¹⁰ “Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘If any one of you or of your generations becomes unclean because of a dead ^[a]person, or is on a distant journey, he may, however, celebrate the Passover to the Lord.

¹⁷ For there were many in the assembly who had not consecrated themselves; therefore, ^(A)the Levites were in charge of the slaughter of the Passover lambs for everyone who was unclean, in order to consecrate them to the Lord. ¹⁸ For a multitude of the people, ^(B)many from Ephraim and Manasseh, and Issachar and Zebulun, had not purified themselves, ^(C)yet they ate the Passover ^(D)contrary to what was written. For Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, “May the good Lord pardon ^19 (E)everyone who prepares his heart to seek God, the Lord God of his fathers, though not according to the purification rules of the sanctuary.” ²⁰ So the Lord heard Hezekiah and ^(F)healed the people. ²¹ The sons of Israel present in Jerusalem ^(G)celebrated the Feast of Unleavened Bread for seven days with great joy, and the Levites and the priests were praising the Lord day after day with loud instruments to the Lord. ²² Then Hezekiah ^(H)spoke ^[a]encouragingly to all the Levites who showed good insight in the things of the Lord. So they ate for the appointed seven days, sacrificing peace offerings and ^(I)giving thanks to the Lord God of their fathers.

²³ Then the whole assembly ^(J)decided to celebrate the feast another seven days, so they celebrated the seven days with joy. ²⁴ For ^(K)Hezekiah king of Judah had contributed to the assembly a thousand bulls and seven thousand sheep, and the princes had contributed to the assembly a thousand bulls and ten thousand sheep; and ^(L)a large number of priests consecrated themselves. ²⁵ All the assembly of Judah rejoiced, with the priests and the Levites and ^(M)all the assembly that came from Israel, both the strangers who came from the land of Israel and those living in Judah. ²⁶ So there was great joy in Jerusalem, because there was nothing like this in Jerusalem ^(N)since the days of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel. ²⁷ Then ^(O)the Levitical priests stood and ^(P)blessed the people; and their voice was heard and their prayer came to ^(Q)His holy dwelling place, to heaven.

Jesus before Pilate

^28 (A)Then they *brought Jesus from ^(B)Caiaphas into ^(C)the ^[a]Praetorium, and it was early; and they themselves did not enter ^(D)the ^[b]Praetorium, so that ^(E)they would not be defiled, but might eat the Passover.