1And Josiah makes a Passover to YHWH in Jerusalem, and they slaughter the Passover-offering on the fourteenth of the first month,
2and he stations the priests over their charges, and strengthens them for the service of the house of YHWH,
3and says to the Levites who are teaching all Israel, who are sanctified to YHWH, “Put the holy Ark in the house that Solomon son of David, king of Israel, built; it is not a burden on the shoulder to you. Now serve your God YHWH and His people Israel,
4and prepare, by the house of your fathers, according to your divisions, by the writing of David king of Israel, and by the writing of his son Solomon,
5and stand in the holy place, by the divisions of the house of the fathers of your brothers, sons of the people, and the portion of the house of a father of the Levites,
6and slaughter the Passover-offering and sanctify yourselves, and prepare for your brothers, to do according to the word of YHWH by the hand of Moses.”
7And Josiah lifts up to the sons of the people a flock of lambs and young goats, the whole for Passover-offerings, for everyone who is found, to the number of thirty thousand, and three thousand oxen: these [are] from the substance of the king.
8And his heads, for a willing-offering to the people, to the priests and to the Levites, have lifted up; Hilkiah, and Zechariah, and Jehiel, leaders in the house of God, have given two thousand and six hundred to the priests for Passover-offerings, and three hundred oxen;
9and Conaniah, and Shemaiah, and Nethaneel, his brothers, and Hashabiah, and Jeiel, and Jozabad, heads of the Levites, have lifted up five thousand to the Levites for Passover-offerings, and five hundred oxen.
10And the service is prepared, and the priests stand on their station, and the Levites on their divisions, according to the command of the king,
11and they slaughter the Passover-offering, and the priests sprinkle out of their hand, and the Levites are stripping [them];
12and they turn aside the burnt-offering to put them by the divisions of the house of the fathers of the sons of the people, to bring near to YHWH, as it is written in the scroll of Moses—and so for the oxen.
13And they cook the Passover with fire according to the ordinance, and they have cooked the sanctified things in pots, and in kettles, and in pans—for all the sons of the people.
14And afterward they have prepared for themselves and for the priests; for the priests, sons of Aaron, [are occupied] in the offering up of the burnt-offering and of the fat until night; and the Levites have prepared for themselves and for the priests, sons of Aaron.
15And the singers, sons of Asaph, [are] on their station according to the command of David, and Asaph, and Heman, and Jeduthun seer of the king, and the gatekeepers [are] at every gate; it is not for them to turn aside from off their service, for their brothers the Levites have prepared for them.
16And all the service of YHWH is prepared on that day to keep the Passover and to cause burnt-offering to ascend on the altar of YHWH, according to the command of King Josiah.
17And the sons of Israel who are found make the Passover at that time, and the Celebration of Unleavened Things, [for] seven days.
18And there has not been made a Passover like it in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet, and none of the kings of Israel made such a Passover as Josiah has made, and the priests, and the Levites, and all Judah and Israel who are found, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
19In the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah this Passover has been made.
20After all this, when Josiah has prepared the house, Necho king of Egypt has come up to fight against Carchemish by the Euphrates, and Josiah goes forth to meet him;
21and he sends messengers to him, saying, “And what do I [have to do] with you, O king of Judah? I do not come against you today, but to the house with which I have war, and God commanded to hurry me; cease for yourself from God who [is] with me, and He does not destroy you.”
22And Josiah has not turned around his face from him, but has disguised himself to fight against him, and has not listened to the words of Necho, from the mouth of God, and comes to fight in the Valley of Megiddo;
23and the archers shoot at King Josiah, and the king says to his servants, “Remove me, for I have become very sick.”
24And his servants remove him from the chariot, and cause him to ride on the second chariot that he has, and cause him to go to Jerusalem, and he dies, and is buried in the graves of his fathers, and all Judah and Jerusalem are mourning for Josiah,
25and Jeremiah laments for Josiah, and all the male and female singers speak in their lamentations of Josiah to this day, and set them for a statute on Israel, and behold, they are written beside the Lamentations.
26And the rest of the matters of Josiah and his kind acts, according as it is written in the Law of YHWH,
27even his matters, the first and the last, behold, they are written on the scroll of the kings of Israel and Judah.