1 Esdras 1: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Josias keeps the Passover in Jerusalem in the eighteenth year of his reign, setting the priests and Levites in their divisions and giving animals for the sacrifices out of his own goods, along with gifts from the temple rulers and the captains; such a Passover had not been kept in Israel since the days of the prophet Samuel. Josias then goes out against the king of Egypt, is carried wounded from the battle at Megiddo, and dies at Jerusalem, and Jeremy and the people mourn him. The kings who follow him (Joachaz, Joacim, Joacim his son, and Zedechias) do evil, and Nabuchodonosor of Babylon takes the holy vessels, burns the house of the Lord, breaks down the walls of Jerusalem, and carries the people to Babylon, where they serve him and his sons until the Persians reigned.

Claim by Claim

1. 1:1
   • Josias held the feast of the passover in Jerusalem to his Lord.
   • Josias offered the passover on the fourteenth day of the first month.
2. 1:2
   • Josias had set the priests in their daily courses.
   • The priests were arrayed in long garments.
   • This took place in the temple of the Lord.
3. 1:3
   • Josias spoke to the Levites.
   • The Levites were the holy ministers of Israel.
   • He told them to consecrate themselves to the Lord.
   • He told them to set the holy ark of the Lord in the house that king Solomon the son of David had built.
4. 1:4
   • Josias said the Levites should no longer carry the ark on their shoulders.
   • Josias told them to serve the Lord their God.
   • Josias told them to minister to his people Israel.
   • Josias told them to prepare themselves by their families and kindreds.
5. 1:5
   • The preparation was to follow what David king of Israel prescribed.
   • The preparation was to follow the magnificence of Solomon his son.
   • The Levites were to stand in the temple according to the ranking of their families.
   • The Levites minister in the presence of their brethren the children of Israel.
6. 1:6
   • Josias told them to offer the passover in order.
   • Josias told them to make ready the sacrifices for their brethren.
   • Josias told them to keep the passover according to the commandment of the Lord.
   • That commandment was given to Moses.
7. 1:7
   • Josias gave thirty thousand lambs and kids to the people who were present.
   • Josias gave three thousand calves.
   • These animals came from the king's own allowance.
   • Josias gave them as he had promised.
   • The gifts were for the people, the priests, and the Levites.
8. 1:8
   • Helkias, Zacharias, and Syelus were governors of the temple.
   • They gave to the priests for the passover two thousand six hundred sheep.
   • They gave three hundred calves.
9. 1:9
   • Jeconias, Samaias, Nathanael his brother, Assabias, Ochiel, and Joram were captains over thousands.
   • They gave to the Levites for the passover five thousand sheep.
   • They gave seven hundred calves.
10. 1:10
    • When these things were done, the priests and Levites had the unleavened bread.
    • They stood in proper order according to their kindreds.
11. 1:11
    • They stood according to the rankings of the fathers' houses.
    • They stood before the people.
    • They stood to make offering to the Lord.
    • This was as it is written in the book of Moses.
    • They did this in the morning.
12. 1:12
    • They roasted the passover with fire, as was required.
    • They boiled the sacrifices in brass pots and pans.
    • The sacrifices gave a pleasing smell.
13. 1:13
    • They set the sacrifices before all the people.
    • Afterward they prepared for themselves and for the priests their brethren, the sons of Aaron.
14. 1:14
    • The priests offered the fat until night.
    • The Levites prepared for themselves and for the priests their brethren, the sons of Aaron.
15. 1:15
    • The holy singers were the sons of Asaph.
    • The singers were in their order.
    • Their order was according to the appointment of David.
    • The singers named are Asaph, Zacharias, and Jeduthun.
    • Jeduthun was of the king's retinue.
16. 1:16
    • The porters were at every gate.
    • No one was permitted to leave his ordinary service.
    • Their brethren the Levites prepared food for them.
17. 1:17
    • The things belonging to the sacrifices of the Lord were accomplished on that day.
    • The purpose was that they might hold the passover.
18. 1:18
    • They offered sacrifices upon the altar of the Lord.
    • This was according to the commandment of king Josias.
19. 1:19
    • The children of Israel who were present held the passover at that time.
    • They held the feast of unleavened bread for seven days.
20. 1:20
    • No such passover had been kept in Israel since the time of the prophet Samuel.
21. 1:21
    • No king of Israel had held such a passover as Josias held.
    • The priests, the Levites, and the Jews held it with him.
    • They held it with all Israel that were found dwelling at Jerusalem.
22. 1:22
    • This passover was kept in the eighteenth year of the reign of Josias.
23. 1:23
    • The works of Josias were upright before his Lord.
    • Josias had a heart full of godliness.
24. 1:24
    • The things that happened in his time were written down in former times.
    • They concern those who sinned and did wickedly against the Lord above all peoples and kingdoms.
    • They grieved the Lord exceedingly.
    • The words of the Lord rose up against Israel.
25. 1:25
    • After all these acts of Josias, Pharaoh king of Egypt came to make war at Carchamis upon the Euphrates.
