Beginning
Passover is Observed Again(A)
35 Josiah observed the Passover to the Lord in Jerusalem. They slaughtered the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month. 2 He appointed priests to their offices, encouraging them in their service at the Lord’s Temple. 3 He addressed the descendants of Levi who were teaching all Israel and who had consecrated themselves to the Lord, telling them:
“Put the holy ark in the Temple that Solomon, the son of Israel’s King David, built. It will no longer be a burden on their shoulders. Now go serve the Lord your God and his people Israel. 4 Prepare yourselves by divisions according to your ancestral households, keeping to what King David of Israel and his son Solomon wrote about this.[a] 5 In addition to this, take your place in the Holy Place according to the groupings of the ancestral households of your relatives consistent with the division of the descendants of Levi by their ancestral households. 6 Now slaughter the Passover, consecrate yourselves, and prepare your relatives to obey the command from[b] the Lord given by Moses.”
7 Josiah contributed 30,000 animals from the flocks of lambs and young goats, giving Passover offerings to all of the people who were present, plus an additional 3,000 bulls from the king’s private possessions. 8 His officers contributed a voluntary offering to the people, the priests, and the descendants of Levi. Hilkiah, Zechariah, and Jehiel, the officials who supervised God’s Temple, gave 2,600 animals from their flocks to the priests for Passover offerings, along with 300 bulls. 9 Also, Conaniah, and his relatives Shemaiah, and Nethanel, along with Hashabiah, Jeiel, and Jozabad, the officers in charge of the descendants of Levi, contributed 5,000 animals from the flocks to the descendants of Levi for the Passover offerings, along with 500 bulls. 10 As a result, the Passover service was prepared, the priests took their assigned places, and the descendants of Levi stood in their divisions as the king had commanded.
11 They slaughtered the Passover lamb, and the priests poured out the blood that they had received from the lambs[c] while the descendants of Levi flayed the sacrifices. 12 They set aside in reserve the burnt offerings, so they could distribute them in proportion to the divisions of their ancestral households for presentation by the people to the Lord, as is required by the book of Moses. They did this with respect to the bulls, also. 13 They roasted the Passover in fire, as required by the ordinances, and boiled the holy things in pots, kettles, and pans, and delivered them quickly to all the people. 14 After this, because the priests, who were descendants of Aaron, were busy offering the burnt offerings and fat portions until evening, the descendants of Levi prepared the Passover for themselves and their fellow-descendants of Aaron, the priests. 15 The singers, as descendants of Asaph, remained at their stations as David, Asaph, Heman, and the king’s seer Jeduthun required, and the gatekeepers did not have to leave their posts because their descendant of Levi relatives prepared the Passover for them.
16 That’s how the Lord’s service was prepared that day to celebrate the Passover and to offer burnt offerings on the Lord’s altar according to what King Josiah had commanded. 17 The Israelis who were present celebrated the Passover that day, as well as the Festival of Unleavened Bread for seven days. 18 There had not been a Passover celebration like it in Israel since Samuel the prophet was alive, nor had any of the kings of Israel celebrated a Passover like Josiah did at that time[d] with the priests, the descendants of Levi, everyone from Judah and Israel who were present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 19 This Passover celebration was observed during the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah.
Pharaoh Neco and Josiah’s Death(B)
20 Some time after all of this, after Josiah had finished preparing the Temple, King Neco of Egypt invaded Carchemish on the Euphrates River,[e] and Josiah went out to fight him. 21 But he sent messengers to him, who asked him, “What do we have in common, King of Judah? I am not here today opposing you. I am fighting the dynasty that is fighting me, and God has ordered me to hurry. For your own good, stop interfering with God, who is with me, and he won’t destroy you!”
22 But Josiah wouldn’t turn around. In fact, he put on a disguise so he could fight Neco.[f] He wouldn’t listen to what God told him through what Neco had to say, and as a result, Josiah came to attack Neco[g] on the Megiddo plain. 23 Some archers shot King Josiah, and the king told his servants, “Take me away, because I’m badly wounded.” 24 So his servants removed him from the chariot he was in and carried him away in a backup chariot that he had and took him back to Jerusalem, where he died and was buried in the tombs of his ancestors. All of Judah and Jerusalem went into mourning for Josiah.
