Because tender was thy heart, and thou didst humble thyself before God when thou heardest his words against this place and against the inhabitants thereof, and didst humble thyself before me, and didst rend thy clothes and weep before me, therefore, I also, have heard, is the declaration of Yahweh.

Behold me! gathering thee unto thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered unto thy sepulchres in peace, and thine eyes shall not look upon all the calamity which, I, am bringing in upon this place, and upon the inhabitants thereof. And they returned, unto the king, the message.

Then the king sent, - and gathered together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem.

And the king went up to the house of Yahweh - and all the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem - and the priests and the Levites, and all the people, from the great even unto the small, - and he read in their ears, all the words of the book of the covenant, which had been found in the house of Yahweh.

And the king stood in his place, and solemnised the covenant before Yahweh, to walk after Yahweh, 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 that are written in this book.

And he caused to take a stand, all that were present in Jerusalem, and Benjamin, - and the inhabitants of Jerusalem did according to the covenant of God, the God of their fathers.

And Josiah removed all the abominations, out of all the lands which belonged to the sons of Israel, and caused all that were present in Jerusalem to serve, yea to serve, Yahweh their God, - all his days, turned they not aside from following Yahweh, God of their fathers.

And Josiah kept, in Jerusalem, a passover unto Yahweh, - and they slaughtered the passover, on the fourteenth of the first month.

And he set the priests over their charges, - and encouraged them unto the service of the house of Yahweh;

and said to the Levites who gave instruction to all Israel as to the things which were hallowed unto Yahweh, Put the holy ark in the house which Solomon son of David king of Israel did build, it is not yours as a burden on the shoulder, - Now, serve ye Yahweh your God, and his people Israel;

and prepare yourselves by your ancestral houses, according to your courses, - by the writing of David king of Israel, and by what hath been written by Solomon his son;

and stand ye in the holy place, by the divisions of the ancestral house, for your brethren, the sons of the people, and the partitioning of an ancestral house, for the Levites.

So slaughter ye the passover, - and hallow yourselves, and prepare for your brethren, that they may do according to the word of Yahweh, by the hand of Moses.

And Josiah presented to the sons of the people - of flocks, young sheep and the young of the goats, the whole for the passover offerings, for all present, to the number of thirty thousand, and, of bullocks, three thousand, - these, out of the substance of the king.

And, his rulers, willingly, to the people and to the priests and to the Levites, presented, - Hilkiah and Zechariah and Jehiel, chief rulers of the house of God, unto the priests, did give, for passover offerings, two thousand and six hundred, and, of bullocks, three hundred;

and, Conaniah, and Shemaiah and Nethanel his brethren, and Hashabiah and Jeiel and Jozabad, rulers of the Levites, presented to the Levites, for passover offerings, five thousand, and, of bullocks, five hundred.

Thus was the service prepared, - and the priests stood in their place, and the Levites in their courses, according to the commandment of the king.

So they slaughtered the passover, and the priests dashed the blood received at their hand, and the Levites were flaying the offerings .

Then they removed the ascending-sacrifice, that they might give them - by the divisions of each ancestral house - unto the sons of the people, to offer unto Yahweh, as it is written in the Book of Moses, - and, in like manner, with the bullocks.

And they cooked the passover with fire, according to the regulation, - but, the hallowed things, cooked they in cauldrons and in pots and in bowls, and then took quickly, unto all the sons of the people.

And, afterwards, prepared they for themselves and for the priests, because, the priests, the sons of Aaron, had been engaged in offering up the ascending-sacrifice and the fat pieces, until night, - the Levites, therefore prepared for themselves, and for the priests, the sons of Aaron.

the singers also, the sons of Asaph, were in their place, according to the commandment of David, and Asaph, and Heman, and Jeduthun the seer of the king, and, the doorkeepers, were at the several doors, - there was no need for them to remove from their service, for, their brethren the Levites, prepared for them.

Thus was all the service of Yahweh prepared on that day; to keep the passover, and to offer up the ascending-sacrifice, upon the altar of Yahweh, - according to the commandment of King Josiah.

So the sons of Israel who were present kept the passover at that time, - and the festival of unleavened cakes, seven days.

And there had not been kept, a passover like it, in Israel, since the days of Samuel the prophet, - yea, none of the kings of Israel, had kept such a passover as was kept by Josiah and the priests and the Levites and all Judah and Israel that were present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

After all this - when Josiah had prepared the house, Neco king of Egypt came up,-to fight against Carchemish, by Euphrates, and Josiah went forth against him.

But he sent unto him messengers, saying - What have I to do with thee, O king of Judah? not against thee, have I come this day, but against the house wherewith I have war, and, God, hath given word to speed me, - cease thou from provoking God who is with me, lest he destroy thee.

Howbeit Josiah turned not his face from him, for, to fight against him, he had disguised himself, and he hearkened not unto the words of Neco, from the mouth of God, - so he came to fight in the valley of Megiddo.

And the archers shot at King Josiah, - and the king said unto his servants, Take me away, for I am sore wounded.

So his servants took him away out of the war-chariot, and conveyed him in a second chariot which he had, and carried him to Jerusalem, and he died, and was buried in the sepulchres of his fathers, - and, all Judah and Jerusalem, were mourning over Josiah.

And Jeremiah chanted a dirge over Josiah, and all the singing men and singing women in their dirges have spoken concerning Josiah, until this day, and they appointed them by statute for Israel, - and, there they are, written among the dirges.

