The king commanded all the people, saying, “Keep the Passover to Yahweh your God, as it is written in this book of the covenant.”
Parallel translations
- KJV And the king commanded all the people, saying, Keep the passover unto the LORD your God, as it is written in the book of this covenant.
- BSB The king commanded all the people, “Keep the Passover of the LORD your God, as it is written in this Book of the Covenant.”
- NKJV Then the king commanded all the people, saying, “Keep the Passover to the Lord your God, as it is written in this Book of the Covenant.”
- NASB Then the king commanded all the people, saying, “Celebrate the Passover to the Lord your God as it is written in this Book of the Covenant.”
- NLT King Josiah then issued this order to all the people: “You must celebrate the Passover to the Lord your God, as required in this Book of the Covenant.”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Josiah commands the people to keep the Passover as written in the Book of the Covenant. Restored worship returns to the feasts God commanded.
Overview
Having purged the land of idolatry, Josiah calls the nation to celebrate Passover according to Scripture, a feast long neglected. Passover commemorated God's deliverance of Israel from Egypt by the blood of the lamb. It points directly to Christ our Passover (1 Cor. 5:7), whose blood delivers His people from sin and death.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- Deut 16:1–8Observe the month of Abib, and keep the Passover to Yahweh your God; for in the month of Abib Yahweh your God brought you out of Egypt by night.
- Num 9:2–5“Moreover let the children of Israel keep the Passover in its appointed season.
- 2 Chr 35:1–19Josiah kept a Passover to Yahweh in Jerusalem. They killed the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month.
- Exod 12:3–20Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, ‘On the tenth day of this month, they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to their fathers’ houses, a lamb for a household;
- Lev 23:5–8In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month in the evening, is Yahweh’s Passover.
- Num 28:16–25“‘In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, is Yahweh’s Passover.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Amid the long decline toward exile, the promise to David's house refuses to die; the flickering lamp kept burning anticipates the coming King who will not fail or be cut off.
How 2 Kings 23:21 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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