    • Josias went out against him.
26. 1:26
    • The king of Egypt sent a message to Josias.
    • He asked what he had to do with the king of Judea.
27. 1:27
    • The king of Egypt said he was not sent out from the Lord God against Josias.
    • He said his war was upon the Euphrates.
    • He said the Lord was with him.
    • He said the Lord was hastening him forward.
    • He told Josias to depart from him.
    • He told Josias not to be against the Lord.
28. 1:28
    • Josias did not turn back his chariot from him.
    • Josias undertook to fight with him.
    • Josias did not regard the words of the prophet Jeremy.
    • Those words were spoken from the mouth of the Lord.
29. 1:29
    • Josias joined battle with him in the plain of Magiddo.
    • The princes came against king Josias.
30. 1:30
    • The king told his servants to carry him away out of the battle.
    • The king said he was very weak.
    • His servants immediately took him away out of the battle.
31. 1:31
    • Josias got up onto his second chariot.
    • He was brought back to Jerusalem.
    • He died.
    • He was buried in his father's sepulchre.
32. 1:32
    • All Jewry mourned for Josias.
    • Jeremy the prophet lamented for Josias.
    • The chief men with the women made lamentation for him to this day.
    • This was made a perpetual ordinance for all the nation of Israel.
33. 1:33
    • These things are written in the book of the stories of the kings of Judah.
    • Every one of the acts Josias did is reported.
    • His glory is reported.
    • His understanding in the law of the Lord is reported.
    • The things he had done before and the things now recited are reported in the book of the kings of Israel and Judea.
34. 1:34
    • The people took Joachaz the son of Josias.
    • They made him king in place of Josias his father.
    • He was twenty-three years old.
35. 1:35
    • He reigned in Judea and in Jerusalem three months.
    • The king of Egypt deposed him from reigning in Jerusalem.
36. 1:36
    • He set a tax upon the land of one hundred talents of silver and one talent of gold.
37. 1:37
    • The king of Egypt made Joacim, the brother of Joachaz, king of Judea and Jerusalem.
38. 1:38
    • Joacim and the nobles were bound.
    • Zaraces his brother was apprehended and brought out of Egypt.
39. 1:39
    • Joacim was twenty-five years old when he was made king in the land of Judea and Jerusalem.
    • He did evil before the Lord.
40. 1:40
    • Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon came up against him.
    • Nabuchodonosor bound him with a chain of brass.
    • Nabuchodonosor carried him to Babylon.
41. 1:41
    • Nabuchodonosor took some of the holy vessels of the Lord.
    • He carried them away.
    • He set them in his own temple at Babylon.
42. 1:42
    • The things recorded of Joacim, of his uncleanness and his impiety, are written in the chronicles of the kings.
43. 1:43
    • Joacim his son reigned in his place.
    • He was eighteen years old when he was made king.
44. 1:44
    • He reigned three months and ten days in Jerusalem.
    • He did evil before the Lord.
45. 1:45
    • After a year Nabuchodonosor sent and had him brought to Babylon.
    • He was brought together with the holy vessels of the Lord.
46. 1:46
    • Nabuchodonosor made Zedechias king of Judea and Jerusalem.
    • Zedechias was twenty-one years old.
    • Zedechias reigned eleven years.
47. 1:47
    • Zedechias did evil in the sight of the Lord.
    • He disregarded the words spoken to him by the prophet Jeremy from the mouth of the Lord.
48. 1:48
    • King Nabuchodonosor made Zedechias swear by the name of the Lord.
    • Zedechias broke his oath.
    • Zedechias rebelled.
    • Zedechias hardened his neck and his heart.
    • Zedechias transgressed the laws of the Lord God of Israel.
49. 1:49
    • The governors of the people and of the priests did many things against the laws.
    • They exceeded all the pollutions of all the nations.
    • They defiled the temple of the Lord.
    • That temple had been sanctified in Jerusalem.
50. 1:50
    • The God of their fathers sent by his messenger to call them back.
    • He did so because he spared them and his tabernacle.
51. 1:51
    • They derided his messengers.
    • When the Lord spoke to them, they mocked his prophets.
52. 1:52
    • He became angry with his people because of their great ungodliness.
    • He commanded the kings of the Chaldees to come up against them.
53. 1:53
    • The Chaldees slew their young men with the sword.
    • They did this even within the compass of their holy temple.
    • They spared neither young man nor maid, old man nor child.
    • He delivered all of them into their hands.
54. 1:54
    • They took all the holy vessels of the Lord, both great and small.
    • They took the vessels of the ark of God.
    • They took the king's treasures.
    • They carried them away to Babylon.
55. 1:55
    • They burnt the house of the Lord.
    • They broke down the walls of Jerusalem.
    • They set fire to her towers.
56. 1:56
    • They did not cease until they had consumed her glorious things and brought them all to nothing.
    • He carried the people who were not slain with the sword to Babylon.
57. 1:57
    • They became servants to him and to his children until the Persians reigned.
    • This fulfilled the word of the Lord spoken by the mouth of Jeremy.
58. 1:58
    • The land was to enjoy her sabbaths.
    • The whole time of her desolation she shall rest.
    • This rest lasts until the full term of seventy years.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

