The Daily Audio Bible

Josiah Celebrates the Passover^(A)

35 Josiah kept a Passover for the Lord in Jerusalem; they slaughtered the Passover lamb on the fourteenth day of the first month. ² He appointed priests for their duties and encouraged them in their service to the house of the Lord. ³ And he said to the Levites who gave insight to all Israel and were consecrated to the Lord, “Set the holy ark in the house that Solomon, the son of David and king of Israel, built. You should not carry it on your shoulders. Now serve the Lord your God and His people Israel. ⁴ Prepare yourselves according to your fathers’ houses by your divisions, as instructed in the writing of David, king of Israel, and the document of Solomon his son.

⁵ “And stand in the Holy Place according to the divisions of the fathers’ households of your brothers, the laypeople, and according to the Levites, by division of a father’s household. ⁶ Then slaughter the Passover lamb and consecrate yourselves and prepare for your brothers to do according to the word of the Lord by the hand of Moses.”

⁷ Josiah contributed to the laypeople, as Passover offerings for all who were present, lambs and young goats from the flock to the number of thirty thousand, and three thousand bulls; these were from the king’s possession.

⁸ His officials contributed willingly to the people, to the priests, and to the Levites. Hilkiah, Zechariah, and Jehiel, the chief officers of the house of God, gave to the priests for the Passover offerings two thousand six hundred lambs and three hundred bulls. ⁹ Konaniah, his brothers Shemaiah and Nethanel, and Hashabiah, Jeiel, and Jozabad, officers of the Levites, gave to the Levites for the Passover offerings five thousand lambs and five hundred bulls.

¹⁰ When the service was prepared, the priests stood in their places and the Levites in their divisions, according to the king’s command. ¹¹ And they slaughtered the Passover offerings, and the priests sprinkled the blood given to them while the Levites skinned animals. ¹² And they set aside the burnt offering to distribute according to each house of the fathers for the people to bring near to the Lord, as written in the Book of Moses. And they did the same with the bulls. ¹³ And they cooked the Passover lamb with fire according to the rule, and they cooked the holy offerings in pots, jars, bowls, and quickly brought them to all the people. ¹⁴ Afterward they prepared the offerings for them and the priests because the priests, the sons of Aaron, offered the burnt offering and fat portions until night. So the Levites prepared for themselves and for the priests, the sons of Aaron.

¹⁵ The singers, the sons of Asaph, were in their places according to the command of David, Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun the king’s seer. The gatekeepers were at each of the gates; they did not need to leave their service, for their brothers the Levites made preparations for them.

¹⁶ So all the service of the Lord was carried out that day to have the Passover, and to offer the burnt offerings on the altar of the Lord according to the command of King Josiah. ¹⁷ And the sons of Israel who were present had the Passover at that time and the Feast of Unleavened Bread for seven days. ¹⁸ And no Passover had been made like this in Israel since the days of Samuel the prophet. And none of the kings of Israel had performed a Passover like Josiah had done. And the priests and Levites and all Judah and Israel were present along with those living in Jerusalem. ¹⁹ In the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah this Passover was performed.

The Death of Josiah^(B)

²⁰ After all this when Josiah had prepared the temple, Necho king of Egypt went up to war in Carchemish on the Euphrates, and Josiah went out to meet him. ²¹ And Necho sent messengers to him saying, “What is there between you and me, king of Judah? I am not against you this day, but against the house with which I am at war. And God has commanded that I hurry. Refrain from being against God who is with me so that He does not destroy you.”

²² But Josiah did not turn away from him for he went to battle against him disguised. He did not listen to the words of Necho that came from the mouth of God, but he came to battle in the plain of Megiddo.

²³ So the archers shot King Josiah, and the king said to his servants, “Take me away for I am severely wounded.” ²⁴ Then his servants took him from the chariot, and they set him in a second chariot, and they brought him to Jerusalem. He died and was buried in the tombs of his fathers. And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah.

²⁵ And Jeremiah composed a dirge for Josiah, and all the male and female singers speak of Josiah in their laments to this day. They set them as a statute over Israel. They are written in the Laments.

²⁶ And the remainder of the acts of Josiah, his deeds and covenant faithfulness, according to what is written in the Law of the Lord, ²⁷ and his acts from beginning to end are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah.

