2 Chronicles 35
1 And Josias kept a passover to the
Lord his God; and sacrificed the passover on the fourteenth day of the first
month. 2 And he appointed the priests
at their charges, and encouraged them for the services of the house of the
Lord. 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. 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.
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.
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.
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. 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.
9 And Chonenias, and Banæas, and
Samæas, 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.
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.
11 And they slew the passover, and
the priests sprinkled the blood from their hand, and the Levites flayed
the victims.
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.
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.
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.
15 And the sons of Asaph the
psalm-singers were at their post according to the
commands of David, and Asaph, and Æman, 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. 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.
17 And the children of Israel that
were present kept the passover at that time, and the feast of unleavened bread
seven days.
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. 19 In the eighteenth year of
the reign of Josias this passover was kept, after all these things that Josias
did in the house. 19a And king Josias
burnt those who had in them a divining spirit, and the wizards, and the
images, and the idols, and the sodomites which were in the land of Juda and in
Jerusalem, that he might confirm the words of the law that were written in the
book which Chelcias the priest found in the house of the Lord.
19b There was no
king like him before him, who turned to the Lord with
all his heart, and all his soul, and all his strength, according to all the
law of Moses, and after him there rose up none like him.
19c Nevertheless the Lord turned not
from the anger of his fierce wrath, wherewith the Lord was greatly angry
against Juda, for all the provocations wherewith Manasses provoked him:
19d and the Lord said, I will even
remove Juda also from my presence, as I have removed Israel, and I have
rejected the city which I chose, even Jerusalem, and
the house of which I said, My name shall be there.
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. 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.
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. 23 And the archers shot at
king Josias; and the king said to his servants, Take me away, for I am
severely 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.
25 And Jeremiah 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.
26 And the rest of the acts of
Josias, and his hope, are written in the law of the Lord.
27 And his acts, the first and the
last, behold, they are written in the book of the
kings of Israel and Juda.