Beginning

35 ¶ Moreover, Josiah kept a passover unto the LORD in Jerusalem and they killed the passover on the fourteenth day of the first month.

² And he set the priests in their charges and confirmed them in the ministry of the house of the LORD

³ and said unto the Levites that taught all Israel, who were holy unto the LORD, Put the holy ark in the house which Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel, built, that ye not carry it any longer upon your shoulders; serve now the LORD your God and his people Israel

⁴ and prepare yourselves by the houses of your fathers, after your courses, according to the writing of David, king of Israel, and according to the writing of Solomon, his son.

⁵ And stand in the sanctuary according to the divisions of the families of the fathers of your brethren, the people, and after the division of the families of the Levites.

⁶ So kill the passover and sanctify yourselves and prepare your brethren, that they may do according to the word of the LORD by the hand of Moses.

⁷ And Josiah gave to the people, of the flock, lambs and kids, all for the passover offerings, for all that were present, to the number of thirty thousand, and three thousand bullocks; these were of the king’s substance.

⁸ And his princes gave willingly unto the people, to the priests, and to the Levites. Hilkiah, Zechariah, and Jehiel, rulers of the house of God, gave unto the priests for the passover offerings two thousand six hundred sheep and three hundred oxen.

⁹ Conaniah, likewise, and Shemaiah and Nethaneel, his brethren, and Hashabiah and Jeiel and Jozabad, princes of the Levites, gave unto the Levites for the sacrifices of the passover five thousand sheep, and five hundred oxen.

¹⁰ So the service was prepared, and the priests stood in their place, and the Levites, likewise, in their courses, according to the king’s commandment.

¹¹ And they killed the passover, and the priests sprinkled the blood taken from the hands of the Levites who flayed them.

¹² And they took away part of the animals that they had for the burnt offerings, that they might give according to the divisions of the families of the people, for them to offer unto the LORD, as it is written in the book of Moses. And they did, likewise, with the oxen.

¹³ And they roasted the passover with fire according to the ordinance, but that which had been sanctified, they cooked in pots and in caldrons and in pans and divided them speedily among all the people.

¹⁴ And afterward they prepared for themselves and for the priests because the priests, the sons of Aaron, were occupied in the sacrifice of the burnt offerings and the fat until night; therefore, the Levites prepared for themselves and for the priests, the sons of Aaron.

¹⁵ Likewise, the singers, the sons of Asaph, were in their place, according to the commandment of David and Asaph and Heman and Jeduthun, the king’s seer; and the porters waited at every gate; it was not necessary for them to depart from their ministry, for 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 sacrifice the burnt offerings upon the altar of the LORD, according to the commandment of King Josiah.

¹⁷ And the sons of Israel that were present kept the passover at that time and the solemn feast of unleavened bread for seven days.

¹⁸ And there was no passover like unto that kept in Israel from the days of Samuel, the prophet; neither did any of the kings of Israel keep such a passover as Josiah kept, and the priests and the Levites and all Judah and Israel that were present, together with all the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

¹⁹ In the year eighteen of the reign of Josiah, this passover was kept.

²⁰ ¶ After all this, when Josiah had prepared the house, Necho, king of Egypt, came up to fight against Carchemish by Euphrates; and Josiah went out against him.

²¹ But he sent ambassadors to him, saying, What have I to do with thee, thou king of Judah? I do not come against thee this day, but against the house that makes war with me, for God commanded me to make haste. Forbear from meddling with God, who is with me, that he not destroy thee.

²² Nevertheless, Josiah would not turn his face from him, but disguised himself, that he might fight with him, and did not hearken unto the words of Necho from the mouth of God, and came to fight him in the valley of Megiddo.

²³ And the archers shot King Josiah, and the king said to his slaves, Take me away, for I am sore wounded.

²⁴ His slaves, therefore, took him out of that chariot and put him in the second chariot that he had; and they brought him to Jerusalem, and he died and was buried in the sepulchres of his fathers. And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah.

²⁵ And Jeremiah lamented for Josiah; and all the singing men and the singing women spoke of Josiah in their lamentations to this day and made them an ordinance in Israel, which are written in the lamentations.

²⁶ Now the rest of the acts of Josiah and his mercy, according to that which 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 stead in Jerusalem.

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

³ And the king of Egypt put him down at Jerusalem and condemned the land in one hundred talents of silver and a 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 eleven years in Jerusalem, and he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD his God.

⁶ And Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came up against him and bound him with fetters of brass; he carried him to Babylon.

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

⁸ Now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim and his abominations which he did and that which was found in him, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah; and Jehoiachin, his son, reigned in his stead.

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

¹⁰ And when the year was expired, King Nebuchadnezzar sent and caused him to be brought to Babylon with the precious vessels of the house of the LORD and made Zedekiah, his brother, king over Judah and Jerusalem.

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

¹² And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD his God and did not humble himself before Jeremiah, the prophet, who spoke unto him from the mouth of the LORD.

¹³ He rebelled, likewise, against King Nebuchadnezzar, unto whom he had sworn by God; but he stiffened his neck and hardened his heart from turning unto the LORD God of Israel.

¹⁴ Moreover, all the princes of the priests and the people increased the rebellion, rebelling according to all the abominations of the Gentiles and polluting the house of the LORD which he had sanctified in Jerusalem.

¹⁵ And the LORD God of their fathers sent to them by the hand of his messengers, rising up early, and sending because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place.

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 there was no remedy.

¹⁷ Therefore, he brought upon them the king of the Chaldees, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary and had no compassion upon young man or maiden, old man, or him that stooped for age; he gave them all into his hands.

¹⁸ Likewise, 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 brought to Babylon.

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 desirable vessels.

²⁰ And those that escaped from the sword he carried away to Babylon; where they were slaves to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia,

²¹ to fulfil the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah until the land had fulfilled her sabbaths; for all the time of her desolation she rested until the seventy years were fulfilled.

²² ¶ But in the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, that the word of the LORD spoken by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and put it also in writing, saying,

²³ Thus saith Cyrus, king of Persia, The LORD God of the heavens has given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and he has charged me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is there among you of all his people? Let the LORD his God be with him, and let him go up.