2 Chronicles 35; 2 Chronicles 36

1 And Josias kept a phase to the Lord in Jerusalem, and it was sacrificed on the fourteenth day of the first month.

2 And he set the priests in their offices, and exhorted them to minister in the house of the Lord.

3 And he spoke to the Levites, by whose instruction all Israel was sanctified to the Lord, saying: Put the ark in the sanctuary of the temple, which Solomon the son of David king of Israel built: for you shall carry it no more: but minister now to the Lord your God, and to his people Israel.

4 And prepare yourselves by your houses, and families according to your courses, as David king of Israel commanded, and Solomon his son hath written.

5 And serve ye in the sanctuary by the families and companies of Levi.

6 And being sanctified kill the phase, and prepare your brethren, that they may do according to the words which the Lord spoke by the hand of Moses.

7 And Josias gave to all the people that were found there in the solemnity of the phase, of lambs and of kids of the flocks, and of other small cattle thirty thousand, and of oxen three thousand, all these were of the king’s substance.

8 And his princes willingly offered what they had vowed, both to the people and to the priests and the Levites. Moreover Helcias, and Zacharias, and Jahiel rulers of the house of the Lord, gave to the priests to keep the phase two thousand six hundred small cattle, and three hundred oxen.

9 And Chonenias, and Semeias and Nathanael, his brethren, and Hasabias, and Jehiel, and Jozabad princes of the Levites, gave to the rest of the Levites to celebrate the phase five thousand small cattle, and five hundred oxen.

10 And the ministry was prepared, and the priests stood in their office: the Levites also in their companies, according to the king’s commandment.

11 And the phase was immolated: and the priests sprinkled the blood with their hand, and the Levites flayed the holocausts:

12 And they separated them, to give them by the houses and families of every one, and to be offered to the Lord, as it is written in the book of Moses, and with the oxen they did in like manner.

13 And they roasted the phase with fire, according to that which is written in the law: but the victims of peace offerings they boiled in caldrons, and kettles, and pots, and they distributed them speedily among all the people.

14 And afterwards they made ready for themselves, and for the priests: for the priests were busied in offering of holocausts and the fat until night, wherefore the Levites prepared for themselves, and for the priests the sons of Aaron last.

15 And the singers the sons of Asaph stood in their order, according to the commandment of David, and Asaph, and Heman, and Idithun, the prophets of the king: and the porters kept guard at every gate, so as not to depart one moment from their service, and therefore their brethren the Levites prepared meats for them.

16 So all the service of the Lord was duly accomplished that day, both in keeping the phase and offering holocausts upon the altar of the Lord, according to the commandment of king Josias.

17 And the children of Israel that were found there, kept the phase at that time, and the feast of unleavened seven days.

18 There was no phase like to this in Israel, from the days of Samuel the prophet: neither did any of all the kings of Israel keep such a phase as Josias kept, with the priests, and the Levites, and all Juda, and Israel that were found, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

19 In the eighteenth year of the reign of Josias was this phase celebrated.

20 After that Josias had repaired the temple, Nechao king of Egypt came up to fight in Charcamis by the Euphrates: and Josias went out to meet him.

21 But he sent messengers to him, saying: What have I to do with thee, O king of Juda? I come not against thee this day, but I fight against another house, to which God hath commanded me to go in haste: forbear to do against God, who is with me, lest he kill thee.

22 Josias would not return, but prepared to fight against him, and hearkened not to the words of Nechao from the mouth of God, but went to fight in the field of Mageddo.

23 And there he was wounded by the archers, and he said to his servants: Carry me out of the battle, for I am grievously wounded.

24 And they removed him from the chariot into another, that followed him after the manner of kings, and they carried him away to Jerusalem, and he died, and was buried in the monument of his fathers, and all Juda and Jerusalem mourned for him,

25 Particularly Jeremias: whose lamentations for Josias all the singing men and singing women repeat unto this day, and it became like a law in Israel: Behold it is found written in the Lamentations.

26 Now the rest of the acts of Josias and of his mercies, according to what was commanded by the law of the Lord:

27 And his works first and last, are written in the book of the kings of Juda and Israel.

1 Then the people of the land took Joachaz the son of Josias, and made him king instead of his father in Jerusalem.

2 Joachaz was three and twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem.

3 And the king of Egypt came to Jerusalem, and deposed him, and condemned the land in a hundred talents of silver, and a talent of gold.

4 And he made Eliakim his brother king in his stead, over Juda and Jerusalem: and he turned his name to Joakim: but he took Joachaz with him and carried him away into Egypt.

5 Joakim was five and twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem: and he did evil before the Lord his God.

6 Against him came up Nabuchodonosor king of the Chaldeans, and led him bound in chains into Babylon.

7 And he carried also thither the vessels of the Lord, and put them in his temple.

8 But the rest of the acts of Joakim, and his abominations, which he wrought, and the things that were found in him, are contained in the book of the kings of Juda and Israel. And Joachin his son reigned in his stead.

9 Joachin was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months and ten days in Jerusalem, and he did evil in the sight of the Lord.

10 And at the return of the year, king Nabuchodonosor sent, and brought him to Babylon, carrying away at the same time the most precious vessels of the house of the Lord: and he made Sedecias his uncle king over Juda and Jerusalem.

11 Sedecias was one and twenty years old when he began to reign: and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem.

12 And he did evil in the eyes of the Lord his God, and did not reverence the face of Jeremias the prophet speaking to him from the mouth of the Lord.

13 He also revolted from king Nabuchodonosor, who had made him swear by God: and he hardened his neck and his heart, from returning to the Lord the God of Israel.

14 Moreover all the chief of the priests, and the people wickedly transgressed according to all the abominations of the Gentiles: and they defiled the house of the Lord, which he had sanctified to himself in Jerusalem.

15 And the Lord the God of their fathers sent to them, by the hand of his messengers, rising early, and daily admonishing them: because he spared his people and his dwelling place.

16 But they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused the prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people, and there was no remedy.

17 For he brought upon them the king of the Chaldeans, and he slew their young men with the sword in the house of his sanctuary, he had no compassion on young man, or maiden, old man or even him that stooped for age, but he delivered them all into his hands.

18 And all the vessels of the house of Lord, great and small, and the treasures of the temple and of the king, and of the princes he carried away to Babylon.

19 And the enemies set fire to the house of God, and broke down the wall of Jerusalem, burnt all the towers, and what soever was precious they destroyed.

20 Whosoever escaped the sword, was led into Babylon, and there served the king and his sons, till the reign of the king of Persia,

21 That the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremias might be fulfilled, and the land might keep her sabbaths: for all the days of the desolation she kept a sabbath, till the seventy years were expired.

22 But in the first year of Cyrus king of the Persians, to fulfil the word of the Lord, which he had spoken by the mouth of Jeremias, the Lord stirred up the heart of Cyrus, king of the Persians: who commanded it to be proclaimed through all his kingdom, and by writing also, saying:

23 Thus saith Cyrus king of the Persians: All the kingdoms of the earth hath the Lord the God of heaven given to me, and he hath charged me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judea: who is there among you of all his people? The Lord his God be with him, and let him go up.