25 Jeremiah sang a lament for Josiah, and all the male and female singers recite that lamentation about Josiah to this day. In fact, they made singing it an ordinance in Israel, and they are recorded in the Lamentations.[h] 26 Now the rest of the accomplishments of Josiah, including his faithful acts of devotion as required in the Law of the Lord, 27 and his other[i] activities from first to last, are recorded in the Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah.
Jehoahaz Becomes King(C)
36 After this, the people of the land installed Josiah’s son Jehoahaz in Jerusalem as king to take his father’s place. 2 Jehoahaz was 23 years old when he became king, and he reigned for three months in Jerusalem, 3 after which the king of Egypt dethroned him and imposed a fine on the land of 100 talents[j] of silver and one talent[k] of gold. 4 King Neco of Egypt installed Jehoahaz’s[l] brother Eliakim as king over Judah and Jerusalem, changed Eliakim’s name to Jehoiakim, and took his brother Joahaz back to Egypt.
Jehoiakim’s Reign; Nebuchadnezzar’s First Capture of Jerusalem
5 Jehoiakim was 25 years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem, but he practiced what the Lord his God considered to be evil. 6 As a result, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon attacked him, bound him in bronze shackles, and took him to Babylon. 7 Nebuchadnezzar also took articles from the Lord’s Temple to Babylon and placed them in his temple in Babylon. 8 The rest of Jehoiakim’s accomplishments—along with the detestable things that he did that were recorded in his disfavor—are written in the Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah. His son Jehoiachin became king to replace him.
Jechoiachin’s Reign; Nebuchadnezzar’s Second Capture of Jerusalem
9 Jehoiachin was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned for three months and ten days in Jerusalem, all the while doing what the Lord considered to be evil. 10 At the beginning of the next year, King Nebuchadnezzar sent for him and brought him to Babylon, along with valuable articles from the Lord’s Temple, and he installed Jehoiachin’s relative Zedekiah as king over Judah and Jerusalem.
Zedekiah Rules in Judah(D)
11 Zedekiah was 21 years old when he became king, and he reigned for eleven years in Jerusalem. 12 He practiced what the Lord his God considered to be evil and never humbled himself before Jeremiah the prophet who spoke for the Lord. 13 Zedekiah rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear allegiance in the name of[m] God. Instead, he stiffened his resolve,[n] and hardened his heart, and would not return to the Lord God of Israel.
Nebuchadnezzar’s Third Capture of Jerusalem(E)
14 Meanwhile, all the officials who supervised the priests and the people remained unfaithful, following the detestable example of the surrounding nations. They polluted the Lord’s Temple that he had consecrated in Jerusalem. 15 The Lord God of their ancestors pleaded with them time and again through his messengers, because he had compassion on his people and on the place of his residence, 16 but they mocked God’s messengers, despised his words, and scoffed at his prophets, until there was no remedy for the wrath of the Lord that arose to punish[o] his people. 17 Therefore he brought up the king of the Chaldeans against them, who executed their young men in the holy Temple, showing no compassion on young man or young virgin, adult men or the aged. God gave them all into the king’s control, 18 who took back to Babylon every article in God’s Temple, whether large or small, including the treasuries of the Lord’s Temple, the king’s assets, and those of his officers. 19 After this, they set fire to God’s Temple, demolished the wall around Jerusalem, burned all of its fortified buildings, and destroyed everything of value. 20 Nebuchadnezzar[p] carried off to Babylon those who survived the executions, and they served him and his descendants until the kingdom of Persia came to power. 21 All of this fulfilled what the Lord had predicted through Jeremiah. And so the land enjoyed its Sabbaths, and the length of the land’s desolation lasted until a 70-year long Sabbath had been completed.
An Edict to Rebuild the Temple(F)
22 During the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, in fulfillment of the message from the Lord spoken by Jeremiah, the Lord prompted[q] Cyrus, king of Persia, to make this proclamation throughout his entire kingdom, which was also released in written form:
23 An Official Statement
from[r] Cyrus, King of Persia
All of the kingdoms of the earth have been given to me by the Lord God of Heaven, and he specifically charged me to build a temple[s] for him in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Therefore, who among the Lord’s[t] people trusts in his God? Whoever among this group wishes to do so may travel to Jerusalem.[u]
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