27 Because thine heart was tender, and thou didst humble thyself before God, when thou
heardest his words against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, and humbledst
thyself before me, and didst rend thy clothes, and weep before me; I have even heard theealso,
saith the LORD.
28 Behold, I will gather thee to thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered to thy grave in peace,
neither shall thine eyes see all the evil that I will bring upon this place, and upon the
inhabitants of the same. So they brought the king word again.
29 Then the king sent and gathered together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem.
30 And the king went up into the house of the LORD, and all the men of Judah, and the
inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the priests, and the Levites, and all the people, great and small:
and he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant that was found in the house
of the LORD.
31 And the king stood in his place, and made a covenant before the LORD, to walk after the
LORD, and to keep his commandments, and his testimonies, and his statutes, with all his heart,
and with all his soul, to perform the words of the covenant which are written in this book.
32 And he caused all that were present in Jerusalem and Benjamin to stand to it. And the
inhabitants of Jerusalem did according to the covenant of God, the God of their fathers.
33 And Josiah took away all the abominations out of all the countries that pertainedto the
children of Israel, and made all that were present in Israel to serve, evento serve the LORD
their God. Andall his days they departed not from following the LORD, the God of their fathers.
1 Moreover Josiah kept a passover unto the LORD in Jerusalem: and they killed the passover on
the fourteenth dayof the first month.
2 And he set the priests in their charges, and encouraged them to the service of the house of
the LORD,
3 And said unto the Levites that taught all Israel, which were holy unto the LORD, Put the holy
ark in the house which Solomon the son of David king of Israel did build; it shallnot bea burden
upon yourshoulders: serve now the LORD your God, and his people Israel,
4 And prepare yourselvesby the houses of your fathers, after your courses, according to the
writing of David king of Israel, and according to the writing of Solomon his son.
5 And stand in the holy placeaccording to the divisions of the families of the fathers of your
brethren the people, and afterthe division of the families of the Levites.
6 So kill the passover, and sanctify yourselves, and prepare your brethren, that theymay do
according to the word of the LORD by the hand of Moses.
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 unto the people, to the priests, and to the Levites: Hilkiah and
Zechariah and Jehiel, rulers of the house of God, gave unto 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, chief of the Levites, gave unto 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 killed the passover, and the priests sprinkled the bloodfrom 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 offer unto the LORD, as it iswritten in the book of Moses. And so did
theywith the oxen.

13 And they roasted the passover with fire according to the ordinance: but the otherholy
offeringssod they in pots, and in caldrons, and in pans, and divided themspeedily among all the
people.
14 And afterward they made ready for themselves, and for the priests: because the priests the
sons of Aaron were busiedin offering 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 werein their place, according to the commandment of
David, and Asaph, and Heman, and Jeduthun the king's seer; and the porters waitedat every gate;
they might 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 children 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;
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.
20 After all this, when Josiah had prepared the temple, Necho king of Egypt came up to fight
against Carchemish by Euphrates: and Josiah went out against him.
21 But he sent ambassadors to him, saying, What have I to do with thee, thou king of Judah? I
comenot against thee this day, but against the house wherewith I have war: for God commanded
me to make haste: forbear thee from meddling withGod, who iswith me, that he destroy thee
not.
22 Nevertheless Josiah would not turn his face from him, but disguised himself, that he might
fight with him, and hearkened not unto the words of Necho from the mouth of God, and came to
fight in the valley of Megiddo.
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 ofthe sepulchres
of his fathers. And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah.
25 And Jeremiah lamented for Josiah: and all the singing men and the singing women spake of
Josiah in their lamentations to this day, and made them an ordinance in Israel: and, behold, they
arewritten in the lamentations.
26 Now the rest of the acts of Josiah, and his goodness, according to that which waswritten in
the law of the LORD,
27 And his deeds, first and last, behold, they arewritten in the book of the kings of Israel and
Judah.
1 Then the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, and made him king in his father's
stead in Jerusalem.
2 Jehoahaz wastwenty and three years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months
in Jerusalem.
3 And the king of Egypt put him down at Jerusalem, and condemned the land in an hundred
talents of silver and a talent of gold.
4 And the king of Egypt made Eliakim his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem, and turned his
name to Jehoiakim. And Necho took Jehoahaz his brother, and carried him to Egypt.
5 Jehoiakim wastwenty and five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years
in Jerusalem: and he did that which wasevil in the sight of the LORD his God.
6 Against him came up Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and bound him in fetters, to carry him

to Babylon.
7 Nebuchadnezzar also carried of the vessels of the house of the LORD to Babylon, and put them
in his temple at Babylon.
8 Now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim, and his abominations which he did, and that which was
found in him, behold, they arewritten in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah: and
Jehoiachin his son reigned in his stead.
9 Jehoiachin waseight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months and ten
days in Jerusalem: and he did that which wasevil in the sight of the LORD.
10 And when the year was expired, king Nebuchadnezzar sent, and brought him to Babylon, with
the goodly vessels of the house of the LORD, and made Zedekiah his brother king over Judah and
Jerusalem.
11 Zedekiah wasone and twenty years old when he began to reign, and reigned eleven years in
Jerusalem.
12 And he did that which wasevil in the sight of the LORD his God, andhumbled not himself
before Jeremiah the prophet speakingfrom the mouth of the LORD.
13 And he also rebelled against king Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God: but he
stiffened his neck, and hardened his heart from turning unto the LORD God of Israel.
14 Moreover all the chief of the priests, and the people, transgressed very much after all the
abominations of the heathen; and polluted the house of the LORD which he had hallowed in
Jerusalem.
15 And the LORD God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers, rising up betimes, and
sending; because he had compassion on his people, and on his dwelling place:
16 But they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets,
until the wrath of the LORD arose against his people, till there wasno remedy.
17 Therefore he brought upon them the king of the Chaldees, who slew their young men with the
sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or maiden, old
man, or him that stooped for age: he gave themall into his hand.
18 And all the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of
the LORD, and the treasures of the king, and of his princes; all thesehe brought to Babylon.
19 And they burnt the house of God, and brake down the wall of Jerusalem, and burnt all the
palaces thereof with fire, and destroyed all the goodly vessels thereof.
20 And them that had escaped from the sword carried he away to Babylon; where they were
servants to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia:
21 To fulfil the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her
sabbaths: foras long as she lay desolate she kept sabbath, to fulfil threescore and ten years.
22 Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD spokenby the mouth
of Jeremiah might be accomplished, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that
he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put italso in writing, saying,
23 Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, All the kingdoms of the earth hath the LORD God of heaven
given me; and he hath charged me to build him an house in Jerusalem, which isin Judah. Who is
thereamong you of all his people? The LORD his God bewith him, and let him go up.