2 Chronicles 30

⁷Get rid of the old leaven, that you may be a new unleavened batch, as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.

⁸Therefore let us keep the feast, not with the old bread, leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and of truth.

⁴Their deeds do not permit them to return to their God, for a spirit of prostitution is within them, and they do not know the Lord.

¹⁶Those from every tribe of Israel who had set their hearts to seek the Lord their God followed the Levites to Jerusalem to sacrifice to the Lord, the God of their fathers.

³Tell the whole congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man must select a lamb for his family, one per household.

⁴If the household is too small for a whole lamb, they are to share with the nearest neighbor based on the number of people, and apportion the lamb accordingly.

⁶Slaughter the Passover lambs, consecrate yourselves, and make preparations for your fellow countrymen to carry out the word of the Lord given by Moses.”

¹³Moreover, the priests and Levites from all their districts throughout Israel stood with Rehoboam.

¹⁰“Tell the Israelites: ‘When any one of you or your descendants is unclean because of a dead body, or is away on a journey, he may still observe the Passover to the Lord.

¹¹Such people are to observe it at twilight on the fourteenth day of the second month. They are to eat the lamb, together with unleavened bread and bitter herbs;

¹³In the second month, a very great assembly gathered in Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

¹⁴For lack of guidance, a nation falls, but with many counselors comes deliverance.

¹Then David conferred with all his leaders, the commanders of thousands and of hundreds.

²And he said to the whole assembly of Israel, “If it seems good to you, and if this is of the Lord our God, let us send word far and wide to the rest of our brothers in all the land of Israel, and also to the priests and Levites in their cities and pasturelands, so that they may join us.

¹³Better is a poor but wise youth than an old but foolish king who no longer knows how to take a warning.

²²Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.

³⁴However, since there were not enough priests to skin all the burnt offerings, their Levite brothers helped them until the work was finished and until the priests had consecrated themselves. For the Levites had been more diligent in consecrating themselves than the priests had been.

⁶You must keep it until the fourteenth day of the month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel will slaughter the animals at twilight.

¹⁸In the first month you are to eat unleavened bread, from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day.

¹⁷They began the consecration on the first day of the first month, and on the eighth day of the month they reached the portico of the Lord. For eight more days they consecrated the house of the Lord itself, finishing on the sixteenth day of the first month.

⁴And because this proposal seemed right to all the people, the whole assembly agreed to it.

¹Then all the Israelites from Dan to Beersheba and from the land of Gilead came out, and the congregation assembled as one man before the Lord at Mizpah.

⁸I hereby decree what you must do for these elders of the Jews who are rebuilding this house of God: The cost is to be paid in full to these men from the royal treasury out of the taxes of the provinces west of the Euphrates, so that the work will not be hindered.

⁹Whatever is needed—young bulls, rams, and lambs for burnt offerings to the God of heaven, as well as wheat, salt, wine, and oil, as requested by the priests in Jerusalem—must be given to them daily without fail.

²²In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, to fulfill the word of the Lord spoken through Jeremiah, the Lord stirred the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia to send a proclamation throughout his kingdom and to put it in writing as follows:

¹⁸No such Passover had been observed in Israel since the days of Samuel the prophet. None of the kings of Israel ever observed a Passover like the one that Josiah observed with the priests, the Levites, all Judah, the Israelites who were present, and the people of Jerusalem.

²Now I commend you for remembering me in everything and for maintaining the traditions, just as I passed them on to you.

¹King Nebuchadnezzar, To the people of every nation and language who dwell in all the earth: May your prosperity be multiplied.

²I am pleased to declare the signs and wonders that the Most High God has performed for me.

³¹One courier races to meet another, and messenger follows messenger, to announce to the king of Babylon that his city has been captured from end to end.

¹⁴The couriers rode out in haste on their royal horses, pressed on by the command of the king. And the edict was also issued in the citadel of Susa.

¹“If you will return, O Israel, return to Me,” declares the Lord. “If you will remove your detestable idols from My sight and no longer waver,

¹⁹Then Pul king of Assyria invaded the land, and Menahem gave Pul a thousand talents of silver in order to gain his support and strengthen his own grip on the kingdom.

