35:3In Moses’ day, one of the duties of the Levites was to carry the Ark of the Covenant whenever Israel traveled. The Ark was now permanently housed in the Temple and would no longer be carried about in procession as it was in the wilderness. Josiah was telling the Levites that they were now free to take on other responsibilities (1 Chronicles 24).
Life Application Study Bible2 ChroniclesChapter 35
2 Chronicles 35
New Living Translation · Life Application Study Bible · Original pages: 715, 716, 717
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352 Chronicles 35
Josiah Celebrates Passover
13 Then Josiah announced that the Passover of the LORD would be celebrated in Jerusalem, and so the Passover lamb was slaughtered on the fourteenth day of the first month.* 2Josiah also assigned the priests to their duties and encouraged them in their work at the Temple of the LORD. *He issued this order to the Levites, who were to teach all Israel and who had been set apart to serve the LORD: “Put the holy Ark in the Temple that was built by Solomon son of David, the king of Israel. You no longer need to carry it back and forth on your shoulders. Now spend your time serving the Lor your God and his people Israel. ‘Report for duty according to the family divisions of your ancestors, following the directions of King David of Israel and the directions of his son Solomon. 3“Then stand in the sanctuary at the place appointed for your family division and help the families assigned to you as they bring their offerings to the Temple. Slaughter the Passover lambs, purify yourselves, and prepare to help those who come. Follow all the directions that the LORD gave through Moses.” 7Then Josiah provided 30,000 lambs and young goats for the people’s Passover offerings, along with 3,000 cattle, all from the king’s own flocks and herds. The king's officials also made willing contributions to the people, priests, and Levites. Hilkiah, Zechariah, and Jehiel, the administrators of God’s Temple, gave the priests 2,600 lambs and young goats and 300 cattle as Passover offerings. 9The Levite leaders—Conaniah and his brothers Shemaiah and Nethanel, as well as Hashabiah, Jeiel, and Jozabad—gave 5,000 lambs and young goats and 500 cattle to the Levites for their Passover offerings. 1owhen everything was ready for the Passover celebration, the priests and the Levites took their places, organized by their divisions, as the king had commanded. 11The Levites then slaughtered the Passover lambs and presented the blood to the priests, who sprinkled the blood on the altar while the Levites prepared the animals. 12They divided the burnt offerings among the people by their family groups, so they could offer them to the LORD as prescribed in the Book of Moses. They did the same with the cattle. 13Then they roasted the Passover lambs as prescribed; and they boiled the holy offerings in pots, kettles, and pans, and brought them out quickly so the people could eat them. 14Afterward the Levites prepared Passover offerings for themselves and for the priests— the descendants of Aaron—because the priests had been busy from moming till night offering the burnt offerings and the fat portions. The Levites took responsibility for all these preparations. ‘The musicians, descendants of Asaph, were in their assigned places, following the commands that had been given by David, Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun, the king’s seer. The gatekeepers guarded the gates and did not need to leave their posts of duty, for their Passover offerings were prepared for them by their fellow Levites. 16The entire ceremony for the LORD’s Passover was completed that day. All the burnt offerings were sacrificed on the altar of the LORD, as King Josiah had commanded. 17All the Israelites present in Jerusalem celebrated Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread for seven days. 18Never since the time of the prophet Samuel had there been such a Passover. None of the kings of Israel had ever kept a Passover as Josiah did, involving all the priests and Levites, all the people of Jerusalem, and people from all over Judah and Israel. 18This Passover celebration took place in the eighteenth year of Josiah’s reign.
