341 Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign; and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem. 2 And he did what was right in the sight of Jehovah, and walked in the ways of David his father, and turned not aside to the right hand nor to the left.
3 And in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young, he began to seek after the God of David his father; and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places, and the Asherahs, and the graven images, and the molten images. 4 And they broke down the altars of the Baals in his presence; and the sun-pillars that were on high above them he cut down; and the Asherahs and the graven images and the molten images he broke in pieces, and made dust [of them] and strewed it upon the graves of those that had sacrificed to them; 5 and he burned the bones of the priests upon their altars, and purged Judah and Jerusalem. 6 And [so did he] in the cities of Manasseh and Ephraim and Simeon, even to Naphtali, in their ruins round about; 7 and he broke down the altars, and beat the Asherahs and the graven images into powder, and cut down all the sun-pillars throughout the land of Israel, and returned to Jerusalem.
8 And in the eighteenth year of his reign, when he purged the land and the house, he sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, and Maaseiah the governor of the city, and Joah the son of Joahaz the chronicler, to repair the house of Jehovah his God. 9 And they came to Hilkijah the high priest, and they delivered [to them] the money that had been brought into the house of God, which the Levites that kept the doors had gathered of the hand of Manasseh and Ephraim, and of all the remnant of Israel, and of all Judah and Benjamin, and of the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 10 And they gave [it] into the hand of them that did the work, that had the oversight of the house of Jehovah; and they gave it to the workmen who wrought in the house of Jehovah to reinstate and repair the house: 11 they gave [it] to the carpenters and the builders, to buy hewn stone, and timber for the joists, and to floor the houses that the kings of Judah had destroyed. 12 And the men did the work faithfully. And over them were appointed Jahath and Obadiah, Levites, of the children of Merari, and Zechariah and Meshullam, of the children of the Kohathites, for the oversight; and all these Levites were skilled in instruments of music. 13 They were also over the bearers of burdens, and were overseers of all that worked in any manner of service. And of the Levites were the scribes, and officers, and doorkeepers.
14 And when they brought out the money that had been brought into the house of Jehovah, Hilkijah the priest found the book of the law of Jehovah by Moses. 15 Then Hilkijah spoke and said to Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of Jehovah. And Hilkijah gave the book to Shaphan. 16 And Shaphan carried the book to the king. And moreover he brought the king word again saying, All that was committed to the hand of thy servants, they do; 17 and they have emptied out the money that was found in the house of Jehovah, and have delivered it into the hand of the overseers, and into the hand of the workmen. 18 And Shaphan the scribe informed the king saying, Hilkijah the priest has given me a book. And Shaphan read out of it before the king. 19 And it came to pass when the king heard the words of the law, that he rent his garments. 20 And the king commanded Hilkijah, and Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and Abdon the son of Micah, and Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah a servant of the king, saying, 21 Go, inquire of Jehovah for me, and for them that are left in Israel and in Judah, concerning the words of the book which is found; for great is the wrath of Jehovah that is poured out upon us, because our fathers have not kept the word of Jehovah, to do according to all that is written in this book. 22 And Hilkijah and they that the king [had appointed] went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tokehath, son of Hasrah, keeper of the wardrobe: now she dwelt in Jerusalem in the second quarter [of the town]; and they spoke with her to that effect. 23 And she said to them, Thus saith Jehovah the God of Israel: Tell the man that sent you to me, 24 Thus saith Jehovah: Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, and upon the inhabitants thereof, all the curses that are written in the book which they have read before the king of Judah. 25 Because they have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the works of their hands; therefore my fury shall be poured out upon this place, and shall not be quenched. 26 But to the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of Jehovah, thus shall ye say to him: Thus saith Jehovah the God of Israel touching the words which thou hast heard: 27 Because thy heart was tender, and thou didst humble thyself before God, when thou heardest his words against this place and against the inhabitants thereof, and humbledst thyself before me, and didst rend thy garments and weep before me, I also have heard [thee], saith Jehovah. 28 Behold, I will gather thee unto thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered to thy grave in peace; and thine eyes shall not see all the evil that I will bring upon this place, and upon the inhabitants thereof. And they brought the king word again.
