OET-RV 2 CHR Chapter 35

35 Then King Yoshiyah prepared a ‘pass-over’ celebration in Yerushalem, and they slaughtered the lambs at the end of March . 2 He assigned the priests to the various tasks that needed to be done, and encouraged them to do their work well. 3 He told the Levites (they had been separated from the other tribes in order to serve Yahweh) who were teaching all Yisrael, “Place the sacred box in the house that David’s son, Yisrael’s King Shelomoh (Solomon) had built—it won’t be a burden any more for your shoulders. Now serve your god Yahweh and his Israeli people 4 and prepare yourselves in your clan divisions as per the instructions written by Yisrael’s King David and his son Shelomoh.[ref] 5 Then stand in the temple area, grouped by your clans and ready to help the other tribes. 6 Consecrate yourselves and slaughter the ‘pass-over’ lambs for the people as per the instructions given through Mosheh (Moses) by Yahweh.

7 King Yoshiyah provided thirty thousand lambs and young goats for the ‘pass-over’ sacrifices from his own flocks and three thousand bulls from his own herds. 8 His officials also contributed to the people, priests and Levites. The chief temple officials Hilkiyah, Zekaryah, and Yehiel donated 2,600 lambs and three hundred cattle to the priests. 9 The Levite leaders Konanyah and his younger brothers Shemayah, Netanel, along with Hashavyah, Yeiel, and Yozavad together contributed five thousand lambs and three hundred bulls.

10 So everything was prepared as the king had commanded, and the priests stood at their places, and the Levites were there in their various divisions 11 and they slaughtered the ‘pass-over’ lambs, then the priests sprinkled the blood while the Levites skinned the animals. 12 They set aside the animals to be burnt on the altar, in order to give them to the various family groups to offer to Yahweh, following the instructions Mosheh had written down. They did the same thing with the cattle. 13 They roasted the ‘pass-over’ meal over the fire as per the instructions, and they boiled the meat of the sacred offerings in pots and kettles and pans, and served the meat immediately to all the people who were there.[ref] 14 Afterwards, the Levites prepared the meal for themselves and for the priests (Aharon’s descendants), because tge priests had been busy sacrificing the burnt offerings and the fat portions right through to the evening. 15 The singers (Asaf’s descendants) were at their posts as had been commanded by King David, Asaf, Heyman, and the king’s prophet Yedutun. The men guarding the gates didn’t have to leave their posts because their fellow Levites prepared food for them.[ref]

16 So on that day, everything that needed to done for worshipping Yahweh was done. They celebrated the ‘pass-over’ festival, and they sacrificed burnt offerings as King Yoshiyah had commanded. 17 The Israelis who were there celebrated the ‘pass-over’ that day, then they celebrated the ‘Festival of Flat Bread’ for seven days.[ref] 18 There hadn’t been a ‘pass-over’ celebration done like that is Yisrael since the time of the prophet Shemuel (Samuel), and all of Yisrael’s kings had never done it like Yoshiyah did, along with the priests and Levites and the inhabitants of Yerushalem and across all Yehudah and Yisrael. 19 They celebrated that festival in the eighteenth year of Yoshiyah’s reign.

20 After all of Yoshiyah’s work on temple restoration, Egypt’s King Neko went to attack Karkemish city on the Euphrates river, and Yoshiyah went out to confront him. 21 Neko sent messengers to tell Yoshiyah, “What’s this got to do with you, King of Judah? We’re not attacking you at present, because we’re in a different fight, and God told me to hurry. Don’t oppose God who’s with me, and don’t make him destroy you.” 22 However, Yoshiyah wouldn’t listen, but disguised himself before going into battle. He didn’t listen to Neko even though he was speaking for God, so he went to fight on the Megiddon plain.

23 King Yoshiyah was hit by the archers, and he told his servants, “Get me away from here because I’m badly wounded.” 24 So his servants lifted him off his chariot, and took him on his reserve chariot back to Yerushalem where he died. He was buried in his ancestors’ tombs, and all Yerushalem and Yehudah mourned over him.

25 The prophet Yermeyah (Jeremiah) wrote a funeral song for him, which the male and female singers still use at funerals to this day. That became a custom in Yisrael—the words of that song are written in a scroll of funeral songs.

26 The record of all the other things done by Yoshiyah while he was king and his loyal commitment to following Yahweh’s instructions, 27 including his actions from the beginning to the end of his reign, was written on the scroll ‘The kings of Yisrael and Yehudah’.