Bible & Koran

1 1 Josiah commanded that Passover be celebrated in Jerusalem to honor the Lord, and on the fourteenth day of the first month, the lambs were killed for the Passover celebration.

2 Josiah first made sure that each priest was wearing the proper priestly clothes and had been assigned to one of the priestly groups. Then he gave orders for the priests to take their places in the Lord's temple. 3-4 And he told the Levites who helped the priests in the temple: 6 When someone brings you a Passover lamb, you must kill it and prepare it to be sacrificed to the Lord. Make sure the people celebrate according to the commands that the Lord gave to Moses.

7 Josiah donated 30,000 young sheep and goats and 3,000 calves from his own flocks and herds, so that the people who had come to celebrate Passover could offer them as sacrifices. Josiah did this to keep a promise he had made to the people, the priests, and the Levites. 8 In addition, Hilkiah, Zechariah, and Jehiel, the officials in charge of the temple, gave the priests 2,600 sheep and 300 calves, so that the priests could celebrate Passover. 9 Finally, Jeconiah, Shemaiah and his brother Nethanel, together with Hashabiah, Ochiel, and Joram, also donated animals. These men were army commanders in charge of 1,000 troops each, and together they gave the Levites a total of 5,000 sheep and 700 calves.

10-11 On the morning of the Passover Festival, the priests and the Levites dressed in their special robes and brought the thin bread into the temple. They took their assigned places in groups of families and clans in front of the people. Then they began offering the Passover sacrifices to the Lord, as the Law of Moses commands. 12 The Passover lambs were roasted over fires, just as the Law said, and the meat from the other sacrifices was boiled in large bronze pots. The cooking meat smelled wonderful! 13-14 All day long, the priests were busy offering sacrifices and burning the animals' fat on the altar. And when the Passover animals had been prepared for all the people, the Levites then prepared animals for themselves and for their relatives, the priests. 15-16 During the celebration, some of the Levites prepared Passover animals for those Levites of the Asaph clan who were temple musicians, and also for those Levites who were guards at the temple gates. They did this so that the musicians did not have to leave the places they had been assigned by King David and his official representatives, Asaph, Zechariah, and Eddinus, and so that the temple guards did not have to leave their posts.

17-18 On that day, the people honored the Lord by celebrating Passover, and on the altar they offered sacrifices to him, just as King Josiah had commanded. 19 The people who had come for Passover then celebrated the Festival of Thin Bread for the next seven days.

20 Passover had not been observed like this since the time of Samuel the prophet. 21 No king before Josiah had ever held a better celebration of Passover. It was celebrated by priests and Levites and by people who came into Jerusalem from towns all over Judah, together with the people of Jerusalem and even with people from northern Israel who were living in Jerusalem. 22 This Passover was in the eighteenth year of Josiah's rule in Judah.