3 Esdras 1

¹And Iosias made a Pasch in Jerusalem to our Lord & immolated the Phase the fourteenth moon of the month:

²appointing the Priests by courses of days clothed with stoles in the temple of our Lord. 4.

³And he spake to the Levites the sacred servants of Israel, that they should sanctify themselves to our Lord in the placing of the holy ark of our Lord in the house, which King Salomon son of David built.

⁴It shall not be for you to take it upon your shoulders. And now serve your Lord, and take the care of that nation Israel, in part according to your villages & tribes,

⁵according to the writing of David king of Israel, and according to the magnificence of Salomon his son, all in the temple, and according to your father's portion of principality, among them that stand in the sight of your brethren the children of Israel.

⁶Immolate the Pasch, and prepare the sacrifices for your brethren, and do according to the precept of our Lord which was given to Moyses.

⁷And Iosias gave unto the people that was found of sheep, lambs, and kids, & goats thirty thousand, calves three thousand. . . .

⁸These things were given to the people^ of the kings' goods according to promise: and to the Priests for the Phase, sheep in number two thousand, and calves an hundred.

⁹And Jechonias, and Semeias, and Nathanael brethren, and Hasabias, and Oziel, & Coraba, for the Phase sheep five thousand, calves five hundred.

¹⁰And when these things were done in good order, the Priests and the Levites stood having azymes by tribes.

¹¹And according to the portions of their fathers' principality, in the sight of the people they did offer to our Lord according to those things, which were written in the book of Moyses:

¹²and roasted the Phase with fire as it ought: and the hosts they boiled in cauldrons, and in pots with benevolence:

¹³and they brought to all that were of the people: and afterward they prepared for themselves and the

¹⁴For the Priests offered the fat, until the hour was ended: & the Levites prepared for themselves, and their brethren, the children of Aaron.

¹⁵And the sacred singing men, the children of Asaph were by order according to the precept of David, & Asaph, & Zacharias, & Ieddimus, which was from the king.

¹⁶And the porters at every gate, so that none transgressed his own: for their brethren prepared for them.

¹⁷And the things were consummate that pertained to the sacrifice of our Lord.

¹⁸In that day they celebrated the Phase, and offered hosts upon the sacrifice of our Lord, according to the precept of king Iosias.

¹⁹And the children of Israel, that were found at that time, celebrated the Phase: and the festival day of Azymes for seven days:

²⁰and there was not celebrated such a Phase in Israel, from the times of Samuel the Prophet:

²¹and all the kings of Israel did not celebrate such a Phase as Iosias did, and the Priests, and the Levites, and the Jews, and all Israel, that were found in their abode at Jerusalem.

²²In the eighteenth year, Iosias reigning, was the Phase celebrated.

²³And the works of Iosias were directed in the sight of his Lord in a heart full of fear:

²⁴and the things concerning him are written in the ancient times, touching them that sinned, and were irreligious against our Lord above all nations, and that sought not the words of our Lord upon Israel.

²⁵And after all this fact of Iosias, came up Pharao the king of Ægypt coming in Charcamis from the way upon Euphrates, and Iosias went forth to meet him. 4.

²⁶And the king of Ægypt sent to Iosias saying: What is there between me & thee king of Juda?

²⁷I was not sent of the Lord to fight against thee: for my battle is upon Euphrates, go down in haste.

²⁸And Iosias did not return upon his chariot: but endeavoured to overthrow him, not attending the word of the Prophet from the mouth of our Lord:

²⁹but he made battle against him in the field of Mageddo. And Princes went down to king Iosias.

³⁰And the king said to his servants: Remove me from the battle, for I am weakened exceedingly. And forthwith his servants removed him out of the battle.

³¹And he went up into his second chariot: & coming to Jerusalem, died, and was buried in his father's sepulchre.

³²And in all Jury they mourned for Iosias, & the rulers with their wives lamented him until this day. And this was given out to be done always unto all the stock of Israel.

³³But these things were written before in the book of the histories of the kings of Juda: and all the acts of the doing of Iosias, and his glory and his understanding in the law of our Lord: and the things that were done by him, and that are not written in the book of the kings of Israel and Juda.

³⁴And they that were of the nation, taking Jechonias the son of Iosias, made him king for Iosias his father, when he was three and twenty years old. 4. . v. 30. 2. Par. 36. v. 1.

³⁵And he reigned over Israel three months. And the king of Ægypt removed him, that he should not reign in Jerusalem:

³⁶& he put a tax upon the nation^ of silver an hundred talents, and of gold one talent.

³⁷And the king of Ægypt made Ioacim his brother king of Juda & Jerusalem:

³⁸& he bound the magistrates of Ioacim, and Zaracel his brother, and taking them brought them back into Ægypt.

³⁹Ioacim was five and twenty years old when he began to reign in the land of Juda and Jerusalem: & he did evil in the sight of our Lord.

⁴⁰And after this man came up Nabuchodonosor the king of Babylon, and binding him with a band of brass, brought him into Babylon.

⁴¹And Nabuchodonosor took the sacred vessels of our Lord, and carried away, and consecrated them in his temple in Babylon.

⁴²For his uncleanness, & lack of religion is written in the book of the times of the kings.

⁴³And Ioachin his son reigned for him. And when he was made king, he was eighteen years old.

⁴⁴And reigned three months and ten days in Jerusalem, and did evil in the sight of our Lord:

⁴⁵and after a year Nabuchodonosor sending, transported him into Babylon together with the sacred vessels of our Lord.

⁴⁶And he made Sedecias king of Juda and

⁴⁷And he did evil in the sight of our Lord, and was not afraid of the words which were spoken by Jeremy the Prophet from the mouth of our Lord:

⁴⁸and being sworn of king Nabuchodonosor, forsworn he did revolt: & his neck being hardened, & his heart, he transgressed the ordinances of our Lord the God of Israel.

⁴⁹And the Princes of the people of our Lord did many things wickedly, and they did impiously above all the uncleanness of the nations: & they polluted the temple of our Lord that was holy in Jerusalem.

⁵⁰And the God of their fathers sent by his messenger to reclaim them, for that he would spare them, and his tabernacle.

⁵¹But they scorned at his messengers: and in the day that our Lord spake to them they were mocking his Prophets.

⁵²Who was moved even unto wrath upon his nation for their impiety, and commanded the kings of the Chaldees to come up.

⁵³These slew their young men with the sword, round about their holy temple, and spared not young man, and old man, and Virgin, and youth:

⁵⁴but all were delivered into their hands: & taking all the sacred vessels of our Lord, and the kings' treasures, they carried them into Babylon,

⁵⁵and burnt the house of our Lord, and threw down the walls of Jerusalem: and the towers thereof they burnt with fire,

⁵⁶and consumed all their honourable things, and brought them to naught, and those that were left of the sword, they led into Babylon.

⁵⁷And they were his servants until the Persians reigned in the fulfilling of the word of our Lord by the mouth of Jeremy: . v. 12. & 29. v.

⁵⁸as long as the land quietly kept her sabbaths, all the time of her desolation she sabbathized in the application of seventy years.