²⁹In the days of Pekah king of Israel, Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria came and captured Ijon, Abel-beth-maacah, Janoah, Kedesh, Hazor, Gilead, and Galilee, including all the land of Naphtali, and he took the people as captives to Assyria.

²⁶So the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul king of Assyria (that is, Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria) to take the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh into exile. And he brought them to Halah, Habor, Hara, and the river of Gozan, where they remain to this day.

⁸Therefore, the wrath of the Lord has fallen upon Judah and Jerusalem, and He has made them an object of terror, horror, and scorn, as you can see with your own eyes.

¹³Yet the house of Israel rebelled against Me in the wilderness. They did not follow My statutes and they rejected My ordinances—though the man who does these things will live by them—and they utterly profaned My Sabbaths. Then I resolved to pour out My wrath upon them and put an end to them in the wilderness.

¹⁴But I acted for the sake of My name, so that it would not be profaned in the eyes of the nations in whose sight I had brought them out.

³So tell the people that this is what the Lord of Hosts says: ‘Return to Me, declares the Lord of Hosts, and I will return to you, says the Lord of Hosts.’

⁴Do not be like your fathers, to whom the former prophets proclaimed that this is what the Lord of Hosts says: ‘Turn now from your evil ways and deeds.’ But they did not listen or pay attention to Me, declares the Lord.

⁹The Lord also said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and they are indeed a stiff-necked people.

¹⁰Now it is in my heart to make a covenant with the Lord, the God of Israel, so that His fierce anger will turn away from us.

¹⁶Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and stiffen your necks no more.

⁴⁹He unleashed His fury against them, wrath, indignation, and calamity—a band of destroying angels.

¹⁵But if it is unpleasing in your sight to serve the Lord, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!”

³¹Envoys will arrive from Egypt; Cush will stretch out her hands to God.

⁷Let the wicked man forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that He may have compassion, and to our God, for He will freely pardon.

¹⁸Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity and passes over the transgression of the remnant of His inheritance—who does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in loving devotion?

⁵For You, O Lord, are kind and forgiving, rich in loving devotion to all who call on You.

²and when you and your children return to the Lord your God and obey His voice with all your heart and all your soul according to everything I am giving you today,

³then He will restore you from captivity and have compassion on you and gather you from all the nations to which the Lord your God has scattered you.

⁴⁶He made them objects of compassion to all who held them captive.

⁵⁰May You forgive Your people who have sinned against You and all the transgressions they have committed against You, and may You grant them compassion in the eyes of their captors to show them mercy.

¹⁶But they mocked the messengers of God, despising His words and scoffing at His prophets, until the wrath of the Lord against His people was stirred up beyond remedy.

⁶At the command of the king, the couriers went throughout Israel and Judah with letters from the king and his officials, which read: “Children of Israel, return to the Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, so that He may return to those of you who remain, who have escaped the grasp of the kings of Assyria.

³⁶Still others endured mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment.

¹⁴The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all of this and were scoffing at Jesus.

²⁵My days are swifter than a runner; they flee without seeing good.

¹⁴The couriers rode out in haste on their royal horses, pressed on by the command of the king. And the edict was also issued in the citadel of Susa.

²¹The Israelites who were present in Jerusalem celebrated the Feast of Unleavened Bread for seven days with great joy, and the Levites and priests praised the Lord day after day, accompanied by loud instruments of praise to the Lord.

¹⁸A large number of the people—many from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun—had not purified themselves, yet they ate the Passover, contrary to what was written. But Hezekiah interceded for them, saying, “May the Lord, who is good, provide atonement for everyone

²⁵Then the whole assembly of Judah rejoiced along with the priests and Levites and the whole assembly that had come from Israel, including the foreigners who had come from Israel and those who lived in Judah.

⁶So the leaders of Israel and the king humbled themselves and said, “The Lord is righteous.”

