2 Tawarikh 30:1-20

Hezekiah Observes the Passover

30:1 Hezekiah sent messages throughout Israel and Judah; he even wrote letters to Ephraim and Manasseh, summoning them to come to the Lord’s temple in Jerusalem ¹  and observe a Passover celebration for the Lord God of Israel. 30:2 The king, his officials, and the entire assembly in Jerusalem decided to observe the Passover in the second month. 30:3 They were unable to observe it at the regular ²  time because not enough priests had consecrated themselves and the people had not assembled in Jerusalem. 30:4 The proposal seemed appropriate to ³  the king and the entire assembly. 30:5 So they sent an edict ⁴  throughout Israel from Beer Sheba to Dan, summoning the people ⁵  to come and observe a Passover for the Lord God of Israel in Jerusalem, for they had not observed it on a nationwide scale as prescribed in the law. ⁶  30:6 Messengers ⁷  delivered the letters from the king and his officials throughout Israel and Judah.

This royal edict read: ⁸  “O Israelites, return to the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, so he may return ⁹  to you who have been spared from the kings of Assyria. ¹⁰  30:7 Don’t be like your fathers and brothers who were unfaithful to the Lord God of their ancestors, ¹¹  provoking him to destroy them, ¹²  as you can see. 30:8 Now, don’t be stubborn ¹³  like your fathers! Submit ¹⁴  to the Lord and come to his sanctuary which he has permanently consecrated. Serve the Lord your God so that he might relent from his raging anger. ¹⁵  30:9 For if you return to the Lord, your brothers and sons will be shown mercy by their captors and return to this land. The Lord your God is merciful and compassionate; he will not reject you ¹⁶  if you return to him.”

30:10 The messengers journeyed from city to city through the land of Ephraim and Manasseh as far as Zebulun, but people mocked and ridiculed them. ¹⁷  30:11 But some men from Asher, Manasseh, and Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem. 30:12 In Judah God moved the people to unite and carry out the edict the king and the officers had issued at the Lord’s command. ¹⁸  30:13 A huge crowd assembled in Jerusalem to observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread in the second month. ¹⁹  30:14 They removed the altars in Jerusalem; they also removed all the incense altars and threw them into the Kidron Valley. ²⁰ 

30:15 They slaughtered the Passover lamb on the fourteenth day of the second month. The priests and Levites were ashamed, so they consecrated themselves and brought burnt sacrifices to the Lord’s temple. 30:16 They stood at their posts according to the regulations outlined in the law of Moses, the man of God. The priests were splashing the blood as the Levites handed it to them. ²¹  30:17 Because many in the assembly had not consecrated themselves, the Levites slaughtered ²²  the Passover lambs of all who were ceremonially unclean and could not consecrate their sacrifice to the Lord. ²³  30:18 The majority of the many people from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun were ceremonially unclean, yet they ate the Passover in violation of what is prescribed in the law. ²⁴  For Hezekiah prayed for them, saying: “May the Lord, who is good, forgive ²⁵  30:19 everyone who has determined to follow God, ²⁶  the Lord God of his ancestors, even if he is not ceremonially clean according to the standards of the temple.” ²⁷  30:20 The Lord responded favorably ²⁸  to Hezekiah and forgave ²⁹  the people.

2 Tawarikh 35:1-19

Josiah Observes the Passover

35:1 Josiah observed a Passover festival for the Lord in Jerusalem. ³⁰  They slaughtered the Passover lambs on the fourteenth day of the first month. 35:2 He appointed the priests to fulfill their duties and encouraged them to carry out their service in the Lord’s temple. 35:3 He told the Levites, who instructed all Israel about things consecrated to the Lord, “Place the holy ark in the temple which King Solomon son of David of Israel built. Don’t carry it on your shoulders. Now serve the Lord your God and his people Israel! 35:4 Prepare yourselves by your families according to your divisions, as instructed ³¹  by King David of Israel and his son Solomon. 35:5 Stand in the sanctuary and, together with the Levites, represent the family divisions of your countrymen. ³²  35:6 Slaughter the Passover lambs, consecrate yourselves, and make preparations for your countrymen to do what the Lord commanded through Moses.” ³³ 