Josiah Dies in Battle
2020After Josiah had finished restoring the Temple, King Neco of Egypt led his army up from Egypt to do battle at Carchemish on the Euphrates River, and Josiah and his army marched out to fight him.* 2" But King Neco sent messengers to Josiah with this message: “What do you want with me, king of Judah? I have no quarrel with you today! amon my way to fight another nation, and God has told me to hurry! Do not interfere with God, who is with me, or he will destroy you.” 22But Josiah refused to listen to Neco, to whom God had indeed spoken, and he would not turn back. Instead, he disguised himself and led his army into battle on the plain of Megiddo. 23But the enemy archers hit King Josiah with their arrows and wounded him. He cried out to his men, “Take me from the battle, for I am badly wounded!” 24S8o they lifted Josiah out of his chariot and placed him in another chariot. Then they brought him back to Jerusalem, where he died. He was buried there in the royal cemetery. And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for him. 25The prophet Jeremiah composed funeral songs for Josiah, and to this day choirs still sing these sad songs about his death. These songs of sorrow have become a tradition and are recorded in The Book of Laments. 26The rest of the events of Josiah’s reign and his acts of devotion (carried out according to what was written in the Law of the LORD),27from beginning to end—all are recorded in The Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah. 3. Judah is exiled to Babylon
Textual footnotes
- text at 2 Kgs 22:14; Hebrew reads son of Tokhath, son of Hasrah.
- 35:1 This day in the ancient Hebrew lunar calendar was April 5, 622 B.c.
- 35:20 Or Josiah went out to meet him.
Life Application Notes 6 notes
35:15The Temple gatekeepers, who were all Levites, guarded the four main entrances to the Temple and opened the gates each Morning. They also did other day-to-day chores, such as cleaning and preparing the offerings for sacrifice and accounting for the gifts given to the Temple. (For more on gatekeepers, see 1 Chronicles
35:17The Festival of Unieavened Bread was a seven-day celebration beginning the day after Passover. Like Passover, it commemorated the Exodus from Egypt. For seven days the people ate bread without yeast, just as their ancestors did while leaving Egypt, because it could be made quickly in preparation for their swift departure (Exodus 12:14-20). This festival reminded the people that they had left slavery behind and had come ta the land God promised them.
35:20This event occurred in 609 B.C. Nineveh, the Assyrian capital, had been destroyed three years earlier by the Babylonians. The defeated Assyrians regrouped at Haran and Carchemish, but Babylon sent its army to destroy them once and for all. Pharaoh Neco, who wanted to make Egypt a worid power, was worried about Babylon’s growing strength, so he marched his army north through Judah to help the Assyrians at Carchemish. But King Josiah of Judah tried to prevent Neco from passing through his land on his way to Garchemish. Josiah was killed, and Judah became subject to Egypt. (2 Kings 23:25-30 helps explain the tragedy. Even though Josiah followed the LORD, God did not turn from his judgment on Judah because of Manasseh’s sin and Judah's superficial repentance.) Neco went on to Carchemish and held off the Babylonians for four years, but in 605 he was soundly defeated, and Babylon moved into the spotlight as the dominant world power.
35:21-24Josiah ignored Neco’s message because of who Neco was—king of a pagan nation. The mistaken assumption that Neco could not be part of God’s larger pian cost Josiah his life. While Not everyone who claims to have a message from God really does, God’s messages may come in unexpected ways. God had spoken to pagan kings in the past (Genesis 12:17-20; 20:3-7; see also Daniel 4:1-3). Don’t let prejudice or false assumptions blind you to God’s message.
35:25Though Jeremiah recorded these laments for the death of Josiah, they are not the same as the book of Lamentations.
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Study feature · page 716
Caspian Sea ay ea ae Mediterranean _ +n: Neco of Egypt mean Nebuchadnezzar. of Babylon
THE BATTLE AT CARCHEMISH A world war was brewing in 609 B.C. when Pharaoh Neco of Egypt set out for the city of Carchemish to join the Assyrians in an attempt to defeat the Babylonians, who were rising to great power. Neco marched his armies through Judah, where King Josiah tried to stop him at Megiddo, but was killed. The battle began at Carchemish in 605 B.C., and the Egyptians and Assyrians were soundly defeated, chased to Hamath, and defeated again. Babylon was now the new world power.
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