Ezra 2 (1 Esdras)

Ezra 2 (1 Esdras)

¹Josiah held the Passover to his Lord in Jerusalem, and he sacrificed the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month. ²He stationed the priests in their vestments according to their divisions in the temple of the LORD. ³He said to the Levites, "Serve the priests of Israel and consecrate them by the order of the holy ark of the LORD in the house that King Solomon son of David built. ⁴You no longer have to carry it on your shoulders. Now worship the LORD our God and make the people of Israel rejoice. Prepare yourselves by your families and by your clans, ⁵as King David of Israel wrote and as befits the greatness of Solomon his son. Stand in his temple in your divisions, you Levites, before your brothers the children of Israel, in your appointed order. ⁶Sacrifice the Passover, prepare the offerings for your brothers, and act according to the law of the LORD that was given to Moses." ⁷Josiah gave the people who were there thirty thousand lambs and kids and three thousand calves. He gave these to the people, the priests and the Levites from the king's house, as he had commanded. ⁸Hilkiah, Zechariah and Jehiel, the chief officers of the temple, gave the priests for their Passover two thousand six hundred sheep and three hundred calves. ⁹Jeconiah, Shemaiah, his brother Nethanel, Hashabiah, Ochiel and Joram, the commanders, gave the Levites for their Passover a thousand sheep and seven hundred calves. ¹⁰So the priests and the Levites did what was right according to the law, and they also ate the unleavened bread by their tribes. ¹¹By the divisions of their fathers' houses they brought offerings to the LORD before the people, as it is written in the book of Moses. They did the same in the morning. ¹²They roasted the Passover according to their law, and they boiled the offerings in pots and cauldrons with a pleasing aroma. ¹³They sent portions to all the people. After that they prepared for themselves and for their brothers the priests, the sons of Aaron. ¹⁴The priests offered the fat until the time was past, and the Levites prepared for themselves and for their brothers the priests, the sons of Aaron. ¹⁵The temple singers, the sons of Asaph, were in their places according to the order of David, Asaph, Zechariah and Eddinus, who were from the king. ¹⁶The gatekeepers were at every gate, and none of them had to leave his post, for their brothers the Levites prepared for them. ¹⁷So they completed the sacrifices of the LORD. ¹⁸On that day they held their Passover and brought their offerings to the altar of the LORD, as King Josiah had commanded. ¹⁹The children of Israel who were present at that time kept their Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread for seven days. ²⁰No Passover like it had been kept in Israel since the days of Samuel the prophet. ²¹None of the kings of Israel had kept a Passover like the one Josiah kept with the priests, the Levites, the Jews, and all Israel who were there and who lived in Jerusalem. ²²Josiah kept this Passover in the eighteenth year of his reign. ²³The works of Josiah stood upright before his God, with a heart full of the fear of the LORD. ²⁴As it was written in former times concerning those who sinned and acted wickedly against the LORD more than all the nations and kingdoms and provoked him, the LORD carried out his word against Israel. ²⁵After all these deeds of Josiah, Pharaoh king of Egypt rose up and went to make war at Carchemish on the Euphrates River, and Josiah went out to meet him. ²⁶The king of Egypt sent to him, saying, "What do I have to do with you, king of Judah? [unclear in the Ge'ez] ²⁷I was not sent against you by the LORD God, for I am making war at the Euphrates River. Now the LORD is with me, the LORD is beside me, and he is helping me. Withdraw, and do not oppose the LORD." [unclear in the Ge'ez] ²⁸But Josiah refused to turn back with his chariots. He set out to fight and refused to listen to the word from the mouth of the LORD through Jeremiah the prophet. ²⁹Instead he took his stand to fight him in the plain, and the commanders came down against King Josiah. ³⁰The king said to his servants, "Take me out of the battle, for I am very weak." His servants immediately took him out of the battle. ³¹He was put on his second chariot and brought back to Jerusalem. He died there and was buried in his father's tomb. ³²They mourned Josiah in all Judah. Jeremiah lamented for Josiah, and all of them, with the women, lament him to this day. It was handed down to all the race of Israel to do so forever. ³³This is written in the prophets of the kings of Judah, and all that Josiah did: his deeds, his glory, and his understanding of the law of the LORD. What he did before and after is written in the book of the prophets of the kings of Israel and Judah. ³⁴The people took Jeconiah son of Josiah and made him king in place of Josiah his father when he was twenty-three years old. ³⁵He reigned over Israel in Jerusalem for three months. Then the king of Egypt brought him back with him and deposed him from reigning in Jerusalem. ³⁶He fined the people a hundred talents of silver and one talent of gold. ³⁷The king of Egypt made his brother Jehoiakim king of Judah in Jerusalem. ³⁸Jehoiakim put the nobles in chains, and he seized his brother Zarius and brought him up out of the land of Egypt. ³⁹Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he began to reign over Judah in Jerusalem, and he did evil before the LORD. ⁴⁰After this Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up, bound him in iron chains, and took him to Babylon. ⁴¹Nebuchadnezzar took the holy vessels of the LORD, brought them to Babylon, and set them up in his palace. ⁴²This is written in the book of the prophets of the kings. ⁴³After this his son Jehoiachin reigned when he was eighteen years old. ⁴⁴He reigned three months and ten days in Jerusalem, and he did evil before the LORD. ⁴⁵In that year Nebuchadnezzar sent and brought him to Babylon with the holy vessels of the LORD. ⁴⁶He made Zedekiah king of Judah and Jerusalem when he was twenty-one years old, and he reigned eleven years. ⁴⁷He did evil before the LORD and did not fear the word of the LORD that was spoken by the mouth of Jeremiah the prophet. ⁴⁸King Nebuchadnezzar had made him swear by the name of the LORD, but he broke his oath. He stiffened his neck, hardened his heart, and rejected the law of the LORD, the God of Israel. ⁴⁹The leaders of the people and the priests also sinned greatly and acted far more wickedly than all the uncleanness of all the nations, and they defiled the holy place of the LORD that was sanctified in Jerusalem. ⁵⁰The God of their fathers sent his messenger to warn them and turn them back, because he would have spared them and spared their sanctuary too. ⁵¹But they mocked his messengers, and when the LORD spoke to them, they laughed at the prophets. ⁵²At last he was angry with his people because they worshiped idols, and he commanded the kings of the Chaldeans to come up against them. ⁵³They came and killed their young men with the sword around their sanctuary. They spared neither young man nor virgin, neither old nor young. They killed them all. ⁵⁴They took all the holy vessels of the LORD, great and small, the ark of the LORD, and the treasures of the king's house, and carried them to Babylon. ⁵⁵They burned the house of the LORD, tore down the walls of Jerusalem, and burned its towers with fire. ⁵⁶They destroyed all its splendor and led away the survivors as captives at spearpoint. ⁵⁷They took them to Babylon to the king of Persia, they and their children, so that the word of the LORD spoken by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled: ⁵⁸"The land shall enjoy its sabbaths, and all the days of its desolation it shall keep sabbath until seventy years are complete."