7. Don’t be like your fathers and brothers who were unfaithful to the Lord God of their ancestors, provoking him to destroy them, as you can see.
8. Now, don’t be stubborn like your fathers! Submit 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.
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 if you return to him.”
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.
11. But some men from Asher, Manasseh, and Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem.
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.
13. A huge crowd assembled in Jerusalem to observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread in the second month.
14. They removed the altars in Jerusalem; they also removed all the incense altars and threw them into the Kidron Valley.
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.
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.
17. Because many in the assembly had not consecrated themselves, the Levites slaughtered the Passover lambs of all who were ceremonially unclean and could not consecrate their sacrifice to the Lord.