2 Chronicles 35

1Josiah kept a Passover to the LORD in Jerusalem. They slaughtered the Passover lamb on the fourteenth day of the first month. 2He put the priests at their posts and urged them on in the service of the house of the LORD. 3He said to the Levites, who taught all Israel and who were holy to the LORD, “Put the holy ark in the house that Solomon son of David, king of Israel, built. You do not need to carry it on your shoulders. Serve the LORD your God now, and serve his people Israel. 4Get yourselves ready by your families, in your divisions, following the written orders of David king of Israel and of his son Solomon. 5Take your stand in the holy place, family division by family division of your fellow Israelites, the lay people, with a section of a Levite family for each. 6Slaughter the Passover lamb, consecrate yourselves, and prepare it for your fellow Israelites, so as to do what the LORD said through Moses.”

7Josiah gave the lay people animals from the flock, lambs and young goats, all for the Passover offerings for everyone who was there, 30,000 in number, and 3,000 cattle. These came from the king’s own property.

8His officials also gave freely to the people, the priests and the Levites. Hilkiah, Zechariah and Jehiel, the chief officers of the house of God, gave 2,600 Passover offerings and 300 cattle to the priests. 9Conaniah, with his brothers Shemaiah and Nethanel, and Hashabiah, Jeiel and Jozabad, the leaders of the Levites, gave the Levites 5,000 Passover offerings and 500 cattle. 10So the service was made ready. The priests took their places, and the Levites stood by their divisions, as the king had commanded. 11They slaughtered the Passover lambs, and the priests splashed the blood they received from the Levites, while the Levites skinned the animals. 12They set aside the burnt offerings to give them to the divisions of the families of the lay people, to offer to the LORD, following what is written in the book of Moses. The cattle were handled in the same way. 13They roasted the Passover lambs over the fire according to the rule, and they boiled the holy offerings in pots, kettles and pans and quickly brought them to all the lay people. 14Afterward they prepared it for themselves and the priests, since the priests, the sons of Aaron, were kept busy offering the burnt offerings and the fat until nightfall. So the Levites prepared it for themselves and for the priests, the sons of Aaron. 15The singers, the sons of Asaph, were in their places, as David, Asaph, Heman and Jeduthun the king’s seer had commanded. The gatekeepers stood at each gate. They did not have to leave their posts, because their fellow Levites prepared the Passover for them. 16So all the service of the LORD was made ready that day, for keeping the Passover and for burnt offerings to be offered on the altar of the LORD, by King Josiah’s command. 17The Israelites who were present kept the Passover at that time, and the Festival of Unleavened Bread for seven days. 18No Passover like it had been kept in Israel since the days of Samuel the prophet. Not one of the kings of Israel had kept such a Passover as Josiah kept with the priests and the Levites, with all Judah and the Israelites who were there, and with the people of Jerusalem.

19This Passover was kept in the eighteenth year of Josiah’s reign. 20After all this, when Josiah had put the temple in order, Neco king of Egypt came up to fight at Carchemish on the Euphrates River, and Josiah marched out to meet him. 21But Neco sent messengers to him to say, “What have I to do with you, king of Judah? I am not coming against you today, but against the house with which I am at war, and God has told me to hurry. Stop opposing God, who is with me, for your own sake, so that he does not destroy you.” 22But Josiah would not turn away from him. Instead he disguised himself to fight him. He did not listen to Neco’s words, which came from the mouth of God, and he went to fight in the plain of Megiddo. 23Archers shot at King Josiah, and he said to his officials, “Take me away, because I am badly wounded.” 24So his officials lifted him out of the chariot, set him in the second chariot he had, and took him to Jerusalem. There he died, and he was buried in the tombs of his ancestors. All Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah.

25Jeremiah sang a lament for Josiah, and all the singing men and women speak of Josiah in their laments to this day. They made them a custom in Israel, and they are written in the Laments. 26The rest of the acts of Josiah, and his faithful deeds in keeping with what is written in the law of the LORD, 27and his acts, from first to last, are written in the Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah.