2 Chronicles 35

The Hebrew word for “Passover” is pesach (PAY sock). It’s an observance best known for a meal today called a seder (SAY dur), which means “order.” That’s a reference to the fact that the Passover meal is eaten as a meticulously detailed ritual of reading, remembering, and prayer. The word “Passover” comes from the story of God or one of his angels killing the Egyptian firstborn, but “passing over” Hebrew homes with animal blood on the doorframes. Passover comes in the spring, March or April. On the ancient Jewish calendar, people called it Nisan, the first month of the year. That’s around Eastertime. Jesus went to Jerusalem to observe Passover when he was arrested and crucified.

Israelites followed a lunar calendar, with every month starting at the first tiny crescent after the new moon. A new moon is when the moon is hidden behind earth’s shadow for one day. The sun, moon, and earth are aligned, with earth in the middle.

The Box of the Law was also called the Ark of the Covenant. It was a wooden chest plated with gold all over. Inside that chest was a golden jar with some manna, Aaron’s almond wood staff that budded, and stone tablets engraved with the Ten Commandments. Covering the chest was a lid with figures representing glorious celestial beings called cherubim. This was the place where God’s people found forgiveness (Exodus 25:10-22; Hebrews 9:4-5). It was lost to history, perhaps stolen by invaders such as the Assyrians from what is now northern Iraq or the Babylonians of southern Iraq who leveled Jerusalem and the Temple in 586 BC.

See 1 Chronicles 24; 28:19-21; 2 Chronicles 8:14).

Ritual purification involved bathing, washing clothes, abstinence from sex, and offering a sacrifice to atone for sins (Numbers 8). And there was a waiting period for anyone who had touched something ritually unclean, like a dead animal or a corpse, or if they had sexual relations (Exodus 19:15; Leviticus 15).

Originally, the person who brought the Passover lamb killed it (Deuteronomy 16:5-6; Exodus 12:3-6, 21). Josiah, instead, followed a tradition that King Hezekiah started out of necessity. Too many people came ritually unclean. So he mobilized the Levites to slaughter the animals (2 Chronicles 30:17).

It’s unclear which laws the writer is talking about. One guess is the peace offering, since some fat of that offering was burned on the altar (Leviticus 3).

They had to “boil away the blood” (Leviticus 6:28). They weren’t allowed to eat meat with blood in it. The blood of a sacrifice belonged to God. “Blood is what brings a body to life. I’ve given you blood to use exclusively on the altar. It atones for your sin—it gets rid of your guilt so you can stay on good terms with the LORD. Blood is the price of your sin. So I’m saying if you’re an Israelite, don’t eat anything with blood in it” (Leviticus 17:11-12).

Often called “Feast of Unleavened Bread.” Observant Jews eat a large cracker-like bread called matzo. The day the week-long observance begins is the 15th of the month, according to Leviticus 23:6. “For seven days, don’t eat any bread with yeast in it. Eat only bread made without yeast. … Do this in the first month of the year because that’s the month you came out of Egypt” (Exodus 23:15).

Carchemish is a town on the border of what is now Syria and Turkey. See note about the Battle at Megiddo, (35:22).

This battle took place in 610 BC at the Megiddo fortress, about 55 miles (90 km) north of Jerusalem, a 2-3-day trip. That’s where a mountain pass opens into the sprawling Jezreel Valley. Neco’s army came up from the south along the Mediterranean seacoast, apparently hoping to peacefully travel through the region and then reinforce Assyrians who had been run out of their own country (2 Chronicles 35:25). Coalition forces of Babylonians and Medes, from what are now southern Iraq and Iran, overran the Assyrian capital of Nineveh, today’s Mosul, in northern Iraq. Babylonians intended to finish off the Assyrians, which happened later, in the Battle of Carchemish (605 BC). Why Josiah decided to turn his army into a speed bump is unknown. Perhaps he felt the Babylonian team needed his support. They didn’t. Neco ran over the speed bump and continued north, where the Egyptians then attempted to help Assyrians capture the city of Haran. He went home disappointed. On his way home, through Judah, he stopped to settle the score by demanding wealth and the right to pick Judah’s next king.

Jeremiah was quite the poet. He wrote what sounds like the lyrics for many songs preserved in the Bible book of Jeremiah. But there’s nothing in the prophetic book that reads like the lyrics of a blues song lamenting the death of Josiah. The prophet certainly wrote respectfully about the king, describing him as honest and godly (Jeremiah 22:15-16). And he told the people not to weep for the dead king, a good man, but to weep for his no-good son and successor, King Jehoahaz (Jeremiah 22:10). But there is nothing like the funeral song David wrote for his good friend Jonathan, who died in the Battle of Mount Gilboa. David’s song is known as “The Song of the Bow” (2 Samuel 1:17-27). “Israel’s glory lies dead on the hills, for our mighty warriors have fallen” (verse 19).