⁷When the Lord saw that they had humbled themselves, the word of the Lord came to Shemaiah, saying, “They have humbled themselves; I will not destroy them, but will soon grant them deliverance. My wrath will not be poured out on Jerusalem through Shishak.

²³but he did not humble himself before the Lord as his father Manasseh had done; instead, Amon increased his guilt.

¹⁴I tell you, this man, rather than the Pharisee, went home justified. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

³⁹I will give them one heart and one way, so that they will always fear Me for their own good and for the good of their children after them.

³Your people shall be willing on Your day of battle. Arrayed in holy splendor, from the womb of the dawn, to You belongs the dew of Your youth.

⁷I will give them a heart to know Me, that I am the Lord. They will be My people, and I will be their God, for they will return to Me with all their heart.

¹³For it is God who works in you to will and to act on behalf of His good purpose.

¹³But we should always thank God for you, brothers who are loved by the Lord, because God chose you from the beginning to be saved by the sanctification of the Spirit and by faith in the truth.

¹⁴To this He called you through our gospel, so that you may share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

³⁶Then Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced at what God had prepared for the people, because everything had been accomplished so quickly.

⁷They go from strength to strength, until each appears before God in Zion.

²For the king and his officials and the whole assembly in Jerusalem had decided to keep the Passover in the second month,

²⁴Then Ahaz gathered up the articles of the house of God, cut them into pieces, shut the doors of the house of the Lord, and set up altars of his own on every street corner in Jerusalem.

¹⁶So the priests went inside the house of the Lord to cleanse it, and they brought out to the courtyard all the unclean things that they found in the temple of the Lord. Then the Levites took these things and carried them out to the Kidron Valley.

¹⁶King Asa also removed his grandmother Maacah from her position as queen mother because she had made a detestable Asherah pole. Asa chopped down the pole, crushed it, and burned it in the Kidron Valley.

²³Everyone in the countryside was weeping loudly as all the people passed by. And as the king crossed the Kidron Valley, all the people also passed toward the way of the wilderness.

¹After Jesus had spoken these words, He went out with His disciples across the Kidron Valley, where they entered a garden.

¹²He pulled down the altars that the kings of Judah had set up on the roof near the upper chamber of Ahaz, and the altars that Manasseh had set up in the two courtyards of the house of the Lord. The king pulverized them there and threw their dust into the Kidron Valley.

¹³The king also desecrated the high places east of Jerusalem, to the south of the Mount of Corruption, which King Solomon of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, for Chemosh the abomination of the Moabites, and for Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.

³⁴However, since there were not enough priests to skin all the burnt offerings, their Levite brothers helped them until the work was finished and until the priests had consecrated themselves. For the Levites had been more diligent in consecrating themselves than the priests had been.

¹⁰As for you, son of man, describe the temple to the people of Israel, so that they may be ashamed of their iniquities. Let them measure the plan,

¹¹and if they are ashamed of all they have done, then make known to them the design of the temple—its arrangement and its exits and entrances—its whole design along with all its statutes, forms, and laws. Write it down in their sight, so that they may keep its complete design and all its statutes and may carry them out.

²²Even the priests who approach the Lord must consecrate themselves, or the Lord will break out against them.”

²⁴For Hezekiah king of Judah contributed a thousand bulls and seven thousand sheep for the assembly, and the officials contributed a thousand bulls and ten thousand sheep for the assembly, and a great number of priests consecrated themselves.

¹¹Now all the priests who were present had consecrated themselves regardless of their divisions. And when the priests came out of the Holy Place,

¹⁸The genealogy included all the little ones, wives, sons, and daughters of the whole assembly. For they had faithfully consecrated themselves as holy.

¹⁵The singers, the descendants of Asaph, were at their stations according to the command of David, Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun the king’s seer. And the gatekeepers at each gate did not need to leave their posts, because their fellow Levites made preparations for them.

¹This is the blessing that Moses the man of God pronounced upon the Israelites before his death.

⁵And he shall slaughter the young bull before the Lord, and Aaron’s sons the priests are to present the blood and splatter it on all sides of the altar at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.