1:1

Josias is the Greek form of the name Josiah. This whole book survives in Greek, so nearly every name in it wears a Greek shape: Jeremy for Jeremiah, Nabuchodonosor for Nebuchadnezzar, Joacim for Jehoiakim, Zedechias for Zedekiah. The Passover was the yearly festival recalling Israel's escape from slavery in Egypt, marked by killing and eating a lamb. It fell on the fourteenth day of the first month of the religious year, in early spring, the month later called Nisan.

1:2

"Daily courses" means the rotating shifts of duty. The priests were divided into groups, each serving at the temple in turn rather than all at once, so the phrase describes a duty roster, not something done every day by everyone.

1:3

The Levites were members of the tribe of Levi who were not descended from Aaron, and so were not priests. They did the supporting work of the sanctuary: carrying, guarding, singing, slaughtering and preparing the animals. The ark was the gold-covered wooden chest holding the tablets of the law, the most sacred object Israel owned, and in earlier centuries it had been carried from place to place.

1:4

In the wilderness years the ark was fitted with poles so the Levites could carry it on their shoulders from camp to camp. Solomon's temple gave it a permanent home, so that job had ended, and the Levites are told to turn to other duties instead.

1:5

"Several dignity" in the King James means separate rank or standing, not a large number of them. Each Levite family had its own assigned place and task.

1:6

The rules for Passover were given to Moses long before, on the night Israel left Egypt.

1:7

"The king's allowance" means the animals came out of Josias's own royal herds and property, a personal gift rather than a levy on the people.

1:9

"Captains over thousands" were army officers. Israel's fighting men were organized in units of tens, hundreds and thousands, so these are senior commanders.

1:10

Bread made without yeast was eaten at Passover because the Israelites left Egypt in such haste that there was no time to let dough rise.

1:11

The book of Moses is the first part of the Bible. It holds the rules God gave through Moses.

1:12

The distinction matters in the law: the Passover lamb had to be roasted whole over fire and specifically not boiled in water, while the other offerings eaten at the festival could be boiled. "Sod" is the old past tense of "seethe," meaning boiled. "A good savour" means a pleasing smell, the standard phrase for the smoke and aroma of an accepted offering. The King James "brass" covers copper alloys generally, so bronze is meant.

1:13

Aaron was the brother of Moses and the first priest. Only men from his family could be priests.

1:14

The fat of a sacrificed animal was burned on the altar as God's portion and was never eaten. Doing this for tens of thousands of animals kept the priests at the altar all day and into the night, which is why others had to cook their food for them.

1:15

Asaph was a singer appointed by David, and his descendants formed one of the guilds of temple musicians. "To wit" means "namely." The Greek manuscripts give the third name as Eddinus and describe him as acting for the king; the King James translators read the name as Jeduthun, another of David's chief musicians, and took the phrase to mean he belonged to the royal household.

1:16

"Porters" here means gatekeepers, the men who guarded and controlled the temple doors. It has nothing to do with carrying loads. Since a gatekeeper could not leave his post to cook, food was brought to him.

1:18

An altar was a raised stone platform where animals and other gifts were burned as offerings to God.

1:19

"Sweet bread" is the King James term for unleavened bread. "Sweet" here means unsoured, that is, made without yeast, not sugary. The seven-day Feast of Unleavened Bread followed immediately on the Passover meal and was counted with it as one festival season.

1:20

Samuel was the prophet and leader who anointed Israel's first kings, roughly four hundred years before Josias. The claim is that no Passover on this scale had been held in all the centuries of the monarchy.

