Bible Strands
2 Chronicles 35:6
Slaughter the Passover lambs, consecrate yourselves, and make preparations for your fellow countrymen to carry out the word of the LORD given by Moses.”
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Josiah instructs the Levites and the assembled people during the restored Passover observance, following his prior directive for Levite families to take their positions in the Holy Place.
The words — וְ/הִתְקַדְּשׁוּ֙ (ve./hit.ka.de.Shu) translates literally as "consecrate yourselves," and וְ/הָכִ֣ינוּ (ve./ha.Khi.nu) means "prepare," establishing a sequence where ritual purification precedes the logistical arrangement for the slaughter.
The thread — The command to consecrate and prepare for covenant observance parallels the Levitical cleansing directives in 2 Chronicles 29:5 and 2 Chronicles 29:15, while the focus on sacrificial preparation points forward to the sanctifying function of blood in Hebrews 9:13.
Why it lands — The passage demands practical holiness and ordered obedience before worship, requiring readers to treat ritual preparation as a necessary response to God’s explicit word rather than an optional formality.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
So kill the passover, and sanctify yourselves, and prepare your brethren, that they may do according to the word of the Lord by the hand of Moses.
Cross-references
- 2 Chronicles 29:5 “Listen to me, O Levites,” he said. “Consecrate yourselves now and consecrate the house of the LORD, the God of your fathers. Remove from the Holy Place every impurity.
- 2 Chronicles 29:15 When they had assembled their brothers and consecrated themselves, they went in to cleanse the house of the LORD, according to the command of the king by the words of the LORD.
- Hebrews 9:13 For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that their bodies are clean,
- Genesis 35:2 So Jacob told his household and all who were with him, “Get rid of the foreign gods that are among you. Purify yourselves and change your garments.
- Exodus 12:6 You must keep it until the fourteenth day of the month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel will slaughter the animals at twilight.
- Exodus 12:21 Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and told them, “Go at once and select for yourselves a lamb for each family, and slaughter the Passover lamb.
- 2 Chronicles 30:15 And on the fourteenth day of the second month they slaughtered the Passover lamb. The priests and Levites were ashamed, and they consecrated themselves and brought burnt offerings to the house of the LORD.
- Ezra 6:20 All the priests and Levites had purified themselves and were ceremonially clean. And the Levites slaughtered the Passover lamb for all the exiles, for their priestly brothers, and for themselves.
- Job 1:5 And when the days of feasting were over, Job would send for his children to purify them, rising early in the morning to offer burnt offerings for all of them. For Job thought, “Perhaps my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.” This was Job’s regular practice.
- Psalms 51:7 Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.