2 Chronicles 35:1-27
35 And Josiah celebrated a passover to Jehovah in Jerusalem; and they slaughtered the passover on the fourteenth of the first month.
2 And he stationed the priests for their functions, and exhorted them to the service of God’s house,
3 * and said to the Levites who had to give explanations to all Israel, who were sacred to Jehovah, “By the putting of the sacred ark in the house that Solomon the son of David, king of Israel, built, you have no carrying on shoulders to do; now serve your God Jehovah and his people Israel,
4 and prepare yourselves by families, in accordance with your divisions, as prescribed by King David of Israel and by his son Solomon,
5 and stand in the sanctuary, for the family sections of your brothers the laity a family division of the Levites,
6 and slaughter the passover; and put yourselves in sacred condition, and make preparations for your brothers, for doing in accordance with Jehovah’s word by Moses.”
7 And Josiah contributed small cattle for the laity, sheep and young he-goats, all for passover offerings for everyone who presented himself, to the number of thirty thousand, and horned cattle three thousand; these were out of the king’s chattels.
8 And his generals contributed voluntarily for the people, for the priests, and for the Levites. Hilkijah and Zecariah and Jehiel, the wardens of God’s house, gave the priests twenty-six hundred for passover sacrifices, and three hundred horned cattle;
9 and Conaniah and Shemaʽiah and Nethaneel their brothers, and Hashabiah and Jeʽiel and Jozabad the chiefs of the Levites, contributed for the Levites five thousand for passover sacrifices and five hundred horned cattle.
10 And the work was made ready, and the priests stood in their stations and the Levites in their divisions, in accordance with the king’s command.
11 * And they slaughtered the passover, and the priests threw blood, and the Levites were skinning;
12 and they removed the burnt-offerings to give them to the laity by family sections to present to Jehovah, as is written in the book of Moses; and the same with the horned cattle.
13 And they duly cooked the passover with fire, and boiled the sacramental offerings in pots and crocks and kettles and ran them to all the laity,
14 and afterward they prepared for themselves and for the priests; for the priests, the sons of Aaron, were at the offering of the burnt-offerings and the fats till night, and the Levites prepared for themselves and for the priests, the sons of Aaron.
15 And the singers, the sons of Asaph, were at their stations in accordance with the command of David and Asaph and Heman and Jeduthun the king’s seer, and the gatemen were at one and another gate; there was no going away from their service for them, because their brother Levites prepared for them.
16 And all Jehovah’s service was prepared that day, celebrating the passover and offering the burnt-offerings on Jehovah’s altar, in accordance with King Josiah’s commandment;
17 and the sons of Israel who were present celebrated the passover at that time, and the feast of matzoth seven days.
18 And no passover like it had been celebrated in Israel since the days of the prophet Samuel; and all the kings of Israel had not celebrated the like of the passover that Josiah and the priests and the Levites, and all Judah and Israel who presented themselves, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, celebrated.
19 In the year eighteen of Josiah’s reign this passover was celebrated.
20 * After all this, that Josiah had put the house in order, King Neco of Egypt went up to fight at Carkemish on the Euphrates, and Josiah went out to oppose him.
21 * And he sent envoys to him with the message. “What business have you with me, king of Judah? It [is] not against you today but at the Euphrates that my war is, and God has spoken to hurry me; keep clear of God, who is with me, and do not have him make away with you.”
22 * But Josiah did not turn his face from him, but resolved to fight him and did not listen to Neco’s words from the mouth of God, and came to fight on the plain of Megiddo.
23 And the archers hit King Josiah, and he said to his officers “Pass me out, for I am hard hit”;
24 and his officers passed him out of the chariot and put him into his second chariot and brought him to Jerusalem; and he died, and was buried in the graves of his fathers. And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned over Josiah;
25 and Jeremiah sang a lament for Josiah; and all singers mention Josiah in their dirges to this day, and have made it a usage for Israel; they are to be found written down among the dirges.
26 And as to the rest of Josiah’s history, and his devout acts in accordance with what is written in Jehovah’s code,
27 and his history first and last, it is recorded in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah.
Footnotes
^ 35:3 (Put) Susp.
^ 35:11 Var. the priests threw from their hands, and the
^ 35:20 Lit. went out to meet him
^ 35:21 Var. but against the house that I am at war with, and God
^ 35:22 Var. but disguised himself to fight him