29 And the king sent and gathered all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem. 30 And the king went up into the house of Jehovah, and all the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the priests and the Levites, and all the people, great and small; and he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant which had been found in the house of Jehovah. 31 And the king stood in his place, and made a covenant before Jehovah, to walk after Jehovah, 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. 32 And he caused all that were present in Jerusalem and Benjamin to stand [to it]. And the inhabitants of Jerusalem did according to the covenant of God, the God of their fathers. 33 And Josiah removed all the abominations out of all the countries that belonged to the children of Israel, and made to serve all that were found in Israel,—to serve Jehovah their God: all his days they did not depart from following Jehovah, the God of their fathers.
351 And Josiah held a passover to Jehovah in Jerusalem; and they slaughtered the passover on the fourteenth of the first month. 2 And he set the priests in their charges, and encouraged them to the service of the house of Jehovah. 3 And he said to the Levites, that taught all Israel, [and] who were holy to Jehovah, Put the holy ark in the house that Solomon the son of David, king of Israel, built; ye have not to carry it upon your shoulders. Serve now Jehovah your God, and his people Israel; 4 and prepare yourselves by your fathers' houses, in your divisions, according to the writing of David king of Israel, and according to the writing of Solomon his son; 5 and stand in the sanctuary for the classes of the fathers' houses, for your brethren, the children of the people, and [according] to the divisions of the fathers' houses of the Levites; 6 and slaughter the passover, and hallow yourselves, and prepare it for your brethren, that they may do according to the word of Jehovah through Moses. 7 And Josiah gave for the children of the people a heave-offering of the flocks, lambs and goats, all for the passover-offerings, for all that were present—to the number of thirty thousand, and three thousand bullocks: these were of the king's substance. 8 And his princes gave a voluntary heave-offering for the people, for the priests, and for the Levites: Hilkijah and Zechariah and Jehiel, rulers of the house of God, gave to the priests for the passover-offerings two thousand six hundred [small cattle] and three hundred oxen; 9 and Conaniah, and Shemaiah and Nethaneel, his brethren, and Hashabiah and Jeiel and Jozabad, chief of the Levites, gave as heave-offering to the Levites for the passover-offerings five thousand [small cattle] and five hundred oxen. 10 And the service was prepared, and the priests stood in their place, and the Levites in their divisions, according to the king's commandment. 11 And they slaughtered the passover, and the priests sprinkled [the blood] from their hand, and the Levites flayed them. 12 And they set apart the burnt-offerings to give them to the classes of the fathers' houses of the children of the people, to present them to Jehovah, as it is written in the book of Moses. And so [did they] with the oxen. 13 And they roasted the passover with fire according to the ordinance; and the consecrated things they boiled in pots and in cauldrons and in pans, and divided them speedily among all the children of the people. 14 And afterwards they made ready for themselves and for the priests; because the priests, the sons of Aaron, [were engaged] in offering up the burnt-offerings and the fat until night; therefore the Levites prepared for themselves, and for the priests, the sons of Aaron. 15 And the singers, the sons of Asaph, were in their place, according to the commandment of David, and Asaph, and Heman, and Jeduthun the king's seer; and the doorkeepers were at every gate; they had not to depart from their service, for their brethren the Levites prepared for them. 16 And all the service of Jehovah was prepared the same day, to hold the passover, and to offer burnt-offerings on the altar of Jehovah according to the commandment of king Josiah. 17 And the children of Israel that were present held the passover at that time, and the feast of unleavened bread seven days. 18 And there was no passover like to that holden in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet; neither did all the kings of Israel hold such a passover as Josiah held, and the priests, and the Levites, and all Judah and Israel that were present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 19 In the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah was this passover holden.
