5. So they established a decree to make proclamation throughout all Israel, from Beersheba even to Dan, that they should come to keep the Passover to the Lord, the God of Israel, at Jerusalem, for they had not kept it in great numbers in the way it is written.
6. So the couriers went with the letters from the king and his princes throughout all Israel and Judah, and according to the commandment of the king, saying, “You children of Israel, turn again to the Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, that he may return to the remnant of you that have escaped out of the hand of the kings of Assyria.
7. Don’t be like your fathers and like your brothers, who trespassed against the Lord, the God of their fathers, so that he gave them up to desolation, as you see.
8. Now don’t be stiff-necked, as your fathers were, but yield yourselves to the Lord, and enter into his sanctuary, which he has sanctified forever, and serve the Lord your God, that his fierce anger may turn away from you.
9. For if you turn again to the Lord, your brothers and your children will find compassion before those who led them captive, and will come again into this land, because the Lord your God is gracious and merciful, and will not turn away his face from you, if you return to him.”
10. So the couriers passed from city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh, even to Zebulun, but people ridiculed them and mocked them.
11. Nevertheless some men of Asher and Manasseh and of Zebulun humbled themselves, and came to Jerusalem.
12. Also the hand of God came on Judah to give them one heart, to do the commandment of the king and of the princes by the Lord’s word.
13. Many people assembled at Jerusalem to keep the feast of unleavened bread in the second month, a very great assembly.