1:22

The eighteenth year of Josias is about 622 BC, the year in which, according to Kings and Chronicles, a book of the law was found during repairs to the temple and set off his reforms.

1:25

Pharaoh is the title of the Egyptian king, here Necho II. Carchamis, usually spelled Carchemish, was a fortress city at a crossing of the upper Euphrates in what is now northern Syria, the strategic gateway between Mesopotamia and the west. The Egyptian army was marching north through Josias's territory to fight there.

1:26

"What have I to do with thee" translates a Hebrew idiom that literally asks "what is there between you and me?" It means: we have no quarrel, this is not your fight.

1:28

Jeremy is Jeremiah, the prophet active in Jerusalem through these years. In the parallel account in 2 Chronicles 35 it is the Egyptian king's own warning that Josias ignores; this book puts the warning in Jeremiah's mouth instead.

1:29

Magiddo, usually spelled Megiddo, was a fortified town guarding the pass through the Carmel ridge, where the main road from Egypt to the north squeezed through the hills. It was the natural place to block an advancing army, and armies fought there for centuries.

1:31

A king went into battle in a war chariot and kept a second, lighter chariot in reserve. Moving the wounded Josias to it was a way of getting him off the field quickly.

1:32

"Jewry" is the older English word for Judea, the territory around Jerusalem. The lament is a formal song of grief, and the last clause says such songs became a fixed custom, sung year after year rather than only at the funeral.

1:33

"The book of the stories of the kings" means a book of records or histories. "Story" in 1611 English carried the sense of history, not fiction.

1:34

Joachaz is the Greek form of the name Jehoahaz.

1:35

To stop a man from being king means to take his crown away. Egypt was stronger just then, so Egypt could do it.

1:36

A talent was a weight of roughly seventy-five pounds, about thirty-four kilograms. A hundred talents of silver is therefore something like three and a half tons of it, an enormous levy, exacted as tribute from a defeated vassal.

1:37

Joacim is Jehoiakim, an older brother of Joachaz and another son of Josias. A victorious overlord commonly removed one royal son and installed another as a client ruler who owed him tribute and loyalty.

1:38

The Greek text is confused at this point and the King James follows it closely, which is why the subject of "he bound" is unclear and the note about Zaraces, elsewhere Zarakes, is hard to place. Parallel accounts say only that the deposed brother was carried off to Egypt.

1:40

Nabuchodonosor is Nebuchadnezzar II, king of Babylon, the dominant power after Egypt and Assyria were pushed back. "A chain of brass" means bronze fetters, the standard restraint for a captured king being paraded home.

1:41

The holy vessels were the gold and silver bowls, basins, lamps and utensils used in temple worship. Carrying a defeated nation's sacred objects into your own god's temple was a public display that your god had won.

1:42

Unclean did not mean dirty here. It meant not fit to come near God.

1:43

This is Jehoiachin, whose name in Hebrew is close to his father Jehoiakim's. The Greek spells both men Joacim, which is why father and son here look as though they share a name and the two short reigns are easy to confuse.

1:46

Zedechias is Zedekiah, another son of Josias and therefore uncle to the boy king he replaced, installed by Babylon as a client ruler.

1:48

A vassal king swore loyalty to his overlord by the name of his own god, so breaking the oath was both a political revolt and a violation of something sworn before God. "Hardening his neck" is a farming image, taken from an ox that stiffens its neck and refuses the yoke.

1:49

"Pollutions" means practices that made a person or place ritually unclean and so unfit for worship. To say they "passed" them is to say they went beyond even those.

1:50

"Tabernacle" is the King James word for a dwelling or tent, originally the portable sanctuary of the wilderness years. Here it stands for the place where God was held to dwell among the people, the temple.

1:52

The Chaldees, or Chaldeans, were the people of southern Babylonia who came to rule the Babylonian empire. The name is used loosely for the Babylonians as a whole. The plural "kings" reflects the fact that the attacks came in waves over about twenty years.

1:54

"The vessels of the ark" renders a Greek word for chests or coffers, the containers in which the sacred equipment was stored and moved.

1:55

The burning of the temple and the breaking of Jerusalem's walls took place in 587 or 586 BC, at the end of a long siege.

1:56

"Brought them all to nought" means reduced them all to nothing. "Nought" is simply the older spelling of naught, that is, zero.

1:57

Babylon fell to Cyrus of Persia in 539 BC. The exiles' status changed with the change of empire, which is how the period of servitude is measured here.

1:58

The law required that fields be left unplanted every seventh year, a sabbath rest for the land itself. Leviticus warned that if those rests were not kept, the land would take them all at once while its people were away. Seventy years is the figure Jeremiah gave for the exile.