Chronicles II 35

1 And Josias kept a passover to the Lord his God; and sacrificed the passover on the fourteenth day of the first month.

Josiah [commanded that the people should] celebrate the Passover Festival to honor Yahweh in Jerusalem. So they slaughtered the lambs for the Passover [Festival] at the end of March.

2 And he appointed the priests at their charges, and encouraged them for the services of the house of the Lord.

Josiah assigned to the priests the tasks that they should perform at the temple and encouraged them to do their work well.

3 And he told the Levites that were able [to act] in all Israel, that they should consecrate themselves to the Lord: and they put the holy ark in the house which Solomon the son of David king of Israel built: and the king said, Ye must not carry anything on your shoulders: now then minister to the Lord your God, and to his people Israel.

The [other] descendants of Levi were the ones who taught all the Israeli people; they had been dedicated to serve Yahweh. Josiah said to them, “Put the Sacred Chest in the temple that [the workers of] David’s son [King] Solomon of Israel built. But [carry it on poles; ] do not carry it on your shoulders. And do your your work well for Yahweh your God and for his Israeli people.

4 And prepare yourselves according to the houses of your families, and according to your daily courses, according to the writing of David king of Israel, and [the order] by the hand of his son Solomon.

Divide yourselves into clans, obeying the instructions that King David and his son Solomon wrote.

5 And stand ye in the house according to the divisions of the houses of your families for your brethren the sons of the people; [so] also let there be for the Levites a division of the house of their family.

Then stand in the temple, with one group of the descendants of Levi to help each clan of the people [when they bring their offerings to the temple].

6 And kill ye the passover, and prepare [it] for your brethren, to do according to the word of the Lord, by the hand of Moses.

Slaughter the lambs for the Passover [Festival]. Perform the rituals to cause yourselves to be acceptable to Yahweh for doing this work. Prepare the sacrifices, doing what Yahweh told Moses to tell you that you should do.”

7 And Josias gave as an offering to the children of the people, sheep, and lambs, and kids of the young of the goats, all for the passover, [even for] all that were found, in number [amounting to] thirty thousand, and three thousand calves, these [were] of the substance of the king.

Josiah provided [from his own flocks and herds] 30,000 sheep and goats for the Passover sacrifices.

8 And his princes gave an offering to the people, and to the priests, and to the Levites: and Chelcias and Zacharias and Jeiel the chief men gave to the priests of the house of God, they even gave for the passover sheep, and lambs, and kids, two thousand six hundred, and three hundred calves.

His officials also voluntarily contributed animals for the people and the priests and the [other] descendants of Levi. Hilkiah, Zechariah, and Jehiel, the officials who were in charge of the temple, gave to the priests 2,600 lambs and 300 cattle to be sacrifices for the Passover.

9 And Chonenias, and Banaeas, and Samaeas, and Nathanael his brother, and Asabias, and Jeiel, and Jozabad, heads of the Levites, gave an offering to the Levites for the passover, of five thousand sheep and five hundred calves.

And Conaniah along with his [younger] brothers Shemaiah and Nethanel, and Hashabiah, Jeiel, and Jozabad, the leaders of the [other] descendants of Levi, provided 5,000 lambs and 500 cattle for the other descendants of Levi, to be sacrifices for the Passover.

10 And the service was duly ordered, and the priests stood in their place, and the Levites in their divisions, according to the command of the king.

Everything [for the Passover] was arranged: The priests and the other descendants of Levi stood in their places in their groups, like the king had commanded.

11 And they slew the passover, and the priests sprinkled the blood from their hand, and the Levites flayed [the victims].

Then they slaughtered the Passover lambs. The priests sprinkled the blood [from the bowls] that were handed to them, while the [other] descendants of Levi removed the skins from the animals.

12 And they prepared the whole-burnt-offering to give to them, according to the division by the houses of families, [even] to the sons of the people, to offer to the Lord, as it is written in the book of Moses.

They set aside the animals to be completely burned on the altar, in order to give them to the various family groups to offer to Yahweh, obeying the instructions that were written in the laws God gave Moses. They did the same thing with the cattle.

13 And thus [they did] till the morning. And they roasted the passover with fire according to the ordinance; and boiled the holy [pieces] in copper vessels and caldrons, and [the feast] went on well, and they quickly served all the children of the people.

Obeying those regulations, they roasted the lambs for the Passover over the fire. And they boiled the [meat of the] sacred offerings in pots and kettles and pans, and served the meat immediately to all the people [who were there].

14 And after they had prepared for themselves and for the priests, for the priests [were engaged] in offering the whole-burnt-offerings and the fat until night, then the Levites prepared for themselves, and for their brethren the sons of Aaron.

