³ They had not been able to celebrate it at the regular time because not enough priests had consecrated^(A) themselves and the people had not assembled in Jerusalem.

³⁴ The priests, however, were too few to skin all the burnt offerings;^(A) so their relatives the Levites helped them until the task was finished and until other priests had been consecrated,^(B) for the Levites had been more conscientious in consecrating themselves than the priests had been.

¹⁸ In the first month^(A) you are to eat bread made without yeast, from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day.

⁶ Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month,^(A) when all the members of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight.^(B)

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