1Josiah kept a Passover to Yahweh in Jerusalem, and they slaughtered the Passover lamb on the fourteenth of the first month.
2He appointed the priests to their duties and strengthened them for the service of the house of Yahweh.
3He said to the Levites who taught all Israel, who were holy to Yahweh, “Put the holy ark in the house that Solomon son of David, king of Israel, built. It is not to be a burden on your shoulders. Now serve Yahweh your God and his people Israel.
4Prepare yourselves by your ancestral houses according to your divisions, following the written directions of David king of Israel and the document of Solomon his son.
5Stand in the holy place according to the divisions of the ancestral houses for your kinsmen, the sons of the people—and let there be a portion of a Levite ancestral house for them.
6Slaughter the Passover lamb, consecrate yourselves, and make preparations for your kinsmen, to act according to the word of Yahweh by the hand of Moses.”
7Josiah contributed for the sons of the people a flock of lambs and young goats—all of it for the Passover offerings for everyone present—numbering thirty thousand, along with three thousand head of cattle; these were from the king’s own property.
8His officials also gave a freewill offering for the people, the priests, and the Levites. Hilkiah, Zechariah, and Jehiel, the chief officers of the house of God, gave the priests two thousand six hundred Passover offerings and three hundred head of cattle.
9Conaniah, Shemaiah, and Nethanel his brothers, and Hashabiah, Jeiel, and Jozabad, the chiefs of the Levites, contributed five thousand Passover offerings and five hundred head of cattle for the Levites.
10So the service was arranged, and the priests stood in their place and the Levites by their divisions, according to the king’s command.
11They slaughtered the Passover lamb, and the priests sprinkled the blood from their hand, while the Levites did the skinning.
12They set aside the burnt offering to give to the divisions of the ancestral houses of the sons of the people, to present it to Yahweh as it is written in the book of Moses; and likewise with the cattle.
13They cooked the Passover lamb over the fire according to the ordinance, and boiled the holy offerings in pots, kettles, and pans, and carried them quickly to all the sons of the people.
14Afterward they prepared for themselves and for the priests, because the priests, the sons of Aaron, were occupied in 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.
15The singers, the sons of Asaph, were at their station according to the command of David, Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun the king’s seer; and the gatekeepers were at each gate. They did not need to leave their service, because their kinsmen the Levites prepared for them.
16So all the service of Yahweh was arranged that day, to keep the Passover and to offer up burnt offerings on the altar of Yahweh, according to the command of King Josiah.
17The sons of Israel who were present kept the Passover at that time, and the Feast of Unleavened Bread for seven days.
18No Passover like it had been kept in Israel since the days of Samuel the prophet, nor had any of the kings of Israel 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.
19In the eighteenth year of Josiah’s reign this Passover was kept.
20After all this, when Josiah had put the house in order, Neco king of Egypt went up to fight at Carchemish on the Euphrates, and Josiah went out to meet him.
21But he 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; and God has commanded me to make haste. Cease opposing God who is with me, so that he does not destroy you.”
22But Josiah would 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. So he came to fight in the Valley of Megiddo.
23The archers shot King Josiah, and the king said to his servants, “Take me away, for I am badly wounded.”
24So his servants took him out of the chariot, put him in his second chariot, and brought him to Jerusalem. He died and was buried in the tombs of his fathers, and all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah.
25Jeremiah composed a lament for Josiah, and all the male and female singers have spoken of Josiah in their laments to this day. They made them an ordinance in Israel, and behold, they are written in the Laments.
26Now the rest of the acts of Josiah, and his acts of loyal love, in accordance with what is written in the law of Yahweh,
27and his acts, the earlier and the later, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah.
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