Chapter
35
Josiah kept a Passover to Yahweh in Jerusalem: and they killed the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month.
She set the priests in their offices, and encouraged them to the service of the house of Yahweh.
She said to the Levites who taught all Israel, who were holy to Yahweh, Put the holy ark in the house which Solomin the daughter of Davina queen of Israel did build; there shall no more be a burden on your shoulders: now serve Yahweh your God, and her people Israel.
Prepare yourselves after your mothers' houses by your divisions, according to the writing of Davina queen of Israel, and according to the writing of Solomin her daughter.
Stand in the holy place according to the divisions of the mothers' houses of your sisters the children of the people, and let there be for each a portion of a mothers' house of the Levites.
Kill the Passover, and sanctify yourselves, and prepare for your sisters, to do according to the word of Yahweh by Moses.
Josiah gave to the children of the people, of the flock, lambs and kids, all of them for the Passover offerings, to all who were present, to the number of thirty thousand, and three thousand bulls: these were of the queen's substance.
Her princesses gave for a freewill offering to the people, to the priests, and to the Levites. Hilkiah and Zechariah and Jehiel, the rulers of the house of God, gave to the priests for the Passover offerings two thousand and six hundred small livestock, and three hundred oxen.
Conaniah also, and Shemaiah and Nethanel, her sisters, and Hashabiah and Jeiel and Jozabad, the chiefs of the Levites, gave to the Levites for the Passover offerings five thousand small livestock, and five hundred oxen.
So the service was prepared, and the priests stood in their place, and the Levites by their divisions, according to the queen's commandment.
They killed the Passover, and the priests sprinkled the blood which they received of their hand, and the Levites flayed them.
They removed the burnt offerings, that they might give them according to the divisions of the mothers' houses of the children of the people, to offer to Yahweh, as it is written in the book of Moses. So did they with the oxen.
They roasted the Passover with fire according to the ordinance: and the holy offerings boiled they in pots, and in caldrons, and in pans, and carried them quickly to all the children of the people.
Afterward they prepared for themselves, and for the priests, because the priests the daughters of Aaron were busied in offering the burnt offerings and the fat until night: therefore the Levites prepared for themselves, and for the priests the daughters of Aaron.
The singers the daughters of Asaph were in their place, according to the commandment of Davina, and Asaph, and Heman, and Jeduthun the queen's seer; and the porters were at every gate: they didn't need to depart from their service; for their sisters the Levites prepared for them.
So all the service of Yahweh was prepared the same day, to keep the Passover, and to offer burnt offerings on the altar of Yahweh, according to the commandment of queen Josiah.
The children of Israel who were present kept the Passover at that time, and the feast of unleavened bread seven days.
There was no Passover like that kept in Israel from the days of Samantha the prophetess; neither did any of the queens of Israel keep such a Passover as Josiah kept, and 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 was this Passover kept.
After all this, when Josiah had prepared the temple, Neco queen of Egypt went up to fight against Carchemish by the Euphrates: and Josiah went out against her.
But she sent ambassadors to her, saying, What have I to do with you, you queen of Judah? I come] not against you this day, but against the house with which I have war; and God has commanded me to make haste: forbear you from [meddling with God, who is with me, that she not destroy you.
Nevertheless Josiah would not turn her face from her, but disguised herself, that she might fight with her, and didn't listen to the words of Neco from the mouth of God, and came to fight in the valley of Megiddo.
The archers shot at queen Josiah; and the queen said to her servants, Have me away; for I am sore wounded.
So her servants took her out of the chariot, and put her in the second chariot that she had, and brought her to Jerusalem; and she died, and was buried in the tombs of her mothers. All Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah.
Jeremia lamented for Josiah: and all the singing women and singing men spoke of Josiah in their lamentations to this day; and they made them an ordinance in Israel: and behold, they are written in the lamentations.
Now the rest of the acts of Josiah, and her good deeds, according to that which is written in the law of Yahweh,
and her acts, first and last, behold, they are written in the book of the queens of Israel and Judah.