4. Josiah said to them, “You must no longer carry it from place to place, but you are to serve the Lord your God and minister to his people Israel. Get ready by family and clan to carry out your duties
5. according to the directions given by King David and the splendid way that they were carried out by his son King Solomon. Take your places in the Temple in proper order according to your family divisions as Levites serving the Lord for the people of Israel.
6. Kill the Passover lambs and goats and prepare the sacrifices for your fellow-Israelites. Then celebrate the Passover according to the instructions that the Lord gave to Moses.”
7. Josiah gave to the people who were present 30,000 young sheep and goats and 3,000 calves. These were a gift from the royal estates to carry out the promise he had made to the people, the priests, and the Levites.
8. The officials in charge of the Temple — Hilkiah, Zechariah, and Jehiel — also gave the priests 2,600 sheep and 300 calves for sacrifices during the festival.
9. And the army commanders — Conaniah, Shemaiah and his brother Nethanel, Hashabiah, Ochiel, and Joram — contributed 5,000 sheep and 700 calves for the Levites to offer as sacrifices.
10-11. This is what happened. The priests and the Levites, dressed in the proper manner and carrying the unleavened bread, came that morning to present the offerings to the Lord according to the instructions in the Law of Moses. They took their positions in front of the people in the order of tribal and family divisions.
12. The Levites roasted the Passover sacrifices and then boiled them in pots and cauldrons, making a pleasant smell.
13. Then they distributed the meat to all the people. After that was done, they took meat for themselves and for the priests, the descendants of Aaron,
14. because the priests were kept busy until night burning the fat of the sacrifices.
15-16. The guards at the Temple gates and the Temple singers of the Levite clan of Asaph (with Asaph, Zechariah, and Eddinus, who were representatives of the king) remained at the places assigned to them by King David's instructions. They did not need to leave their posts, because the other Levites prepared the Passover for them.
17-18. So, as King Josiah had commanded, everything that related to the sacrifices offered to the Lord was done that day; the Passover Festival was celebrated, and the sacrifices were offered on the altar.
19. All the people of Israel who were present at that time kept the Passover and observed the Festival of Unleavened Bread for seven days.
20. Since the days of the prophet Samuel, the Passover had never been celebrated so faithfully.
21-22. None of the former kings of Israel had ever celebrated a Passover like this one celebrated by King Josiah in Jerusalem in the eighteenth year of his reign; it was celebrated by the priests, the Levites, and all the people of Judah and Israel.
23. The Lord was pleased with everything Josiah did, for he was a deeply religious man.
24. But the ancient records also tell the story of those who sinned and rebelled against the Lord during Josiah's reign. They sinned more than any other nation or kingdom and did things that offended the Lord so much that his judgement fell on the people of Israel.