Beginning

35 Moreover, Josiah kept a Passover to the LORD in Jerusalem. And they killed the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month.

² And he appointed the priests to their charges and encouraged them to the service of the House of the LORD.

³ And he said to the Levites who taught all Israel and were sanctified to the LORD, “Put the Holy Ark in the House which Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel, built. It shall no longer be a burden upon your shoulders. Serve the LORD your God, now, and His people Israel,

⁴ “and prepare yourselves by the Houses of your fathers, according to your divisions, as David the king of Israel has written, and according to the writing of Solomon his son.

⁵ “And stand in the Sanctuary according to the division of the families of your brethren, the children of the people, and the division of the family of the Levites.

⁶ “So kill the Passover and sanctify yourselves and prepare your brethren, so that they may do according to the Word of the LORD by the hand of Moses.”

⁷ Josiah also gave sheep, lambs and kids to the people, all for the Passover, to all who were present, to the number of thirty thousand, and three thousand bulls. These were from the king’s possessions.

⁸ And his princes offered willingly to the people, to the priests and to the Levites. Hilkiah and Zechariah and Jehiel, rulers of the House of God, gave two thousand six hundred sheep and three hundred bulls to the priests for the Passover.

⁹ Also, Conaniah and Shemaiah and Nethanel (his brethren), Hashabiah and Jeiel and Jozabad, chief of the Levites, gave five thousand sheep and five hundred bulls to the Levites for the Passover.

¹⁰ Thus the service was prepared. And the Priests stood in their places, and the Levites in their orders, according to the king’s commandment.

¹¹ And they killed the Passover. And the priests sprinkled the blood with their hands. And the Levites skinned them.

¹² And they took away the Burnt Offering, to give it according to the divisions of the families of the children of the people, to offer to the LORD, as it is written in the Book of Moses, and the same for the bulls.

¹³ And they roasted the Passover with fire, according to the custom. But they boiled the sanctified things in pots, pans and cauldrons, and distributed them quickly to all the people.

¹⁴ And afterward, they prepared for themselves and for the priests. For the priests, the sons of Aaron, were occupied in the offering of Burnt Offerings and the fat until night. Therefore, the Levites prepared for themselves and for the priests (the sons of Aaron).

¹⁵ And the singers (the sons of Asaph) stood in their places according to the commandment of David and Asaph and Heman and Jeduthun, the king’s Seer. And the gatekeepers were at every gate, who may not depart from their service. Therefore, their brethren, the Levites, prepared for them.

¹⁶ So, all the service of the LORD was prepared the same day, to keep the Passover and to offer Burnt Offerings upon the Altar of the LORD, according to the commandment of King Josiah.

¹⁷ And the children of Israel who were present kept the Passover at that time, and the Feast of the Unleavened Bread, for seven days.

¹⁸ And there was no Passover kept like that in Israel from the days of Samuel the Prophet. Nor did any of the kings of Israel ever keep such a Passover as Josiah kept with the priests, and the Levites, and all Judah and Israel who were present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

¹⁹ This Passover was kept in the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah.

²⁰ After all this, after Josiah had prepared the Temple, Necho king of Egypt came up to fight against Carchemish by Perath. And Josiah went out against him.

²¹ But he sent messengers to him, saying, “What have I to do with you, king of Judah? I do not come against you this day, but against the House of my enemy. And God Commanded me to hurry. Cease your coming against God, Who is with me, lest He destroy you.”

²² But Josiah would not turn his face from him. But he changed his apparel to fight with him and did not listen to the words of Necho, which were from the Mouth of God. But he came to fight in the Valley of Megiddo.

²³ And the archers shot at King Josiah. Then the king said to his servants, “Carry me away; for I am very sick.”

²⁴ So his servants took him out of that chariot and put him in the second chariot which he had. And when they had brought him to Jerusalem, he died and was buried in the sepulchers of his fathers. And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah.

²⁵ And Jeremiah lamented Josiah. And all singing men and singing women mourn for Josiah in their Lamentations to this day. They made the same an ordinance in Israel. And behold, they are written in the Lamentations.

²⁶ Concerning the rest of the acts of Josiah, and his goodness, as it was written in the Law of the LORD,

²⁷ and his deeds, first and last, behold, they are written in the Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah.

36 Then the people of the land took Jehoahaz, the son of Josiah, and made him king in his father’s place in Jerusalem.

² Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he began to reign. And he reigned for three months in Jerusalem.

³ And the king of Egypt took him away at Jerusalem and imposed a tribute on the land of one hundred talents of silver and one talent of gold.

⁴ And the king of Egypt made Eliakim, his brother, king over Judah and Jerusalem and changed his name to Jehoiakim. And Necho took Jehoahaz, his brother, and carried him to Egypt.

⁵ Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he began to reign. And he reigned for eleven years in Jerusalem and did evil in the sight of the LORD his God.

⁶ Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babel, came up against him and bound him with chains to carry him to Babel.

⁷ Nebuchadnezzar also carried of the vessels of the House of the LORD to Babel and put them in his temple at Babel.

⁸ Concerning the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim and his abominations which he did, and that which was found against him, behold, they are written in the Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah. And Jehoiachin, his son, reigned in his place.

⁹ Jehoiachin was eight years old when he began to reign. And he reigned for three months and ten days in Jerusalem and did evil in the sight of the LORD.

¹⁰ And when the year was out, King Nebuchadnezzar sent and brought him to Babel, with the precious vessels of the House of the LORD. And he made Zedekiah, his brother, king over Judah and Jerusalem.

¹¹ Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he began to reign and reigned for eleven years in Jerusalem.

¹² And he did evil in the sight of the LORD his God and did not humble himself before Jeremiah the Prophet at the Commandment of the LORD.

¹³ But he also rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar, who had caused him to swear by God. And he hardened his neck and made his heart obstinate, so that he might not return to the LORD God of Israel.

¹⁴ Also, all the chief of the priests and of the people trespassed very much, according to all the abominations of the heathen, and polluted the houses of the LORD which He had sanctified in Jerusalem.

¹⁵ Therefore, the LORD God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers, rising early and sending. For He had compassion on His people, and on His habitation.

¹⁶ But they mocked the messengers of God and despised His Words and misused His Prophets, until the wrath of the LORD arose against His people, and until there was no remedy.

¹⁷ For He brought the king of the Chaldeans upon them, who killed their young men with the sword in the House of their Sanctuary, and spared neither young man nor virgin, ancient nor aged. God gave all into his hand.

¹⁸ And all the vessels of the House of God, great and small, and the treasures of the House of the LORD, and the treasures of the king, and of his princes, all these he carried to Babel.

¹⁹ And they burnt the House of God, and broke down the wall of Jerusalem, and burnt all its palaces with fire, and destroyed all its precious vessels.

²⁰ And those who were left by the sword, he carried away to Babel. And they were servants to him, and to his sons, until the kingdom of the Persians ruled,

²¹ to fulfill the Word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had her fill of her Sabbaths. For all the days that she lay desolate, she kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years.

²² But in the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia (when the Word of the LORD, spoken by the mouth of Jeremiah, was finished) the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia. And he made a proclamation through all his kingdom, and also by writing, saying,

²³ “Thus says Cyrus, king of Persia, ‘The LORD God of Heaven has given me all the kingdoms of the Earth and has Commanded me to build Him a House in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all His people with whom the LORD his God is, let him go up!’”