Josiah Restores the Passover
1 Josiah kept a Passover to the Lord in Jerusalem, and they killed the Passover on the fourteenth of the first month. 2 He set the priests in their offices and encouraged them in the service of the house of the Lord.
3 He said to the Levites who taught all Israel, who were holy to the Lord, “Put the holy Ark in the house which Solomon the son of David king of Israel built. It will no longer be a burden on your shoulders. Now serve the Lord your God and his people Israel. 4 Prepare yourselves according to your families, by your divisions, according to the writing of David king of Israel and according to the writing of Solomon his son. 5 Stand in the holy place according to divisions by family, according to the ancestry of your people, and according to the division of the Levites by family. 6 Kill the Passover, sanctify yourselves, and prepare for your brothers, to do according to the word of the Lord through Moses.”
7 Josiah gave to the people, lambs and young goats from the flock, all for Passover offerings, for all who were present, to the count of 30,000, as well as 3,000 cattle, which were from the King’s own flocks. 8 His officials gave, as a free will offering to the people for the Passover offering, to the priests and to the Levites. Hilkiah, Zechariah, and Jehiel, the rulers of the house of the Lord, gave the priests 2,600 small livestock and 300 head of cattle. 9 Conaniah also, and Shemaiah and Nethanel, his brothers, and Hashabiah, Jeiel, and Jozabad, the chiefs of the Levites, gave to the Levites for the Passover offerings 5,000 small livestock and 500 head of cattle.
10 So the service was prepared, and the priests stood in their place and the Levites by their divisions, according to the king’s commandment. 11 They killed the Passover, and the priests sprinkled the blood which they received of their hand, and the Levites skinned them. 12 They removed the burnt offerings, that they might give them according to the divisions of their ancestral houses of the lay people, to offer to the Lord, as it is written in the book of Moses. They did the same with the cattle. 13 They roasted the Passover with fire according to the ordinance. They boiled the holy offerings in pots, in cauldrons, and in pans, and carried them quickly to all the people. 14 Afterward they prepared for themselves and for the priests, because the priests, the descendants of Aaron, were busy with offering the burnt offerings and the fat until night. Therefore the Levites prepared for themselves and for the priests, the descendants of Aaron. 15 The singers, the descendants of Asaph were in their place, according to the commandment of David, Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun the king’s seer, and the gatekeepers were at every gate. They did not need to depart from their service, because their brothers the Levites prepared for them.
16 So all the service of the Lord was prepared the same day, to keep the Passover, and to offer burnt offerings on the altar of the Lord, according to the commandment of king Josiah.
17 The Israelites who were present kept the Passover at that time and the feast of unleavened bread seven days. 18 There had not been a Passover like that kept in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet, nor did any of the kings of Israel keep such a Passover as Josiah kept, with the priests, the Levites, and all Judah and Israel who were present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 19 This Passover was kept in the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah.
Josiah Slain at Megiddo
20 After all this, when Josiah had prepared the temple, Neco king of Egypt went up to fight against Carchemish by the Euphrates, and Josiah went out against him. 21 But he sent ambassadors to him, saying, “What have I to do with you, you king of Judah? I come not against you today, but against the house with which I am waging war. The Lord has commanded me to be quick. Beware that it is the Lord who is with me, that he not destroy you.”
22 Nevertheless Josiah would not turn his face from him, but disguised himself, that he might fight with him, and did not listen to the words of Neco from the mouth of God, and came to fight in the valley of Megiddo. 23 The archers shot at king Josiah, and the king said to his servants, “Take me away because I am gravely wounded!”
24 So his servants took him out of the chariot and put 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. All Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah.
Laments for Josiah
25 Jeremiah lamented for Josiah, and all the singing men and singing women spoke of Josiah in their lamentations to this day, and they made the lamentations an ordinance in Israel, and indeed, they are written in the lamentations. 26 Now the rest of the acts of Josiah, and his good deeds, according to that which is written in the law of the Lord, 27 and his acts, first and last, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah.