Josiah Restores the Passover
And Josiah kept a Passover to the LORD in Jerusalem; and they slaughtered the Passover on the fourteenth of the first month.
And he set the priests standing at their watches, and strengthened them for the service of the house of the LORD.
And he said to the Levites, who gave understanding to all Israel, who were holy to the LORD: “Put the holy ark in the house that Solomon the son of David, king of Israel, built. It is no longer a burden on your shoulders. Now serve the LORD your God, and his people Israel.
And prepare yourselves by the houses of your fathers, in your divisions, according to the writing of David, king of Israel, and according to the document of Solomon his son.
And stand in the holy place by the groupings of the houses of the fathers of your brothers, the sons of the people — and for each, a portion of a father’s house of the Levites.
And slaughter the Passover, and consecrate yourselves, and prepare for your brothers, to do according to the word of the LORD by the hand of Moses.”
And Josiah contributed to the sons of the people flock animals — lambs and young goats, all of them for the Passover offerings, for everyone present — to the number of thirty thousand, and three thousand oxen. These were from the property of the king.
And his officials contributed willingly to the people, to the priests, and to the Levites. Hilkiah, and Zechariah, and Jehiel, the leaders of the house of God, gave to the priests for the Passover offerings two thousand six hundred, and three hundred oxen.
And Conaniah, and Shemaiah and Nethanel his brothers, and Hashabiah and Jeiel and Jozabad, the commanders of the Levites, contributed to the Levites for the Passover offerings five thousand, and five hundred oxen.
And the service was set firm; and the priests stood at their station, and the Levites in their divisions, according to the commandment of the king.
And they slaughtered the Passover; and the priests threw the blood from their hand, and the Levites were skinning.
And they set apart the burnt offering, to give it to the groupings of the houses of the fathers of the sons of the people, to bring near to the LORD, as written in the book of Moses — and likewise with the oxen.
And they cooked the Passover with fire, according to the custom; and the holy offerings they boiled in the pots, and in the cauldrons, and in the pans, and carried them quickly to all the sons of the people.
And afterward they prepared for themselves and for the priests — for the priests, the sons of Aaron, were occupied with offering up the burnt offering and the fat portions until night; so the Levites prepared for themselves and for the priests, the sons of Aaron.
And the singers, the sons of Asaph, were at their station, according to the commandment of David, and Asaph, and Heman, and Jeduthun, the seer of the king; and the gatekeepers were at gate after gate. They did not need to turn aside from their service — for their brothers the Levites prepared for them.
And all the service of the LORD was set firm on that day, to keep the Passover and to offer up burnt offerings on the altar of the LORD, according to the commandment of King Josiah.
And the sons of Israel who were present kept the Passover at that time, and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, seven days.
And no Passover like it had been kept in Israel since the days of Samuel the prophet; and none of the kings of Israel had kept a Passover like the one Josiah kept — with the priests, and the Levites, and all Judah and Israel who were present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
In the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah this Passover was kept.
The Death of Josiah
After all this, when Josiah had set the house in order, Neco, king of Egypt, came up to fight at Carchemish on the Euphrates; and Josiah went out to meet him.
And he sent messengers to him, saying: “What have I to do with you, king of Judah? Not against you — you — today, but against the house with which I am at war; and God has said to hurry me. Stop yourself from opposing God, who is with me — and let him not destroy you.”
But Josiah did not turn his face from him; rather, he disguised himself to fight against him. And he did not listen to the words of Neco from the mouth of God; and he came to fight in the plain of Megiddo.
And the archers shot King Josiah; and the king said to his servants, “Take me away, for I am badly wounded.”
And his servants took him out of the chariot, and mounted him on his second chariot, and brought him to Jerusalem; and he died, and was buried in the tombs of his fathers. And all Judah and Jerusalem were mourning over Josiah.
Laments over Josiah
And Jeremiah chanted a lament over Josiah; and all the singing men and singing women have spoken of Josiah in their laments to this day; and they made them a statute in Israel — and look, they are written in the Laments.
And the rest of the acts of Josiah, and his loyal deeds, according to what is written in the instruction of the LORD,
and his acts, the first and the last — look, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah.