2 16 Since, therefore, we are about to celebrate the purification, we write to you. Will you therefore please keep the days? 2 17 It is God who has saved all his people, and has returned the inheritance to all, and the kingship and priesthood and consecration, 2 18 as he promised through the law. For we have hope in God that he will soon have mercy upon us and will gather us from everywhere under heaven into his holy place, for he has rescued us from great evils and has purified the place.