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2 Chronicles 35

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Josiah Celebrates the Greatest Passover 1–19

1
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 encouraged them to the service of the house of the LORD,
3
And said unto the Levites that taught all Israel, which were holy unto the LORD, Put the holy ark in the house which Solomon the son of David king of Israel did build; it shall not be a burden 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 holy place 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 and Zechariah and Jehiel, rulers of the house of God, gave unto the priests for the passover offerings two thousand and six hundred small cattle, and three hundred oxen. ​
9
Conaniah also, and Shemaiah and Nethaneel, his brethren, and Hashabiah and Jeiel and Jozabad, chief of the Levites, gave unto the Levites for passover offerings five thousand small cattle, and five hundred oxen.
10
So the service was prepared, and the priests stood in their place, and the Levites in their courses, according to the king's commandment.
11
And they killed the passover, and the priests sprinkled the blood from their hands, and the Levites flayed them.
12
And they removed the burnt offerings, that they might give according to the divisions of the families of the people, to offer unto the LORD, as it is written in the book of Moses. And so did they with the oxen. ​
13
And they roasted the passover with fire according to the ordinance: but the other holy offerings sod they in pots, and in caldrons, and in pans, and divided them speedily among all the people. ​
14
And afterward they made ready for themselves, and for the priests: because the priests the sons of Aaron were busied in offering of burnt offerings and the fat until night; therefore the Levites prepared for themselves, and for the priests the sons of Aaron.
15
And 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; they might not depart from their service; 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 offer burnt offerings upon the altar of the LORD, according to the commandment of king Josiah.
17
And the children of Israel that were present kept the passover at that time, and the feast of unleavened bread seven days.
18
And there was no passover like to that kept in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet; neither did all 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, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. ​
19
In the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah was this passover kept.

Josiah's Fatal Encounter with Necho 20–24

20
After all this, when Josiah had prepared the temple, 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 come not against thee this day, but against the house wherewith I have war: for God commanded me to make haste: forbear thee from meddling with God, who is with me, that he destroy thee not. ​
22
Nevertheless Josiah would not turn his face from him, but disguised himself, that he might fight with him, and hearkened not unto the words of Necho from the mouth of God, and came to fight in the valley of Megiddo. ​
23
And the archers shot at king Josiah; and the king said to his servants, Have me away; for I am sore wounded.
24
His servants 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 one of the sepulchres of his fathers. And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah.

Mourning and Historical Record 25–27

25
And Jeremiah lamented for Josiah: and all the singing men and the singing women spake of Josiah in their lamentations to this day, and made them an ordinance in Israel: and, behold, they are written in the lamentations. ​
26
Now the rest of the acts of Josiah, and his goodness, 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.

Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain

Study Notes for 2 Chronicles 35

Verse 1

kept a passover unto the LORD in Jerusalem — The date, the fourteenth day of the first month, is the one fixed in Ex 12:6, and Jerusalem is the place where the lamb was to be killed: ‘the place which the LORD thy God shall choose to place his name in’ (Deut 16:6). Kings dates this same Passover to ‘the eighteenth year of king Josiah’ (2 Kgs 23:23).

Verse 3

Put the holy ark in the house — The Levites ‘that taught all Israel’ are told the ark ‘shall not be a burden upon your shoulders’. Bearing it on the shoulder had been the charge of the sons of Kohath (Num 7:9); David then ruled that the Levites ‘shall no more carry the tabernacle’ (1 Chr 23:26). Its place is the house Solomon built.

Verse 4

after your courses — Machaloqeth is a division or section: the priests and Levites served in companies set out by David (1 Chr 24:1; 28:13) and confirmed by Solomon, who appointed ‘according to the order of David his father, the courses of the priests’ (2 Chr 8:14). Josiah has each family ready ‘by the houses of your fathers’.

Verse 7

thirty thousand, and three thousand bullocks — The animals came from the king’s own ‘substance’ (rekush, property), lambs and kids from the flock and bullocks from the herd, given to the people ‘for all that were present’. Hezekiah’s Passover had a like royal gift, ‘a thousand bullocks and seven thousand sheep’ to the congregation (2 Chr 30:24).

Verse 8

his princes gave willingly — Nedabah is a freewill gift, the word for the ‘willing offering’ the people brought for the tabernacle (Ex 35:29). The princes, then Hilkiah, Zechariah and Jehiel, ‘rulers of the house of God’, gave the priests 2,600 small cattle and 300 oxen; v.9 adds the Levites’ chiefs, who gave 5,000 and 500 to the Levites.

Verse 12

as it is written in the book of Moses — The burnt offerings were ‘removed’ (sur, set aside) so that each father’s house could bring its portion near (qarab) to the LORD. The feast carried burnt offerings of bullocks, a ram and lambs beside the Passover (Num 28:16–19). The same phrase closes the setting of the courses in Ezra 6:18.

Verse 13

sod they in pots — One verb, bashal, serves for both cookings. The Passover was roasted ‘with fire’, as Deut 16:7 has it, ‘thou shalt roast and eat it’, and Ex 12:9 forbids it ‘sodden at all with water’. The other holy offerings were boiled in pots, caldrons and pans, and ‘divided them speedily’ is ruts, to run.

Verse 18

no passover like to that — Kings says the same: ‘Surely there was not holden such a passover from the days of the judges that judged Israel’ (2 Kgs 23:22). Samuel ‘judged Israel all the days of his life’ (1 Sam 7:15). Hezekiah’s Passover had no equal in Jerusalem ‘since the time of Solomon’ (2 Chr 30:26); Josiah’s reaches back further.

Verse 20

Necho king of Egypt came up — Necho’s army is placed ‘by the river Euphrates in Carchemish’ in Jer 46:2, where Nebuchadrezzar smote it in the fourth year of Jehoiakim. Kings says he went up ‘against the king of Assyria’ (2 Kgs 23:29). ‘Prepared’ is kun, the verb used for readying the service in vv.4, 6, 10 and 14–16.

Verse 21

God commanded me to make haste — The ‘ambassadors’ (malak, messengers) speak of ‘God’ (Elohim), not of the LORD, and say they come against another house, not Judah. v.22 calls their words ‘from the mouth of God’. Joash had warned Amaziah, ‘why shouldest thou meddle to thine hurt’, and Amaziah ‘would not hear’ (2 Chr 25:19–20).

Verse 22

disguised himself — Chaphas, the verb of Ahab’s ‘I will disguise myself’ (1 Kgs 22:30; 2 Chr 18:29), and Ahab still died in that battle, struck ‘at a venture’ (2 Chr 18:33–34). Josiah goes out to the ‘valley of Megiddo’; Zechariah names ‘the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon’ (Zech 12:11), which many read as this mourning.

Verse 25

Jeremiah lamented for Josiah — Qinah is a funeral lament, the word of David’s ‘lamentation over Saul and over Jonathan’ (2 Sam 1:17), and here also the name of the written collection, ‘the lamentations’. Jeremiah’s word came ‘in the days of Josiah’ (Jer 1:2). The singers made the laments ‘an ordinance in Israel’ (choq, a fixed rule), kept ‘to this day’.

Verse 26

his goodness — Chesed, kindness and loving devotion, measured here ‘according to that which was written in the law of the LORD’, the law found in his reign (2 Chr 34:14). Hezekiah’s closing notice has the same words, ‘and his goodness’ (2 Chr 32:32). His deeds ‘first and last’ are in ‘the book of the kings of Israel and Judah’ (v.27).