2 Chronicles 35
The full text of 2 Chronicles 35 in the Trinity Bible Version — clear modern English, translated from the original Hebrew. Free to read.
1 Josiah celebrated the Passover to the LORD in Jerusalem, and the Passover lamb was slaughtered on the fourteenth day of the first month.
2 He appointed the priests to their duties and encouraged them in the service of the temple of the LORD.
3 He said to the Levites, who instructed all Israel and who had been consecrated to the LORD: 'Put the sacred ark in the temple that Solomon son of David king of Israel built. It is not to be carried on your shoulders. Now serve the LORD your God and his people Israel.
4 Prepare yourselves by your ancestral houses in your divisions, according to the directions written by David king of Israel and by his son Solomon.
5 Stand in the holy place with a group of Levites for each division of the ancestral houses of your fellow Israelites, the lay people.
6 Slaughter the Passover lambs, consecrate yourselves, and make preparations for your fellow Israelites, so that everything is done according to the word of the LORD given through Moses.'
7 Josiah provided for all the lay people who were there thirty thousand lambs and young goats for the Passover offerings, as well as three thousand cattle — all from the king's own possessions.
8 His officials also gave a freewill offering to the people and to the priests and Levites. Hilkiah, Zechariah, and Jehiel, the officers in charge of the temple of God, gave the priests two thousand six hundred Passover offerings and three hundred cattle.
9 Conaniah, together with his brothers Shemaiah and Nethanel, and Hashabiah, Jeiel, and Jozabad, the leaders of the Levites, provided the Levites with five thousand Passover offerings and five hundred cattle.
10 So the service was set in order, and the priests stood in their places with the Levites in their divisions, as the king had commanded.
11 The Passover lambs were slaughtered, and the priests splashed the blood handed to them while the Levites skinned the animals.
12 They set aside the burnt offerings to give them to the subdivisions of the ancestral houses of the people, so that they could present them to the LORD as it is written in the Book of Moses. They did the same with the cattle.
13 They cooked the Passover lamb over the fire, as prescribed, and boiled the holy offerings in pots, cauldrons, and pans, and carried them quickly to all the people.
14 After this they made preparations for themselves and for the priests, because the priests, the descendants of Aaron, were offering up the burnt offerings and the fat portions until nightfall. So the Levites made the preparations for themselves and for the Aaronic priests.
15 The musicians, the descendants of Asaph, were in their places according to the command of David, Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun the king's seer. The gatekeepers at each gate did not need to leave their posts, because their fellow Levites made the preparations for them.
16 So the entire service of the LORD was carried out that day for the celebration of the Passover and the offering of burnt offerings on the altar of the LORD, as King Josiah had commanded.
17 The Israelites who were present celebrated the Passover at that time, and the Festival of Unleavened Bread for seven days.
18 The Passover had not been celebrated like this in Israel since the days of the prophet Samuel; none of the kings of Israel had ever kept such a Passover as Josiah kept with the priests, the Levites, all Judah and Israel who were there, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
19 This Passover was celebrated in the eighteenth year of Josiah's reign.
20 After all this, when Josiah had set the temple in order, Necho king of Egypt marched up to fight at Carchemish on the Euphrates, and Josiah went out to confront him.
21 But Necho sent messengers to him, saying, 'What quarrel is there between you and me, king of Judah? It is not you I am attacking today, but the house with which I am at war. God has told me to hurry, so stop opposing God, who is with me, or he will destroy you.'
22 Josiah, however, would not turn away from him; instead, he disguised himself to fight him. He would not listen to what Necho said at God's command, and he came to fight him on the plain of Megiddo.
23 The archers shot King Josiah, and he said to his servants, 'Take me away; I am badly wounded.'
24 So his servants lifted him out of his chariot, put him in the other chariot he had, and brought him to Jerusalem, where he died. He was buried in the tombs of his ancestors, and all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah.
25 Jeremiah composed laments for Josiah, and to this day all the male and female singers commemorate Josiah in the laments. These became a tradition in Israel and are written in the Laments.
26 The rest of the events of Josiah's reign, and his acts of devotion in accordance with what is written in the Law of the LORD —
27 and all his deeds, from beginning to end, are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah.
Translation notes (5)
- 2 Chronicles 35:3a Josiah's command implies the ark had been removed from the temple, whether during Manasseh's apostasy or for safekeeping the text does not say. The Hebrew reads literally ein-lakhem massa bakkatef, 'you have no burden on the shoulder': with the ark at rest, the Levites, once its appointed bearers, are released for new forms of service, which Josiah proceeds to assign.
- 2 Chronicles 35:13a The Hebrew verb bishel, 'to boil', is here qualified by ba'esh, 'with fire', an unusual pairing that appears to harmonize Exodus 12:8-9, which requires roasting and forbids boiling, with Deuteronomy 16:7, which uses bishel for the Passover. The rendering 'cooked... over the fire' preserves this deliberate fusion rather than smoothing it to 'roasted'.
- 2 Chronicles 35:21a The Hebrew idiom mah-li valakh, literally 'what to me and to you', rendered here as 'What quarrel is there between you and me', disclaims hostility. Necho identifies his target as beit milchamti, 'the house of my war', that is, the power he is fighting at Carchemish. The Chronicler confirms in the following verse that this Egyptian king's words truly came from the mouth of God.
- 2 Chronicles 35:22a The verb hitchappes, 'he disguised himself', is the same word used of Ahab before his fatal battle at Ramoth-gilead (2 Chronicles 18:29), inviting the comparison; the Septuagint instead reads 'he strengthened himself'. Necho's words came literally 'from the mouth of God' (mippi Elohim): the Chronicler presents the foreign king's warning as genuine divine speech, which Josiah refuses.
- 2 Chronicles 35:25a The qinot, 'laments', mentioned here formed a written collection that has not survived; despite an old tradition linking this passage to the biblical book of Lamentations, that book mourns the fall of Jerusalem, not the death of Josiah. Hebrew vayitnum lechoq, literally 'they made them a statute', indicates that these dirges became a fixed custom of public mourning.
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