2 Chronicles Chapter 35    

“Put the holy ark in the house that Solomon the son of David king of Israel built.” So the Ark of the Covenant had been moved from the Temple for some reason, but that reason is unknown. It may be an idolatrous king had moved it from the Temple, or it may have been taken out to war but then not returned.

“For you, there is no longer a burden on the shoulders.” The exact meaning of this phrase is unclear. The Levites carried the Ark of the Covenant around from place to place, and Josiah may be saying they will not need to carry it anymore. However, it may be a more general reference to carrying all kinds of things that may not now be necessary, which opens the door for them to serve God’s people more. Thus the concluding phrase, “Now serve Yahweh your God and his people Israel.”

“the holy place.” In this context, “the holy place” refers to the entire Temple complex, not just the Temple building proper.

“your relatives the common people.” This is more literally, “your brothers, the sons of the people,” but in this case, it refers to fellow Israelites who were the common people.

“and let there be Levites for each group from a father’s house.” The text is not particularly clear, but what it seems to be saying is that there are to be divisions of the Levites and each family group of the common people was to be associated with a given division of the Levites.

“make yourselves holy.” The people were to do what it took to make themselves holy in the sight of God (cp. Lev. 11:44).

[For more on “make yourselves holy,” see commentary on Joshua 3:5.]

“lambs and young goats.” Both lambs and goats were acceptable Passover sacrifices (cp. Exod. 12:5).

“the Passover offerings.” The Hebrew text simply has “the Passovers,” where “Passover” means the Passover sacrifice.

“2,600 small livestock.” The Hebrew text is just “2,600 and 300 cattle,” but the 2,600 obviously refers to small livestock that would be sheep and goats, both of which were acceptable Passover sacrifices (Exod. 12:5).

“Hilkiah and Zechariah and Jehiel, the rulers of the house of God.” These men seem to be the “officials” in the first part of the verse. They are priests in high positions, and they gave to the other priests, and in the next verse (2 Chron. 35:9), the chiefs of the Levites gave to the rest of the Levites.

“the Passover offerings.” The Hebrew text simply has “the Passovers,” where “Passover” means the Passover sacrifice.

“small livestock.” The small livestock would be sheep and goats, both of which were acceptable Passover sacrifices (Exod. 12:5).

“and 500 cattle.” The cattle could not be for the Passover offerings but would have been for other kinds of offerings. The cattle might be used for different offerings around the Passover time, but not for the sacrifices used at the Passover meal.

“that they received from them.” The priests seem to have gotten the blood from the Levites who slaughtered the animals (cp. 2 Chron. 35:6).

“They set apart the burnt offerings.” The small livestock were for the Passover offerings, and then the cattle mentioned in the verses above would be for the burnt offerings, which were completely burned up except for the skins, which were given to the priests.

“they boiled the holy offerings.” There must have been other offerings that were boiled and given to the people besides the Passover offerings themselves and the animals sacrificed as burnt offerings.

“the sons of Asaph.” The phrase means the descendants of Asaph. Asaph himself lived in the time of David and was long dead.

“Neco king of Egypt.” In 2 Kings 23:29, the man is Pharaoh Neco king of Egypt.

“against the house with which I have war.” Pharaoh Neco left Egypt to go to the aid of Assyria in their battle against Babylon. It seems that Egypt, which had not been at war with Assyria, feared that Babylon’s successful attacks on Assyria would continue and would open the door for Babylon to gain control of Palestine and then attack Egypt. Assyria had attacked and destroyed Israel and had attacked and destroyed many cities in Judah when Hezekiah was king, and so Josiah would not have wanted to see Assyria helped. There is no mention of him asking God if he should attack Egypt, to him it seemed like the logical thing to do. However, God was with Babylon, and Neco’s warning that God would be with him and not Josiah if Josiah attacked him went unheeded (2 Chron. 35:21). Actually, Babylon defeated both Assyria and Egypt at Carchemish, which opened the door for the Babylonian conquest of Israel and Judah.

“would not turn his face from him.” This is an idiom that means that King Josiah would not be dissuaded from fighting against Neco of Egypt.

“but disguised himself.” In 1 Kings 22:30, king Ahab disguised himself and died, just like Josiah did here. And both were killed with arrows.

“seriously wounded.” The Hebrew is more literally “very sick,” but the “sickness” can be caused by many things, in this case, being wounded.

“and brought him to Jerusalem.” Josiah was dead when he arrived in Jerusalem (2 Kings 23:30).

“the male and female singers.” The Hebrew word for “singers” can also refer to poets. It is likely that singers and poets spoke of Josiah.

“the Laments.” The “Laments” is not the book of Lamentations, but a lost collection of Laments.