2 Chronicles 35

¹And Josiah kept a Passover to the LORD in Jerusalem, and they slaughtered the Passover sacrifice on the fourteenth of the first month.

²And he stationed the priests at their posts and encouraged them for the service of the house of the LORD.

³And he said to the Levites who instructed all Israel, who were holy to the LORD: 'Put the holy ark in the house that Solomon son of David king of Israel built. There is no burden for you on the shoulder; now serve the LORD, God of you all, and his people Israel.'

⁴Prepare yourselves by your ancestral houses, according to your divisions, as directed in the writing of David king of Israel and in the written instruction of Solomon his son.

⁵And stand in the sanctuary by the divisions of the houses of the fathers for your brothers, the sons of the people, and a division of an ancestral house for the Levites.

⁶And slaughter the Passover, and consecrate yourselves and prepare for your brothers, to do according to the word of the LORD by the hand of Moses.

⁷And Josiah contributed for the people lambs and young goats from the flock, all for the Passover sacrifices for everyone present, to the number of thirty thousand, and three thousand cattle — all from the king's possessions.

⁸And his officials contributed a freewill offering to the people, to the priests, and to the Levites. Hilkiah, Zechariah, and Jehiel, the leaders of the house of God, gave to the priests for the Passover offerings two thousand six hundred, and three hundred cattle.

⁹And Conaniah and Cananiah, Shemaiah and Nethanel his brothers, and Hashabiah and Jeiel and Jozabad, the chiefs of the Levites, contributed to the Levites five thousand Passover animals and five hundred cattle.

¹⁰And the service was set in order, and the priests stood at their posts, and the Levites at their divisions, according to the commandment of the king.

¹¹And they slaughtered the Passover sacrifice, and the priests sprinkled from their hands; and the Levites were doing the flaying.

¹²And they set aside the burnt offerings to give them to the divisions of the ancestral houses for the sons of the people, to offer to the LORD as it is written in the scroll of Moses; and the same with the cattle.

¹³And they cooked the Passover offering in fire according to the ordinance; and the holy offerings they boiled in pots and in kettles and in pans, and they brought them quickly to all the sons of the people.

¹⁴And afterward they prepared for themselves and for the priests, because the priests, the sons of Aaron, were offering the burnt offering and the fat portions until night; and the Levites prepared for themselves and for the Aaronic priests.

¹⁵And the singers, the sons of Asaph, were at their station according to the commandment of David and Asaph and Heman and Jeduthun, the king's seer; and the gatekeepers were at gate after gate — they had no need to leave their service, for their fellow Levites had prepared for them.

¹⁶And all the service of the LORD was set in order on that day, to keep the Passover and to offer burnt offerings on the altar of the LORD, according to the commandment of King Josiah.

¹⁷And the sons of Israel who were present kept the Passover at that time, and the Feast of Unleavened Bread seven days.

¹⁸And no Passover like it had been kept in Israel since the days of Samuel the prophet; and none of the kings of Israel had kept a Passover like the one that Josiah kept, with the priests and the Levites, and all Judah and Israel who were present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

¹⁹In the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah this Passover was kept.

²⁰After all this, when Josiah had prepared the temple, Neco king of Egypt came up to fight at Carchemish on the Euphrates, and Josiah went out to meet him.

²¹And he sent messengers to him, saying, What have I to do with you, king of Judah? It is not against you that I am coming today, but against the house of my warfare; and God has told me to hasten. Cease from opposing God who is with me, lest he destroy you.

²²But Josiah would not turn his face from him; to fight against him he disguised himself, and he did not heed the words of Neco, which came from the mouth of God, and he came to fight in the valley of Megiddo.

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

²⁴And his servants transferred him from the chariot and placed him in the second chariot that he had, and brought him to Jerusalem; and he died and was buried in the tombs of his fathers; and all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah.

²⁵And Jeremiah chanted a lament over Josiah, and all the male and female singers performed their dirges over Josiah to this day. They established them as a custom for Israel, and behold, they are written in the Laments.

²⁶And the rest of the deeds of Josiah and his acts of faithful love, as written in the law of the LORD:

²⁷And his deeds, the former and the latter, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah.