2 Kings 23:21

THE MESSAGE

The king now commanded the people, "Celebrate the Passover to God , your God, exactly as directed in this Book of the Covenant."

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
The king commanded all the people, “Observe the Passover of the Lord your God as written in the book of the covenant.”

Hebrew Names Version
The king commanded all the people, saying, Keep the Pesach to the LORD your God, as it is written in this book of the covenant.

King James Version
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.

English Standard Version
And the king commanded all the people, "Keep the Passover to the Lord your God, as it is written in this Book of the Covenant."

New Century Version
The king commanded all the people, "Celebrate the Passover to the Lord your God as it is written in this Book of the Agreement."

New English Translation
The king ordered all the people, "Observe the Passover of the Lord your God, as prescribed in this scroll of the covenant."

Amplified Bible
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."

New American Standard Bible
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."

World English Bible
The king commanded all the people, saying, Keep the Passover to Yahweh your God, as it is written in this book of the covenant.

Geneva Bible (1587)
Then the king commanded all the people, saying, Keepe the passeouer vnto the Lorde your God, as it is written in the booke of this couenant.

Legacy Standard Bible
Then the king commanded all the people saying, "Celebrate the Passover to Yahweh your God as it is written in this book of the covenant."

Berean Standard Bible
The king commanded all the people, "Keep the Passover of the LORD your God, as it is written in this Book of the Covenant."

Contemporary English Version
Josiah told the people of Judah, "Celebrate Passover in honor of the Lord your God, just as it says in The Book of God's Law."

Complete Jewish Bible
The king issued this order to all the people: "Observe Pesach to Adonai your God, as written in this scroll of the covenant."

Darby Translation
And the king commanded all the people saying, Hold the passover to Jehovah your God, as it is written in this book of the covenant.

Easy-to-Read Version
Then King Josiah gave a command to all the people. He said, "Celebrate the Passover for the Lord your God. Do this just as it is written in the Book of the Agreement."

George Lamsa Translation
And the king commanded all the people, saying, Keep the passover to the LORD your God. as it is written in the book of this covenant.

Good News Translation
King Josiah ordered the people to celebrate the Passover in honor of the Lord their God, as written in the book of the covenant.

Lexham English Bible
Then the king commanded all of the people, saying, "Keep the Passover to Yahweh your God, as has been written on the scroll of this covenant."

Literal Translation
And the king commanded all the people, saying, Perform a Passover to Jehovah your God, as it is written in this Book of the covenant.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
And the kynge commauded the people, and sayde: Kepe Easter vnto the LORDE youre God, as it is wrytten in the boke of this couenaunt.

American Standard Version
And the king commanded all the people, saying, Keep the passover unto Jehovah your God, as it is written in this book of the covenant.

Bible in Basic English
And the king gave orders to all the people, saying, Keep the Passover to the Lord your God, as it says in this book of the law.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
And the king commaunded all the people, saying: Kepe the feast of Passouer vnto the Lorde your God, as it is written in the booke of this couenaunt.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
And the king commanded all the people, saying: 'Keep the passover unto the LORD your God, as it is written in this book of the covenant.'

King James Version (1611)
And the King commanded all the people saying, Keepe the Passeouer vnto the Lord your God, as it is written in this booke of the Couenant.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And the king commanded all the people, saying, Keep the passover to the Lord your God, as it is written in the book of this covenant.

English Revised Version
And the king commanded all the people, saying, Keep the passover unto the LORD your God, as it is written in this book of the covenant.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
and comaundide to al the puple, and seide, Make ye pask to `youre Lord God, vp that, that is writun in the book of this boond of pees.

Update Bible Version
And the king commanded all the people, saying, Keep the passover to Yahweh your God, as it is written in this book of the covenant.

Webster's Bible Translation
And the king commanded all the people, saying, Keep the passover to the LORD your God, as [it is] written in the book of this covenant.

New King James Version
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."

New Living Translation
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."

New Life Bible
King Josiah told all the people, "Keep the Passover to the Lord your God, as it is written in this Book of the Law."

New Revised Standard
The king commanded all the people, "Keep the passover to the Lord your God as prescribed in this book of the covenant."

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Then did the king command all the people, saying, Keep ye a passover unto Yahweh, your God, - such as is written in this book of the covenant.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And he commanded all the people, saying: Keep the Phase to the Lord your God, according as it is written in the book of this covenant.

Revised Standard Version
And the king commanded all the people, "Keep the passover to the LORD your God, as it is written in this book of the covenant."

Young's Literal Translation
And the king commandeth the whole of the people, saying, `Make ye a passover to Jehovah your God, as it is written on this book of the covenant.'

New American Standard Bible (1995)
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."

Contextual Overview

⁴Then the king ordered Hilkiah the high priest, his associate priest, and The Temple sentries to clean house—to get rid of everything in The Temple of God that had been made for worshiping Baal and Asherah and the cosmic powers. He had them burned outside Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron and then disposed of the ashes in Bethel. He fired the pagan priests whom the kings of Judah had hired to supervise the local sex-and-religion shrines in the towns of Judah and neighborhoods of Jerusalem. In a stroke he swept the country clean of the polluting stench of the round-the-clock worship of Baal, sun and moon, stars—all the so-called cosmic powers. He took the obscene phallic Asherah pole from The Temple of God to the Valley of Kidron outside Jerusalem, burned it up, then ground up the ashes and scattered them in the cemetery. He tore out the rooms of the male sacred prostitutes that had been set up in The Temple of God ; women also used these rooms for weavings for Asherah. He swept the outlying towns of Judah clean of priests and smashed the sex-and-religion shrines where they worked their trade from one end of the country to the other—all the way from Geba to Beersheba. He smashed the sex-and-religion shrine that had been set up just to the left of the city gate for the private use of Joshua, the city mayor. Even though these sex-and-religion priests did not defile the Altar in The Temple itself, they were part of the general priestly corruption and had to go. ¹⁰Then Josiah demolished the Topheth, the iron furnace griddle set up in the Valley of Ben Hinnom for sacrificing children in the fire. No longer could anyone burn son or daughter to the god Molech. He hauled off the horse statues honoring the sun god that the kings of Judah had set up near the entrance to The Temple. They were in the courtyard next to the office of Nathan-Melech, the warden. He burned up the sun-chariots as so much rubbish. ¹²The king smashed all the altars to smithereens—the altar on the roof shrine of Ahaz, the various altars the kings of Judah had made, the altars of Manasseh that littered the courtyard of The Temple—he smashed them all, pulverized the fragments, and scattered their dust in the Valley of Kidron. The king proceeded to make a clean sweep of all the sex-and-religion shrines that had proliferated east of Jerusalem on the south slope of Abomination Hill, the ones Solomon king of Israel had built to the obscene Sidonian sex goddess Ashtoreth, to Chemosh the dirty-old-god of the Moabites, and to Milcom the depraved god of the Ammonites. He tore apart the altars, chopped down the phallic Asherah-poles, and scattered old bones over the sites. Next, he took care of the altar at the shrine in Bethel that Jeroboam son of Nebat had built—the same Jeroboam who had led Israel into a life of sin. He tore apart the altar, burned down the shrine leaving it in ashes, and then lit fire to the phallic Asherah-pole. ¹⁶ As Josiah looked over the scene, he noticed the tombs on the hillside. He ordered the bones removed from the tombs and had them cremated on the ruined altars, desacralizing the evil altars. This was a fulfillment of the word of God spoken by the Holy Man years before when Jeroboam had stood by the altar at the sacred convocation. ¹⁷ Then the king said, "And that memorial stone—whose is that?" The men from the city said, "That's the grave of the Holy Man who spoke the message against the altar at Bethel that you have just fulfilled." ¹⁸ Josiah said, "Don't trouble his bones." So they left his bones undisturbed, along with the bones of the prophet from Samaria. ¹⁹But Josiah hadn't finished. He now moved through all the towns of Samaria where the kings of Israel had built neighborhood sex-and-religion shrines, shrines that had so angered God . He tore the shrines down and left them in ruins—just as at Bethel. He killed all the priests who had conducted the sacrifices and cremated them on their own altars, thus desacralizing the altars. Only then did Josiah return to Jerusalem. ²¹ The king now commanded the people, "Celebrate the Passover to God , your God, exactly as directed in this Book of the Covenant." ²²This commanded Passover had not been celebrated since the days that the judges judged Israel—none of the kings of Israel and Judah had celebrated it. But in the eighteenth year of the rule of King Josiah this very Passover was celebrated to God in Jerusalem. ²⁴ Josiah scrubbed the place clean and trashed spirit-mediums, sorcerers, domestic gods, and carved figures—all the vast accumulation of foul and obscene relics and images on display everywhere you looked in Judah and Jerusalem. Josiah did this in obedience to the words of God 's Revelation written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in The Temple of God .

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Keep: 2 Chronicles 35:1-19

as it is written: Exodus 12:3-20, Leviticus 23:5-8, Numbers 9:2-5, Numbers 28:16-25, Deuteronomy 16:1-8

Reciprocal: Exodus 12:14 - by an ordinance Exodus 12:21 - and take Exodus 23:15 - the feast 2 Chronicles 34:30 - the book 2 Chronicles 35:18 - there was no passover

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And the king commanded all the people,.... Not at Jerusalem only, but throughout the whole kingdom: saying,

keep the passover unto the Lord your God, as it is written in this book of the covenant; which had been lately found and read, and they had agreed to observe, and in which this ordinance was strictly enjoined, and was a commemoration of their deliverance out of Egypt, and a direction of their faith to the Messiah, the antitype of the passover.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

See 2 Kings 23:4 note. With this verse the author returns to the narrative of what was done in Josiah’s 18th year. The need of the injunction, “as it was written in the book of this covenant,” was owing to the fact - not that Josiah had as yet held no Passover - but that the reading of the book had shown him differences between the existing practice and the letter of the Law - differences consequent upon negligence, or upon the fact that tradition had been allowed in various points to override the Law.