1
King Josiah celebrated the Passover to the Lord in Jerusalem. The Passover lamb was killed on the fourteenth day of the first month.
2
Josiah chose the priests to do their duties, and he encouraged them as they served in the Temple of the Lord.
3
The Levites taught the Israelites and were made holy for service to the Lord. Josiah said to them, "Put the Holy Ark in the Temple that David's son Solomon, the king of Israel, built. Do not carry it from place to place on your shoulders anymore. Now serve the Lord your God and his people Israel.
4
Prepare yourselves by your family groups for service, and do the jobs that King David and his son Solomon gave you to do.
5
"Stand in the holy place with a group of the Levites for each family group of the people.
6
Kill the Passover lambs, and make yourselves holy to the Lord. Prepare the lambs for your relatives, the people of Israel, as the Lord through Moses commanded us to do."
7
Josiah gave the Israelites thirty thousand sheep and goats to kill for the Passover sacrifices, and he gave them three thousand cattle. They were all his own animals.
8
Josiah's officers also gave willingly to the people, the priests, and the Levites. Hilkiah, Zechariah, and Jehiel, the officers in charge of the Temple, gave the priests twenty-six hundred lambs and goats and three hundred cattle for Passover sacrifices.