2 Chronicles 35
1 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.
And Josiah kept, in Jerusalem, a passover unto Yahweh, —and they slaughtered the passover, on the fourteenth of the first month.
2 Josiah assigned to the priests the tasks that they should perform at the temple and encouraged them to do their work well.
And he set the priests over their charges, —and encouraged them unto the service of the house of Yahweh;
3 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.
and said to the Levites who gave instruction to all Israel as to the things which were hallowed unto Yahweh, Put the holy ark in the house which Solomon son of David king of Israel did build, it is not yours as a burden on the shoulder, —Now, serve ye Yahweh your God, and his people Israel;
4 Divide yourselves into clans, obeying the instructions that King David and his son Solomon wrote.
and prepare yourselves by your ancestral houses, according to your courses, —by the writing of David king of Israel, and by what hath been written by Solomon his son;
5 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].
and stand ye in the holy place, by the divisions of the ancestral house, for your brethren, the sons of the people, and the partitioning of an ancestral house, for the Levites.
6 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.”
So slaughter ye the passover, —and hallow yourselves, and prepare for your brethren, that they may do according to the word of Yahweh, by the hand of Moses.
7 Josiah provided [from his own flocks and herds] 30,000 sheep and goats for the Passover sacrifices.
And Josiah presented to the sons of the people—of flocks, young sheep and the young of the goats, the whole for the passover offerings, for all present, to the number of thirty thousand, and, of bullocks, three thousand, —these, out of the substance of the king.
8 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.
And, his rulers, willingly, to the people and to the priests and to the Levites, presented, —Hilkiah and Zechariah and Jehiel, chief rulers of the house of God, unto the priests, did give, for passover offerings, two thousand and six hundred, and, of bullocks, three hundred;
9 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.
and, Conaniah, and Shemaiah and Nethanel his brethren, and Hashabiah and Jeiel and Jozabad, rulers of the Levites, presented to the Levites, for passover offerings, five thousand, and, of bullocks, five hundred.
10 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.
Thus was the service prepared, —and the priests stood in their place, and the Levites in their courses, according to the commandment of the king.
11 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.
So they slaughtered the passover, and the priests dashed [the blood received] at their hand, and the Levites were flaying [the offerings].
12 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.
Then they removed the ascending-sacrifice, that they might give them—by the divisions of each ancestral house—unto the sons of the people, to offer unto Yahweh, as it is written in the Book of Moses, —and, in like manner, with the bullocks.
13 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].
And they cooked the passover with fire, according to the regulation, —but, the hallowed things, cooked they in cauldrons and in pots and in bowls, and then took quickly, unto all the sons of the people.
14 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].
And, afterwards, prepared they for themselves and for the priests, because, the priests, the sons of Aaron, had been engaged in offering up the ascending-sacrifice and the fat pieces, until night, —the Levites, therefore prepared for themselves, and for the priests, the sons of Aaron.
15 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.
the singers also, the sons of Asaph, were in their place, according to the commandment of David, and Asaph, and Heman, and Jeduthun the seer of the king, and, the doorkeepers, were at the several doors, —there was no need for them to remove from their service, for, their brethren the Levites, prepared for them.
16 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.
Thus was all the service of Yahweh prepared on that day; to keep the passover, and to offer up the ascending-sacrifice, upon the altar of Yahweh, —according to the commandment of King Josiah.
17 The Israelis who were there celebrated the Passover [Festival] on that day, and for seven days they celebrated the Festival of [Eating] Unleavened Bread.
So the sons of Israel who were present kept the passover at that time, —and the festival of unleavened cakes, seven days.
18 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.
And there had not been kept, a passover like it, in Israel, since the days of Samuel the prophet, —yea, none of the kings of Israel, had kept such a passover as was kept by Josiah and the priests and the Levites and all Judah and Israel that were present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
19 They celebrated this Passover Festival when Josiah had been ruling for almost 18 years.
In the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah, was kept this passover.
20 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.
After all this—when Josiah had prepared the house, Neco king of Egypt came up, -to fight against Carchemish, by Euphrates, and Josiah went forth against him.
21 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.”
But he sent unto him messengers, saying—What have I to do with thee, O king of Judah? not against thee, [have I come] this day, but against the house wherewith I have war, and, God, hath given word to speed me, —cease thou from [provoking] God who is with me, lest he destroy thee.
22 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.
Howbeit Josiah turned not his face from him, for, to fight against him, he had disguised himself, and he hearkened not unto the words of Neco, from the mouth of God, —so he came to fight in the valley of Megiddo.
23 Some Egyptian archers shot King Josiah. He told his officers, “Take me away from here because I am badly wounded.”
And the archers shot at King Josiah, —and the king said unto his servants, Take me away, for I am sore wounded.
24 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.
So his servants took him away out of the war-chariot, and conveyed him in a second chariot which he had, and carried him to Jerusalem, and he died, and was buried in the sepulchres of his fathers, —and, all Judah and Jerusalem, were mourning over Josiah.
25 [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.
And Jeremiah chanted a dirge over Josiah, and all the singing men and singing women in their dirges have spoken concerning Josiah, until this day, and they appointed them by statute for Israel, —and, there they are, written among the dirges.
26 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’.
But, the rest of the story of Josiah, and his lovingkindness, —according to that which is written in the law of Yahweh:
even his story, first and last, there it is, written in the book of the Kings of Israel and Judah.
