Context & Key Themes
2 Chronicles 35 covers Josiah’s Passover — described as the greatest since Samuel — and then the tragedy of his death at Megiddo. The Passover is meticulous: Josiah establishes the priests in their offices, encourages the Levites, organizes the service according to the divisions David established, provides from his own flocks thirty thousand lambs and three thousand bulls, gives to the priests, gives to the Levites. The Levites prepare for their brothers the priests and for themselves. Everything is in order. And then Necho king of Egypt comes through Judah on his way to fight at Carchemish. He sends messengers to Josiah: what have we to do with each other, O king of Judah? I am not coming against you today but against the house with which I am at war, and God has commanded me to hurry. Cease opposing God, who is with me, lest he destroy you. Nevertheless Josiah does not turn away from him but disguises himself to fight him. He is wounded by the archers and dies and is buried in the tombs of his fathers. All Judah and Jerusalem mourn him. Jeremiah also laments for Josiah.
Key Verse
“No Passover like it had been kept in Israel since the days of Samuel the prophet. None of the kings of Israel had kept such a Passover as was kept by Josiah.”
— 2 Chronicles 35:18
Summary
Josiah keeps a Passover to the Lord in Jerusalem. They slaughter the Passover lamb on the fourteenth day of the first month. He appoints the priests to their offices and encourages them in the service of the house of the Lord. He says to the Levites who teach all Israel and who are holy to the Lord: put the holy ark in the house Solomon the son of David, king of Israel, built. You need not carry it on your shoulders. Now serve the Lord your God and his people Israel. Prepare yourselves according to your fathers’ houses by your divisions, as David the king of Israel prescribed and as his son Solomon prescribed. Stand in the holy place according to the groupings of the fathers’ houses of your brothers the laypeople, and according to the division of the Levites by fathers’ house. Josiah contributes from his own possessions for the whole assembly thirty thousand lambs and young goats, and three thousand bulls. The service is prepared. The priests stand in their place, the Levites in their divisions according to the king’s command. They roast the Passover lamb with fire. They boil the holy offerings in pots, in cauldrons, and in pans, and carry them quickly to all the laypeople. Afterward they prepare for themselves and for the priests, because the priests, the sons of Aaron, were offering the burnt offerings and the fat parts until night. So the Levites prepare for themselves and for the priests the sons of Aaron. No Passover like it had been kept in Israel since the days of Samuel the prophet. None of the kings of Israel had kept such a Passover as was kept by Josiah, with the priests and the Levites and all Judah and Israel who were present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. After all this, when Josiah had prepared the temple, Necho king of Egypt came up to fight at Carchemish on the Euphrates, and Josiah went out to meet him. But he sent envoys to him, saying: what have we to do with each other, king of Judah? I am not coming against you this day, but against the house with which I am at war. And God has commanded me to hurry. Cease opposing God, who is with me, lest he destroy you. Nevertheless Josiah did not turn away from him, but disguised himself in order to fight with him. He did not listen to the words of Necho from the mouth of God, but came to fight in the plain of Megiddo. And the archers shot King Josiah. And the king said to his servants: take me away, for I am badly wounded. So his servants took him out of the chariot and carried him in his second chariot and brought him to Jerusalem. And he died and was buried in the tombs of his fathers. All Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah. Jeremiah also uttered a lament for Josiah.
Reflection
The Passover described in this chapter is the culmination of everything the Chronicler has been building toward in Josiah’s reign. The meticulous organization of priests and Levites in their proper divisions, the king’s personal contribution from his own flocks, the Levites preparing for their brothers, the whole machine of worship running exactly as David designed and Solomon commissioned — it is the most perfect institutional expression of covenant worship in the book’s history. The Chronicler’s comparison to Samuel rather than to Hezekiah or Solomon is his way of reaching back to the establishment of the monarchy’s foundations. Nothing like this has happened since Israel first became what it was supposed to be.
Josiah’s death at Megiddo is the hardest single event in the book to account for theologically. Necho explicitly says he comes not against Josiah but against Carchemish, and explicitly says God has commanded him to hurry. The Chronicler notes that Necho’s words come from the mouth of God, and that Josiah does not listen to them. He disguises himself to fight anyway. And the archers wound him and he dies. This is not a reward for faithfulness. It is the death of the book’s most faithful king in a battle he was warned away from by a pagan king conveying a genuine word from God. The Chronicler does not try to resolve this. He records it, notes the mourning — all Judah, Jerusalem, Jeremiah — and moves to the rapid collapse that follows.