¹While Jehoiakim was king, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia invaded Judah, and for three years Jehoiakim was forced to submit to his rule; then he rebelled.

²The Lord sent armed bands of Babylonians, Syrians, Moabites, and Ammonites against Jehoiakim to destroy Judah, as the Lord had said through his servants the prophets that he would do.

³This happened at the Lord's command, in order to banish the people of Judah from his sight because of all the sins that King Manasseh had committed,

⁴and especially because of all the innocent people he had killed. The Lord could not forgive Manasseh for that.

⁵Everything that Jehoiakim did is recorded in The History of the Kings of Judah.

⁶Jehoiakim died, and his son Jehoiachin succeeded him as king.

⁷The king of Egypt and his army never marched out of Egypt again, because the king of Babylonia now controlled all the territory that had belonged to Egypt, from the Euphrates River to the northern border of Egypt.

King Jehoiachin of Judah

⁸Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king of Judah, and he ruled in Jerusalem for three months. His mother was Nehushta, the daughter of Elnathan from Jerusalem.

⁹Following the example of his father, Jehoiachin sinned against the Lord.

¹⁰It was during his reign that the Babylonian army, commanded by King Nebuchadnezzar's officers, marched against Jerusalem and besieged it.

¹¹During the siege Nebuchadnezzar himself came to Jerusalem,

¹²and King Jehoiachin, along with his mother, his sons, his officers, and the palace officials, surrendered to the Babylonians. In the eighth year of Nebuchadnezzar's reign he took Jehoiachin prisoner

¹³and carried off to Babylon all the treasures in the Temple and the palace. As the Lord had foretold, Nebuchadnezzar broke up all the gold utensils which King Solomon had made for use in the Temple.

¹⁴Nebuchadnezzar carried away as prisoners the people of Jerusalem, all the royal princes, and all the leading men, ten thousand in all. He also deported all the skilled workers, including the blacksmiths, leaving only the poorest of the people behind in Judah.

¹⁵Nebuchadnezzar took Jehoiachin to Babylon as a prisoner, together with Jehoiachin's mother, his wives, his officials, and the leading men of Judah.

¹⁶Nebuchadnezzar deported all the important men to Babylonia, seven thousand in all, and one thousand skilled workers, including the blacksmiths, all of them able-bodied men fit for military duty.

¹⁷Nebuchadnezzar made Jehoiachin's uncle Mattaniah king of Judah and changed his name to Zedekiah.

King Zedekiah of Judah

¹⁸Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king of Judah, and he ruled in Jerusalem for eleven years. His mother was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah from the city of Libnah.

¹⁹King Zedekiah sinned against the Lord, just as King Jehoiakim had done.

²⁰The Lord became so angry with the people of Jerusalem and Judah that he banished them from his sight.

Josiah Celebrates the Passover

¹King Josiah celebrated the Passover at Jerusalem in honor of the Lord; on the fourteenth day of the first month they killed the animals for the festival.

²He assigned to the priests the duties they were to perform in the Temple and encouraged them to do them well.

³He also gave these instructions to the Levites, the teachers of Israel, who were dedicated to the Lord: “Put the sacred Covenant Box in the Temple that King Solomon, the son of David, built. You are no longer to carry it from place to place, but you are to serve the Lord your God and his people Israel.

⁴Take your places in the Temple by clans, according to the responsibilities assigned to you by King David and his son King Solomon,

⁵and arrange yourselves so that some of you will be available to help each family of the people of Israel.

⁶You are to kill the Passover lambs and goats. Now make yourselves ritually clean and prepare the sacrifices in order that your fellow Israelites may follow the instructions which the Lord gave through Moses.”

⁷For the use of the people at the Passover, King Josiah contributed from his own herds and flocks 30,000 sheep, lambs, and young goats, and 3,000 bulls.

⁸His officials also made contributions for the people, the priests, and the Levites to use. And the officials in charge of the Temple—Hilkiah, the High Priest, Zechariah, and Jehiel—gave the priests 2,600 lambs and young goats and 300 bulls for sacrifices during the festival.

