2 Chronicles Chapter 35

Josiah Celebrates the Passover

¹ Then Josiah celebrated Passover to Yahveh in Jerusalem. They killed the Passover animals on the fourteenth of the first month. ² He appointed the priests to their offices and encouraged them in the service for the Temple. ³ He told the Levites that taught Israel and were holy to Yahveh,

“Put the holy Ark in the Temple Solomon built. It won’t be a burden on your shoulder anymore. Serve Yahveh your God and his people Israel. ⁴ Prepare yourselves by divisions within families like David and Solomon wrote. ⁵ Stand in the Holy Place by those divisions of your relatives the lay people. With the Levites make divisions within families. ⁶ Slaughter the Passover animals, sanctify yourselves, and be ready to do for your relatives what Yahveh said by Moses.”     

                                                                                                        2 Ch 35:1-6

⁷ For Passover offerings, Josiah contributed out of his own stock 30,000 lambs and kids for the lay people that were present plus 3,000 bulls. ⁸ His officers also contributed a freewill offering to the people, priests, and Levites. For the Passover, Hilkiah, Zechariah, and Jehiel, the officials of God’s Temple, gave the priests 2,600 from flocks and 300 bulls. ⁹ For the Passover, Conaniah—and his brothers Shemaiah and Nethanel—and Hashabiah, Jeiel, and Jozabad, officers of the Levites, contributed to the Levites 5,000 from the flocks and 500 bulls.

¹⁰ So the service was ready, and the priests and Levites stood at their stations by their divisions. ¹¹ They killed the Passover animals. While the priests sprinkled the blood, the Levites skinned them. ¹² Then they removed the burnt offerings so they could give them to the divisions of families in the lay people to present to Yahveh the way the Book of Moses says. They did the same thing with the bulls. ¹³ They roasted the Passover animals on the fire as required by the Law, boiled the holy things in pots, kettles, and pans; and carried them quickly away to the people. ¹⁴ Afterward they prepared for themselves and the priests, because the priests, the descendants of Aaron, were offering the burnt offerings and fat till dark. So the Levites prepared for themselves and the priests. ¹⁵ The singers, descendants of Asaph, were also at their stations like David commanded: Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun the king’s seer. The gatekeepers didn’t have to step aside from serving at each gate, because their relatives, the Levites, prepared for them.                                                                                                            2 Ch 35:7-15

¹⁶ So the service of Yahveh was ready that day to celebrate Passover and to offer burnt offerings on Yahveh’s altar like King Josiah commanded. ¹⁷ The Israelites that were present celebrated Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread for a week. ¹⁸ Israelites hadn’t celebrated Passover like that since Samuel the prophet. No king in Israel celebrated such a Passover as Josiah did with the priests, Levites, Judah, and Israel present with the people in Jerusalem. ¹⁹ They celebrated it in the eighteenth year of Josiah’s reign.          2 Ch 35:16-19

Josiah Dies in Battle

²⁰ After Josiah had set the Temple in order, Neco, king of Egypt, went up to fight at Carchemish on the Euphrates, and Josiah went out to engage him. ²¹ But Neco sent ambassadors to him,

“What do we have to do with each other, King of Judah? I’m not coming against you; I’m fighting another nation, and God has ordered me to hurry. For your own sake, stop interfering with God, who is with me, so he doesn’t destroy you.”       2 Ch 35:20-21

²² But Josiah wouldn’t turn away; he disguised himself. He ignored what God said from Neco and went ahead to fight him on the plain of Megiddo. ²³ The archers shot him, and he told his officers, “Take me away; I’m badly wounded.” ²⁴ They took him out of the chariot, put him in a second one he had, and took him to Jerusalem, where he died. They buried him in the tombs of his ancestors. Judah and Jerusalem mourned for him. ²⁵ Jeremiah chanted a lament for him. The male and female singers still speak about him in The Lamentations. They made them an ordinance in Israel; they’re written in The Lamentations. ²⁶ The rest of the deeds and devotions of Josiah are written in The Law of Yahveh. ²⁷ His acts, first to last, are recorded in The Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah.                                                               2 Ch 35:22-27