The Living Bible (149 page)

2 Chronicles
35

Then Josiah announced that the Passover would be celebrated on the first day of April in Jerusalem. The Passover lambs were slain that evening.
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 He also reestablished the priests in their duties and encouraged them to begin their work at the Temple again.
³
 He issued this order to the sanctified Levites, the religious teachers in Israel:

    
“Since the Ark is now in Solomon’s Temple and you don’t need to carry it back and forth upon your shoulders, spend your time ministering to the Lord and to his people.
^4-5
 Form yourselves into the traditional service corps of your ancestors, as first organized by King David of Israel and by his son Solomon. Each corps will assist particular clans of the people who bring in their offerings to the Temple.
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 Kill the Passover lambs and sanctify yourselves and prepare to assist the people who come. Follow all of the instructions of the Lord through Moses.”

    
⁷
 Then the king contributed 30,000 lambs and young goats for the people’s Passover offerings and 3,000 young bulls.
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 The king’s officials made willing contributions to the priests and Levites. Hilkiah, Zechariah, and Jehiel, the overseers of the Temple, gave the priests 2,600 sheep and goats and 300 oxen as Passover offerings.
⁹
 The Levite leaders—Conaniah, Shemaiah, and Nethanel, and his brothers Hashabiah, Jeiel, and Jozabad—gave 5,000 sheep and goats and 500 oxen to the Levites for their Passover offerings.

    
¹⁰
 When everything was organized and the priests were standing in their places, and the Levites were formed into service corps as the king had instructed,
¹¹
 then the Levites killed the Passover lambs and presented the blood to the priests, who sprinkled it upon the altar as the Levites removed the skins.
¹²
 They piled up the carcasses for each tribe to present its own burnt sacrifices to the Lord, as it is written in the law of Moses. They did the same with the oxen.
¹³
 Then, as directed by the laws of Moses, they roasted the Passover lambs and boiled the holy offerings in pots, kettles, and pans, and hurried them out to the people to eat.
¹⁴
 Afterwards the Levites prepared a meal for themselves and for the priests, for they had been busy from morning till night offering the fat of the burnt offerings.

    
¹⁵
 The singers (the sons of Asaph) were in their places, following directions issued centuries earlier by King David, Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun the king’s prophet. The gatekeepers guarded the gates and didn’t need to leave their posts of duty, for their meals were brought to them by their Levite brothers.
¹⁶
 The entire Passover ceremony was completed in that one day. All the burnt offerings were sacrificed upon the altar of the Lord, as Josiah had instructed.

    
¹⁷
 Everyone present in Jerusalem took part in the Passover observance, and this was followed by the Feast of Unleavened Bread for the next seven days.
¹⁸
 Never since the time of Samuel the prophet had there been such a Passover—not one of the kings of Israel could vie with King Josiah in this respect, involving so many of the priests, Levites, and people from Jerusalem and from all parts of Judah, and from Israel.
¹⁹
 This all happened in the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah.

    
²⁰
 Afterwards King Neco of Egypt led his army to Carchemish on the Euphrates River, and Josiah declared war on him.

    
²¹
 But King Neco sent ambassadors to Josiah with this message: “I don’t want a fight with you, O king of Judah! I have come only to fight the power with which I am at war. Leave me alone! God has told me to hurry! Don’t meddle with God or he will destroy you, for he is with me.”

    
²²
 But Josiah refused to turn back. Instead he led his army into the battle at the valley of Megiddo. (He laid aside his royal robes so that the enemy wouldn’t recognize him.) Josiah refused to believe that Neco’s message was from God.
²³
 The enemy archers struck King Josiah with their arrows and fatally wounded him.

    
“Take me out of the battle,” he exclaimed to his aides.

    
^24-25
 So they lifted him out of his chariot and placed him in his second chariot and brought him back to Jerusalem where he died. He was buried there in the royal cemetery. And all Judah and Jerusalem, including even Jeremiah the prophet, mourned for him, as did the Temple choirs. To this day they still sing sad songs about his death, for these songs of sorrow were recorded among the official lamentations.

    
²⁶
 The other activities of Josiah, and his good deeds, and how he followed the laws of the Lord,
²⁷
 all are written in
The Annals of the Kings of Israel and Judah.

2 Chronicles
36

Josiah’s son Jehoahaz was selected as the new king.
²
 He was twenty-three years old when he began to reign, but lasted only three months.
³
 Then he was deposed by the king of Egypt, who demanded an annual tribute from Judah of $230,000.

