Josiah Restores True Worship^(A)

^29 (B)Then the king sent and gathered all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. ³⁰ The king went up to the house of the Lord, with all the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem—the priests and the Levites, and all the people, great and small. And he ^(C)read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant which had been found in the house of the Lord. ³¹ Then the king ^(D)stood in ^(E)his place and made a ^(F)covenant before the Lord, to follow the Lord, and to keep His commandments and His testimonies and His statutes with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of the covenant that were written in this book. ³² And he made all who were present in Jerusalem and Benjamin take a stand. So the inhabitants of Jerusalem did according to the covenant of God, the God of their fathers.

²¹ Then the king commanded all the people, saying, ^(A)“Keep the Passover to the Lord your God, ^(B)as it is written in this Book of the Covenant.”

Josiah Keeps the Passover^(A)

35 Now ^(B)Josiah kept a Passover to the Lord in Jerusalem, and they slaughtered the Passover lambs on the ^(C)fourteenth day of the first month. ² And he set the priests in their ^(D)duties and ^(E)encouraged them for the service of the house of the Lord. ³ Then he said to the Levites ^(F)who taught all Israel, who were holy to the Lord: ^(G)“Put the holy ark ^(H)in the house which Solomon the son of David, king of Israel, built. ^(I)It shall no longer be a burden on your shoulders. Now serve the Lord your God and His people Israel. ⁴ Prepare yourselves ^(J)according to your fathers’ ^[a]houses, according to your divisions, following the ^(K)written instruction of David king of Israel and the ^(L)written instruction of Solomon his son. ⁵ And ^(M)stand in the holy place according to the divisions of the fathers’ houses of your brethren the lay people, and according to the division of the father’s house of the Levites. ⁶ So slaughter the Passover offerings, ^(N)consecrate yourselves, and prepare them for your brethren, that they may do according to the word of the Lord by the hand of Moses.”

⁷ Then Josiah ^(O)gave the lay people lambs and young goats from the flock, all for Passover offerings for all who were present, to the number of thirty thousand, as well as three thousand cattle; these were from the king’s ^(P)possessions. ⁸ And his ^(Q)leaders gave willingly to the people, to the priests, and to the Levites. Hilkiah, Zechariah, and Jehiel, rulers of the house of God, gave to the priests for the Passover offerings two thousand six hundred from the flock, and three hundred cattle. ⁹ Also ^(R)Conaniah, his brothers Shemaiah and Nethanel, and Hashabiah and Jeiel and Jozabad, chief of the Levites, gave to the Levites for Passover offerings five thousand from the flock and five hundred cattle.

¹⁰ So the service was prepared, and the priests ^(S)stood in their places, and the ^(T)Levites in their divisions, according to the king’s command. ¹¹ And they slaughtered the Passover offerings; and the priests ^(U)sprinkled the blood with their hands, while the Levites ^(V)skinned the animals. ¹² Then they removed the burnt offerings that they might give them to the divisions of the fathers’ houses of the lay people, to offer to the Lord, as it is written ^(W)in the Book of Moses. And so they did with the cattle. ¹³ Also they ^(X)roasted the Passover offerings with fire according to the ordinance; but the other holy offerings they ^(Y)boiled in pots, in caldrons, and in pans, and divided them quickly among all the lay people. ¹⁴ Then afterward they prepared portions for themselves and for the priests, because the priests, the sons of Aaron, were busy in offering burnt offerings and fat until night; therefore the Levites prepared portions for themselves and for the priests, the sons of Aaron. ¹⁵ And the singers, the sons of Asaph, were in their places, according to the ^(Z)command of David, Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun the king’s seer. Also the gatekeepers ^(AA)were at each gate; they did not have to leave their position, because their brethren the Levites prepared portions 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 command of King Josiah. ¹⁷ And the children of Israel who were present kept the Passover at that time, and the Feast of ^(AB)Unleavened Bread for seven days. ^18 (AC)There had been no Passover kept in Israel like that since the days of Samuel the prophet; and none of the kings of Israel had kept such a Passover as Josiah kept, with the priests and the Levites, all Judah and Israel who were present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. ¹⁹ In the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah this Passover was kept.

An Appeal for Israel’s Repentance

To the Chief Musician. ^(A)On^[a] an instrument of Gath. A Psalm of Asaph.

²⁴ Moreover Josiah put away those who consulted mediums and spiritists, the household gods and idols, all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, that he might perform the words of ^(A)the law which were written in the book ^(B)that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the Lord. ^25 (C)Now before him there was no king like him, who turned to the Lord with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the Law of Moses; nor after him did any arise like him.

³³ Thus Josiah removed all the ^(A)abominations from all the country that belonged to the children of Israel, and made all who were present in Israel ^[a]diligently serve the Lord their God. ^(B)All his days they did not depart from following the Lord God of their fathers.

Impending Judgment on Judah

²⁶ Nevertheless the Lord did not turn from the fierceness of His great wrath, with which His anger was aroused against Judah, ^(A)because of all the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked Him. ²⁷ And the Lord said, “I will also remove Judah from My sight, as ^(B)I have removed Israel, and will cast off this city Jerusalem which I have chosen, and the house of which I said, ^(C)‘My name shall be there.’ ”