10The service was arranged well: the priests stood at their posts and the Levites in their divisions, by the king’s command. 11They slaughtered the passover sacrifice and the priests [received its blood] from them and dashed it, while the Levites flayed the animals. 12They removed the parts to be burnt, distributing them to divisions of the people by clans, and making the sacrifices to the LORD, as prescribed in the scroll of Moses; they did the same for the cattle. 13They roasted the passover sacrifice in fire, as prescribed, while the sacred offerings they cooked in pots, cauldrons, and pans, and conveyed them with dispatch to all the people. 14Afterward they provided for themselves and the priests, for the Aaronite priests were busy offering the burnt offerings and the fatty parts until nightfall, so the Levites provided both for themselves and for the Aaronite priests. 15The Asaphite singers were at their stations, by command of David and Asaph and Heman and Jeduthun, the seer of the king; and the gatekeepers were at each and every gate. They did not have to leave their tasks, because their Levite brothers provided for them. 16The entire service of the LORD was arranged well that day, to keep the Passover and to make the burnt offerings on the altar of the LORD, according to the command of King Josiah. 17All the Israelites present kept the Passover at that time, and the Feast of Unleavened Bread for seven days. 18Since the time of the prophet Samuel, no Passover like that one had ever been kept in Israel; none of the kings of Israel had kept a Passover like the one kept by Josiah and the priests and the Levites and all Judah and Israel there present and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 19That Passover was kept in the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah.
20After all this furbishing of the Temple by Josiah, King Necho of Egypt came up to fight at Carchemish on the Euphrates, and Josiah went out against him. 21[Necho] sent messengers to him, saying, “What have I to do with you, king of Judah? I do not march against you this day but against the kingdom that wars with me, and it is God’s will that I hurry. Refrain, then, from interfering with God who is with me, that He not destroy you.” 22But Josiah would not let him alone; instead, b-he donned [his armor]-b to fight him, heedless of Necho’s words from the mouth of God; and he came to fight in the plain of Megiddo. 23Archers shot King Josiah, and the king said to his servants, “Get me away from here, for I am badly wounded.” 24His servants carried him out of his chariot and put him in the wagon of his second-in-command, and conveyed him to Jerusalem. There he died, and was buried in the grave of his fathers, and all Judah and Jerusalem went into mourning over Josiah. 25Jeremiah composed laments for Josiah which all the singers, male and female, recited in their laments for Josiah, as is done to this day; they became customary in Israel and were incorporated into the laments. 26The other events of Josiah’s reign and his faithful deeds, in accord with the Teaching of the LORD, 27and his acts, early and late, are recorded in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah.
36aThe people of the land took Jehoahaz son of Josiah and made him king instead of his father in Jerusalem. 2Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he became king and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. 3The king of Egypt deposed him in Jerusalem and laid a fine on the land of 100 silver talents and one gold talent. 4The king of Egypt made his brother Eliakim king over Judah and Jerusalem, and changed his name to Jehoiakim; Necho took his brother Joahaz and brought him to Egypt.
5Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem; he did what was displeasing to the LORD his God. 6King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon marched against him; he bound him in fetters to convey him to Babylon. 7Nebuchadnezzar also brought some vessels of the House of the LORD to Babylon, and set them in his palace in Babylon. 8The other events of Jehoiakim’s reign, and the abominable things he did, and what was found against him, are recorded in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah. His son Jehoiachin succeeded him as king.
9Jehoiachin was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned three months and ten days in Jerusalem; he did what was displeasing to the LORD. 10At the turn of the year, King Nebuchadnezzar sent to have him brought to Babylon with the precious vessels of the House of the LORD, and he made his kinsman Zedekiah king over Judah and Jerusalem.
11Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. 12He did what was displeasing to the LORD his God; he did not humble himself before the prophet Jeremiah, who spoke for the LORD. 13He also rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar, who made him take an oathb by God; he stiffened his neck and hardened his heart so as not to turn to the LORD God of Israel. 14All the officers of the priests and the people committed many trespasses, following all the abominable practices of the nations. They polluted the House of the LORD, which He had consecrated in Jerusalem. 15The LORD God of their fathers had sent word to them through His messengers daily without fail, for He had pity on His people and His dwelling-place. 16But they mocked the messengers of God and disdained His words and taunted His prophets until the wrath of the LORD against His people grew beyond remedy. 17He therefore brought the king of the Chaldeans upon them, who killed their youths by the sword in their sanctuary; He did not spare youth, maiden, elder, or graybeard, but delivered all into his hands. 18All the vessels of the House of God, large and small, and the treasures of the House of the LORD and the treasures of the king and his officers were all brought to Babylon. 19They burned the House of God and tore down the wall of Jerusalem, burned down all its mansions, and consigned all its precious objects to destruction. 20Those who survived the sword he exiled to Babylon, and they became his and his sons’ servants till the rise of the Persian kingdom, 21in fulfillment of the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah, until the land paid back its sabbaths; as long as it lay desolate it kept sabbath, till seventy years were completed.
22And in the first year of King Cyrus of Persia, when the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah was fulfilled, the LORD roused the spirit of King Cyrus of Persia to issue a proclamation throughout his realm by word of mouth and in writing, as follows: 23“Thus said King Cyrus of Persia: The LORD God of Heaven has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and has charged me with building Him a House in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Any one of you of all His people, the LORD his God be with him and let him go up.”
a With vv. 3–13, cf. 1 Kings 3. 4–15; with vv. 14–17, cf. 1 Kings 10.26–29.
b-b Lit. “that I may go out before this people and come in.”
c That is, Solomon’s dealers.
a Cf. 1 Kings 5.
b Lit. “my father.”
a With vv. 2–17, cf. 1 Kings 6; 7.1–22.
b Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
a Cf. 1 Kings 7.23–50.
b I.e., a large basin.
c Or “forks.”
a Cf. 1 Kings 7.51–8.11.
b I.e., of Tabernacles.
a Cf. 1 Kings 8.12–53.
b-b Lit. “who spoke with His own mouth a promise to my father David and has fulfilled with His own hands.”
c Lit. “risen in place of.”
d Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
a Cf. I Kings 8.54–9.9.
b I.e., Israel; cf. 1 Kings 9.7.
a Cf. 1 Kings 9.10–28.
b Lit. “Solomon.”
a Cf. 1 Kings 10; 11.41–43.
a Cf. 1 Kings 12.1–19.
b-b Some mss. and printed editions read “my father made”; cf. 1 Kings 12.14.
c Lit. “tents.”
a With 11.1–4, cf. 1 Kings 12.21–24.
a With vv. 9–16, cf. 1 Kings 14.26–31.
b Lit.
