2 Chronicles 34-35

New Catholic Bible

Chapter 34

The Reforms of Josiah. ¹ Josiah was eight years old when he ascended the throne, and he reigned in Jerusalem for thirty-one years. ² He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, and he followed in the ways of his ancestor David, not deviating either to the right or to the left.

³ In the eighth year of his reign, while he was still a youth, Josiah began to seek the God of his ancestor David, and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the sacred poles, and the carved and the cast images.^{[a] 4} Then, in his presence and following his instructions, he oversaw the destruction of the altars of the Baals, and the incense stands erected above them were torn down. The sacred poles and the carved and molten images were shattered and beaten into dust, which was then scattered over the tombs of those who had sacrificed to them. ⁵ Finally, the bones of the priests he burned upon their altars. Thus he purified Judah and Jerusalem.

⁶ In the towns of Manasseh, Ephraim, and Simeon, and in the ruined villages as far as Naphtali, ⁷ Josiah destroyed the altars, crushed the sacred poles and the images into powder, and demolished all the incense altars throughout all the land of Israel. Then he returned to Jerusalem.

The Temple Restored. ⁸ In the eighteenth year of his reign, after he had purified the land as well as the temple, Josiah sent Shaphan, the son of Azaliah, Maaseiah, the governor of the city, and Joah, the son of Joahaz the recorder, to repair and restore the house of the Lord, his God. ⁹ They came to the high priest Hilkiah and delivered the money that had been brought into the house of God, which the Levites, the guardians of the threshold, had collected from Manasseh, Ephraim, and all the remnant of Israel, as well as from all of Judah, Benjamin, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

¹⁰ They delivered the money to the master workmen in the house of the Lord, and these in turn used it to pay the workmen in the Lord’s house who were restoring and repairing the temple. ¹¹ They also gave money to the carpenters and the builders to purchase quarried stone, as well as timber for the rafters and beams of the buildings which the kings of Judah had permitted to fall into disrepair.

¹² The men worked conscientiously at their tasks. Their overseers who directed the work were Jahath and Obadiah, Levites of the line of Merari, and Zechariah and Meshullam, members of the Kohathites. The Levites, all of them skilled in the art of playing musical instruments, ¹³ were in charge of the men who carried the burdens, and they directed all the workers in every kind of labor, while other Levites were secretaries, officials, and gatekeepers.

¹⁴ Discovery of the Law. When they brought out the money that had been deposited in the house of the Lord, the priest Hilkiah found the book of the law of the Lord which had been given through Moses. ¹⁵ Hilkiah said to the secretary, Shaphan: “I have found the book of the law in the house of the Lord,” and then he gave the book to Shaphan.

¹⁶ Shaphan brought the book to the king and reported to him: “Your servants are doing everything that has been entrusted to them. ¹⁷ They have melted down the silver that had been deposited in the house of the Lord and have handed it over to the supervisors and the workers.” ¹⁸ Shaphan the secretary also informed the king: “Hilkiah the priest has handed over a book to me.” Then Shaphan proceeded to read extracts from the book in the presence of the king.

¹⁹ When the king heard the words of the law, he tore his garments. ²⁰ Then he issued this command to Hilkiah, Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, Abdon, the son of Micah, the secretary, Shaphan, and the king’s servant, Asaiah: ²¹ “Go forth and inquire of the Lord for me and for the remnant in Israel and in Judah concerning the words of the book that has been discovered. For the intense wrath of the Lord that has been poured out on us is great, because our ancestors did not observe the Lord’s command and do all that is written in this book.”

²² Therefore, Hilkiah and those others whom the king had designated went to the prophetess Huldah, the wife of Shallum, son of Tokhath, son of Hasrah, the guardian of the wardrobe, and consulted her at her home in the Second Quarter of Jerusalem, as they had been instructed. After they spoke to her, ²³ she replied: “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: ‘Tell the one who sent you to me: ²⁴ The Lord says: I am going to bring disaster upon this place and upon its inhabitants—all the curses written in the book that was read in the presence of the king of Judah. ²⁵ Because they have abandoned me and have burned incense to other gods, thereby provoking my anger with all the works of their hands, my wrath will be poured out on this place and it will not be quenched.’

²⁶ “As for the king of Judah who sent you to inquire of the Lord, give this response: ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: In regard to the words that you have heard, ²⁷ since your heart was penitent and you humbled yourself before God when you heard his words spoken against this place and its inhabitants and tore your garments and wept before me, I in turn have listened, declares the Lord. ²⁸ I will gather you to your ancestors, and you shall be taken to your grave in peace. Your eyes will not live to behold all the disaster that I will inflict upon this place and its inhabitants.’ ” Then the representatives of the king brought back this answer to him.

²⁹ Renewal of the Covenant.^[b] Thereupon, after the king convened all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem, ³⁰ he went up to the house of the Lord with all the men of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the priests and the Levites, and all the people, both great and small. In their hearing he read the entire contents of the book of the covenant that was discovered in the house of the Lord.

