Josiah observed a Passover festival for the Lord in Jerusalem. They slaughtered the Passover lambs on the fourteenth day of the first month.

“The Israelites are to observe the Passover at its appointed time.

So Moses instructed the Israelites to observe the Passover.

“‘On the fourteenth day of the first month is the Lord’s Passover.

They slaughtered the Passover lambs and the priests splashed the blood, while the Levites skinned the animals.

This Passover was observed in the eighteenth year of Josiah’s reign.

“You must not offer the blood of my sacrifice with yeast; the sacrifice from the feast of Passover must not remain until the following morning.

In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, at twilight, is a Passover offering to the Lord.

You may not sacrifice the Passover in just any of your villages that the Lord your God is giving you,

They ate some of the produce of the land the day after the Passover, including unleavened bread and roasted grain.

But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah’s reign, such a Passover of the Lord was observed in Jerusalem.

The king, his officials, and the entire assembly in Jerusalem decided to observe the Passover in the second month.

Slaughter the Passover lambs, consecrate yourselves, and make preparations for your countrymen to do what the Lord commanded through Moses.”

The exiles observed the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month.

If a resident foreigner lives among you and wants to keep the Passover to the Lord, he must do so according to the statute of the Passover, and according to its custom. You must have the same statute for the resident foreigner and for the one who was born in the land.’”

A Passover like this had not been observed in Israel since the days of Samuel the prophet. None of the kings of Israel had observed a Passover like the one celebrated by Josiah, the priests, the Levites, all the people of Judah and Israel who were there, and the residents of Jerusalem.

This is how you are to eat it – dressed to travel, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. You are to eat it in haste. It is the Lord’s Passover.

Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel, and told them, “Go and select for yourselves a lamb or young goat for your families, and kill the Passover animals.

The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “This is the ordinance of the Passover. No foreigner may share in eating it.

They must not leave any of it until morning, nor break any of its bones; they must observe it in accordance with every statute of the Passover.