Their relatives, who lived in their settlements, came from time to time and served with them for seven-day periods.

When they came to the threshing floor of Atad ¹  on the other side of the Jordan, they mourned there with very great and bitter sorrow. ²  There Joseph observed a seven day period of mourning for his father.

When those days ¹  were completed, the king then provided a seven-day ²  banquet for all the people who were present ³  in Susa the citadel, for those of highest standing to the most lowly. ⁴  It was held in the court located in the garden of the royal palace.

And on the fifteenth day of this month is the festival. For seven days bread made without yeast must be eaten.

“‘On the second day you must offer twelve young bulls, two rams, fourteen lambs one year old, all without blemish,

And you must not go out from the entrance of the Meeting Tent for seven days, until the day when your days of ordination are completed, because you must be ordained over a seven-day period. ¹ 

You must celebrate it as a pilgrim festival to the Lord for seven days in the year. This is a perpetual statute throughout your generations; ¹  you must celebrate it in the seventh month.

“‘On the fifteenth day of the seventh month you are to have a holy assembly; you must do no ordinary work, and you must keep a festival to the Lord for seven days.

“‘On ¹  the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you gather in the produce of the land, you must celebrate a pilgrim festival of the Lord for seven days. On the first day is a complete rest and on the eighth day is complete rest.

Hezekiah expressed his appreciation to all the Levites, ¹  who demonstrated great skill in serving the Lord. ²  They feasted for the seven days of the festival, ³  and were making peace offerings and giving thanks to the Lord God of their ancestors.