⁹The leaders of the Levites—Conaniah, Shemaiah and his brother Nethanel, Hashabiah, Jeiel, and Jozabad—contributed 5,000 lambs and young goats and 500 bulls for the Levites to offer as sacrifices.

¹⁰When everything was arranged for the Passover, the priests and the Levites took their posts, as commanded by the king.

¹¹After the lambs and goats had been killed, the Levites skinned them, and the priests sprinkled the blood on the altar.

¹²Then they divided among the people, by family groups, the animals for burnt offerings, so that they could offer them according to the instructions in the Law of Moses.

¹³The Levites roasted the Passover sacrifices over the fire, according to the regulations, and boiled the sacred offerings in pots, kettles, and pans, and quickly distributed the meat to the people.

¹⁴After this was done, the Levites provided meat for themselves and for the priests descended from Aaron, for the priests were kept busy until night, burning the animals that were burned whole and the fat of the sacrifices.

¹⁵The following musicians of the Levite clan of Asaph were in the places assigned to them by King David's instructions: Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun, the king's prophet. The guards at the Temple gates did not need to leave their posts, because the other Levites prepared the Passover for them.

¹⁶So, as King Josiah had commanded, everything was done that day for the worship of the Lord, the keeping of the Passover Festival, and the offering of burnt offerings on the altar.

¹⁷For seven days all the people of Israel who were present celebrated the Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread.

¹⁸Since the days of the prophet Samuel, the Passover had never been celebrated like this. None of the former kings had ever celebrated a Passover like this one celebrated by King Josiah, the priests, the Levites, and the people of Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem

¹⁹in the eighteenth year of Josiah's reign.

The End of Josiah's Reign

²⁰After King Josiah had done all this for the Temple, King Neco of Egypt led an army to fight at Carchemish on the Euphrates River. Josiah tried to stop him,

²¹but Neco sent Josiah this message: “This war I am fighting does not concern you, King of Judah. I have not come to fight you, but to fight my enemies, and God has told me to hurry. God is on my side, so don't oppose me, or he will destroy you.”

²²But Josiah was determined to fight. He refused to listen to what God was saying through King Neco, so he disguised himself and went into battle on the plain of Megiddo.

²³During the battle King Josiah was struck by Egyptian arrows. He ordered his servants, “Take me away; I'm badly hurt!”

²⁴They lifted him out of his chariot, placed him in a second chariot which he had there, and took him to Jerusalem. There he died and was buried in the royal tombs. All the people of Judah and Jerusalem mourned his death.

²⁵The prophet Jeremiah composed a lament for King Josiah. It has become a custom in Israel for the singers, both men and women, to use this song when they mourn for him. The song is found in the collection of laments.

²⁶Everything that Josiah did—his devotion to the Lord, his obedience to the Law,

²⁷and his history from beginning to end—is all recorded in The History of the Kings of Israel and Judah.

²²“The Lord created me first of all, the first of his works, long ago.

²³I was made in the very beginning, at the first, before the world began.

²⁴I was born before the oceans, when there were no springs of water.

²⁵I was born before the mountains, before the hills were set in place,

²⁶before God made the earth and its fields or even the first handful of soil.

²⁷I was there when he set the sky in place, when he stretched the horizon across the ocean,

²⁸when he placed the clouds in the sky, when he opened the springs of the ocean

²⁹and ordered the waters of the sea to rise no further than he said. I was there when he laid the earth's foundations.

³⁰I was beside him like an architect, I was his daily source of joy, always happy in his presence—

³¹happy with the world and pleased with the human race.

³²“Now, young people, listen to me. Do as I say, and you will be happy.

³³Listen to what you are taught. Be wise; do not neglect it.

³⁴Those who listen to me will be happy— those who stay at my door every day, waiting at the entrance to my home.

³⁵Those who find me find life, and the Lord will be pleased with them.

³⁶Those who do not find me hurt themselves; anyone who hates me loves death.”