Old/New Testament

34 Josiah was 8 years old when he became king, and he reigned 31 years in Jerusalem. ² He was one of the few great kings of Israel, who determinedly obeyed the Eternal and followed the example of his ancestor David. ^3-4 His zeal for the True God of David began in the 8th year of his reign while he was still a child of 16, but he did not begin his reforms of Judah and Jerusalem until he was 20 years old. Then he removed the high places, chopped down the sacrificial altars and incense altars of the Baals, and smashed the carved and molten images of Asherah and other gods. He then took the broken pieces of the icons, crushed them into powder, and sprinkled that powder on the graves of the people who had worshiped them. ⁵ He even burned the bones of the priests who had served those gods on the cultic altars to completely purge Judah and Jerusalem. ⁶ He then continued his reforms throughout the region, including Manasseh, Ephraim, Simeon, and Naphtali and their surrounding villages, ⁷ where he personally smashed the carved images of Asherah and other gods into powder and chopped down the incense altars. Then he returned to Jerusalem.

⁸ By the 18th year of his reign, Josiah had cleansed the nation and the temple. Now it was time to repair them both by rebuilding the temple. He sent Shaphan (son of Azaliah), Maaseiah (a city official), and Joah (son of Joahaz the recorder) to the temple of the True God, the Eternal, in order to organize repairs there. ⁹ First, they took the money from the temple coffers and gave it to Hilkiah, the high priest, so he could oversee the funds for the temple repairs. The money had been collected at the temple by the Levite doorkeepers from those remaining in the Northern Kingdom, including Manasseh and Ephraim, and from all those in the Southern Kingdom, including Judah, Benjamin, and the city of Jerusalem. ¹⁰ The money went to the Eternal’s temple construction supervisors who then subcontracted the work to tradesmen and craftsmen. ¹¹ Those subcontractors purchased cut stone, timber, and couplings to rebuild the portions of the temple that had become ruined because of the neglect by the kings of Judah. ¹² The subcontractors were dependable workers, following the guidance of their supervisors: Jahath and Obadiah (Levites from the clan of Merari), Zechariah and Meshullam (Levites from the clan of Kohath), and the Levite musicians. ¹³ These supervisors guided everyone on the job, from the subcontractors and foremen to the unskilled laborers, while performing their regular duties of record keepers, officials, and gatekeepers.

¹⁴ As Josiah’s three servants were bringing out the money from the Eternal’s treasury, Hilkiah the priest made an unexpected discovery. Deep inside the temple storerooms, long forgotten, was the Eternal’s law book, rules He had given to the Israelites through Moses.

Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, ¹⁶ who took it to the king and affirmed that they were proceeding with the temple repairs.

Shaphan then read these laws in the presence of the king.

¹⁹ When the king heard those words, he realized how far his nation had drifted from God’s path, and he tore his clothes in mourning. ²⁰ He then summoned five of his high-ranking officials: Hilkiah, Ahikam (son of Shaphan), Abdon (son of Micah), Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah the king’s servant.

²² The four men including Hilkiah went straight to Huldah the prophetess in Jerusalem’s Second Quarter because they knew He would speak through her. Huldah was the wife of Shallum (son of Tokhath, son of Hasrah, the keeper of the wardrobe).

The four servants gave the king this message, ²⁹ and he immediately summoned all the elders in Judah and Jerusalem. ³⁰ The entire nation (great and small, priest and layman, man and woman) went up to the Eternal’s temple where Josiah read to them the laws from the book of the covenant that was found in the Eternal’s temple. ^31-32 There, the king and the entire assembly in Jerusalem, people from Benjamin and Judah, stood and renewed Israel’s covenant with the Eternal, promising to follow His ways, obey His laws with all diligence, and perform the duties of the covenant described in the book. Then all the people in Jerusalem respected their covenant with the True God, the God of their ancestors, ³³ and Josiah purged all the lands of Israel of false worship, making certain everyone in Israel served the Eternal God. The people remained faithful to the Eternal God of their ancestors throughout Josiah’s reign.

