CHAPTER 35

¹And Josiah made a Passover to the LORD in Jerusalem, and they slaughtered the paschal lamb on the fourteenth of the first month. ²And he stationed priests on their watches and made them stalwart for the service of the house of the LORD. ³And he said to the Levites instructing all Israel, who were consecrated to the LORD, “Put the Holy Ark in the house that Solomon son of David king of Israel built. You no longer have to bear it on your shoulders. Now serve the LORD your God and His people Israel. ⁴And be ready according to your patriarchal houses, according to your orders, as by the writ of David king of Israel and the writing of Solomon his son. ⁵And stand in the sanctuary according to the divisions of the patriarchal houses for your brothers who are of the people, by the divisions of patriarchal houses for the Levites. ⁶And slaughter the paschal lamb and consecrate yourselves and prepare it for your brothers according to the word of the LORD through Moses.” ⁷And Josiah contributed sheep and goats for the people, everything for the Passover sacrifices, for all who were present, thirty thousand in number, and three thousand cattle. These were from the property of the king. ⁸And his officials for the freewill offering for the people, for the priests, and for the Levites, Hilkiah and Zechariah and Jehiel, overseers of the house of God for the priests, gave for the Passover sacrifices two thousand six hundred, and three hundred cattle. ⁹And Conaniah and Shemaiah and Nethaneel, his brothers, and Hashabiah and Jeiel and Jozabad, the Levite officers, contributed on behalf of the Levites for the Passover sacrifices five thousand five hundred cattle. ¹⁰And the service was firmly set, and the priests stood at their station, and the Levites according to their orders by the king’s command. ¹¹And they slaughtered the paschal sacrifices, and the priests cast the blood while the Levites did the flaying. ¹²And they removed the burnt offering to give it to the people according to the people’s divisions of patriarchal houses to offer to the LORD as written in the book of Moses, and the same for the cattle. ¹³And they roasted the paschal sacrifice over fire according to the regulation, and the consecrated gifts they cooked in pots and cauldrons and pans and rushed them to all the people. ¹⁴And afterward they prepared for themselves and for the priests because the Aaronide priests were busy offering up the burnt offering and the suet until nightfall, and the Levites prepared it for themselves and for the Aaronide priests. ¹⁵And the Asaphide choristers were at their station according to the command of David, and Asaph and Heman and Jeduthun, the king’s seers, and the gatekeeper for each and every gate, did not have to turn away from their service, for their Levite brothers prepared it for them. ¹⁶And all the LORD’s service was firmly set on that day to do the paschal sacrifice and to offer up burnt offerings on the altar of the LORD according to the command of King Josiah. ¹⁷And the Israelites present did the paschal sacrifice at that time and the Festival of Flatbread seven days. ¹⁸And no Passover like it had been done in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet, and all the kings of Israel had not done like the Passover that Josiah and the priests and the Levites and all Judah and Israel present and the dwellers of Jerusalem did. ¹⁹In the eighteenth year of Josiah’s kingship this Passover was done.

²⁰After all this by which Josiah had readied the house, Necho king of Egypt came up to do battle at Carchemish by the Euphrates, and Josiah sallied forth to meet him. ²¹And he sent messages to him, saying, “What do I have to do with you, king of Judah? It is not against you today but against the house at war with me, and a god has said to me to hurry. Desist from the god that is with me, lest he destroy you.” ²²But Josiah did not turn away from him, for he had donned his armor to do battle with him and did not listen to Necho’s words from God, and he came to do battle in the Valley of Megiddo. ²³And the archers shot at King Josiah and the king said to his servants, “Bear me away, for I am grievously wounded.” ²⁴And his servants bore him away from the chariot and put him in the second chariot that he had and carried him to Jerusalem. And he died and was buried in the tombs of his fathers, and all Judah and Jerusalem were mourning for Josiah. ²⁵And Jeremiah wrote a lament for Josiah, and all the male and female singers recited it in their lamentations, and they are written in Lamentations. ²⁶And the rest of the acts of Josiah and his deeds of loyalty as is written in the Teaching of the LORD, ²⁷and his acts early and late, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and of Judah.