18 For a majority of the people, ^zmany of them from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun, had not cleansed themselves, yet they ate the Passover otherwise ^athan as prescribed. For Hezekiah had prayed for them, saying, “May the good Lord pardon everyone 19 ^bwho sets his heart to seek God, the Lord, the God of his fathers, even though not according to the sanctuary’s rules of cleanness.”¹