^22 (A)For no such Passover had been kept since the days of the judges who judged Israel, or during all the days of the kings of Israel or of the kings of Judah.

³ And he said to the Levites ^(A)who taught all Israel and who were holy to the Lord, “Put the holy ark in the house that Solomon the son of David, king of Israel, built. You need not carry it on your shoulders. Now serve the Lord your God and his people Israel. ⁴ Prepare yourselves ^(B)according to your fathers' houses by your divisions, ^(C)as prescribed in the writing of David king of Israel ^(D)and the document of Solomon his son. ⁵ And ^(E)stand in the Holy Place ^(F)according to the groupings of the fathers' houses of your brothers the lay people, and according to the division of the Levites by fathers' household. ⁶ And slaughter the Passover lamb, and ^(G)consecrate yourselves, and prepare for your brothers, to do according to the word of the Lord by^[a] Moses.”

⁷ Then Josiah contributed to the lay people, as Passover offerings for all who were present, lambs and young goats from the flock to the number of 30,000, and 3,000 bulls; ^(H)these were from the king's possessions. ⁸ And his officials contributed willingly to the people, to the priests, and to the Levites. ^(I)Hilkiah, Zechariah, and Jehiel, the chief officers of the house of God, gave to the priests for the Passover offerings 2,600 Passover lambs and 300 bulls. ⁹ Conaniah also, and Shemaiah and Nethanel his brothers, and Hashabiah and Jeiel and Jozabad, the chiefs of the Levites, gave to the Levites for the Passover offerings 5,000 lambs and young goats and 500 bulls.

¹⁰ When the service had been prepared for, the priests ^(J)stood in their place, ^(K)and the Levites in their divisions according to the king's command. ^11 (L)And they slaughtered the Passover lamb, and the priests ^(M)threw the blood that they received from them ^(N)while the Levites flayed the sacrifices. ¹² And they set aside the burnt offerings that they might distribute them according to the groupings of the fathers' houses of the lay people, to offer to the Lord, as it is written in the Book of Moses. And so they did with the bulls. ^13 (O)And they roasted the Passover lamb with fire according to the rule; and they ^(P)boiled the holy offerings in pots, in cauldrons, and in pans, and carried them quickly to all the lay people. ¹⁴ And afterward they prepared for themselves and for the priests, because the priests, the sons of Aaron, were offering the burnt offerings and the fat parts until night; so the Levites prepared for themselves and for the priests, the sons of Aaron. ¹⁵ The singers, the sons of Asaph, were in their place ^(Q)according to the command of David, and Asaph, and Heman, and Jeduthun the king's ^(R)seer; ^(S)and the gatekeepers were at each gate. They did not need to depart from their service, for their brothers the Levites prepared for them.

¹⁶ So all the service of the Lord was prepared that day, to keep the Passover and to offer burnt offerings on the altar of the Lord, according to the command of King Josiah. ¹⁷ And the people of Israel who were present kept the Passover at that time, ^(T)and the Feast of Unleavened Bread seven days. ^18 (U)No Passover like it had been kept in Israel since the days of Samuel the prophet. None of the kings of Israel had kept such a Passover as was kept by Josiah, and the priests and the Levites, and all Judah and Israel who were present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. ¹⁹ In the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah this Passover was kept.

¹³ And many people came together in Jerusalem to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread ^(A)in the second month, a very great assembly. ¹⁴ They set to work and removed ^(B)the altars that were in Jerusalem, and all the altars for burning incense they took away ^(C)and threw into the brook Kidron. ^15 (D)And they slaughtered the Passover lamb on the fourteenth day of the second month. ^(E)And the priests and the Levites were ashamed, ^(F)so that they consecrated themselves and brought burnt offerings into the house of the Lord. ^16 (G)They took their accustomed posts according to the Law of Moses ^(H)the man of God. The priests threw the blood that they received from the hand of the Levites. ¹⁷ For there were many in the assembly who had not consecrated themselves. Therefore the Levites had to slaughter the Passover lamb for everyone who was not clean, to consecrate it to the Lord. ¹⁸ For a majority of the people, ^(I)many of them from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun, had not cleansed themselves, yet they ate the Passover otherwise ^(J)than as prescribed. For Hezekiah had prayed for them, saying, “May the good Lord pardon everyone ^19 (K)who sets his heart to seek God, the Lord, the God of his fathers, even though not according to the sanctuary's rules of cleanness.”^{[a] 20} And the Lord heard Hezekiah and healed the people.

Passover Celebrated

30 Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Judah, and wrote letters also to Ephraim and Manasseh, that they should come to the house of the Lord at Jerusalem to keep the Passover to the Lord, the God of Israel. ² For the king and his princes and all the assembly in Jerusalem had taken counsel to keep the Passover ^(A)in the second month— ³ for they could not keep it ^(B)at that time ^(C)because the priests had not consecrated themselves in sufficient number, nor had the people assembled in Jerusalem—