Josiah Celebrates Passover

2 Kings 23

²¹ The king commanded all the people, saying, “Keep the Passover to Yahweh your God, as it is written in this book of the covenant.”

²² Surely there was not kept such a Passover from the days of the judges who judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, nor of the kings of Judah;

²³ but in the eighteenth year of King Josiah, this Passover was kept to Yahweh in Jerusalem.

²⁴ Moreover, Josiah removed those who had familiar spirits, the wizards, and the teraphim, and the idols, and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, that he might confirm the words of the law which were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in Yahweh’s house.

²⁵ There was no king like him before him, who turned to Yahweh with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; and there was none like him who arose after him.

²⁶ Notwithstanding, Yahweh didn’t turn from the fierceness of his great wrath, with which his anger burned against Judah, because of all the provocation with which Manasseh had provoked him.

²⁷ Yahweh said, “I will also remove Judah out of my sight, as I have removed Israel; and I will cast off this city which I have chosen, even Jerusalem, and the house of which I said, ‘My name shall be there.’ ”

2 Chronicles 35

¹ Josiah kept a Passover to Yahweh in Jerusalem. They killed the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month.

² He set the priests in their offices and encouraged them in the service of Yahweh’s house.

³ He said to the Levites who taught all Israel, who were holy to Yahweh, “Put the holy ark in the house which Solomon the son of David king of Israel built. It will no longer be a burden on your shoulders. Now serve Yahweh your God and his people Israel.

⁴ Prepare yourselves after your fathers’ houses by your divisions, according to the writing of David king of Israel, and according to the writing of Solomon his son.

⁵ Stand in the holy place according to the divisions of the fathers’ houses of your brothers the children of the people, and let there be for each a portion of a fathers’ house of the Levites.

⁶ Kill the Passover lamb, sanctify yourselves, and prepare for your brothers, to do according to Yahweh’s word by Moses.”

⁷ Josiah gave to the children of the people, of the flock, lambs and young goats, all of them for the Passover offerings, to all who were present, to the number of thirty thousand, and three thousand bulls. These were of the king’s substance.

⁸ His princes gave a free will offering to the people, to the priests, and to the Levites. Hilkiah, Zechariah, and Jehiel, the rulers of God’s house, gave to the priests for the Passover offerings two thousand six hundred small livestock, and three hundred head of cattle.

⁹ Conaniah also, and Shemaiah and Nethanel, his brothers, and Hashabiah, Jeiel, and Jozabad, the chiefs of the Levites, gave to the Levites for the Passover offerings five thousand small livestock and five hundred head of cattle.

¹⁰ So the service was prepared, and the priests stood in their place, and the Levites by their divisions, according to the king’s commandment.

¹¹ They killed the Passover lambs, and the priests sprinkled the blood which they received from their hands, and the Levites skinned them.

¹² They removed the burnt offerings, that they might give them according to the divisions of the fathers’ houses of the children of the people, to offer to Yahweh, as it is written in the book of Moses. They did the same with the cattle.

¹³ They roasted the Passover with fire according to the ordinance. They boiled the holy offerings in pots, in cauldrons, and in pans, and carried them quickly to all the children of the people.

¹⁴ Afterward they prepared for themselves and for the priests, because the priests the sons of Aaron were busy with offering the burnt offerings and the fat until night. Therefore the Levites prepared for themselves and for the priests the sons of Aaron.

¹⁵ The singers, the sons of Asaph, were in their place, according to the commandment of David, Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun the king’s seer; and the gatekeepers were at every gate. They didn’t need to depart from their service, because their brothers the Levites prepared for them.

¹⁶ So all the service of Yahweh was prepared the same day, to keep the Passover, and to offer burnt offerings on Yahweh’s altar, according to the commandment of King Josiah.

¹⁷ The children of Israel who were present kept the Passover at that time, and the feast of unleavened bread seven days.

¹⁸ There was no Passover like that kept in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet, nor did any of the kings of Israel keep such a Passover as Josiah kept—with the priests, the Levites, and all Judah and Israel who were present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

¹⁹ This Passover was kept in the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah.