Book Order Plan

¹Josiah observed the LORD’s Passover and slaughtered the Passover lambs on the fourteenth day of the first month.

²He appointed the priests to their responsibilities and encouraged them to serve in the LORD’s temple.

³He said to the Levites who taught all Israel the holy things of the LORD, “Put the holy ark in the temple built by Solomon son of David king of Israel. Since you do not have to carry it on your shoulders, now serve the LORD your God and his people Israel.

⁴“Organize your ancestral families by your divisions according to the written instruction of King David of Israel and that of his son Solomon.

⁵Serve in the holy place by the groupings of the ancestral families for your brothers, the lay people, and according to the division of the Levites by family.

⁶Slaughter the Passover lambs, consecrate yourselves, and make preparations for your brothers to carry out the word of the LORD through Moses.”

⁷Then Josiah donated thirty thousand sheep, lambs, and young goats, plus three thousand cattle from his own possessions, for the Passover sacrifices for all the lay people who were present.

⁸His officials also donated willingly for the people, the priests, and the Levites. Hilkiah, Zechariah, and Jehiel, chief officials of God’s temple, gave twenty-six hundred Passover sacrifices and three hundred cattle for the priests.

⁹Conaniah and his brothers Shemaiah and Nethanel, and Hashabiah, Jeiel, and Jozabad, officers of the Levites, donated five thousand Passover sacrifices for the Levites, plus five hundred cattle.

¹⁰So the service was established; the priests stood at their posts and the Levites in their divisions according to the king’s command.

¹¹Then they slaughtered the Passover lambs, and while the Levites were skinning the animals, the priests splattered the blood they had been given.

¹²They removed the burnt offerings so that they might be given to the groupings of the ancestral families of the lay people to offer to the LORD, according to what is written in the book of Moses; they did the same with the cattle.

¹³They roasted the Passover lambs with fire according to regulation. They boiled the holy sacrifices in pots, kettles, and bowls; and they quickly brought them to the lay people.

¹⁴Afterward, they made preparations for themselves and for the priests, since the priests, the descendants of Aaron, were busy offering up burnt offerings and fat until night. So the Levites made preparations for themselves and for the priests, the descendants of Aaron.

¹⁵The singers, the descendants of Asaph, were at their stations according to the command of David, Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun the king’s seer. Also, the gatekeepers were at each temple gate. None of them left their tasks because their Levite brothers had made preparations for them.

¹⁶So all the service of the LORD was established that day for observing the Passover and for offering burnt offerings on the altar of the LORD, according to the command of King Josiah.

¹⁷The Israelites who were present in Judah also observed the Passover at that time and the Festival of Unleavened Bread for seven days.

¹⁸No Passover had been observed like it in Israel since the days of the prophet Samuel. None of the kings of Israel ever observed a Passover like the one that Josiah observed with the priests, the Levites, all Judah, the Israelites who were present in Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

¹⁹In the eighteenth year of Josiah’s reign, this Passover was observed.

²⁰After all this that Josiah had prepared for the temple, King Neco of Egypt marched up to fight at Carchemish by the Euphrates, and Josiah went out to confront him.

²¹But Neco sent messengers to him, saying, “What is the issue between you and me, king of Judah? I have not come against you today but I am fighting another dynasty. God told me to hurry. Stop opposing God who is with me; don’t make him destroy you!”

²²But Josiah did not turn away from him; instead, in order to fight with him he disguised himself. He did not listen to Neco’s words from the mouth of God, but went to the Valley of Megiddo to fight.

²³The archers shot King Josiah, and he said to his servants, “Take me away, for I am severely wounded!”

²⁴So his servants took him out of the war chariot, carried him in his second chariot, and brought him to Jerusalem. Then he died, and they buried him in the tomb of his fathers. All Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah.

²⁵Jeremiah chanted a dirge over Josiah, and all the male and female singers still speak of Josiah in their dirges today. They established them as a statute for Israel, and indeed they are written in the Dirges.

²⁶The rest of the events of Josiah’s reign, along with his deeds of faithful love according to what is written in the law of the LORD,

²⁷and his words, from beginning to end, are written in the Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah.

¹Then the common people took Jehoahaz son of Josiah and made him king in Jerusalem in place of his father.

²Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he became king, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem.

³The king of Egypt deposed him in Jerusalem and fined the land seventy-five hundred pounds of silver and seventy-five pounds of gold.

⁴Then King Neco of Egypt made Jehoahaz’s brother Eliakim king over Judah and Jerusalem and changed Eliakim’s name to Jehoiakim. But Neco took his brother Jehoahaz and brought him to Egypt.

⁵Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD his God.

⁶Now King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon attacked him and bound him in bronze shackles to take him to Babylon.

⁷Also Nebuchadnezzar took some of the articles of the LORD’s temple to Babylon and put them in his temple in Babylon.

⁸The rest of the deeds of Jehoiakim, the detestable actions he committed, and what was found against him, are written in the Book of Israel’s Kings. His son Jehoiachin became king in his place.

⁹Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king, and he reigned three months and ten days in Jerusalem. He did what was evil in the LORD’s sight.

¹⁰In the spring Nebuchadnezzar sent for him and brought him to Babylon along with the valuable articles of the LORD’s temple. Then he made Jehoiachin’s brother Zedekiah king over Judah and Jerusalem.

¹¹Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem.

¹²He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD his God and did not humble himself before the prophet Jeremiah at the LORD’s command.

¹³He also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar who had made him swear allegiance by God. He became obstinate and hardened his heart against returning to the LORD, the God of Israel.

¹⁴All the leaders of the priests and the people multiplied their unfaithful deeds, imitating all the detestable practices of the nations, and they defiled the LORD’s temple that he had consecrated in Jerusalem.

¹⁵But the LORD, the God of their ancestors sent word against them by the hand of his messengers, sending them time and time again, for he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place.

¹⁶But they kept ridiculing God’s messengers, despising his words, and scoffing at his prophets, until the LORD’s wrath was so stirred up against his people that there was no remedy.

¹⁷So he brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans, who killed their fit young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary. He had no pity on young men or young women, elderly or aged; he handed them all over to him.

¹⁸He took everything to Babylon — all the articles of God’s temple, large and small, the treasures of the LORD’s temple, and the treasures of the king and his officials.

¹⁹Then the Chaldeans burned God’s temple. They tore down Jerusalem’s wall, burned all its palaces, and destroyed all its valuable articles.

²⁰He deported those who escaped from the sword to Babylon, and they became servants to him and his sons until the rise of the Persian kingdom.

²¹This fulfilled the word of the LORD through Jeremiah, and the land enjoyed its Sabbath rest all the days of the desolation until seventy years were fulfilled.

²²In the first year of King Cyrus of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken through Jeremiah, the LORD roused the spirit of King Cyrus of Persia to issue a proclamation throughout his entire kingdom and also to put it in writing:

²³This is what King Cyrus of Persia says: The LORD, the God of the heavens, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and has appointed me to build him a temple at Jerusalem in Judah. Any of his people among you may go up, and may the LORD his God be with him.