The Passover

¹⁹ On the fourteenth day of the first month, the exiles celebrated the Passover.^{(A) 20} The priests and Levites had purified themselves and were all ceremonially clean. The Levites slaughtered^(B) the Passover lamb for all the exiles, for their relatives the priests and for themselves. ²¹ So the Israelites who had returned from the exile ate it, together with all who had separated themselves^(C) from the unclean practices^(D) of their Gentile neighbors in order to seek the Lord,^(E) the God of Israel. ²² For seven days they celebrated with joy the Festival of Unleavened Bread,^(F) because the Lord had filled them with joy by changing the attitude^(G) of the king of Assyria so that he assisted them in the work on the house of God, the God of Israel.