<t /><p class="bodytext">Observe the month Abib<n id="1" /> and keep the Passover to the <sc>Lordsc> your God, for in that month<n id="2" /> he<n id="3" /> brought you out of Egypt by night.

You must sacrifice the Passover animal<n id="1" /> (from the flock or the herd) to the <sc>Lordsc> your God in the place where he<n id="2" /> chooses to locate his name.

<p class="bodytext">So the Israelites camped in Gilgal and celebrated the Passover in the evening of the fourteenth day of the month on the plains of Jericho.<n id="1" />

<p class="bodytext">The king ordered all the people, &#8220;Observe the Passover of the <sc>Lordsc> your God, as prescribed in this scroll of the covenant.&#8221;

He issued this edict because<n id="1" /> a Passover like this had not been observed since the days of the judges; it was neglected for the entire period of the kings of Israel and Judah.<n id="2" />

<p class="bodytext">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 <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s temple.

Because many in the assembly had not consecrated themselves, the Levites slaughtered<n id="1" /> the Passover lambs of all who were ceremonially unclean and could not consecrate their sacrifice to the <sc>Lordsc>.<n id="2" />

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.

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.

So all the preparations for the <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s service were made that day, as the Passover was observed and the burnt sacrifices were offered on the altar of the <sc>Lordsc>, as prescribed by King Josiah.

So the Israelites who were present observed the Passover at that time, as well as the Feast of Unleavened Bread for seven days.

The priests and the Levites had purified themselves, every last one,<n id="1" /> and they all were ceremonially pure. They sacrificed the Passover lamb for all the exiles, for their colleagues<n id="2" /> the priests, and for themselves.

<p class="bodytext">&#8220;&#8216;In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, you will celebrate the Passover, and for seven days bread made without yeast will be eaten.

then you will say, &#8216;It is the sacrifice<n id="1" /> of the <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s Passover, when he passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt, when he struck<n id="2" /> Egypt and delivered our households.&#8217;&#8221; The people bowed down low<n id="3" /> to the ground,

<p class="bodytext">&#8220;When a foreigner lives<n id="1" /> with you and wants to observe the Passover to the <sc>Lordsc>, all his males must be circumcised,<n id="2" /> and then he may approach and observe it, and he will be like one who is born in the land<n id="3" /> &#8211; but no uncircumcised person may eat of it.

And they observed the Passover<n id="1" /> on the fourteenth day of the first month at twilight in the wilderness of Sinai; in accordance with all that the <sc>Lordsc> had commanded Moses, so the Israelites did.p>

<p class="bodytext">It happened that some men<n id="1" /> who were ceremonially defiled<n id="2" /> by the dead body of a man<n id="3" /> could not keep<n id="4" /> the Passover on that day, so they came before Moses and before Aaron on that day.

&#8220;Tell the Israelites, &#8216;If any<n id="1" /> of you or of your posterity become ceremonially defiled by touching a dead body, or are on a journey far away, then he may<n id="2" /> observe the Passover to the <sc>Lordsc>.

<p class="bodytext">But<n id="1" /> the man who is ceremonially clean, and was not on a journey, and fails<n id="2" /> to keep the Passover, that person must be cut off from his people.<n id="3" /> Because he did not bring the <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s offering at its appointed time, that man must bear his sin.<n id="4" />

They departed from Rameses in the first month, on the fifteenth day of the first month; on the day<n id="1" /> after the Passover the Israelites went out defiantly<n id="2" /> in plain sight<n id="3" /> of all the Egyptians.