Josiah's Passover and Death at Megiddo

"Put the holy ark in the house which Solomon the son of David king of Israel did build; it shall not be a burden upon your shoulders." Josiah gives 30,000 lambs and kids and 3,000 bullocks; the princes and Levites give more. "And there was no passover like to that kept in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet."

"After all this, when Josiah had prepared the temple, Necho king of Egypt came up to fight against Carchemish by Euphrates: and Josiah went out against him." Necho: "What have I to do with thee, thou king of Judah? I come not against thee this day, but against the house wherewith I have war: for God commanded me to make haste: forbear thee from meddling with God, who is with me, that he destroy thee not."

"Nevertheless Josiah would not turn his face from him, but disguised himself, that he might fight with him, and hearkened not unto the words of Necho from the mouth of God, and came to fight in the valley of Megiddo. And the archers shot at king Josiah… and he died, and was buried in one of the sepulchres of his fathers. And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah. And Jeremiah lamented for Josiah."

Two deaths, two meanings

2 Kings 23:29 reports only that Necho killed Josiah at Megiddo "when he had seen him." Chronicles describes a battle and gives a reason: Josiah ignored God's word through a foreign king. The disguise and archers recall Ahab's death (18:29–34). 1 Esdras 1 retells it, saying Necho's words came from Jeremiah's mouth. See the passage page.

The Greek addition after 35:19

The library's Greek adds, after 35:19, a passage from 2 Kings 23:24–27 (Josiah removes mediums and idols, "there was no king like him," but God's anger remained). This is the Greek "35:19a–d."

Jeremiah's lament

"They are written in the lamentations" (35:25) does not refer to our book of Lamentations, which mourns Jerusalem's fall; the library's Greek nevertheless says "the book of Lamentations."