9
The priests in their robes and the Levites took their positions, family by family, for the Temple services of the Lord, the God of Israel, according to the instructions contained in the book of Moses. The Temple guards stood at each gate.
10
The people of Israel who had returned from exile celebrated the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month of the following year. The priests and Levites had purified themselves at the same time.
11
Not all the Jews who had returned purified themselves at that time, but the Levites did.
12
The Levites killed the animals for the Passover sacrifices for all the people who had returned, for the priests, and for themselves.
13
The sacrifices were eaten by all the Israelites who had returned from exile; they worshiped the Lord and rejected the pagan ways of the other people who were living in the land.