20 After all this, when Josiah had arranged the house, Necho king of Egypt came up to fight against Karkemish at the Euphrates; and Josiah went out against him. 21 And he sent messengers to him, saying, What have I to do with thee, thou king of Judah? I come not against thee this day, but against the house with which I have war; and God has told me to make haste: keep aloof from God who is with me, that he destroy thee not. 22 But Josiah would not turn his face from him, but disguised himself, that he might fight against him; and he hearkened not to the words of Necho from the mouth of God; and he came to fight in the valley of Megiddo. 23 And the archers shot at king Josiah; and the king said to his servants, Have me away, for I am sore wounded. 24 And his servants took him out from the chariot, and put him in the second chariot that he had, and brought him to Jerusalem. And he died, and was buried in the sepulchres of his fathers. And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah. 25 And Jeremiah lamented for Josiah; and all the singing men and singing women spoke of Josiah in their lamentations to this day; and they made them an ordinance for Israel. And behold, they are written in the lamentations. 26 And the rest of the acts of Josiah, and his good deeds, according to that which is written in the law of Jehovah, 27 and his acts, first and last, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah.
361 And the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, and made him king in his father's stead, in Jerusalem. 2 Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he began to reign; and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. 3 And the king of Egypt put him down at Jerusalem, and imposed a fine upon the land of a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold. 4 And the king of Egypt made Eliakim his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. And Necho took Jehoahaz his brother, and carried him to Egypt.
5 Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he began to reign; and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem; and he did evil in the sight of Jehovah his God. 6 Against him came up Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and bound him with chains of brass to carry him to Babylon. 7 And Nebuchadnezzar carried [part] of the vessels of the house of Jehovah to Babylon, and put them in his temple at Babylon. 8 And the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim, and his abominations which he did, and that which was found in him, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah. And Jehoiachin his son reigned in his stead.
9 Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he began to reign; and he reigned three months and ten days in Jerusalem; and he did evil in the sight of Jehovah. 10 And at the turn of the year king Nebuchadnezzar sent and had him brought to Babylon, with the precious vessels of the house of Jehovah; and he made Zedekiah his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem.
11 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he began to reign; and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. 12 And he did evil in the sight of Jehovah his God; he humbled not himself before the prophet Jeremiah speaking from the mouth of Jehovah. 13 And he also rebelled against king Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him take oath by God; and he stiffened his neck, and hardened his heart from returning to Jehovah the God of Israel. 14 All the chiefs of the priests also, and the people, increased their transgressions, according to all the abominations of the nations; and they defiled the house of Jehovah which he had hallowed in Jerusalem. 15 And Jehovah the God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers, rising up early and sending; because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling-place. 16 But they mocked at the messengers of God, and despised his words, and scoffed at his prophets, until the fury of Jehovah rose against his people, and there was no remedy.
17 And he brought up [against] them the king of the Chaldees, and slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and spared not young man nor maiden, old man nor him of hoary head: he gave [them] all into his hand. 18 And all the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of Jehovah, and the treasures of the king and of his princes, he brought all to Babylon. 19 And they burned the house of God, and broke down the wall of Jerusalem, and burned all the palaces thereof with fire, and all the precious vessels thereof were given up to destruction. 20 And them that had escaped from the sword he carried away to Babylon; and they became servants to him and his sons, until the reign of the kingdom of Persia; 21 to fulfil the word of Jehovah by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its sabbaths. All the days of its desolation it kept sabbath, to fulfil seventy years.
22 And in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of Jehovah by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, Jehovah stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, and he made a proclamation throughout his kingdom, and also in writing, saying, 23 Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: All the kingdoms of the earth has Jehovah the God of the heavens given to me, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whosoever there is among you of all his people, Jehovah his God be with him, and let him go up.
