1 Esdras 1

Wycliffe Bible

1 And Josiah made (the) pask (or the passover) in Jerusalem to the Lord, and he offered (the) pask the fourteenth day of the month of the first month,

² ordaining (the) priests by their whiles of days, clothed in stoles, or long clothes, in the temple of the Lord.

³ And he said to the deacons [or to the Levites], the holy servants of Israel, that they should hallow themselves to the Lord, in (the) setting of the holy ark of the Lord in the house, that king Solomon, the son of David, builded;

⁴ It shall not be to you no more to take it upon (your) shoulders; and now serveth to our Lord, and do ye (the) care of that folk of Israel, of the part after towns, and their lineages,

⁵ after (or according to) the writing of David, king of Israel, and after the great worshipful doing of Solomon, his son, in all the temple, and after your little fathers part of (the) princehood of them, that stand in the sight of the brethren of the sons of Israel.

⁶ Offer ye (the) pask, and maketh ready the sacrifices to your brethren; and do ye after the behest (or the commandment) of the Lord, that is given to Moses.

⁷ And Josiah gave to the folk that was found there, sheep, of lambs, and of kids, and of she-goats, thirty thousand; calves, three thousand.

⁸ These gifts be given (out) of the king’s own things, after the behest (or the commandment) of the Lord to the people, and to (the) priests, into (the) pask; sheep in number two thousand, and calves an hundred.

⁹ And Jeconiah, and Samaeas, and Nathanael, his brother, and Sabias, and Ochiel, and Joram, gave into (the) pask, five thousand sheep, and five hundred calves.

¹⁰ And when these things were nobly done, the priests and deacons [or Levites] stood, having therf loaves by lineages.

¹¹ And after the parts of the princehood of (the) fathers, they offered to the Lord in the sight of the people, after those things that be written in the book of Moses. [And after the parts of the princehood of fathers in the sight of the people they offered to the Lord, after those things that in the book of Moses be written.]

¹² And they roasted the pask with fire, as it behooved; and they soddened hosts in seething vessels and in pots, with well-willing.

¹³ And they brought it to all that there were of the folk; and after these things they made ready to (or for) themselves and to (or for) (the) priests.

¹⁴ Forsooth the priests offered inner fatness [or tallow], unto the hour was ended; and (the) deacons prepared to (or for) themselves [or and Levites made ready to themselves], and to (or for) their brethren, and to (or) the sons of Aaron.

¹⁵ And men sacrificing [or the sacrificers] offered their daughters, after the order and the behests (or the commands) of David; and Asaph, and Zechariah, and Eddinous, that was of the king;

¹⁶ and the porters by all the gates offered, so that none passed his gate. Forsooth their brethren prepared to (or made ready for) them.

¹⁷ And so those things, that pertained to the sacrifice of the Lord, be ended. In that day they did (the) pask,

¹⁸ and offered hosts upon the sacrifice of the Lord, after the behest (or the command) of king Josiah.

¹⁹ And the sons of Israel, that were found present, did in that time (the) pask, and the feast day of therf loaves by seven days.

²⁰ And there was not solemnized such a pask in Israel, from the times of Samuel, the prophet.

²¹ And all the kings of Israel hallowed not such a pask, as did Josiah, and the priests, and deacons [or Levites], and (the) Jews, and all Israel, that were found in the commemoration, or mind-making (or memory-making), at Jerusalem.

²² In the eighteenth year, Josiah reigning, this pask was hallowed. [The eighteenth year, reigning Josiah, is hallowed pask.]

²³ And the works of Josiah be made right in the sight of the Lord, in (or with) (a) full dreading heart;

²⁴ and those things forsooth that were about him be written, in the rather times of them that sinned, and the which were unreligious against the Lord, before, or more than, all heathen folk, and the which sinners sought not the words of the Lord upon Israel.

²⁵ And after all this deed (or all these deeds) of Josiah, Pharaoh, king of Egypt, went up, coming to cast away in Carchemish upon Euphrates; and Josiah went into (the) meeting to (or of) him.

²⁶ And the king of Egypt sent to Josiah, saying, What is to me and to thee, king of Judea?

²⁷ I am not sent of (or from) the Lord (against thee), upon Euphrates forsooth is my battle; hastily therefore go down.

²⁸ And Josiah was not turned again (or did not turn back) upon the chariot, but he endeavoured himself to overcome Pharaoh [or but (he) enforced to overcome him], not taking heed to the word of the prophet (Jeremiah), from the mouth of the Lord;

²⁹ but he set to him battle in the field of Megiddo; and (the) princes came down to (fight) king Josiah.

³⁰ And then the king said to his children, or (to his) servants, Moveth me away from the battle; forsooth I am greatly made sick (or very weak). And anon (or at once) his children (or his servants) moved him away from the battle array.

