An irregular assembly celebrates and receives prayer

A great crowd keeps the second month and throws Jerusalem's extra altars into Kidron

There assembles at Jerusalem much people to keep the feast of unleavened bread in the second month, a very great congregation. They arise and take away the altars that were in Jerusalem, and all the altars for incense, and cast them into the brook Kidron. They kill the passover on the fourteenth day of the second month. The priests and the Levites are ashamed, and sanctify themselves, and bring in the burnt offerings. They stand in their place after their manner, according to the law of Moses the man of God: the priests sprinkle the blood which they received of the hand of the Levites.

Shame here moves clergy toward the work they had not been ready to do. Removing local altars is this assembly's act in this city, not a warrant to attack someone else's holy place today.

Many eat otherwise than it was written, and Hezekiah asks pardon for prepared hearts

Many in the congregation are not sanctified, so the Levites have the charge of killing the passovers for every one that was not clean. A multitude even of Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun have not cleansed themselves, yet they eat the passover otherwise than it was written. Hezekiah prays, The good LORD pardon every one that prepareth his heart to seek God, the LORD God of his fathers, though he be not cleansed according to the purification of the sanctuary. The LORD hearkens to Hezekiah and heals the people. Israel present at Jerusalem keeps the feast seven days with great gladness; Levites and priests praise day by day. Hezekiah speaks comfortably unto all the Levites that taught the good knowledge of the LORD, and they eat throughout the seven days, offering peace offerings and making confession.

Otherwise than it was written marks a real irregularity, not a rejection of the law. Healing in this sentence is the narrator's claim that the prayer was heard. It is not a substitute for medicine, proof that illness is always ritual failure, or permission for leaders to ignore safety and consent. Order and compassionate accommodation are held together rather than used to erase each other.