1-3. The people had not been able to celebrate the Passover Festival at the proper time, in the first month, because not enough priests were ritually clean and not many people had assembled in Jerusalem. So King Hezekiah, his officials, and the people of Jerusalem agreed to celebrate it in the second month, and the king sent word to all the people of Israel and Judah. He took special care to send letters to the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, inviting them to come to the Temple in Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover in honour of the Lord, the God of Israel.
4. The king and the people were pleased with their plan,
5. so they invited all the Israelites, from Dan in the north to Beersheba in the south, to come together in Jerusalem and celebrate the Passover according to the Law, in larger numbers than ever before.
6. Messengers went out at the command of the king and his officials through all Judah and Israel with the following invitation:“People of Israel, you have survived the Assyrian conquest of the land. Now return to the Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and he will return to you.
7. Do not be like your ancestors and your fellow-Israelites who were unfaithful to the Lord their God. As you can see, he punished them severely.
8. Do not be stubborn as they were, but obey the Lord. Come to the Temple in Jerusalem, which the Lord your God has made holy for ever, and worship him so that he will no longer be angry with you.
9. If you return to the Lord, then those who have taken your relatives away as prisoners will take pity on them and let them come back home. The Lord your God is kind and merciful, and if you return to him, he will accept you.”
10. The messengers went to every city in the territory of the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, and as far north as the tribe of Zebulun, but people laughed at them and ridiculed them.
11. Still, there were some from the tribes of Asher, Manasseh, and Zebulun who were willing to come to Jerusalem.
12. God was also at work in Judah and united the people in their determination to obey his will by following the commands of the king and his officials.
13. A great number of people gathered in Jerusalem in the second month to celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread.