AFFIRMATION OF THE COVENANT BY JOSIAH AND THE PEOPLE

29 So the king sent messengers and gathered all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. 30 The king went up to the Lord’s temple with all the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, as well as the priests and the Levites—all the people from the oldest to the youngest. He read in their hearing all the words of the book of the covenant that had been found in the Lord’s temple.p 31 Then the king stood at his postq and made a covenant in the Lord’s presencea to follow the Lord and to keep his commands, his decrees, and his statutes with all his heart and with all his soulb in order to carry out the words of the covenant written in this book.c

32 He had all those present in Jerusalem and Benjamin agreeA to it. So all the inhabitants of Jerusalem carried out the covenant of God, the God of their ancestors.

33 So Josiah removed everything that was detestable from all the lands belonging to the Israelites,d and he required all who were present in Israel to serve the Lord their God. Throughout his reign they did not turn aside from following the Lord, the God of their ancestors.

JOSIAH’S PASSOVER OBSERVANCE

35 Josiah observed the Lord’s Passovere and slaughtered the Passover lambs on the fourteenth day of the first month.f 2 He appointed the priests to their responsibilities and encouraged them to serve in the Lord’s temple.g 3 He said to the Levites who taught all Israelh the holy things of the Lord, “Put the holy ark in the temple built by Solomon son of David king of Israel. Since you do not have to carry it on your shoulders,i now serve the Lord your God and his people Israel.

4 “Organize your ancestral familiesB by your divisionsj according to the written instruction of King David of Israel and that of his son Solomon.k 5 Serve in the holy place by the groupings of the ancestral familiesC for your brothers, the lay people,* and according to the division of the Levites by family.l 6 Slaughter the Passover lambs,m consecrate yourselves,n and make preparations for your brothers to carry out the word of the Lord through Moses.”

7 Then Josiah donated thirty thousand sheep, lambs, and young goats, plus three thousand cattle from his own possessions, for the Passover sacrifices for all the lay people who were present.

8 His officials also donated willingly for the people, the priests, and the Levites. Hilkiah, Zechariah, and Jehiel, chief officials of God’s temple, gave twenty-six hundred Passover sacrifices and three hundred cattle for the priests. 9 Conaniaho and his brothers Shemaiah and Nethanel, and Hashabiah, Jeiel, and Jozabad, officers of the Levites, donated five thousand Passover sacrifices for the Levites, plus five hundred cattle.

10 So the service was established; the priests stood at their posts and the Levites in their divisions according to the king’s command.p 11 Then they slaughtered the Passover lambs, and while the Levites were skinning the animals,q the priests splattered the bloodE they had been given.F 12 They removed the burnt offerings so that they might be given to the groupings of the ancestral familiesG of the lay people to offer to the Lord, according to what is written in the book of Moses; they did the same with the cattle. 13 They roasted the Passover lambs with fire according to regulation.r They boiled the holy sacrifices in pots, kettles, and bowls; and they quickly brought them to the lay people. 14 Afterward, they made preparations for themselves and for the priests, since the priests, the descendants of Aaron, were busy offering up burnt offerings and fat until night. So the Levites made preparations for themselves and for the priests, the descendants of Aaron.

15 The singers, the descendants of Asaph, were at their stations according to the command of David, Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun the king’s seer.s Also, the gatekeepers were at each temple gate.t None of them left their tasks because their Levite brothers had made preparations for them.

16 So all the service of the Lord was established that day for observing the Passover and for offering burnt offerings on the altar of the Lord, according to the command of King Josiah. 17 The Israelites who were present in Judah also observed the Passover at that time and the Festival of Unleavened Bread for seven days.u 18 No Passover had been observedv like it in Israel since the days of the prophet Samuel. None of the kings of Israel ever observed a Passover like the one that Josiah observed with the priests, the Levites, all Judah, the Israelites who were present in Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 19 In the eighteenth year of Josiah’s reign, this Passover was observed.