2 Chronicles 35
1 Josiah celebrated the Passover to the LORD in Jerusalem, and they slaughtered the Passover animals on the fourteenth day of the first month.
2 He assigned the priests to their duties and encouraged them in the service of the house of the LORD.
3 He said to the Levites, who taught all Israel and were consecrated to the LORD, “Place the holy ark in the house that Solomon son of David, king of Israel, built. You no longer have to carry it on your shoulders. Now serve the LORD your God and his people Israel.
4 Prepare yourselves by your ancestral houses and divisions, according to the instructions written by David king of Israel and the document of his son Solomon.
5 Take your places in the sanctuary, grouped by the ancestral divisions, for your fellow Israelites, the people; and assign a division of an ancestral house to each group of Levites.
6 Slaughter the Passover animals, consecrate yourselves, and prepare them for your fellow Israelites, so that you may do as the word of the LORD given through Moses says.”
7 Josiah gave the people thirty thousand sheep and goats—all for the Passover sacrifices—for everyone present, as well as three thousand cattle. These came from the king’s own possessions.
8 His officials also gave voluntary gifts to the people, the priests, and the Levites. Hilkiah, Zechariah, and Jehiel, the officials in charge of God’s house, gave the priests 2,600 animals for the Passover sacrifices and three hundred cattle.
9 Conaniah, Shemaiah, and Nethanel, his brothers, along with Hashabiah, Jeiel, and Jozabad, leaders of the Levites, gave the Levites five thousand animals for the Passover sacrifices and five hundred cattle.
10 The service was organized. The priests took their places, and the Levites stood in their divisions, as the king had commanded.
11 They slaughtered the Passover animals. The priests sprinkled the blood they received from them, and the Levites skinned the animals.
12 They set aside the burnt offerings to distribute to the divisions of the ancestral houses of the people, so they could offer them to the LORD as written in the Book of Moses. They did the same with the cattle.
13 They roasted the Passover animals over the fire, as prescribed, and cooked the sacred offerings in pots, cauldrons, and pans. Then they hurried them out to all the people.
14 Afterward they prepared food for themselves and for the priests, because the priests, the descendants of Aaron, were occupied with offering the burnt offerings and the fat until night. So the Levites prepared food for themselves and for the priests, the descendants of Aaron.
15 The singers, the descendants of Asaph, were at their posts, as David, Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun, the king’s seer, had commanded. The gatekeepers stood at each gate. They did not need to leave their duties, because their fellow Levites prepared everything for them.
16 So all the service of the LORD was organized that day, to celebrate the Passover and offer burnt offerings on the altar of the LORD, as King Josiah had commanded.
17 The Israelites who were there celebrated the Passover at that time and the Festival of Unleavened Bread for seven days.
18 No Passover like this had been celebrated in Israel since the days of the prophet Samuel. None of the kings of Israel had celebrated a Passover like the one Josiah celebrated with the priests, the Levites, all Judah, the Israelites who were present, and the people of Jerusalem.
19 This Passover was celebrated in the eighteenth year of Josiah’s reign.
20 After all this, when Josiah had put the house in order, Neco king of Egypt marched up to fight at Carchemish on the Euphrates, and Josiah went out to meet him.
21 But Neco sent messengers to him, saying, “What is there between me and you, king of Judah? I have not come against you today, but against the house with which I am at war. God has told me to hurry. Stop opposing God, who is with me, or he will destroy you.”
22 But 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 God’s mouth, and went to fight in the valley of Megiddo.
23 The archers shot King Josiah, and he said to his servants, “Get me out of here, for I am badly wounded.”
24 His servants lifted him out of his chariot, put him in the second chariot he owned, and took him to Jerusalem. There he died and was buried in the tombs of his ancestors. All Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah.
25 Jeremiah composed a lament for Josiah. To this day, all the male and female singers speak of Josiah in their laments. They made this a decree in Israel, and these laments are written in the book of Laments.
26 The rest of Josiah’s acts and his deeds of faithful love are recorded in the Law of the LORD.
27 His deeds, from first to last, are recorded in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah.
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