The Divided Kingdom

When the offering was over, the king and everyone present with him bowed down and prostrated themselves.

Then Hizkiyahu the king and the leaders ordered the L'vi'im to sing praises to ADONAI, using the words of David and of Asaf the seer. They sang praises until they were filled with joy, and they bowed their heads and prostrated themselves.

Hizkiyahu responded by saying, "Now that you have consecrated yourselves to ADONAI, come close, and bring sacrifices and thank offerings into the house of ADONAI. So the community brought in sacrifices and thank offerings, and as many as were willing volunteered burnt offerings.

In all, the burnt offerings brought by the congregation totaled 70 bulls, 100 rams and 200 lambs; all these were for a burnt offering to ADONAI.

The consecrated gifts amounted to 600 oxen and 3,000 sheep.

Only there weren't enough cohanim to skin and butcher all the burnt offerings, so their colleagues the L'vi'im assisted them until the work was finished and the cohanim had consecrated themselves (for the L'vi'im had been more diligent to consecrate themselves than the cohanim).

Besides the abundance of burnt offerings, there was the fat of the peace offerings and drink offerings for each burnt offering. Thus the service of the house of ADONAI was restored.

Hizkiyahu and all the people rejoiced over what God had prepared for the people, since it had all happened so suddenly.

Then Hizkiyahu sent to all Isra'el and Y'hudah, and wrote letters also to Efrayim and M'nasheh, summoning them to the house of ADONAI in Yerushalayim, to keep the Pesach to ADONAI the God of Isra'el.

For the king, his officials and the entire Yerushalayim community had agreed to keep the Pesach in the second month.

They had not been able to observe it at the proper time because the cohanim had not consecrated themselves in sufficient number; also the people had not assembled in Yerushalayim.

The idea had seemed right to the king and to the whole community;

so they issued a decree that it should be proclaimed throughout all Isra'el, from Be'er-Sheva to Dan, that they should come to keep the Pesach to ADONAI the God of Isra'el at Yerushalayim; for only a few had been observing it as prescribed.

So runners went with the letters from the king and his officers throughout all Isra'el and Y'hudah. They conveyed the king's order: "People of Isra'el! Turn back to ADONAI, the God of Avraham, Yitz'chak and Ya'akov! Then he will return to those of you who remain, who escaped capture by the kings of Ashur.

Don't be like your ancestors, or like your kinsmen who sinned against ADONAI the God of their ancestors, with the result that he allowed them to become an object of horror, as you see.

Don't be stiffnecked now, as your ancestors were. Instead, yield yourselves to ADONAI; enter his sanctuary, which he has made holy forever; and serve ADONAI your God; so that his fierce anger will turn away from you.

For if you turn back to ADONAI, your kinsmen and children will find that those who took them captive will have compassion on them, and they will come back to this land. ADONAI your God is compassionate and merciful; he will not turn his face away from you if you return to him."

So the runners passed from city to city through the territory of Efrayim and M'nasheh, as far as Z'vulun; but the people laughed at them and made fun of them.

Nevertheless, some from Asher, M'nasheh and Z'vulun were humble enough to come to Yerushalayim.

Also in Y'hudah the hand of God was at work, uniting their hearts to do what the king and the leaders had ordered in accordance with the word of ADONAI.

Thus, many people assembled in Yerushalayim to keep the festival of Matzot in the second month, a huge crowd.

First they set about removing the altars that were in Yerushalayim, and they also removed all the altars for incense and threw them in Vadi Kidron.

Then they slaughtered the Pesach lamb on the fourteenth day of the second month. Ashamed of themselves, the cohanim and L'vi'im had consecrated themselves and brought burnt offerings into the house of ADONAI.

Now they stood at their stations, as prescribed in the Torah of Moshe the man of God; the cohanim splashed the blood given to them by the L'vi'im.

For there were many in the assembly who had not consecrated themselves; therefore the L'vi'im were responsible for slaughtering the Pesach lambs and consecrating them to ADONAI on behalf of everyone who was not clean.