¹And Josiah kept a passover for Yahweh in Jerusalem, and they slaughtered the passover on the fourteenth day of the first month.

²And he set the priests at their duties and strengthened them for the service of the house of Yahweh.

³And he said to the Levites, who gave understanding to all Israel and who were holy to Yahweh: “Put the ark of holiness in the house that Solomon son of David, king of Israel, built. You have no burden on the shoulder. Now serve Yahweh your God and his people Israel.”

⁴And prepare yourselves by the house of your fathers, according to your divisions, by the roll of David king of Israel and by the inscription of Solomon his son.

⁵And stand in the holy place, according to the divisions of the house of the fathers for your brothers, the sons of the people, and a portion of a father’s house for the Levites.

⁶And slaughter the passover, set yourselves apart, and prepare it for your brothers, to do according to the word of Yahweh by the hand of Moses.

⁷And Josiah lifted off and presented for the sons of the people, from the flock, lambs and the young of goats, all of it for the passover animals, for everyone who was found, to the number of thirty thousand, and three thousand cattle. These were from the king’s property.

⁸And his officials lifted off and presented a freewill offering for the people, for the priests, and for the Levites. Hilkiah, Zechariah, and Jehiel, the rulers of the house of God, gave the priests for the passover animals two thousand six hundred, and three hundred cattle.

⁹And Conaniah, and Shemaiah, and Nethanel his brothers, and Hashabiah, and Jeiel, and Jozabad, the officials of the Levites, lifted off and presented to the Levites for the passover offerings five thousand, and cattle five hundred.

¹⁰And the service was set up, and the priests took their stand at their places and the Levites at their divisions, according to the command of the king.

¹¹They slaughtered the passover, and the priests sprinkled it from their hand, while the Levites flayed them.

¹²And they took away the burnt offerings to give them to the divisions of the house of the fathers, for the sons of the people, to bring near to Yahweh, as it is written in the record of Moses; and so with the cattle.

¹³They cooked the passover in the fire as prescribed, and the holy things they boiled in pots, in kettles, and in flat pots, and caused them to run to all the sons of the people.

¹⁴After that they prepared for themselves and for the priests, because the priests, the sons of Aaron, were offering up the burnt offering and the fats until night; so the Levites prepared for themselves and for the priests, the sons of Aaron.

¹⁵The singers, the sons of Asaph, were at their post, according to the command of David, Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun, the king’s seer; and the gatekeepers were at every gate. They did not have to turn aside from their service, because their brothers the Levites prepared for them.

¹⁶And all the service of Yahweh was set up on that day, to keep the passover and to offer up burnt offerings on the altar of Yahweh, according to the command of King Josiah.

¹⁷The children of Israel who were present observed the passover at that time, and the festival of unleavened bread for seven days.

¹⁸No passover like it had been observed in Israel since the days of Samuel the prophet; and none of the kings of Israel had observed a passover like the one that Josiah observed, with the priests and the Levites and all Judah and Israel who were present, and those who dwelt in Jerusalem.

¹⁹In the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah this passover was observed.

²⁰After all this, when Josiah had made ready the house, Necho king of Egypt came up to do battle at Carchemish on the Euphrates, and Josiah went out to meet him.

²¹He sent messengers to him, saying, "What is there between me and you, king of Judah? It is not against you that I come today, but against the house of my war. God has said to hurry me. Stop, for your own sake, opposing God, who is with me, so that he does not ruin you."

²²Josiah did not turn his face away from him, but disguised himself to fight against him. He did not listen to the words of Necho from the mouth of God, and he came to do battle in the valley of Megiddo.

²³And the archers shot at King Josiah, and the king said to his servants: Take me away, for I am greatly wounded.

²⁴His servants moved him across from the chariot, set him to ride in the second chariot that he had, and brought him to Jerusalem. He died and was buried in the graves of his fathers, and all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah.

²⁵Jeremiah chanted a lament over Josiah, and all the singing men and singing women have spoken of Josiah in their laments until this day. They set them as an ordinance for Israel, and see, they are written in the Laments.

²⁶And the rest of the words of Josiah, and his loyal love, as written in the instruction of Yahweh,

²⁷And his words, the first and the last, see, they are written in the scroll of the kings of Israel and Judah.