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| 1 And Josiah held a passover to Jehovah in Jerusalem; and they slaughtered the passover on the fourteenth of the first month. |
The fourteenth day – The full of the moon, symbol of the Law covenant and the people under that covenant. Christ's crucifixion at the full of the moon, and the fact that it immediately began to wane, foreshadowed Israel's national decline. F481
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| 2 And he set the priests in their charges, and encouraged them to the service of the house of Jehovah. |
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| 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; |
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| 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; |
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| 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; |
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| 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. |
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| 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. |
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| 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; |
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| 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. |
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| 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. |
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| 11 And they slaughtered the passover, and the priests sprinkled the blood from their hand, and the Levites flayed them. |
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| 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. |
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| 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. |
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| 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. |
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| 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. |
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| 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. |
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| 17 And the children of Israel that were present held the passover at that time, and the feast of unleavened bread seven days. |
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| 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. |
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| 19 In the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah was this passover holden. |
In the eighteenth year – 641 BC, parallel to 1879 AD, the date of the founding of Zion's Watch Tower. R3574:4*
This passover kept – Typifying the great passover, the resurrection of the dead in Christ in the year 1878 AD and the passing over of the feet members of the Body since that date at the moment of death. R3574:4*
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| 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. |
Josiah went out – Acting contrary to the Lord's will. Q765:2
What a lesson to all--to mind their own business and not to meddle in the affairs of others. Q765:2
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| 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. |
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| 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. |
Valley of Megiddo – These battles were, in a sense, typical. OV268:2
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| 23 And the archers shot at king Josiah; and the king said to his servants, Have me away, for I am sore wounded. |
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| 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. |
And he died – Despite the promise of 2 Kings 22:20 that he would die in peaceontinued faith and obedience to the Lord. Q765:2
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| 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. |
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| 26 And the rest of the acts of Josiah, and his good deeds, according to that which is written in the law of Jehovah, |
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| 27 and his acts, first and last, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah. |
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