191 Then Pilate therefore took Jesus and scourged [him]. 2 And the soldiers having plaited a crown of thorns put it on his head, and put a purple robe on him, 3 and came to him and said, Hail, king of the Jews! and gave him blows on the face. 4 And Pilate went out again and says to them, Lo, I bring him out to you, that ye may know that I find in him no fault whatever. 5 (Jesus therefore went forth without, wearing the crown of thorn, and the purple robe.) And he says to them, Behold the man! 6 When therefore the chief priests and the officers saw him they cried out saying, Crucify, crucify [him]. Pilate says to them, Take him ye and crucify [him], for I find no fault in him. 7 The Jews answered him, We have a law, and according to [our] law he ought to die, because he made himself Son of God. 8 When Pilate therefore heard this word, he was the rather afraid, 9 and went into the praetorium again and says to Jesus, Whence art thou? But Jesus gave him no answer. 10 Pilate therefore says to him, Speakest thou not to me? Dost thou not know that I have authority to release thee and have authority to crucify thee? 11 Jesus answered, Thou hadst no authority whatever against me if it were not given to thee from above. On this account he that has delivered me up to thee has [the] greater sin. 12 From this time Pilate sought to release him; but the Jews cried out saying, If thou releasest this [man], thou art not a friend to Caesar. Every one making himself a king speaks against Caesar. 13 Pilate therefore, having heard these words, led Jesus out and sat down upon [the] judgment-seat, at a place called Pavement, but in Hebrew Gabbatha; 14 (now it was [the] preparation of the passover; it was about the sixth hour;) and he says to the Jews, Behold your king! 15 But they cried out, Take [him] away, take [him] away, crucify him. Pilate says to them, Shall I crucify your king? The chief priests answered, We have no king but Caesar.
16 Then therefore he delivered him up to them, that he might be crucified; and they took Jesus and led him away.
17 And he went out, bearing his cross, to the place called [place] of a skull, which is called in Hebrew, Golgotha; 18 where they crucified him, and with him two others, [one] on this side, and [one] on that, and Jesus in the middle.
19 And Pilate wrote a title also and put it on the cross. But there was written: Jesus the Nazaraean, the King of the Jews. 20 This title therefore many of the Jews read, for the place of the city where Jesus was crucified was near; and it was written in Hebrew, Greek, Latin. 21 The chief priests of the Jews therefore said to Pilate, Do not write, The king of the Jews, but that he said, I am king of the Jews. 22 Pilate answered, What I have written, I have written.
(Read John 19:1-18)
Little did Pilate think with what holy regard these sufferings of Christ would, in after-ages, be thought upon and spoken of by the best and greatest of men. Our Lord Jesus came forth, willing to be exposed to their scorn. It is good for every one with faith, to behold Christ Jesus in his sufferings. Behold him, and love him; be still looking unto Jesus. Did their hatred sharpen their endeavours against him? and shall not our love for him quicken our endeavours for him and his kingdom? Pilate seems to have thought that Jesus might be some person above the common order. Even natural conscience makes men afraid of being found fighting against God. As our Lord suffered for the sins both of Jews and Gentiles, it was a special part of the counsel of Divine Wisdom, that the Jews should first purpose his death, and the Gentiles carry that purpose into effect. Had not Christ been thus rejected of men, we had been for ever rejected of God. Now was the Son of man delivered into the hands of wicked and unreasonable men. He was led forth for us, that we might escape. He was nailed to the cross, as a Sacrifice bound to the altar. The Scripture was fulfilled; he did not die at the altar among the sacrifices, but among criminals sacrificed to public justice. And now let us pause, and with faith look upon Jesus. Was ever sorrow like unto his sorrow? See him bleeding, see him dying, see him and love him! love him, and live to him!
(Read John 19:19-30)
Here are some remarkable circumstances of Jesus' death, more fully related than before. Pilate would not gratify the chief priests by allowing the writing to be altered; which was doubtless owing to a secret power of God upon his heart, that this statement of our Lord's character and authority might continue. Many things done by the Roman soldiers were fulfilments of the prophecies of the Old Testament. All things therein written shall be fulfilled. Christ tenderly provided for his mother at his death. Sometimes, when God removes one comfort from us, he raises up another for us, where we looked not for it. Christ's example teaches all men to honour their parents in life and death; to provide for their wants, and to promote their comfort by every means in their power. Especially observe the dying word wherewith Jesus breathed out his soul. It is finished; that is, the counsels of the Father concerning his sufferings were now fulfilled. It is finished; all the types and prophecies of the Old Testament, which pointed at the sufferings of the Messiah, were accomplished. It is finished; the ceremonial law is abolished; the substance is now come, and all the shadows are done away. It is finished; an end is made of transgression by bringing in an everlasting righteousness. His sufferings were now finished, both those of his soul, and those of his body. It is finished; the work of man's redemption and salvation is now completed. His life was not taken from him by force, but freely given up.
