Josiah Restores the Passover

1And Josias kept a passover to the Lord his God; and sacrificed the passover on the fourteenth day of the first month. 2And he appointed the priests at their charges, and encouraged them for the services of the house of the Lord. 3And he told the Levites that were able to act in all Israel, that they should consecrate themselves to the Lord: and they put the holy ark in the house which Solomon the son of David king of Israel built: and the king said, Ye must not carry anything on your shoulders: now then minister to the Lord your God, and to his people Israel. 4And prepare yourselves according to the houses of your families, and according to your daily courses, according to the writing of David king of Israel, and the order by the hand of his son Solomon. 5And stand ye in the house according to the divisions of the houses of your families for your brethren the sons of the people; so also let there be for the Levites a division of the house of their family. 6And kill ye the passover, and prepare it for your brethren, to do according to the word of the Lord, by the hand of Moses.

7And Josias gave as an offering to the children of the people, sheep, and lambs, and kids of the young of the goats, all for the passover, even for all that were found, in number amounting to thirty thousand, and three thousand calves, these were of the substance of the king. 8And his princes gave an offering to the people, and to the priests, and to the Levites: and Chelcias and Zacharias and Jeiel the chief men gave to the priests of the house of God, they even gave for the passover sheep, and lambs, and kids, two thousand six hundred, and three hundred calves. 9And Chonenias, and Banaeas, and Samaeas, and Nathanael his brother, and Asabias, and Jeiel, and Jozabad, heads of the Levites, gave an offering to the Levites for the passover, of five thousand sheep and five hundred calves.

10And the service was duly ordered, and the priests stood in their place, and the Levites in their divisions, according to the command of the king. 11And they slew the passover, and the priests sprinkled the blood from their hand, and the Levites flayed the victims. 12And they prepared the whole-burnt-offering to give to them, according to the division by the houses of families, even to the sons of the people, to offer to the Lord, as it is written in the book of Moses. 13And thus they did till the morning. And they roasted the passover with fire according to the ordinance; and boiled the holy pieces in copper vessels and caldrons, and the feast went on well, and they quickly served all the children of the people. 14And after they had prepared for themselves and for the priests, for the priests were engaged in offering the whole-burnt-offerings and the fat until night, then the Levites prepared for themselves, and for their brethren the sons of Aaron. 15And the sons of Asaph the psalm-singers were at their post according to the commands of David, and Asaph, and Aeman, and Idithom, the prophets of the king: also, the chiefs and the porters of the several gates; —it was not for them to stir from the service of the holy things, for their brethren the Levites prepared for them.

16So all the service of the Lord was duly ordered and prepared in that day, for keeping the passover, and offering the whole-burnt-sacrifices on the altar of the Lord, according to the command of king Josias. 17And the children of Israel that were present kept the passover at that time, and the feast of unleavened bread seven days. 18And there was no passover like it in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet, or any king of Israel: they kept not such a passover as Josias, and the priests, and the Levites, and all Juda and Israel that were present, and the dwellers in Jerusalem, kept to the Lord. 19In the eighteenth year of the reign of Josias this passover was kept, after all these things that Josias did in the house. And king Josias burnt those who had in them a divining spirit, and the wizards, and the images, and the idols, and the sodomites which were in the land of Juda and in Jerusalem, that he might confirm the words of the law that were written in the book which Chelcias the priest found in the house of the Lord. There was no king like him before him, who turned to the Lord with all his heart, and all his soul, and all his strength, according to all the law of Moses, and after him there rose up none like him. Nevertheless the Lord turned not from the anger of his fierce wrath, wherewith the Lord was greatly angry against Juda, for all the provocations wherewith Manasses provoked him: and the Lord said, I will even remove Juda also from my presence, as I have removed Israel, and I have rejected the city which I chose, even Jerusalem, and thehouse of which I said, My name shall be there.

Josiah Slain at Megiddo

20And Pharao Nechao king of Egypt went up against the king of the Assyrians to the river Euphrates, and king Josias went to meet him. 21And he sent messengers to him, saying, What have I to do with thee, O king of Juda? I am not come to-day to war against thee; and God has told me to hasten: beware of the God that is with me, lest he destroy thee. 22However, Josias turned not his face from him, but strengthened himself to fight against him, and hearkened not to the words of Nechao by the mouth of God, and he came to fight in the plain of Mageddo. 23And the archers shot at king Josias; and the king said to his servants, Take me away, for I am severely wounded. 24And his servants lifted him out of the chariot, and put him in the second chariot which he had, and brought him to Jerusalem; and he died, and was buried with his fathers: and all Juda and Jerusalem lamented over Josias.

Laments for Josiah

25And Jeremias mourned over Josias, and all the chief men and chief women uttered a lamentation over Josias until this day: and they made it an ordinance for Israel, and, behold, it is written in the lamentations. 26And the rest of the acts of Josias, and his hope, are written in the law of the Lord. 27And his acts, the first and the last, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah.