¹And Josiah celebrated Passover to the Lord in Jerusalem, and they slaughtered the Passover lamb on the fourteenth day of the first month. ²And he appointed the priests in their duties, and he encouraged them in the work of the house of the Lord. ³And he said to the Levites who explained the holy things of the Lord to all Israel, “Put the holy ark in the house which Solomon, the son of David, the king of Israel, built. It is not a burden to you on the shoulder. Now serve the Lord your God and his people Israel. ⁴And prepare yourselves in your paternal house according to your divisions, as specified in the writings of David king of Israel and in the documents of Solomon his son. ⁵And stand in the holy place according to the divisions of the paternal houses of your brothers – the people at large – and the category of the paternal house of the Levites. ⁶And slaughter the Passover lamb, and sanctify yourselves, and prepare your brothers to celebrate according to the word of the Lord, given through the intermediacy of Moses.” ⁷And Josiah contributed to the people at large small cattle – lambs and goat kids – all as Passover offerings for everyone who was present, thirty thousand offerings in number, and three thousand oxen, these being from the king's possessions. ⁸And his officials contributed generously to the people and to the priests and to the Levites. Hilkiah and Zechariah and Jehiel, the leaders of the house of God, gave to the priests as Passover animals two thousand six hundred small cattle animals and three hundred oxen. ⁹And Conaniah and Shemaiah and Nethaneel his brothers, and Hashabiah and Jeiel and Jozabad, Levite officials, contributed to the Levites as Passover animals five thousand small cattle animals and five hundred oxen. ¹⁰And the work was organized, and the priests stood in their post, and the Levites in their divisions, according to the king's commandment. ¹¹And they slaughtered the Passover lamb, and the priests sprinkled the blood with their hands, and the Levites flayed it. ¹²Then they removed the burnt offering so as to allow the people at large, in sections according to their paternal house, to offer to the Lord as it is written in the book of Moses, and likewise with the oxen. ¹³And they cooked the Passover lamb on the fire according to the injunction, and they cooked the holy sacrificed animals in pots and cauldrons and bowls, and they quickly brought that to all the people at large. ¹⁴And afterwards they prepared it for themselves and for the priests, for the priests were the sons of Aaron, occupied with offering the burnt offering and the fat-offerings until night. So the Levites prepared it for themselves and for the priests – the sons of Aaron. ¹⁵And the singers – the sons of Asaph – were at their post according to the commandment of David, as were Asaph and Heman and Jeduthun the king's seer, and the gatekeepers at each gate. They were not to leave their work, so their brothers the Levites made the various preparations for them. ¹⁶So all the Lord's work was prepared on that day – to celebrate the Passover and to make burnt offerings on the Lord's altar, according to the commandment of King Josiah. ¹⁷So the sons of Israel who were present celebrated the Passover at that time, and the Festival of the Unleavened Bread, for seven days. ¹⁸And the Passover had not been celebrated like it in Israel since the days of Samuel the prophet, and none of the kings of Israel had celebrated it like the Passover which Josiah celebrated, with the priests and the Levites and all Judah and Israel which was present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. ¹⁹It was in the eighteenth year of Josiah's reign that this Passover was celebrated. ²⁰After all this when Josiah had prepared the house, Necho king of Egypt came up to fight in Carchemish at the Euphrates, and Josiah went out to confront him. ²¹And Necho sent messengers to him, who said, “What have I got to do with you, you king of Judah? It is not against you that I have come today, but against a house with which I am at war. And God has told me to hasten. Stop interfering with God, who is with me, so that he does not bring you to ruin.” ²²But Josiah did not turn away from him; on the contrary, he had disguised himself so as to fight him. And he did not heed the words of Necho from the mouth of God, and he went to fight in the Valley of Megiddo. ²³And archers shot at King Josiah, and the king said to his servants, “Move me, for I have been severely wounded.” ²⁴So his servants transferred him from the chariot, and they put him on board in the second chariot which he had, and they conducted him to Jerusalem. And he died and was buried in the tombs of his fathers. And all of Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah. ²⁵And Jeremiah lamented for Josiah, and all the men and women singers have been speaking of Josiah in their lamentations up to today, and they made them a statute in Israel, and they are to be seen written in the Lamentations. ²⁶And the rest of the affairs of Josiah and his kind deeds were in accordance with what is written in the law of the Lord. ²⁷And his exploits – the first and the last – are to be seen written in the Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah.