D2 t 1-. Passover. Kept.
u -1. Time. 14 days
v 2-6. Command.
w 7. Donation of the king.
w 8,9. Donation of the princes and others.
v 10-16. Obedience.
u 17. Time.
t 18,19. Passover. None like it.
513 B.C.
2 Chronicles 35)
1 Moreover Josiah kept a passover to the Lord in Jerusalem: (this passover kept in the 18th year of his reign [2 Kings 23:21-23]. 1 of 10 observances recorded. See Ex. 12:28)
and they killed the passover on the fourteenth day of the first month. (April 3rd. In this respect it was unlike Hezekiah's. Cp. 30:2,3. 2 Kings 23:22,23)
2 And he set the priests in their charges, and encouraged them to the service of the house of the Lord, (This passover is interesting from the succinct description of its observances)
3 And said to the Levites that taught (this was the great and special duty of the priests and Levites. But they neglected it for their ritual, as too many priests have done from that day to this day. See Det. 36:10; 17:11, &c.) all Israel (not Judah only), which were holy (Ex. 3:5) to the Lord, "Put the Sanctuary's Ark in the house which Solomon the son of David king of Israel did build (it had probably been removed during the reparation of the Temple. See Ex. 25:22 and 1 Chron. 13:3); it shall not be a burden upon your shoulders: serve now the Lord your God, and His People Israel,
4 And prepare yourselves by the houses of your fathers, after your courses, according to the writing of David king of Israel (cp. 1 Chron. 28:19; 2 Chron. 29:25,27,30), and according to the writing of Solomon his son. (Cp. 2 Chron. 8:14)
5 And stand in the holy place according to the divisions (word only occurs here) of the houses of the fathers of your brethren the sons of the People (i.e. the common people), and after the division of the families of the Levites.
6 So kill the passover, and sanctify yourselves, and prepare your brethren, that they may do according to the word of the Lord by the hand of Moses." (This was Divine testimony as to the authorship of the Pentateuch [Ex. 12])
7 And Josiah gave to the people, of the flock, lambs and kids, all for the passover offerings, for all that were present, to the number of thirty thousand, and three thousand bullocks: these were of the king's substance.
8 And his princes gave willingly to the people, to the priests, and to the Levites: Hilkiah (the high priest [34:9]) and Zechariah and Jehiel, rulers of the house of the [true] God, gave to the priests for the passover offerings two thousand and six hundred small cattle and three hundred oxen.
9 Conaniah also, and Shemaiah and Nethaneel, his brethren, and Hashabiah and Jeiel and Jozabad (cp. 31:12-15]), chief of the Levites, gave to the Levites for passover offerings five thousand small cattle, and five hundred oxen.
10 So the service was prepared, and the priests stood in their place, and the Levites in their courses, according to the king's commandment.
11 And they (i.e. the Levites) killed the passover, and the priests sprinkled the blood from their hands, and the Levites flayed them.
12 And they removed the burnt offerings, that they might give according to the divisions of the families of the people, to bring near to the Lord, as it is written in the book of Moses (i.e. Exodus). And so did they with the oxen.
13 And they roasted the passover with fire according to the ordinance: but the other holy offerings boiled they in pots, and in cauldrons, and in pans, and divided them speedily among all the people.
14 And afterward they made ready for themselves (contrast Ezek 34), and for the priests: because the priests the sons of Aaron were busied in offering up of burnt offerings and the fat until night; therefore the Levites prepared for themselves, and for the priests the sons of Aaron.
15 And the singers the sons of Asaph were in their place, according to the commandment of David, and Asaph (cp. 1 Chron. 25:1; 6:33,39,44), and Heman, and Jeduthun the king's seer (see Judg. 9:9. 1 Chron. 29:29); and the porters waited at every gate; they might not (or need not) depart from their service; for their brethren the Levites prepared for them.
16 So all the service of the Lord was prepared the same day, to keep the passover, and to offer burnt offerings upon the altar of the Lord, according to the commandment of king Josiah.
17 And the sons of Israel that were present kept the passover at that time, and the feast of unleavened bread seven days.
18 And there was no passover like to that kept in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet (cp. 2 Kings 23:22. No discrepancy with Hezekiah's passover [30:26]; none like Hezekiah's till then. This, of Josiah's, was later, and exceeded it.); neither did all the kings of Israel keep such a passover as Josiah kept, 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 this passover kept. (The Septuagint Version adds here [with a colon after kept] : ": after all these things that Josiah did in the house, who also burnt those who had familiar spirits, and the wizards, and the images, and the idols, and the sodomites, which were in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, that he might confirm the words of the law that were written in the book which Hilkiah the priest had found in the house of the Lord. There was no one like him before him, who turned to the Lord with all his heart, and all his soul, and all his strength, according to all the law of Moses, and after him there rose up none like him. Nevertheless the Lord turned not from the anger of His great wrath, wherewith the Lord was greatly angry against Judah, for all the provocations wherewith Manasseh provoked Him. And the Lord said: 'I shall even remove Judah also from My presence, as I have removed Israel; and I have rejected the city which I chose, Even Jerusalem, and the house of which I said, My name shall be there.' ' ")
C x1 20-. Pharaoh-necho. Invasion.
y1 -20. Josiah. Advance.
x2 21. Pharaoh-necoh. Embassy.
y2 22. Josiah. Persistence.
x3 23. Pharaoh-necho. Victory.
y3 24,25. Josiah. Death. Lamentation.
500 B.C.
20 After all this (13 years later), when Josiah had prepared the house, Necho (called also Pharaoh-necho. Said to be the founder of the 25th dynasty, about the 35th year of Manasseh: 1.e. 553 B.C.) king of Egypt came up to fight at the fortress of Chemosh by Euphrates: (Pharaoh-necho's object was to share the spoils of the falling empire of Assyria. Nineveh was taken 607 B.C.. Cp. Jer. 42:6)
and Josiah went out against him.
21 But he (Pharaoh-necho) sent ambassadors to him, saying, "What have I to do with you, you king of Judah? I come not against you this day, but against the house wherewith I have war: for God commanded me to make haste: forbear you from meddling with God, who is with me, that He destroy you not."
22 Nevertheless Josiah would not turn his face from him, but disguised himself (as Ahab had done [18:22. 1 Kings 22:30), that he might fight with him, and hearkened not to the words of Necho from the mouth of God, and came to fight in the valley of Megiddo. (Cp. 2 Kings 23:29)
23 And the archers shot at king Josiah; and the king said to his servants, "Have me away; for I am sore wounded."
24 His servants therefore took him out of that chariot, and put him in the second chariot that he had; and they brought him to Jerusalem, and he died, and was buried in one of the graves of his fathers. And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah.
25 And Jeremiah lamented (this does not refer to the book of that name [Lamentations], though Josiah is referred to in in [Lam. 4:20 and Jer. 22:10-18]. Cp. Zech. 12:11. 2 Kings 23:31) for Josiah: and all the singing men and the singing women spoke of Josiah in their lamentations to this day, and made them an ordinance in Israel: and, behold, they are written in the lamentations.
26 Now the rest of the acts of Josiah, and his kindness (his acts of kindness), according to that which was written in the law of the Lord,
27 And his deeds, first and last, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah.