2 Chronicles 35:1-18

1Then Josiah 1celebrated the Passover to the Lord in Jerusalem, and 2they slaughtered the Passover animals on the fourteenth day of the first month. 2He appointed the priests to their offices and 3encouraged them in the service of the house of the Lord. 3He also said to 4the Levites who taught all Israel and who were holy to the Lord, “Put the holy ark in the house which Solomon the son of David king of Israel built; 5it will not be a burden on your shoulders. Now serve the Lord your God and His people Israel. 46Prepare yourselves by your fathers’ households in your divisions, according to the writing of David king of Israel and 7according to the writing of his son Solomon. 5Furthermore, 8stand in the holy place according to the sections of the fathers’ households of your countrymen, the 9lay people, and according to the Levites, by division of a father’s household. 6Now 10slaughter the Passover animals, 11keep one another consecrated, and prepare for your countrymen to act in accordance with the word of the Lord by Moses.”

7Josiah contributed to the lay people, to all who were present, flocks of lambs and young goats, all for the Passover offerings, numbering thirty thousand, plus three thousand bulls; these were from the king’s property. 8His officers also contributed a 12voluntary offering to the people, the priests, and the Levites. Hilkiah, Zechariah, and Jehiel, 13the officials of the house of God, gave the priests 2,600 from the flocks and three hundred bulls, for the Passover offerings. 914Conaniah also, and his brothers Shemaiah and Nethanel, and Hashabiah and Jeiel and Jozabad, the officers of the Levites, contributed five thousand from the flocks and five hundred bulls to the Levites for the Passover offerings.

10So the service was prepared, and 15the priests stood at their positions and the Levites by their divisions according to the king’s command. 111617They slaughtered the Passover animals, and while 18the priests 19sprinkled the blood received from their hand, 20the Levites skinned the animals. 12Then they removed the burnt offerings so that they might give them to the sections of the fathers’ households of the lay people to present to the Lord, as it is written in the Book of Moses. They did this with the bulls as well. 13So 21they roasted the Passover animals on the fire according to the ordinance, and they boiled 22the holy things in pots, in kettles, and in pans and carried them quickly to all the lay people. 14Afterward they prepared for themselves and for the priests, because the priests, the sons of Aaron, were offering the burnt offerings and the fat until night; so the Levites prepared for themselves and for the priests, the sons of Aaron. 15The singers, the sons of Asaph, were also at their positions 23according to the command of David, Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun the king’s seer; and 24the gatekeepers at each gate did not have to leave their service, because their kinsmen the Levites prepared for them.

16So all the service of the Lord was prepared on that day to celebrate the Passover, and to offer burnt offerings on the altar of the Lord according to the command of King Josiah. 17And 25the sons of Israel who were present celebrated the Passover at that time, and the Feast of Unleavened Bread for seven days. 1826There had not been a Passover celebrated like it in Israel since the days of Samuel the prophet; nor had any of the kings of Israel celebrated such a Passover as Josiah did with the priests, the Levites, all Judah and Israel who were present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.