But, the rest of the story of Josiah, and his lovingkindness, - according to that which is written in the law of Yahweh:

even his story, first and last, there it is, written in the book of the Kings of Israel and Judah.

And the people of the land took Jehoahaz, son of Josiah, - and made him king instead of his father, in Jerusalem.

Twenty-three years old, was Joahaz when he began to reign, - and, three months, reigned he in Jerusalem.

And the king of Egypt deposed him in Jerusalem, - and condemned the land, in a hundred talents of silver, and a talent of gold.

And the king of Egypt made Eliakim his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem, and changed his name to Jehoiakim, - but Neco took, Joahaz his brother, and carried him to Egypt.

Twenty-five years old, was Jehoiakim when he began to reign, and, eleven years, reigned he in Jerusalem, - and he did the thing that was wicked in the eyes of Yahweh his God.

Against him, came up Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, - and bound him in fetters of bronze, to carry him to Babylon.

And, some of the utensils of the house of Yahweh, did Nebuchadnezzar carry to Babylon, - and put them in his own temple in Babylon.

But, the rest of the story of Jehoiakim, and his abominations which he made, and that which was found upon him, there they are, written in the book of the Kings of Israel and Judah, - and Jehoiachin his son reigned in his stead.

Eight years old, was Jehoiachin when he began to reign, and, three months and ten days, reigned he in Jerusalem, and he did the thing that was wicked in the eyes of Yahweh;

and, when the year came round, King Nebuchadnezzar sent, and carried him to Babylon, with the precious utensils of the house of Yahweh, - and made Zedekiah his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem.

Twenty-one years old, was Zedekiah when he began to reign, - and, eleven years, reigned he in Jerusalem.

And he did the thing that was wicked in the eyes of Yahweh his God,-he humbled not himself before Jeremiah the prophet, from the mouth of Yahweh.

Moreover also - against King Nebuchadnezzar, he rebelled, who had made him swear by God,-and he stiffened his neck, and emboldened his heart, from turning unto Yahweh, God of Israel.

Also, all the rulers of the priests and of the people, abounded in committing treachery, according to all the abominable ways of the nations, - and polluted the house of Yahweh, which he had hallowed in Jerusalem.

And, though Yahweh God of their fathers sent unto them through his messengers, zealously sending them, - because he had compassion upon his people and upon his habitation,

yet became they mockers of the messengers of God, and despisers of his words, and mimics of his prophets, - until the mounting up of the wrath of Yahweh against his people, until there was no healing.

So he brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans, who slew their young men with the sword, in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or virgin, elder or ancient,-all, delivered he into his hand.

And, all the utensils of the house of God, both great and small, and the treasures of the house of Yahweh, and the treasures of the king and of his rulers, the whole, carried he to Babylon;

and they burned the house of God, and threw down the wall of Jerusalem, - and, all the palaces thereof, burned they with fire, and, all the precious vessels thereof, he destroyed;

and he exiled the remnant left from the sword, into Babylon, - where they became his and his sons, as servants, until the reign of the kingdom of Persia:

Thus, saith Cyrus king of Persia, All the kingdoms of the earth, hath Yahweh God of the heavens, given unto me, and, he himself, hath laid charge upon me, to build to him a house, in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is there among you of all his people with whom is Yahweh his God? Then let him go up.

In the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, to fulfil the word of Yahweh from the mouth of Jeremiah, Yahweh aroused the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, and he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, moreover also in writing, saying:

Thus, saith Cyrus, king of Persia, All the kingdoms of the earth, hath Yahweh God of the heavens, given to me, - and, he himself, hath laid charge upon me, to build for him a house, in Jerusalem, which is in Judah.

Who is there among you of all his people? His God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, - and build the house of Yahweh God of Israel, (he, is God!) which is in Jerusalem;

And, whosoever is left, of all the places where he doth sojourn, let the men of his place uphold him, with silver and with gold, and with goods and with beasts, - along with a voluntary offering for the house of God, which is in Jerusalem.

Then arose the ancestral chiefs of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests, and the Levites, - even every one whose spirit God had aroused, to go up to build the house of Yahweh, which was in Jerusalem;

and, all they who were round about them, strengthened their hands, with utensils of silver, with gold with goods and with beasts, and with precious things, - besides any thing he had volunteered.

And, King Cyrus, brought forth the utensils of the house of Yahweh, - which Nebuchadnezzar had brought forth from Jerusalem, and put in the house of his gods: -

yea Cyrus king of Persia brought them forth, by the hand of Mithredath the treasurer, - and numbered them unto Sheshbazzar, a leader of Judah.

And, these, were the numbers of them, - basins of gold, thirty, basins of silver, a thousand, knives, twenty-nine;

bowls of gold, thirty, bowls of silver, of a secondary sort, four hundred and ten, - other utensils, a thousand.

All the utensils, in gold and silver, were five thousand and four hundred, - the whole, did Sheshbazzar bring up with the upbringing of the exile, out of Babylon unto Jerusalem.

Now, these, are the sons of the province, who came up from among the captives of the exile, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon exiled to Babylon, - who came back unto Jerusalem and Judah, every one unto his own city;

The sons of Parosh, two thousand one hundred and seventy-two;

The sons of Shephatiah, three hundred and seventy-two;

The sons of Arah, seven hundred and seventy-five;

The sons of Pahath-moab, belonging to the sons of Jeshua, Joab, two thousand eight hundred and twelve;

The sons of Elam, a thousand two hundred and fifty-four;