    
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 The king of Egypt now appointed Eliakim, the brother of Jehoahaz, as the new king of Judah. (Eliakim’s name was changed to Jehoiakim.) Jehoahaz was taken to Egypt as a prisoner.
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 Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem; but his reign was an evil one.
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 Finally Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon conquered Jerusalem and took away the king in chains to Babylon.
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 Nebuchadnezzar also took some of the gold bowls and other items from the Temple, placing them in his own temple in Babylon.
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 The rest of the deeds of Jehoiakim and all the evil he did are written in
The Annals of the Kings of Judah;
and his son Jehoiachin became the new king.

    
⁹
 Jehoiachin was eighteen
*
years old when he ascended the throne. But he lasted only three months and ten days, and it was an evil reign as far as the Lord was concerned.
¹⁰
 The following spring he was summoned to Babylon by King Nebuchadnezzar. Many treasures from the Temple were taken away to Babylon at that time, and King Nebuchadnezzar appointed Jehoiachin’s brother Zedekiah as the new king of Judah and Jerusalem.

    
¹¹
 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem.
¹²
 His reign, too, was evil so far as the Lord was concerned, for he refused to take the counsel of Jeremiah the prophet, who gave him messages from the Lord.
¹³
 He rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, even though he had taken an oath of loyalty. Zedekiah was a hard and stubborn man so far as obeying the Lord God of Israel was concerned, for he refused to follow him.

    
¹⁴
 All the important people of the nation, including the High Priests, worshiped the heathen idols of the surrounding nations, thus polluting the Temple of the Lord in Jerusalem.
¹⁵
 Jehovah the God of their fathers sent his prophets again and again to warn them, for he had compassion on his people and on his Temple.
¹⁶
 But the people mocked these messengers of God and despised their words, scoffing at the prophets until the anger of the Lord could no longer be restrained, and there was no longer any remedy.

    
¹⁷
 Then the Lord brought the king of Babylon against them and killed their young men, even going after them right into the Temple, and had no pity upon them, killing even young girls and old men. The Lord used the king of Babylon to destroy them completely.
¹⁸
 He also took home with him all the items, great and small, used in the Temple, and treasures from both the Temple and the palace, and took with him all the royal princes.
¹⁹
 Then his army burned the Temple and broke down the walls of Jerusalem and burned all the palaces and destroyed all the valuable Temple utensils.
²⁰
 Those who survived were taken away to Babylon as slaves to the king and his sons until the kingdom of Persia conquered Babylon.

    
²¹
 Thus the word of the Lord spoken through Jeremiah came true, that the land must rest for seventy years to make up for the years when the people refused to observe the Sabbath.

    
^22-23
 But in the first year of King Cyrus of Persia, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus to make this proclamation throughout his kingdom, putting it into writing:

    
“All the kingdoms of the earth have been given to me by the Lord God of heaven, and he has instructed me to build him a Temple in Jerusalem, in the land of Judah. All among you who are the Lord’s people return to Israel for this task, and the Lord be with you.”

    
This also fulfilled the prediction of Jeremiah the prophet.

Ezra

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Ezra
1

During the first year of the reign of King Cyrus of Persia, the Lord fulfilled Jeremiah’s prophecy
*
by giving King Cyrus the desire to send this proclamation throughout his empire (he also put it into the permanent records of the realm):

    
²
 “Cyrus, king of Persia, hereby announces that Jehovah, the God of heaven who gave me my vast empire, has now given me the responsibility of building him a Temple in Jerusalem, in the land of Judah.
³
 All Jews throughout the kingdom may now return to Jerusalem to rebuild this Temple of Jehovah, who is the God of Israel and of Jerusalem. May his blessings rest upon you.
⁴
 Those Jews
*
who do not go should contribute toward the expenses of those who do and also supply them with clothing, transportation, supplies for the journey, and a freewill offering for the Temple.”

    
⁵
 Then God gave a great desire to the leaders of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, and to the priests and Levites, to return to Jerusalem at once to rebuild the Temple.
⁶
 And all the Jewish exiles
*
who chose to remain in Persia gave them whatever assistance they could, as well as gifts for the Temple.

    
⁷
 King Cyrus himself donated the gold bowls and other valuable items, which King Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the Temple at Jerusalem and had placed in the temple of his own gods.
⁸
 He instructed Mithredath, the treasurer of Persia, to present these gifts to Sheshbazzar, the leader of the exiles returning to Judah.

    
^9-10
 The items Cyrus donated included: 1,000 gold trays, 1,000 silver trays, 29 censers, 30 bowls of solid gold, 2,410 silver bowls (of various designs), 1,000 miscellaneous items.
¹¹
 In all there were 5,469 gold and silver items turned over to Sheshbazzar to take back to Jerusalem.