The Returned Exiles Keep the Passover

In the first month the exiles keep Passover, and the priests and Levites have purified themselves so the meal can be observed in ceremonial cleanness.

O¹⁹n the fourteenth day of the first month, the exiles kept the Passover. ²⁰All the priests and Levites had purified themselves and were ceremonially clean.

The returned Israelites and others who separate themselves to seek the Lord eat the Passover and keep Unleavened Bread with joy, because the Lord has gladdened them and strengthened their hands through the king's favor.

²¹And the Levites slaughtered the Passover lamb for all the exiles, for their priestly brothers, and for themselves. The Israelites who had returned from exile ate it, together with all who had separated themselves from the uncleanness of the peoples of the land to seek the LORD, the God of Israel. ²²For seven days they kept the Feast of Unleavened Bread with joy, because the LORD had made them joyful and turned the heart of the king of Assyria toward them to strengthen their hands in the work on the house of the God of Israel.