2 Chronicles 35

1Josiah celebrated a Passover to Yahweh in Jerusalem. They slaughtered the Passover lamb on the fourteenth day of the first month.

2He assigned the priests to their duties and encouraged them in the service of the house of Yahweh.

3He said to the Levites who taught all Israel and who were holy to Yahweh, “Put the holy ark in the house that Solomon son of David king of Israel built. You no longer need to carry it on your shoulders. Now serve Yahweh your God and his people Israel.

4Prepare yourselves by your ancestral houses in your divisions, following the written instructions of David king of Israel and the written instructions of his son Solomon.

5Stand in the holy place by the divisions of the ancestral houses of your brothers, the lay people, with a section of a Levite family for each.

6Slaughter the Passover lambs, consecrate yourselves, and prepare them for your brothers, to do what Yahweh commanded through Moses.”

7Josiah contributed to the lay people animals from the flock, lambs and young goats, all for the Passover offerings for all who were present, thirty thousand in number, and three thousand bulls. These were from the king’s own possessions.

8His officials also contributed willingly to the people, the priests, and the Levites. Hilkiah, Zechariah, and Jehiel, the officers in charge of the house of God, gave the priests 2,600 Passover offerings and three hundred cattle.

9Conaniah and his brothers Shemaiah and Nethanel, and Hashabiah, Jeiel, and Jozabad, the leaders of the Levites, contributed to the Levites five thousand Passover offerings and five hundred cattle.

10When the service had been prepared, the priests stood in their places and the Levites in their divisions, as the king had commanded.

11They slaughtered the Passover lambs, and the priests splashed the blood handed to them, while the Levites skinned the animals.

12They set aside the burnt offerings to give them to the divisions of the ancestral houses of the lay people, to offer to Yahweh, as it is written in the book of Moses. They did the same with the cattle.

13They roasted the Passover lambs over the fire according to the ordinance, and they boiled the holy offerings in pots, kettles, and pans and quickly brought them to all the lay people.

14Afterward they prepared the Passover for themselves and for the priests, because the priests, the sons of Aaron, were busy offering the burnt offerings and the fat portions until night. So the Levites prepared for themselves and for the priests, the sons of Aaron.

15The singers, the sons of Asaph, were in their places, as commanded by David, Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun the king’s seer, and the gatekeepers were at each gate. They did not need to leave their service, for their brothers the Levites prepared for them.

16So all the service of Yahweh was prepared that day, to celebrate the Passover and to offer burnt offerings on the altar of Yahweh, as King Josiah had commanded.

17The Israelites who were present celebrated the Passover at that time, and the Festival of Unleavened Bread for seven days.

18No Passover like it had been celebrated in Israel since the days of Samuel the prophet. None of the kings of Israel had celebrated such a Passover as Josiah celebrated, with the priests, the Levites, all Judah and Israel who were present, and the people of Jerusalem.

19This Passover was celebrated in the eighteenth year of Josiah’s reign.

20After all this, when Josiah had set the temple in order, Necho king of Egypt went up to fight at Carchemish on the Euphrates, and Josiah went out to meet him.

21But Necho sent messengers to him, saying, “What quarrel is there between you and me, king of Judah? I am not coming against you today, but against the house with which I am at war. God has told me to hurry. Stop opposing God, who is with me, or he will destroy you.”

22But Josiah would not turn away from him. He disguised himself in order to fight him. He did not listen to the words of Necho from the mouth of God, but came to fight in the plain of Megiddo.

23The archers shot King Josiah, and the king said to his servants, “Take me away, for I am badly wounded.”

24So his servants took him out of the chariot, put him in his second chariot, and brought him to Jerusalem. He died and was buried in the tombs of his ancestors, and all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah.

25Jeremiah composed a lament for Josiah, and all the male and female singers have spoken of Josiah in their laments to this day. They made them a fixed custom in Israel, and they are written in the Laments.

26The rest of the acts of Josiah and his deeds of faithfulness, in keeping with what is written in the law of Yahweh,

27and his acts from first to last, are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah.