⁷ And those men said to him, “We became defiled by a human corpse. Why are we kept from presenting the offering of the Lord at its appointed time among the children of Israel?”

⁷ Therefore ^[a]purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed ^(A)Christ, our ^(B)Passover, was sacrificed ^[b]for us. ⁸ Therefore ^(C)let us keep the feast, ^(D)not with old leaven, nor ^(E)with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

¹⁷ For there were many in the assembly who had not ^[a]sanctified themselves; ^(A)therefore the Levites had charge of the slaughter of the Passover lambs for everyone who was not clean, to sanctify them to the Lord. ¹⁸ For a multitude of the people, ^(B)many from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun, had not cleansed themselves, ^(C)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 ^(D)prepares his heart to seek God, the Lord God of his fathers, though he is not cleansed according to the purification of the sanctuary.”

² Therefore you shall sacrifice the Passover to the Lord your God, from the flock and ^(A)the herd, in the ^(B)place where the Lord chooses to put His name.

² “Let the children of Israel keep ^(A)the Passover at its appointed ^(B)time.

²⁷ that you shall say, ^(A)‘It is the Passover sacrifice of the Lord, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt when He struck the Egyptians and delivered our households.’ ” So the people ^(B)bowed their heads and worshiped.