35 On the 14th day of the first month after Josiah had rededicated the nation to God, the king instituted the Eternal’s Passover feast in Jerusalem by slaughtering the Passover animals. ² Josiah appointed the priests and encouraged them in performing their duties for the Eternal’s temple. ³ Then he commissioned the Levites, Israel’s teachers and the Eternal’s most holy servants, in their various duties for the feast.

⁷ Josiah donated 30,000 lambs and young goats and 3,000 bulls from his own herds and flocks for the people to sacrifice as the Passover offerings. ⁸ Then his officers in the True God’s temple voluntarily gave offerings for the people, priests, and Levites: Hilkiah, Zechariah, and Jehiel donated 2,600 sheep and 300 bulls for the Passover; ⁹ Conaniah, Shemaiah, Nethanel and his brothers, Hashabiah, Jeiel, and Jozabad, all officers of the Levites, donated 5,000 sheep and 500 bulls to the Levites for the Passover.

¹⁰ Once the service was prepared, the priests were ready to perform their duties, and the Levites stood in their division as the king commanded. ^11-13 They offered the Passover animals. The Levites skinned all the animals, the priests sprinkled the animals’ blood, and then they roasted the animals on the altar. Once the animals were roasted, they took down the carcasses and distributed them to each tribe for offerings to the Eternal, just as the book of Moses prescribed. The Levites then boiled the other holy offerings in containers and took them to the people. ¹⁴ Once the people of the nation were enjoying the feast, the Levites prepared meals for themselves and for the priests (the Aaronites, who were busy with the burnt and fat offerings until late in the evening), ¹⁵ the singers (the sons of Asaph), Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun (the king’s seer), and the gatekeepers so that none of them needed to leave their prescribed duties to enjoy the feast.

¹⁶ On that day, all the Eternal’s servants completed preparations for the Passover, giving burnt offerings on the Eternal’s altar as Josiah commanded, ¹⁷ and all the Israelites who were present in Jerusalem celebrated the Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for a full week. ¹⁸ This was the first Passover feast since Samuel was judging Israel. No other king’s festival was ever as precise or as well-attended by the priests, Levites, and all the Israelites. ¹⁹ It took place during Josiah’s 18th year as king.

²⁰ After the incredible success of the Passover and Josiah’s organization of the temple operations, the Egyptian king, Neco, passed through Israel on his way to attack Carchemish (a Babylonian possession on the Euphrates) because of his alliance with the Assyrians. When Josiah marched out to meet Neco, ²¹ the Egyptian king sent his messengers.

²² But Josiah ignored Neco’s message and his warning that were from the mouth of God. Josiah disguised himself and attacked Neco’s army on Megiddo Plain. ²³ Neco’s archers quickly wounded King Josiah.

²⁴ His servants took him out of his battle chariot and carried him to another chariot that they could drive to Jerusalem. There Josiah died and was laid to rest with his fathers. All of Judah and Jerusalem mourned his death. ²⁵ The prophet Jeremiah even composed a lament for Josiah, which all singers remember when they sing their lamentations today, during our exile from Israel. This lament became a state anthem and is recorded in the book of Laments.

^26-27 The other actions of Josiah and his loyal deeds, from his birth to his death, are recorded in the Eternal’s law and the book of the kings of Israel and Judah.

36 The Israelites chose Josiah’s son Joahaz, also named Jehoahaz,^[a] as his father’s successor in Jerusalem. ² He was 23 years old when he ascended to the throne, but his reign in Jerusalem only lasted 3 months. ^3-5 Neco conquered Israel, deposed Joahaz as the king, exiled him to Egypt, and made Israel a vassal state required to pay 3,750 pounds of silver and 75 pounds of gold annually to Egypt.

