2 Chronicles 35:1–17

Josiah Celebrates the Passover

35:1,18–19pp—2Ki 23:21–23

35Josiah celebrated the Passover^v to the Lord in Jerusalem, and the Passover lamb was slaughtered on the fourteenth day of the first month. ²He appointed the priests to their duties and encouraged them in the service of the Lord’s temple. ³He said to the Levites, who instructed^w all Israel and who had been consecrated to the Lord: “Put the sacred ark in the temple that Solomon son of David king of Israel built. It is not to be carried about on your shoulders. Now serve the Lord your God and his people Israel. ⁴Prepare yourselves by families in your divisions,^x according to the instructions written by David king of Israel and by his son Solomon.

⁵“Stand in the holy place with a group of Levites for each subdivision of the families of your fellow Israelites, the lay people. ⁶Slaughter the Passover lambs, consecrate yourselves^y and prepare the lambs for your fellow Israelites, doing what the Lord commanded through Moses.”

⁷Josiah provided for all the lay people who were there a total of thirty thousand lambs and goats for the Passover offerings,^z and also three thousand cattle—all from the king’s own possessions.^a

⁸His officials also contributed^b voluntarily to the people and the priests and Levites. Hilkiah,^c Zechariah and Jehiel, the officials in charge of God’s temple, gave the priests twenty-six hundred Passover offerings and three hundred cattle. ⁹Also Konaniah^d along with Shemaiah and Nethanel, his brothers, and Hashabiah, Jeiel and Jozabad,^e the leaders of the Levites, provided five thousand Passover offerings and five hundred head of cattle for the Levites.

¹⁰The service was arranged and the priests stood in their places with the Levites in their divisions^f as the king had ordered.^{g 11}The Passover lambs were slaughtered,^h and the priests splashed against the altar the blood handed to them, while the Levites skinned the animals. ¹²They set aside the burnt offerings to give them to the subdivisions of the families of the people to offer to the Lord, as it is written in the Book of Moses. They did the same with the cattle. ¹³They roasted the Passover animals over the fire as prescribed,ⁱ and boiled the holy offerings in pots, caldrons and pans and served them quickly to all the people. ¹⁴After this, they made preparations for themselves and for the priests, because the priests, the descendants of Aaron, were sacrificing the burnt offerings and the fat portions^j until nightfall. So the Levites made preparations for themselves and for the Aaronic priests.

¹⁵The musicians,^k the descendants of Asaph, were in the places prescribed by David, Asaph, Heman and Jeduthun the king’s seer. The gatekeepers at each gate did not need to leave their posts, because their fellow Levites made the preparations for them.

¹⁶So at that time the entire service of the Lord was carried out for the celebration of the Passover and the offering of burnt offerings on the altar of the Lord, as King Josiah had ordered. ¹⁷The Israelites who were present celebrated the Passover at that time and observed the Festival of Unleavened Bread for seven days.