After that, they prepared meat for themselves and for the priests, because the priests were busy until nighttime, sacrificing the offerings to be completely burned and burning the fat parts of the offerings. So the [other] descendants of Levi prepared meat for themselves and for the priests, who were descendants of Aaron, [the first Supreme Priest].

15 And the sons of Asaph the psalm-singers [were] at their post according to the commands of David, and Asaph, and Aeman, and Idithom, the prophets of the king: also, the chiefs and the porters of the several gates; —it was not for them to stir from the service of the holy things, for their brethren the Levites prepared for them.

The musicians, who were descendants of Asaph, stood in their places, as King David, Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun the king’s prophet had commanded. The men who guarded the gates [of the temple] did not need to leave their places, because their fellow descendants of Levi prepared food for them to eat.

16 So all the service of the Lord was duly ordered and prepared in that day, for keeping the passover, and offering the whole-burnt-sacrifices on the altar of the Lord, according to the command of king Josias.

So on that day everything that needed to done for worshiping Yahweh was done. They celebrated the Passover [Festival], and they presented offerings to be completely burned on the altar, which was what Josiah had commanded.

17 And the children of Israel that were present kept the passover at that time, and the feast of unleavened bread seven days.

The Israelis who were there celebrated the Passover [Festival] on that day, and for seven days they celebrated the Festival of [Eating] Unleavened Bread.

18 And there was no passover like it in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet, or any king of Israel: they kept not such a passover as Josias, and the priests, and the Levites, and all Juda and Israel that were present, and the dwellers in Jerusalem, kept to the Lord.

The Passover [Festival] had not been celebrated like that in Israel since the time that the prophet Samuel lived. None of the other kings of Israel had ever celebrated the Passover like Josiah did, along with the priests, the other descendants of Levi, and all [the other people of] Judah and Israel who were there with the people who lived in Jerusalem.

19 In the eighteenth year of the reign of Josias this passover was kept, after all these things that Josias did in the house.

They celebrated this Passover Festival when Josiah had been ruling for almost 18 years.

20 And Pharao Nechao king of Egypt went up against the king of the Assyrians to the river Euphrates, and king Josias went to meet him.

After Josiah had done all those things to [restore the worship at] the temple, King Neco of Egypt went [with his army] to attack Carchemish [city] alongside the Euphrates [River], and Josiah marched [with his army] to fight against them.

21 And he sent messengers to him, saying, What have I to do with thee, O king of Juda? I am not come to-day to war against thee; and God has told me to hasten: beware of the God that is with me, lest he destroy thee.

Neco sent some messengers to Josiah, to tell him, “You are the king of Judah, and there is certainly no quarrel between you and me. My army is not attacking you people; we are attacking another army, [the army of Babylonia]. God has told me to hurry. So stop opposing God, who is for me. If you do not stop, God will get rid of you.”

22 However, Josias turned not his face from him, but strengthened himself to fight against him, and hearkened not to the words of Nechao by the mouth of God, and he came to fight in the plain of Mageddo.

But Josiah would not pay attention to him. Instead, he disguised himself in order to be able to attack [the army of Egypt without anyone recognizing him]. He did not pay any attention to what God had told Neco to say. Instead, he [and his army] went to fight Neco’s army at the plain of Megiddo.

23 And the archers shot at king Josias; and the king said to his servants, Take me away, for I am severely wounded.

Some Egyptian archers shot King Josiah. He told his officers, “Take me away from here because I am badly wounded.”

24 And his servants lifted him out of the chariot, and put him in the second chariot which he had, and brought him to Jerusalem; and he died, and was buried with his fathers: and all Juda and Jerusalem lamented over Josias.

So they took him out of his chariot and put him in another chariot that he had brought with him, and they took him to Jerusalem, where he died. He was buried in the tombs where his ancestors [had been buried], and all [the people of] Jerusalem and [other places in] Judah mourned for him.

25 And Jeremias mourned over Josias, and all the chief men and chief women uttered a lamentation over Josias until this day: and they made it an ordinance for Israel, and, behold, it is written in the lamentations.

[The prophet] Jeremiah composed a song to mourn for Josiah, and all the men and women singers in Israel still mourn for Josiah by singing that song. That became a custom in Israel; the words of that song are written in a scroll of funeral songs.

26 And the rest of the acts of Josias, and his hope, are written in the law of the Lord.

A record of the other things that happened while Josiah ruled, from the time he started to rule until he died, including how he faithfully honored God by obeying everything that was written in the laws of Yahweh, is in the scroll called ‘The History of the Kings of Israel and Judah’.

27 And his acts, the first and the last, behold, [they are] written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah.