And the apostles and the brothers who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God.

And when Peter went up to Jerusalem, those of the  ¹circumcision disputed with him,

Saying, You went in to men who are uncircumcised and ate with them.

And Peter began, and he explained to them in sequence, saying,

I was in the city of Joppa praying, and I saw in a trance a vision, a certain vessel like a great sheet descending, being let down by four corners out of heaven; and it came unto me.

Looking intently into it, I examined it and saw the four-footed animals of the earth and the wild beasts and the reptiles and the birds of heaven.

And I also heard a voice saying to me, Rise up, Peter; slay and eat!

But I said, By no means, Lord, for no common or unclean thing has ever entered into my mouth.

And a voice answered a second time out of heaven, The things that God has cleansed, do not make common.

And this occurred three times, and everything was drawn up again into heaven.

And behold, at that moment three men stood at the house in which we were, having been sent from Caesarea to me.

And the Spirit told me to go with them,  ¹doubting nothing. And  ²these six brothers went with me also; and we entered into the man's house.

And he reported to us how he saw the angel standing in his house and saying, Send men to Joppa and send for Simon, who is surnamed Peter,

Who will speak words to you by which you shall be saved, you and all your  ¹house.

And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as also on us in the beginning.

And I remembered the word of the Lord, how He said, John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized in the Holy Spirit.

If therefore God has given to them the equal gift as also to us who have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could have forbidden God?

And when they heard these things, they became silent and glorified God, saying, Then to the Gentiles also God has given repentance unto  ¹life.

And Hezekiah his son reigned in his place.

 ¹Hezekiah began to reign at the age of twenty-five years, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem; and his mother's name was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah.

And he did what was right in the sight of Jehovah, according to all that David his father had done.

He, in the first year of his reign, in the first month, opened the doors of the house of Jehovah and repaired them.

And he brought in the priests and the Levites and gathered them at the east square.

And he said to them, Listen to me, you Levites: Sanctify yourselves now, and sanctify the house of Jehovah, the God of your fathers; and bring out the impurity from the holy place.

For our fathers were unfaithful and did what was evil in the sight of Jehovah our God, and they forsook Him and turned their faces from the  ¹dwelling place of Jehovah, and they turned their backs on Him.

They also shut up the doors of the portico and extinguished the lamps; and they did not burn the incense, nor did they offer up the burnt offering in the holy place to the God of Israel.

Therefore the wrath of Jehovah was upon Judah and Jerusalem, and He made them an object of horror, astonishment, and hissing, as you see with your own eyes.

For indeed, our fathers fell by the sword, and our sons and our daughters and our wives are captives because of this.

Now it is on my heart to make a covenant with Jehovah the God of Israel, that His burning anger may turn away from us.

My sons, do not now be negligent, for Jehovah has chosen you to stand before Him to minister to Him and to be His ministers and burn incense.

Then the Levites rose up: Mahath the son of Amasai and Joel the son of Azariah, from among the sons of the Kohathites; and from among the sons of Merari, Kish the son of Abdi and Azariah the son of Jehallelel; and of the Gershonites, Joah the son of Zimmah and Eden the son of Joah;

And of the sons of Elizaphan, Shimri and Jeuel; and of the sons of Asaph, Zechariah and Mattaniah;

And of the sons of Heman, Jehuel and Shimei; and of the sons of Jeduthun, Shemaiah and Uzziel.

And they gathered their brothers together and sanctified themselves. And they went in, according to the command of the king by the words of Jehovah, to cleanse the house of Jehovah.

And the priests went into the inner part of the house of Jehovah to cleanse it; and they brought out into the court of the house of Jehovah all the uncleanness that they found in the temple of Jehovah, and the Levites took it to carry it outside to the brook Kidron.

And they began on the first day of the first month to sanctify the house, and on the eighth day of the month they came to the portico of Jehovah; then they sanctified the house of Jehovah for eight days, and on the sixteenth day of the first month they finished.

Then they went in to Hezekiah the king and said, We have cleansed the whole house of Jehovah: the altar of burnt offering with all its vessels and the table of the rows of bread with all its vessels.

And all the vessels that King Ahaz cast out during his reign when he trespassed we have prepared and sanctified, and they are now before the altar of Jehovah.

Then Hezekiah the king rose up early and gathered all the leaders of the city and went up to the house of Jehovah.

And they brought seven bulls and seven rams and seven lambs and seven male goats as a sin offering for the kingdom and for the sanctuary and for Judah. And he ordered the sons of Aaron, the priests, to offer them up on the altar of Jehovah.

So they slaughtered the cattle, and the priests took the blood and sprinkled it on the altar; then they slaughtered the rams and sprinkled the blood on the altar, and they slaughtered the lambs and sprinkled the blood on the altar.

Then they brought the male goats of the sin offering before the king and the congregation, and they laid their hands on them.

And the priests slaughtered them and offered their blood as a sin offering upon the altar to make expiation for all Israel, for the king had commanded the burnt offering and the sin offering for all Israel.

And he set the Levites in the house of Jehovah with cymbals, with harps, and with lyres in the way David and Gad the king's seer and Nathan the prophet had commanded, for the commandment was from Jehovah through His prophets.

And the Levites stood with the instruments of David, and the priests, with the trumpets.

And Hezekiah ordered the offering up of the burnt offering at the altar. And when the burnt offering began, the song of Jehovah began also, as well as the trumpets with the accompaniment of the instruments of David the king of Israel.