¹⁴And she looked out and saw the king standing by the pillar, according to the custom. The officers and trumpeters were beside the king, and all the people of the land were rejoicing and blowing trumpets. Then Athaliah tore her clothes and screamed, “Treason! Treason!”

¹⁰So the service was prepared; the priests stood in their places and the Levites in their divisions according to the king’s command.

¹¹And they slaughtered the Passover lambs, while the priests splattered the blood handed to them and the Levites skinned the animals.

²⁸By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch Israel’s own firstborn.

³⁴However, since there were not enough priests to skin all the burnt offerings, their Levite brothers helped them until the work was finished and until the priests had consecrated themselves. For the Levites had been more diligent in consecrating themselves than the priests had been.

³To the Levites who taught all Israel and were holy to the Lord, Josiah said: “Put the holy ark in the temple built by Solomon son of David king of Israel. It is not to be carried around on your shoulders. Now serve the Lord your God and His people Israel.

⁴Prepare yourselves by families in your divisions, according to the instructions written by David king of Israel and Solomon his son.

⁶You must keep it until the fourteenth day of the month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel will slaughter the animals at twilight.

²⁸Each one must examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup.

¹⁵And the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick. The Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven.

¹⁶Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man has great power to prevail.

¹⁰“Tell the Israelites: ‘When any one of you or your descendants is unclean because of a dead body, or is away on a journey, he may still observe the Passover to the Lord.

¹¹Such people are to observe it at twilight on the fourteenth day of the second month. They are to eat the lamb, together with unleavened bread and bitter herbs;

¹⁹O Lord, listen! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, hear and act! For Your sake, O my God, do not delay, because Your city and Your people bear Your name.”

²¹Hear the plea of Your servant and of Your people Israel when they pray toward this place. May You hear from heaven, Your dwelling place. May You hear and forgive.

²⁰But if a person who is unclean does not purify himself, he will be cut off from the assembly, because he has defiled the sanctuary of the Lord. The water of purification has not been sprinkled on him; he is unclean.

³However, some good is found in you, for you have removed the Asherah poles from the land and have set your heart on seeking God.”

²⁶My son, give me your heart, and let your eyes delight in my ways.

¹⁷You have heard, O Lord, the desire of the humble; You will strengthen their hearts. You will incline Your ear,

¹³As for you, if you direct your heart and lift up your hands to Him,

³³The high places, however, were not removed; the people had not yet set their hearts on the God of their fathers.

¹⁸O Lord, God of our fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, keep this desire forever in the intentions of the hearts of Your people, and direct their hearts toward You.

²⁶saying, “If you will listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God, and do what is right in His eyes, and pay attention to His commands, and keep all His statutes, then I will not bring on you any of the diseases I inflicted on the Egyptians. For I am the Lord who heals you.”

³He who forgives all your iniquities and heals all your diseases,

¹⁵And the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick. The Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven.

¹⁶Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man has great power to prevail.

¹⁵For seven days you must eat unleavened bread. On the first day you are to remove the leaven from your houses. Whoever eats anything leavened from the first day through the seventh must be cut off from Israel.

⁶For seven days you are to eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a feast to the Lord.

²⁵Hezekiah stationed the Levites in the house of the Lord with cymbals, harps, and lyres according to the command of David, of Gad the king’s seer, and of Nathan the prophet. For the command had come from the Lord through His prophets.

²⁶The Levites stood with the instruments of David, and the priests with the trumpets.

⁶On the fifteenth day of the same month begins the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the Lord. For seven days you must eat unleavened bread.

²¹Then Jehoshaphat consulted with the people and appointed those who would sing to the Lord and praise the splendor of His holiness. As they went out before the army, they were singing: “Give thanks to the Lord, for His loving devotion endures forever.”

⁷Then came the day of Unleavened Bread on which the Passover lamb was to be sacrificed.

⁶Hezekiah appointed military commanders over the people and gathered the people in the square of the city gate. Then he encouraged them, saying,

³While they stood in their places, they read from the Book of the Law of the Lord their God for a quarter of the day, and they spent another quarter of the day in confession and worship of the Lord their God.