³¹ Then the king stood by his pillar and entered into a covenant before the Lord to obey him and keep his commandments, his decrees, and his statutes with all his heart and soul, and thus carry out the words of the covenant that were written in this book. ³² After that, he had all those in Jerusalem and in Benjamin pledge their conformity to the covenant of God, the God of their fathers.

³³ Josiah removed all the abominable idols from the entire territory that belonged to the people of Israel, and he made it a requirement that all those who lived in Israel must worship their God. Throughout his lifetime they did not turn away from following the Lord, the God of their ancestors.

Chapter 35

The Passover. ¹ Josiah then celebrated the Passover to the Lord in Jerusalem, with the Passover lamb being slaughtered on the fourteenth day of the first month. ² He appointed the priests to their offices and encouraged them to do their duty in the service of the house of the Lord.

³ Josiah said to the Levites who instructed all Israel and who ware consecrated to the Lord: “Put the sacred Ark in the house built by Solomon, son of David, king of Israel. You no longer need to carry it on your shoulders. Serve now the Lord, your God, and his people Israel. ⁴ Prepare yourselves by families in your ancestral houses, following the directions written by King David of Israel and by his son Solomon.

⁵ “Take your positions in the sanctuary according to the family divisions of the ancestral houses of your brethren, the laity, and let there be one division of Levites for each family division. ⁶ Slay the Passover lamb, sanctify yourselves, and on behalf of your brethren make preparations, doing what the Lord commanded through Moses.”

⁷ Then Josiah contributed to the common people, as Passover offerings for all those who were present, a flock of thirty thousand lambs and goats, in addition to three thousand bulls. All these were from the king’s own property. ⁸ His officials also contributed willingly to the people, to the priests, and to the Levites. Hilkiah, Zechariah, and Jehiel, the chief officers of the house of God, gave to the priests for the Passover offering two thousand six hundred lambs and three hundred bulls. ⁹ Conaniah, along with his brothers Shemaiah and Nethanel, and Hashabiah, Jehiel, and Jozabad, the chiefs of the Levites, contributed on behalf of the Levites for the Passover offerings five thousand lambs and kids in addition to five hundred bulls.

¹⁰ When the service had been arranged, the priests stood in their places and the Levites in their divisions, as the king had commanded. ¹¹ The Passover lambs were slaughtered, and the priests sprinkled the blood handed to them while the Levites skinned the animals.

¹² The Levites set aside the burnt offerings so that they might distribute them according to the subdivisions of the laity who would then offer them to the Lord, as it is written in the Book of Moses. They did the same with the bulls. ¹³ Then they roasted the Passover victim over an open fire as prescribed, and they boiled the holy offerings in pots, in cauldrons, and in pans, which they then distributed quickly to all the people.

¹⁴ Afterward they prepared the Passover for themselves and for the priests, since the priests, the descendants of Aaron, were kept occupied until nightfall in offering holocausts and the fatty portions. Therefore, the Levites prepared the Passover for themselves and for the priests, the descendants of Aaron. ¹⁵ The singers, the descendants of Asaph, were in their designated places in accordance with the command laid down by David, and also by Asaph, Heman, and the king’s seer, Jeduthun. The gatekeepers were stationed at each gate. They did not need to leave their stations, inasmuch as their brethren, the Levites, made the preparations for them.

¹⁶ Thus the entire service of the Lord was arranged on that day in order to celebrate the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread for seven days. ¹⁷ The people of Israel who were present on that occasion kept the Passover at that time, as well as the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for seven days.

¹⁸ No Passover like this one had been observed in Israel since the days of the prophet Samuel, nor had any of the kings of Israel ever celebrated a Passover as was kept by Josiah, by the priests and the Levites, by all the people of Judah and Israel who were there, and by the inhabitants of Jerusalem. ¹⁹ This Passover was celebrated in the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah.

²⁰ Josiah’s Reign Ends. After all this had occurred and Josiah had restored the temple, Neco, the king of Egypt, went forth to attack Carchemish on the Euphrates, and Josiah marched out to confront him. ²¹ Neco then sent messengers to him to say: “Why should you be concerned about me, king of Judah? I have no intention of attacking you. My quarrel is not with you but just with those with whom I am at war. God has commanded me to proceed without delay. Therefore, do not oppose God, who is supporting me, so that he will not destroy you.”

²² However, Josiah had no intention of yielding to Neco’s request that came from the mouth of God, but rather he engaged in battle on the plain of Megiddo. ²³ The archers then shot King Josiah, and he commanded his servants: “Take me away, for I am severely wounded.”

²⁴ Therefore, his servants removed him from his own chariot and transferred him with another chariot to Jerusalem, where he died. He was buried in the tombs of his ancestors, and all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for him. ²⁵ Jeremiah also composed a lament^[c] for Josiah, which is recited to this day by all the male and female singers in their dirges. These became a tradition in Israel and can be found recorded in the Book of Lamentations.

²⁶ The rest of the history of Josiah and his pious deeds in accordance with what is written in the law of the Lord, ²⁷ and his acts, from first to last, are recorded in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah.