2 Chronicles 30 1-2 Chronicles 30 27
Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Judah, and wrote letters also to Ephraim and Manasseh, that they should come to Yahweh’s house at Jerusalem, to keep the Passover to Yahweh, the God of Israel.For the king had taken counsel with his princes and all the assembly in Jerusalem to keep the Passover in the second month.For they could not keep it at that time, because the priests had not sanctified themselves in sufficient number, and the people had not gathered themselves together to Jerusalem.The thing was right in the eyes of the king and of all the assembly.So they established a decree to make proclamation throughout all Israel, from Beersheba even to Dan, that they should come to keep the Passover to Yahweh, the God of Israel, at Jerusalem, for they had not kept it in great numbers in the way it is written.So the couriers went with the letters from the king and his princes throughout all Israel and Judah, and according to the commandment of the king, saying,“ You children of Israel, turn again to Yahweh, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, that he may return to the remnant of you that have escaped out of the hand of the kings of Assyria.Don’t be like your fathers and like your brothers, who trespassed against Yahweh, the God of their fathers, so that he gave them up to desolation, as you see.Now don’t be stiff- necked, as your fathers were, but yield yourselves to Yahweh, and enter into his sanctuary, which he has sanctified forever, and serve Yahweh your God, that his fierce anger may turn away from you.For if you turn again to Yahweh, your brothers and your children will find compassion before those who led them captive, and will come again into this land, because Yahweh your God is gracious and merciful, and will not turn away his face from you, if you return to him.”So the couriers passed from city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh, even to Zebulun, but people ridiculed them and mocked them.Nevertheless some men of Asher, Manasseh, and Zebulun humbled themselves, and came to Jerusalem.Also the hand of God came on Judah to give them one heart, to do the commandment of the king and of the princes by Yahweh’s word.Many people assembled at Jerusalem to keep the feast of unleavened bread in the second month, a very great assembly.They arose and took away the altars that were in Jerusalem, and they took away all the altars for incense and threw them into the brook Kidron.Then they killed the Passover on the fourteenth day of the second month. The priests and the Levites were ashamed, and sanctified themselves, and brought burnt offerings into Yahweh’s house.They stood in their place after their order, according to the law of Moses the man of God. The priests sprinkled the blood which they received of the hand of the Levites.For there were many in the assembly who had not sanctified themselves: therefore the Levites were in charge of killing the Passovers for everyone who was not clean, to sanctify them to Yahweh.For a multitude of the people, even many of Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun, had not cleansed themselves, yet they ate the Passover other than the way it is written. For Hezekiah had prayed for them, saying,“ May the good Yahweh pardon everyonewho sets his heart to seek God, Yahweh, the God of his fathers, even if they aren’t clean according to the purification of the sanctuary.”Yahweh listened to Hezekiah, and healed the people.The children of Israel who were present at Jerusalem kept the feast of unleavened bread seven days with great gladness. The Levites and the priests praised Yahweh day by day, singing with loud instruments to Yahweh.Hezekiah spoke encouragingly to all the Levites who had good understanding in the service of Yahweh. So they ate throughout the feast for the seven days, offering sacrifices of peace offerings, and making confession to Yahweh, the God of their fathers.The whole assembly took counsel to keep another seven days, and they kept another seven days with gladness.For Hezekiah king of Judah gave to the assembly for offerings one thousand bulls and seven thousand sheep; and the princes gave to the assembly a thousand bulls and ten thousand sheep: and a great number of priests sanctified themselves.All the assembly of Judah, with the priests and the Levites, and all the assembly who came out of Israel, and the foreigners who came out of the land of Israel, and who lived in Judah, rejoiced.So there was great joy in Jerusalem; for since the time of Solomon the son of David king of Israel there was nothing like this in Jerusalem.Then the Levitical priests arose and blessed the people. Their voice was heard, and their prayer came up to his holy habitation, even to heaven.
Exodus 12:6-36
You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month; and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at evening.They shall take some of the blood, and put it on the two door posts and on the lintel, on the houses in which they shall eat it.They shall eat the meat in that night, roasted with fire, and unleavened bread. They shall eat it with bitter herbs.Don’t eat it raw, nor boiled at all with water, but roasted with fire; with its head, its legs and its inner parts.You shall let nothing of it remain until the morning; but that which remains of it until the morning you shall burn with fire.This is how you shall eat it: with your belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it in haste: it is Yahweh’s Passover.For I will go through the land of Egypt in that night, and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and animal. I will execute judgments against all the gods of Egypt. I am Yahweh.The blood shall be to you for a token on the houses where you are. When I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.This day shall be a memorial for you. You shall keep it as a feast to Yahweh. You shall keep it as a feast throughout your generations by an ordinance forever.“‘ Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread; even the first day you shall put away yeast out of your houses, for whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel.In the first day there shall be to you a holy convocation, and in the seventh day a holy convocation; no kind of work shall be done in them, except that which every man must eat, only that may be done by you.You shall observe the feast of unleavened bread; for in this same day I have brought your armies out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day throughout your generations by an ordinance forever.In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread, until the twenty first day of the month at evening.There shall be no yeast found in your houses for seven days, for whoever eats that which is leavened, that soul shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a foreigner, or one who is born in the land.You shall eat nothing leavened. In all your habitations you shall eat unleavened bread.’”Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel, and said to them,“ Draw out, and take lambs according to your families, and kill the Passover.You shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and strike the lintel and the two door posts with the blood that is in the basin. None of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning.For Yahweh will pass through to strike the Egyptians; and when he sees the blood on the lintel, and on the two door posts, Yahweh will pass over the door, and will not allow the destroyer to come in to your houses to strike you.You shall observe this thing for an ordinance to you and to your sons forever.It shall happen when you have come to the land which Yahweh will give you, as he has promised, that you shall keep this service.It will happen, when your children ask you,‘ What do you mean by this service?’that you shall say,‘ It is the sacrifice of Yahweh’s Passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he struck the Egyptians, and spared our houses.’” The people bowed their heads and worshiped.The children of Israel went and did so; as Yahweh had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.At midnight, Yahweh struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of livestock.Pharaoh rose up in the night, he, and all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where there was not one dead.He called for Moses and Aaron by night, and said,“ Rise up, get out from among my people, both you and the children of Israel; and go, serve Yahweh, as you have said!Take both your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and be gone; and bless me also!”The Egyptians were urgent with the people, to send them out of the land in haste, for they said,“ We are all dead men.”The people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading troughs being bound up in their clothes on their shoulders.The children of Israel did according to the word of Moses; and they asked of the Egyptians jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and clothing.Yahweh gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they let them have what they asked. They plundered the Egyptians.
