2 Chronicles 35

1 And Josiah kept the Passover to the Lord his God, and they slaughtered the Passover on the fourteenth of the first month. [a] 2 And he set the priests at their watches, and strengthened them for the works of the house of the Lord.

3 And he spoke to the Levites, the able men in all Israel, that they should make themselves holy to the Lord; and they put the holy ark in the house that Solomon son of David king of Israel built. And the king said, “It is not for you to carry anything on your shoulders. Now then, serve the Lord your God and his people Israel, [b] 4 and prepare yourselves by your fathers’ houses and by your daily divisions, according to the writing of David king of Israel and by the hand of Solomon his son. 5 And stand in the house by the divisions of your fathers’ houses, for your brothers the sons of the people; and let there be a share of a father’s house for the Levites. 6 And slaughter the Passover, and make the holy things ready for your brothers, to do according to the word of the Lord by the hand of Moses.” [c]

7 And Josiah presented to the sons of the people sheep and lambs and kids from the young of the goats, all of it for the Passover, for everyone who was found there — thirty thousand in number, and three thousand calves. These were out of the king’s own property. [d] 8 And his rulers presented an offering to the people and to the priests and to the Levites. Hilkiah and Zechariah and Jeiel, the rulers of the house of God, gave to the priests; and they gave for the Passover sheep and lambs and kids, two thousand six hundred, and three hundred calves. [e] 9 And Conaniah and Benaiah and Shemaiah and Nethanel his brother, and Hashabiah and Jeiel and Jozabad, rulers of the Levites, presented to the Levites for the Passover five thousand sheep and five hundred calves.

10 And the service was set in order, and the priests stood at their post and the Levites at their divisions, according to the command of the king. 11 And they slaughtered the Passover, and the priests poured out the blood from their hand, and the Levites did the flaying. 12 And they made the whole burnt offering ready, to hand over to them by the division, by the fathers’ houses, to the sons of the people, to bring it near to the Lord, as it is written in the book of Moses. And so they did, until the morning. [f] 13 And they roasted the Passover with fire, according to the judgment; and the holy things they boiled in the bronze pots and in the caldrons, and it went well, and they ran to all the sons of the people. [g]

14 And after they had made ready for themselves and for the priests — for the priests were bringing up the fat and the whole burnt offerings until night — the Levites made ready for themselves and for their brothers the sons of Aaron. 15 And the singers of the psalms, the sons of Asaph, were at their post, according to the commands of David and Asaph and Heman and Jeduthun the prophets of the king; and the rulers, and the gatekeepers of gate after gate — it was not for them to move from the service of the holy things, because their brothers the Levites made ready for them. [h] 16 And all the service of the Lord was set in order and made ready on that day, to keep the Passover and to bring the whole burnt offerings up on the altar of the Lord, according to the command of King Josiah.

17 And the children of Israel who were found there kept the Passover at that time, and the Feast of Bread Without Yeast seven days. 18 And there was no Passover like it in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet; and none of the kings of Israel kept a Passover such as the one Josiah kept, with the priests and the Levites and all Judah and Israel who were found there and those living in Jerusalem, to the Lord — 19 in the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah. And those who consult the dead, and those who know secrets, and the household figures, and the idols, and the set-apart men that were in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem — King Josiah burned them with fire, so as to make the words of the law stand, the words written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the Lord. There was no one like him before him, who turned to the Lord with his whole heart and with his whole soul and with his whole strength, according to all the law of Moses; and after him none rose like him. Only, the Lord did not turn back from the heat of his great anger, with which his anger burned against Judah, because of all the provocations with which Manasseh provoked him. And the Lord said, “Judah too I will remove from before my face, as I removed Israel; and I have thrust away the city which I chose, Jerusalem, and the house of which I said, ‘My name will be there.’” [i]

20 And Pharaoh Neco king of Egypt went up against the king of the Assyrians to the river Euphrates, and King Josiah went out to meet him. 21 And he sent messengers to him, saying, “What have I to do with you, king of Judah? I have not come against you today to make war; and God has told me to hurry. Beware of the God who is with me, or he will destroy you.” [k] 22 But Josiah did not turn his face away from him; he made himself strong to fight against him, and he did not listen to the words of Neco from the mouth of God; and he came to fight in the plain of Megiddo. [l]

23 And the archers shot at King Josiah; and the king said to his servants, “Take me away, for I am badly hurt.” 24 And his servants took him out of the chariot and set him in the second chariot that he had, and brought him to Jerusalem. And he died, and was buried with his fathers. And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned over Josiah, [m] 25 and Jeremiah made a lament over Josiah; and all the rulers, men and women, have spoken a lament over Josiah to this day. And they made it a decree for Israel, and see, it is written in the Laments. [n]

26 And the acts of Josiah, and his hope, are written in the law of the Lord; [o] 27 and his acts, the first and the last — see, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah. [p]