The Egyptian king appointed 25-year-old Eliakim, Joahaz’s brother, as acting king of Judah and Jerusalem, changing his name to Jehoiakim. He reigned 11 years in Jerusalem, and he was evil before the Eternal God. ⁶ Then Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, attacked Israel, carried Jehoiakim bound in bronze chains into exile in Babylon, ⁷ plundered the Eternal’s temple, and put the temple possessions in his own Babylonian temple. ^8-9 The rest of Jehoiakim’s rebellions are recorded in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah.

Jehoiachin was only 8 years old when he succeeded his father as king in Jerusalem. He, too, did what the Eternal considered as evil and reigned only 3 months and 10 days. ¹⁰ Just after the new year, King Nebuchadnezzar had Jehoiachin exiled to Babylon as well. He also took more valuables from the Eternal’s temple.

Nebuchadnezzar then appointed Zedekiah the Babylonian as acting king of Judah and Jerusalem ¹¹ when he was only 21 years old. He reigned 11 years from Jerusalem ¹² and he also did what the Eternal One saw as evil. He refused to listen to the guidance of Jeremiah, who advised the king to humble himself before the Eternal. ¹³ Furthermore, he rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, to whom he had sworn allegiance in the name of God, ¹⁴ then led the rest of the nation to abandon the Eternal One, God of Israel. All the leaders and priests mimicked the other nations, following pagan gods and desecrating the Eternal’s house, which He had sanctified in Jerusalem. ¹⁵ Again and again, the Eternal God of their ancestors, because of His compassion for His people and His temple, sent messengers to His people, convicting them of the wrong doings and telling them to return to His ways, ¹⁶ but the people mocked the True God’s messengers, hated His messages, and laughed at His prophets. Their actions further infuriated the Eternal, until there was no way to contain His anger.

¹⁷ The Eternal empowered the king of the Chaldeans (who were part of the Babylonian Empire) to attack Israel. This army was merciless, sacrificing Israel’s children in their temples and slaughtering everyone else without regard to gender, age, or health. ^18-19 They plundered every treasure in the Eternal God’s temple and burned God’s temple to the ground. They stole the king’s and the officers’ possessions, tore down the wall of Jerusalem, burned the fortified buildings, and destroyed anything of value in Jerusalem. ²⁰ Anyone who managed to survive the invasion was exiled to Babylon, where they remained servants of the Babylonian court until it was conquered by the Persian Empire. ²¹ This exile fulfilled the Eternal’s message through Jeremiah that Israel would lie quietly at rest and be desolate for 70 years to make up for the generations where they did not observe Sabbath.

²² As soon as Cyrus, the king of Persia, took over the former Babylonian Empire, the Eternal fulfilled His own words (which were relayed by Jeremiah) by compelling Cyrus to send a written proclamation throughout his empire.

19 Pilate took Jesus and had Him flogged. ² The soldiers twisted thorny branches together as a crown and placed it onto His brow and wrapped Him in a purple cloth. ³ They drew near to Him, shouting:

⁵ Then Jesus was paraded out before the people, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe.

⁸ Pilate was terrified to hear the Jews making their claims for His execution; ⁹ so he retired to his court, the Praetorium.

Jesus did not speak.

¹² Pilate listened to Jesus’ words. Taking them to heart, he attempted to release Jesus; but the Jews opposed him, shouting:

¹³ After Pilate heard these accusations, he sent Jesus out and took his seat in the place where he rendered judgment. This place was called the Pavement, or Gabbatha in Hebrew. ¹⁴ All this occurred at the sixth hour on the day everyone prepares for the Passover.

¹⁶ Pilate handed Him over to his soldiers, knowing that He would be crucified. ¹⁷ They sent Jesus out carrying His own instrument of execution, the cross, to a hill known as the Place of the Skull, or Golgotha in Hebrew. ¹⁸ In that place, they crucified Him along with two others. One was on His right and the other on His left. ¹⁹ Pilate ordered that a plaque be placed above Jesus’ head. It read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” ²⁰ Because the site was near an urban region, it was written in three languages (Greek, Latin, and Hebrew) so that all could understand.