¹¹Now, therefore, make a confession to the Lord, the God of your fathers, and do His will. Separate yourselves from the people of the land and from your foreign wives.”

¹“Comfort, comfort My people,” says your God.

²“Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her forced labor has been completed; her iniquity has been pardoned. For she has received from the hand of the Lord double for all her sins.”

⁶For the Lord gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding.

⁷He stores up sound wisdom for the upright; He is a shield to those who walk with integrity,

¹⁰For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the Lord, to practice it, and to teach its statutes and ordinances in Israel.

⁶⁵So at that time Solomon and all Israel with him—a great assembly of people from Lebo-hamath to the Brook of Egypt—kept the feast before the Lord our God for seven days and seven more days—fourteen days in all.

⁹On the eighth day they held a solemn assembly, for the dedication of the altar had lasted seven days, and the feast seven days more.

³⁴However, since there were not enough priests to skin all the burnt offerings, their Levite brothers helped them until the work was finished and until the priests had consecrated themselves. For the Levites had been more diligent in consecrating themselves than the priests had been.

⁷From his own flocks and herds Josiah contributed 30,000 lambs and goats plus 3,000 bulls for the Passover offerings for all the people who were present.

⁸His officials also contributed willingly to the people and priests and Levites. Hilkiah, Zechariah, and Jehiel, the chief officials of the house of God, gave the priests 2,600 Passover offerings and 300 bulls.

⁸This is why it says: “When He ascended on high, He led captives away, and gave gifts to men.”

¹⁷And it shall be the prince’s part to provide the burnt offerings, grain offerings, and drink offerings for the feasts, New Moons, and Sabbaths—for all the appointed feasts of the house of Israel. He will provide the sin offerings, grain offerings, burnt offerings, and peace offerings to make atonement for the house of Israel.

³since they had been unable to keep it at the regular time, because not enough priests had consecrated themselves and the people had not been gathered in Jerusalem.

³Moreover, because of my delight in the house of my God, I now give for it my personal treasures of gold and silver, over and above all that I have provided for this holy temple:

⁴three thousand talents of gold (the gold of Ophir) and seven thousand talents of refined silver, to overlay the walls of the buildings,

¹¹Nevertheless, some from Asher, Manasseh, and Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem.

¹⁸A large number of the people—many from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun—had not purified themselves, yet they ate the Passover, contrary to what was written. But Hezekiah interceded for them, saying, “May the Lord, who is good, provide atonement for everyone

⁴For You, O Lord, have made me glad by Your deeds; I sing for joy at the works of Your hands.

³⁴May my meditation be pleasing to Him, for I rejoice in the Lord.

¹⁰Glory in His holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice.

¹¹Seek out the Lord and His strength; seek His face always.

⁴³And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “This is the statute of the Passover: No foreigner is to eat of it.

⁴⁴But any slave who has been purchased may eat of it, after you have circumcised him.

⁸So at that time Solomon and all Israel with him—a very great assembly of people from Lebo-hamath to the Brook of Egypt—kept the feast for seven days.

⁹On the eighth day they held a solemn assembly, for the dedication of the altar had lasted seven days, and the feast seven days more.

¹⁵Look down from Your holy habitation, from heaven, and bless Your people Israel and the land You have given us as You swore to our fathers—a land flowing with milk and honey.”

⁵A father of the fatherless and a defender of widows is God in His holy habitation.

¹⁵For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in a high and holy place, and with the oppressed and humble in spirit, to restore the spirit of the lowly and revive the heart of the contrite.

⁴Cornelius stared at him in fear and asked, “What is it, Lord?” The angel answered, “Your prayers and gifts to the poor have ascended as a memorial offering before God.

⁸At that time the Lord set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the covenant of the Lord, to stand before the Lord to serve Him, and to pronounce blessings in His name, as they do to this day.

¹⁸Moreover, Jehoiada put the oversight of the house of the Lord into the hands of the Levitical priests, whom David had appointed over the house of the Lord, to offer burnt offerings to the Lord as written in the Law of Moses, with rejoicing and song, as ordained by David.