4. The new time pleased the king and all the assembly.
5. So they decreed to make a proclamation throughout all Israel, from Beersheba to Dan, that the people should come to keep the Passover to the Lord, the God of Israel, at Jerusalem. For they had not kept it collectively as prescribed for a long time.
6. So the posts went with the letters from the king and his princes throughout all Israel and Judah, as the king commanded, saying, O Israelites, return to the Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, that He may return to those left of you who escaped out of the hands of the kings of Assyria.
7. Do not be like your fathers and brethren, who were unfaithful to the Lord, the God of their fathers, so that He gave them up to desolation [to be an astonishment], as you see.
8. Now be not stiff-necked, as your fathers were, but yield yourselves to the Lord and come to His sanctuary, which He has sanctified forever, and serve the Lord your God, that His fierce anger may turn away from you.
9. For if you return to the Lord, your brethren and your children shall find compassion with their captors and return to this land. For the Lord your God is gracious and merciful, and He will not turn away His face from you if you return to Him.
10. So the posts passed from city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh, even to Zebulun, but the people laughed them to scorn and mocked them.
11. Yet, a few of Asher, Manasseh, and Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem.
12. Also the hand of God came upon Judah to give them one heart to do the commandment of the king and of the princes, by the word of the Lord.
13. And many people came to Jerusalem to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread in the second month, a very great assembly.
14. They rose up and took away the altars [to idols] that were in Jerusalem, and all the altars and utensils for incense [to the gods] they took away and threw into the Kidron Valley [dumping place for the ashes of such abominations].