³¹ And he went up upon his secondary chariot; and coming to Jerusalem, he died, and was buried in his father’s sepulchre.

³² And in all Judah (or in all Jewry) they bewailed Josiah, and they that before-set with wives, wailed him unto this day; and this is granted to be done (for)evermore in all the kindred of Israel.

³³ These things forsooth be written in the book of (the) stories of (the) kings of Judah, and the glory of Josiah, and his understanding in the law of God, by all (the) deeds of the doing of him; for evenly those were done of (or by) him, and the which be not written in the book of (the) kings of Israel and of Judah. [These things forsooth be before-written in the book of stories of kings of Judah, and into all jests (or noteworthy actions), the deeds of Josiah, the glory of him, and his understanding in the law of God; for evenly be done of him, and those things that be not written in the book of kings of Israel and of Judah.]

³⁴ And they that were of the kindred took Joachaz, the son of Josiah, and set him (as) king for Josiah, his father, when he was of three and thirty years (old).

³⁵ And he reigned upon Israel three months; and then the king of Egypt put him away, (so) that he reigned not in Jerusalem.

³⁶ And he polled (or extorted by taxation) the folk of (or for) an hundred talents of silver, and of (or for) a talent of gold.

³⁷ And the king of Egypt set Joakim, his brother, king of Judea and of Jerusalem;

³⁸ and he bound the master judges of Joakim, and taking Zarius, his brother, he brought him again to (or out of) Egypt.

³⁹ Joakim was of five and twenty years, when he reigned in the land of Judah and of Jerusalem; and he did evil things in the sight of the Lord. [Joakim was of five and twenty years, when he reigned in the land of Judah and of Jerusalem; and he did evil in the sight of the Lord.]

⁴⁰ After this forsooth Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, went up, and binding Joakim in a strong bond, brought him into Babylon;

⁴¹ and Nebuchadnezzar took and brought the holy vessels of God, and (made) sacred (or consecrated) those in his temple in Babylon.

⁴² Forsooth of his uncleanness and unreligiosity it is written in the book of the times of (the) kings.

⁴³ And Joakim, his son, reigned for him; when forsooth he was ordained king, he was of eight(een) years (old).

⁴⁴ Forsooth he reigned three months and ten days in Jerusalem; and did evil in (the) sight of the Lord.

⁴⁵ And after a year Nebuchadnezzar sent (for), and brought him over into Babylon, together with the sacred vessels of the Lord.

⁴⁶ And he set Zedekiah king of Judah and of Jerusalem, when he was of one and twenty years (old). Forsooth he reigned eleven years;

⁴⁷ and he did evil in (the) sight of the Lord, and was not adread of the words that be said of Jeremy (or by Jeremiah), the prophet, from the mouth of Lord.[;]

⁴⁸ And he adjured, or charged by oath, of (or by) king Nebuchadnezzar, forsworn went away, and his noll made hard, he over-passed the lawful things of the Lord God of Israel. [and adjured of king Nebuchadnezzar, forsworn went away, and with his hardened knoll, and with his heart trespassed the lawful things of the Lord God of Israel.]

⁴⁹ And the dukes of the Lord’s people bare them(selves) wickedly many things, and they did unpiously over all the wickednesses of (the) Gentiles; and they defouled (or defiled) the temple of the Lord, that was holy in Jerusalem. [And the dukes of the people of the Lord many things wickedly bare, and unpiously did over all the uncleannesses of Gentiles; and they defouled the temple of the Lord, that was holy in Jerusalem.]

⁵⁰ And (the) God of their fathers sent by his angel to again-call them, for the which thing he spared to them, and to their tabernacles, [or and to their tabernacle], (or and also his tabernacle).

⁵¹ They forsooth scorned in their corners, and that day that the Lord spake, they were bobbing his prophets.

⁵² The which Lord is stirred to wrath upon his folk, for their irreligiosity. And the kings of (the) Chaldeans commanded, and went up,

⁵³ (and) they slew the young men of them with (the) sword, about [or in the environ of] the holy temple of them; and they spared not to young man, nor to maiden, nor to old man, and to full waxen man (or to fully grown man); but also all they be taken into the hands of them;

⁵⁴ and they took all the sacred vessels of the Lord, and the king’s coffers, and brought those into Babylon.

⁵⁵ And they burned up the house of the Lord, and destroyed the walls of Jerusalem, and they burned (up) his (or its) towers with fire.

⁵⁶ And they wasted all the worshipful things, and brought them to nought; and they brought the people left of (or by) the sword into Babylon.

⁵⁷ And they were his thralls, unto the time that (the) Persians reigned, in the fulfilling of the word of the Lord, in the mouth of Jeremy;

⁵⁸ till that the land would do benignly their sabbaths, he sabbatized all the time of their forsaking [or all the time of their forsaking he sabbatized], in the applying of seventy years.