¹⁸ Yet in this thing may the Lord pardon your servant: when my master goes into the temple of Rimmon to worship there, and ^(A)he leans on my hand, and I bow down in the temple of Rimmon—when I bow down in the temple of Rimmon, may the Lord please pardon your servant in this thing.”

^2 (A)So an officer on whose hand the king leaned answered the man of God and said, “Look, ^(B)if the Lord would make windows in heaven, could this thing be?”

And he said, “In fact, you shall see it with your eyes, but you shall not eat of it.”

³⁵ with whom the Lord had made a covenant and charged them, saying: ^(A)“You shall not fear other gods, nor ^(B)bow down to them nor serve them nor sacrifice to them;

¹⁷ Now the king had appointed the officer on whose hand he leaned to have charge of the gate. But the people trampled him in the gate, and he died, just ^(A)as the man of God had said, who spoke when the king came down to him.

¹⁸ For a multitude of the people, ^(A)many from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun, had not cleansed themselves, ^(B)yet they ate the Passover contrary to what was written. But Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, “May the good Lord provide atonement for everyone ¹⁹ who ^(C)prepares his heart to seek God, the Lord God of his fathers, though he is not cleansed according to the purification of the sanctuary.”

^18 (A)Yet I have reserved seven thousand in Israel, all whose knees have not bowed to Baal, ^(B)and every mouth that has not kissed him.”