35:7 From his own royal flocks and herds, Josiah supplied the people with 30,000 lambs and goats for the Passover sacrifice, as well as 3,000 cattle. ³⁴  35:8 His officials also willingly contributed to the people, priests, and Levites. Hilkiah, Zechariah, and Jehiel, the leaders of God’s temple, supplied 2,600 Passover sacrifices and 300 cattle. 35:9 Konaniah and his brothers Shemaiah and Nethanel, along with Hashabiah, Jeiel, and Jozabad, the officials of the Levites, supplied the Levites with 5,000 Passover sacrifices and 500 cattle. 35:10 Preparations were made, ³⁵  and the priests stood at their posts and the Levites in their divisions as prescribed by the king. 35:11 They slaughtered the Passover lambs and the priests splashed the blood, ³⁶  while the Levites skinned the animals. 35:12 They reserved the burnt offerings and the cattle for the family divisions of the people to present to the Lord, as prescribed in the scroll of Moses. ³⁷  35:13 They cooked the Passover sacrifices over the open fire as prescribed and cooked the consecrated offerings in pots, kettles, and pans. They quickly served them to all the people. 35:14 Afterward they made preparations for themselves and for the priests, because the priests, the descendants of Aaron, were offering burnt sacrifices and fat portions until evening. The Levites made preparations for themselves and for the priests, the descendants of Aaron. 35:15 The musicians, the descendants of Asaph, manned their posts, as prescribed by David, Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun the king’s prophet. ³⁸  The guards at the various gates did not need to leave their posts, for their fellow Levites made preparations for them. 35:16 So all the preparations for the Lord’s service were made that day, as the Passover was observed and the burnt sacrifices were offered on the altar of the Lord, as prescribed by King Josiah. 35:17 So the Israelites who were present observed the Passover at that time, as well as the Feast of Unleavened Bread for seven days. 35:18 A Passover like this had not been observed in Israel since the days of Samuel the prophet. None of the kings of Israel had observed a Passover like the one celebrated by Josiah, the priests, the Levites, all the people of Judah and Israel who were there, and the residents of Jerusalem. 35:19 This Passover was observed in the eighteenth year of Josiah’s reign.

[30:1]  ¹ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[30:3]  ² tn Heb “at that time.”

[30:4]  ³ tn Heb “and the thing was proper in the eyes of.”

[30:5]  ⁴ tn Heb “and they caused to stand a word to cause a voice to pass through.”

[30:5]  ⁵ tn The words “summoning the people” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[30:5]  ⁶ tn Heb “because not for abundance had they done as written.”

[30:6]  ⁷ tn Heb “the runners.”

[30:6]  ⁸ tn Heb “and according to the command of the king, saying.”

[30:6]  ⁹ tn The jussive with vav conjunctive indicates purpose/result after the preceding imperative.

[30:6]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “to the survivors who are left to you from the palm of the kings of Assyria.”

[30:7]  ¹¹ tn Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 19, 22).

[30:7]  ¹² tn Heb “and he made them a devastation” (or, perhaps, “an object of horror”).

[30:8]  ¹³ tn Heb “don’t stiffen your neck” (a Hebrew idiom for being stubborn).

[30:8]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “give a hand.” On the meaning of the idiom here, see HALOT 387 s.v. I יָד 2.

[30:8]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “so that the rage of his anger might turn from you.” The jussive with vav conjunctive indicates purpose/result after the preceding imperative.

[30:9]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “turn [his] face from you.”

[30:10]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and they were mocking them and ridiculing them.”

[30:12]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “also in Judah the hand of God was to give to them one heart to do the command of the king and the officials by the word of the Lord.”

[30:13]  ¹⁹ tn The Hebrew text adds here, “a very large assembly.” This has not been translated to avoid redundancy with the expression “a huge crowd” at the beginning of the verse.

[30:14]  ²⁰ tn Heb “and they arose and removed the altars which were in Jerusalem, and all the incense altars they removed and threw into the Kidron Valley.”

[30:16]  ²¹ tn Heb “from the hand of the Levites.”

[30:17]  ²² tn Heb “were over the slaughter of.”

[30:17]  ²³ tn Heb “of everyone not pure to consecrate to the Lord.”

[30:18]  ²⁴ tn Heb “without what is written.”

[30:18]  ²⁵ tn Heb “make atonement for.”

[30:19]  ²⁶ tn Heb “everyone [who] has prepared his heart to seek God.”

[30:19]  ²⁷ tn Heb “and not according to the purification of the holy place.”

[30:20]  ²⁸ tn Heb “listened.”

[30:20]  ²⁹ tn Heb “healed.”

[35:1]  ³⁰ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[35:4]  ³¹ tn Heb “written.”

[35:5]  ³² tn Heb “and stand in the sanctuary by the divisions of the house of the fathers for your brothers, the sons of the people, and a division of the house of a father for the Levites.”

[35:6]  ³³ tn Heb “according to the word of the Lord by the hand of Moses.”

[35:7]  ³⁴ tn Heb “and Josiah supplied for the sons of the people sheep, lambs and sons of goats, the whole for the Passover sacrifices for everyone who was found according to the number of thirty thousand, and three thousand cattle. These were from the property of the king.”

[35:10]  ³⁵ tn Heb “and the service was prepared.”

[35:11]  ³⁶ tn Heb “from their hand.”

[35:12]  ³⁷ tn Heb “and they put aside the burnt offering[s] to give them to the divisions of the house of the fathers for the sons of the people to bring near to the Lord as it is written in the scroll of Moses – and the same with the cattle.”

[35:15]  ³⁸ tn Or “seer.”