sanctified themselves in holiness. 19And for the Aaronite priests, in each and every one of their towns with adjoining fields, the above-named men were to allocate portions to every male of the priests and to every registered Levite. 20Hezekiah did this throughout Judah. He acted in a way that was good, upright, and faithful before the LORD his God. 21Every work he undertook in the service of the House of God or in the Teaching and the Commandment, to worship his God, he did with all his heart; and he prospered.
32 aAfter these faithful deeds, King Sennacherib of Assyria invaded Judah and encamped against its fortified towns with the aim of taking them over. 2When Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib had come, intent on making war against Jerusalem, 3he consulted with his officers and warriors about stopping the flow of the springs outside the city, and they supported him. 4A large force was assembled to stop up all the springs and the wadi that flowed through the land, for otherwise, they thought, the king of Assyria would come and find water in abundance. 5He acted with vigor,
