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¹ And Josiah kept, in Jerusalem, a passover unto Yahweh, - and they slaughtered the passover, on the fourteenth of the first month.² And he set the priests over their charges, - and encouraged them unto the service of the house of Yahweh;³ and said to the Levites who gave instruction to all Israel as to the things which were hallowed unto Yahweh, Put the holy ark in the house which Solomon son of David king of Israel did build, it is not yours as a burden on the shoulder, - Now, serve ye Yahweh your God, and his people Israel;⁴ and prepare yourselves by your ancestral houses, according to your courses, - by the writing of David king of Israel, and by what hath been written by Solomon his son;⁵ and stand ye in the holy place, by the divisions of the ancestral house, for your brethren, the sons of the people, and the partitioning of an ancestral house, for the Levites.⁶ So slaughter ye the passover, - and hallow yourselves, and prepare for your brethren, that they may do according to the word of Yahweh, by the hand of Moses.⁷ And Josiah presented to the sons of the people - of flocks, young sheep and the young of the goats, the whole for the passover offerings, for all present, to the number of thirty thousand, and, of bullocks, three thousand, - these, out of the substance of the king.⁸ And, his rulers, willingly, to the people and to the priests and to the Levites, presented, - Hilkiah and Zechariah and Jehiel, chief rulers of the house of God, unto the priests, did give, for passover offerings, two thousand and six hundred, and, of bullocks, three hundred;⁹ and, Conaniah, and Shemaiah and Nethanel his brethren, and Hashabiah and Jeiel and Jozabad, rulers of the Levites, presented to the Levites, for passover offerings, five thousand, and, of bullocks, five hundred.¹⁰ Thus was the service prepared, - and the priests stood in their place, and the Levites in their courses, according to the commandment of the king.¹¹ So they slaughtered the passover, and the priests dashed the blood received at their hand, and the Levites were flaying the offerings .¹² Then they removed the ascending-sacrifice, that they might give them - by the divisions of each ancestral house - unto the sons of the people, to offer unto Yahweh, as it is written in the Book of Moses, - and, in like manner, with the bullocks.¹³ And they cooked the passover with fire, according to the regulation, - but, the hallowed things, cooked they in cauldrons and in pots and in bowls, and then took quickly, unto all the sons of the people.¹⁴ And, afterwards, prepared they for themselves and for the priests, because, the priests, the sons of Aaron, had been engaged in offering up the ascending-sacrifice and the fat pieces, until night, - the Levites, therefore prepared for themselves, and for the priests, the sons of Aaron.¹⁵ the singers also, the sons of Asaph, were in their place, according to the commandment of David, and Asaph, and Heman, and Jeduthun the seer of the king, and, the doorkeepers, were at the several doors, - there was no need for them to remove from their service, for, their brethren the Levites, prepared for them.¹⁶ Thus was all the service of Yahweh prepared on that day; to keep the passover, and to offer up the ascending-sacrifice, upon the altar of Yahweh, - according to the commandment of King Josiah.¹⁷ So the sons of Israel who were present kept the passover at that time, - and the festival of unleavened cakes, seven days.¹⁸ And there had not been kept, a passover like it, in Israel, since the days of Samuel the prophet, - yea, none of the kings of Israel, had kept such a passover as was kept by Josiah and the priests and the Levites and all Judah and Israel that were present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.¹⁹ In the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah, was kept this passover.

²⁰ After all this - when Josiah had prepared the house, Neco king of Egypt came up,-to fight against Carchemish, by Euphrates, and Josiah went forth against him.²¹ But he sent unto him messengers, saying - What have I to do with thee, O king of Judah? not against thee, have I come this day, but against the house wherewith I have war, and, God, hath given word to speed me, - cease thou from provoking God who is with me, lest he destroy thee.²² Howbeit Josiah turned not his face from him, for, to fight against him, he had disguised himself, and he hearkened not unto the words of Neco, from the mouth of God, - so he came to fight in the valley of Megiddo.²³ And the archers shot at King Josiah, - and the king said unto his servants, Take me away, for I am sore wounded.²⁴ So his servants took him away out of the war-chariot, and conveyed him in a second chariot which he had, and carried him to Jerusalem, and he died, and was buried in the sepulchres of his fathers, - and, all Judah and Jerusalem, were mourning over Josiah.²⁵ And Jeremiah chanted a dirge over Josiah, and all the singing men and singing women in their dirges have spoken concerning Josiah, until this day, and they appointed them by statute for Israel, - and, there they are, written among the dirges.²⁶ But, the rest of the story of Josiah, and his lovingkindness, - according to that which is written in the law of Yahweh:²⁷ even his story, first and last, there it is, written in the book of the Kings of Israel and Judah.