And the whole congregation worshipped, and the singers sang, and the trumpeters trumpeted—all this until the burnt offering was finished.

And when the offering was finished, the king and all who were found with him bowed down and worshipped.

And Hezekiah the king and the leaders commanded the Levites to praise Jehovah with the words of David and of Asaph the seer. And they praised with rejoicing and bowed down and worshipped.

Then Hezekiah responded and said, Now you  ¹have consecrated yourselves to Jehovah; come near and bring sacrifices and thank offerings to the house of Jehovah. So the congregation brought sacrifices and thank offerings, and all who were willing in heart brought burnt offerings.

And the number of burnt offerings that the congregation brought was seventy cattle, one hundred rams, and two hundred lambs; all these were for a burnt offering to Jehovah.

And the things consecrated were six hundred cattle and three thousand sheep;

However the priests were too few and could not flay all the burnt offerings, so their brothers the Levites aided them until the work was finished and until the rest of the priests had sanctified themselves, for the Levites were more upright in heart than the priests in sanctifying themselves.

And besides the abundance of burnt offerings there were also the fat of the peace offerings and the drink offerings for the burnt offerings. So the service of the house of Jehovah was established.

And Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced over what God had prepared for the people, for the thing had happened so suddenly.

And Hezekiah sent word to  ¹all Israel and Judah and also wrote letters to Ephraim and Manasseh telling them to come to the house of Jehovah in Jerusalem to hold the Passover to Jehovah the God of Israel.

For the king and his officers and all the congregation in Jerusalem had taken counsel to hold the Passover in the second month,

Because they could not hold it at that time, for the priests had not sanctified themselves in sufficient number nor had the people gathered to Jerusalem.

And the matter seemed right in the sight of the king and in the sight of all the congregation.

So they established a decree to send a proclamation throughout all Israel, from Beer-sheba to Dan, telling them to come to hold the Passover to Jehovah the God of Israel in Jerusalem; for they had not held it  ¹for a long time, as it was decreed in writing.

And as the king had commanded, the runners went with the letters from the hand of the king and his officers throughout all Israel and Judah, saying, You children of Israel, return to Jehovah, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, and He will return to the remnant of you who have escaped from the hand of the kings of Assyria.

And do not be like your fathers and like your brothers, who trespassed against Jehovah, the God of their fathers, so that He made them a desolation, as you now see.

Do not now be stiff-necked, as your fathers were; yield to Jehovah, and come to His sanctuary, which He has sanctified forever, and serve Jehovah your God, that His burning anger may turn away from you.

For when you turn to Jehovah, your brothers and your children will find compassion before those who led them captive and will return to this land, for Jehovah your God is gracious and compassionate, and will not turn His face away from you if you return to Him.

So the runners passed from city to city in the land of Ephraim and Manasseh and as far as Zebulun, but they laughed them to scorn and mocked them.

Nevertheless some men from Asher and Manasseh and Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem.

Moreover the hand of God was on Judah, giving them one heart to perform the commandment of the king and the officers by the word of Jehovah.

And many people gathered at Jerusalem to hold the Feast of Unleavened Bread in the second month, a very great congregation.

And they rose up and removed the altars that were in Jerusalem, and they removed all the incense altars and threw them into the brook Kidron.

Then they slaughtered the passover sacrifice on the fourteenth day of the second month. And the priests and the Levites were ashamed, and they sanctified themselves and brought burnt offerings to the house of Jehovah.

And they stood at their station after their custom, according to the law of Moses, the man of God: The priests sprinkled the blood that they received from the hand of the Levites.

For there were many in the congregation who had not sanctified themselves; therefore the Levites were charged with slaughtering the passover sacrifices for everyone who was not clean, to sanctify them to Jehovah.

For a great number of the people, many from Ephraim and Manasseh and Issachar and Zebulun, had not cleansed themselves, yet they ate the passover otherwise than as prescribed; for Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, May Jehovah the Good expiate for everyone

Who has prepared his heart to seek after God, after Jehovah, the God of his fathers, even though he is not according to the rules of purification for the sanctuary.

And Jehovah heard Hezekiah and  ¹healed the people.

And the children of Israel who were found at Jerusalem held the Feast of Unleavened Bread for seven days with great rejoicing, and the Levites and the priests praised Jehovah day by day, with loud instruments played to Jehovah.

And Hezekiah encouraged all the Levites who showed themselves well-skilled in their service to Jehovah, and so they ate the food of the appointed feast for seven days, sacrificing sacrifices of peace offerings and extolling Jehovah, the God of their fathers.

And the whole congregation took counsel to hold the feast another seven days, and they held the feast those seven days with rejoicing.

For Hezekiah the king of Judah contributed one thousand bulls and seven thousand sheep to the congregation, and the leaders contributed one thousand bulls and ten thousand sheep to the congregation, and a great number of priests sanctified themselves.

And all the congregation of Judah with the priests and the Levites and all the congregation who came from Israel and the sojourners who came from the land of Israel and dwelt in Judah rejoiced,

And there was great rejoicing in Jerusalem, for since the days of Solomon the son of David, the king of Israel, there had not been the like in Jerusalem.

Then the Levitical priests rose up and blessed the people; and their voice was heard and their prayer went up to His sanctuary, to heaven.

And when all this was finished, all Israel who were present went out to the cities of Judah and broke down the pillars and hewed down the Asherahs and pulled down the high places and the altars out of all Judah and Benjamin and in Ephraim and Manasseh until they destroyed them all. And all the children of Israel returned to their cities, each man to his own possessions.