Quotes About Unity

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

The whole assembly was worshiping, the singers were singing, and the trumpeters were playing. All this continued until the burnt offering was completed.

However, since there were not enough priests to skin all the burnt offerings, their Levite brothers helped them until the work was finished and until the priests had been consecrated. For the Levites had been more diligent in consecrating themselves than the priests had been.

Then Hezekiah sent word throughout all Israel and Judah, and he also wrote letters to Ephraim and Manasseh inviting them to come to the house of the LORD in Jerusalem to keep the Passover of the LORD, the God of Israel.

For the king and his officials and the whole assembly in Jerusalem had decided to keep the Passover in the second month,

This proposal pleased the king and the whole assembly.

So they established a decree to circulate a proclamation throughout Israel, from Beersheba to Dan, that the people should come to keep the Passover of the LORD, the God of Israel, in Jerusalem. For they had not observed it as a nation as prescribed.

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

Moreover, the power of God was on the people in Judah to give them one heart to obey the command of the king and his officials according to the word of the LORD.

The Israelites who were present in Jerusalem celebrated the Feast of Unleavened Bread for seven days with great joy, and the Levites and priests praised the LORD day after day, accompanied by loud instruments of praise to the LORD.

The whole assembly agreed to observe seven more days, so they observed seven days with joy.

For Hezekiah king of Judah contributed a thousand bulls and seven thousand sheep for the assembly, and the officials contributed a thousand bulls and ten thousand sheep for the assembly, and a great number of priests consecrated themselves.

Then the whole assembly of Judah rejoiced along with the priests and Levites and the whole assembly that had come from Israel, including the foreigners who had come from Israel and those who lived in Judah.

So there was great rejoicing in Jerusalem, for nothing like this had happened there since the days of Solomon son of David king of Israel.

Under his authority, Eden, Miniamin, Jeshua, Shemaiah, Amariah, and Shecaniah faithfully distributed portions to their fellow priests in their cities, according to their divisions, old and young alike.

Hezekiah appointed military commanders over the people and gathered the people in the square of the city gate. Then he encouraged them, saying,

Did not Hezekiah himself remove His high places and His altars and say to Judah and Jerusalem, ëYou must worship before one altar, and on it you shall burn sacrificesí?

Josiah did the same in the cities of Manasseh, Ephraim, and Simeon, as far as Naphtali, and in the ruins around them.

And he went up to the house of the LORD with all the people of Judah and Jerusalem, as well as the priests and the Levites—all the people small and great—and in their hearing he read all the words of the Book of the Covenant that had been found in the house of the LORD.

Then he had everyone in Jerusalem and Benjamin take a stand in agreement to it. So all the people of Jerusalem carried out the covenant of God, the God of their fathers.

Prepare yourselves by families in your divisions, according to the instructions written by David king of Israel and Solomon his son.

The singers, the descendants of Asaph, were at their stations according to the command of David, Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun the kingís seer. And the gatekeepers at each gate did not need to leave their position, because their fellow Levites made preparations for them.

No such Passover had been observed in Israel since the days of Samuel the prophet. None of the kings of Israel ever observed a Passover like the one that Josiah observed with the priests, the Levites, all Judah, the Israelites who were present, and the people of Jerusalem.

The gatekeepers: the descendants of Shallum, the descendants of Ater, the descendants of Talmon, the descendants of Akkub, the descendants of Hatita, and the descendants of Shobai, 139 in all.