Jehoahaz, King of Judah^(C)

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

² And Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. ³ Then the king of Egypt deposed him in Jerusalem and imposed on the land a tribute of a hundred talents^[a] of silver and a talent^[b] of gold. ⁴ The king of Egypt made his brother Eliakim king over Judah and Jerusalem, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. But Necho took his brother Jehoahaz and carried him to Egypt.

Jehoiakim, King of Judah^(D)

⁵ Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he was king in Jerusalem for eleven years. He did what was evil in the eyes of the Lord his God. ⁶ And Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up against him and bound him in bronze chains to lead him to Babylon. ⁷ Nebuchadnezzar also brought out some of the vessels of the house of the Lord to Babylon and put them in his temple in Babylon.

⁸ And the remainder of the acts of Jehoiakim, the detestable things that he did and were found against him, are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah. Then Jehoiachin his son reigned in his place.

Jehoiachin, King of Judah^(E)

⁹ Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he began to reign, and he was king in Jerusalem for three months and ten days. He did what was evil in the eyes of the Lord. ¹⁰ In the spring of that year King Nebuchadnezzar sent for him and brought him to Babylon with the precious items from the house of the Lord. Then Zedekiah his brother was king over Judah and Jerusalem.

Zedekiah, King of Judah^(F)

¹¹ Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he began to reign, and he was king in Jerusalem for eleven years. ¹² He did what was evil in the eyes of the Lord his God and did not humble himself before Jeremiah the prophet, who spoke from the Lord. ¹³ He also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by an oath by God. He stiffened his neck and hardened his heart against turning to the Lord God of Israel. ¹⁴ Even the officials over the priests and the people increased in their unfaithfulness in all the detestable practices of the nations, and they defiled the house of the Lord which He had consecrated in Jerusalem.

The Fall of Jerusalem^(G)

¹⁵ The Lord God of their fathers sent warnings to them over and over again by His messengers because He had compassion on His people and His dwelling place. ¹⁶ But they continued to jest regarding the messengers of God, despising His word and making fun of His prophets until the wrath of the Lord came up against His people, until there was no remedy. ¹⁷ So He brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans from Babylon, who killed their young men with the sword at the house of their sanctuary. He did not spare a young man or virgin, old or aged. God gave all of them into his hand. ¹⁸ Even all the vessels of the house of God, both large and small, and the treasures of the house of the Lord, the king, and his officials, all of this was taken to Babylon. ¹⁹ So they burned down the house of God, tore down the wall of Jerusalem, burned down all the palaces with fire, and destroyed all the precious items.

²⁰ Then he carried into exile to Babylon the remnant, who survived the sword, and they were slaves to him and his sons until the kingdom of Persia ruled, ²¹ to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her Sabbaths. As long as she lay desolate, she kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years.

The Proclamation of Cyrus

²² In the first year of King Cyrus of Persia, that the word of the Lord spoken by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of King Cyrus of Persia, so that he sent a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also declared in a written edict:

²³ “Thus says King Cyrus of Persia:

“The Lord God of heaven has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and He has commanded me to build for Him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all His people, may the Lord his God be with him. Let him go up.”

Greeting and Thanksgiving

1 Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes, our brother,

² To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all who in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both their Lord and ours:

³ Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

⁴ I thank my God always on your behalf for the grace of God which has been given to you through Jesus Christ. ⁵ By Him you are enriched in everything, in all speech and in all knowledge, ⁶ even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, ⁷ so that you are not lacking in any gift while waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁸ He will strengthen you to the end, so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁹ God is faithful, and by Him you were called to the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Divisions in the Church

¹⁰ Now I ask you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak in agreement and that there be no divisions among you. But be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. ¹¹ For it has been declared to me concerning you, my brothers, by those who are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you. ¹² Now this is what I mean: Every one of you is saying, “I am of Paul,” or “I am of Apollos,” or “I am of Cephas,” or “I am of Christ.”

¹³ Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? ¹⁴ I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, ¹⁵ lest any should say that I had baptized in my own name. ¹⁶ I also baptized the household of Stephanas. Besides them, I do not know whether I baptized any other. ¹⁷ For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with eloquent words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect.

Psalm 27

A Psalm of David.