Nun

Josiah's Reforms

23 ^(A)Then the king sent, and all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem were gathered to him. ² And the king went up to the house of the Lord, and with him all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the priests and the prophets, all the people, both small and great. And ^(B)he read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant ^(C)that had been found in the house of the Lord. ³ And the king stood ^(D)by the pillar and ^(E)made a covenant before the Lord, ^(F)to walk after the Lord and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people joined in the covenant.

⁴ And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest and the priests ^(G)of the second order and the keepers of the threshold to bring out of the temple of the Lord all the vessels made for ^(H)Baal, for ^(I)Asherah, and for all the host of heaven. ^(J)He burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron and carried their ashes to Bethel. ⁵ And he deposed the priests whom the kings of Judah had ordained to make offerings in the high places at the cities of Judah and around Jerusalem; those also who burned incense to Baal, to the sun and the moon and the constellations ^(K)and all the host of the heavens. ⁶ And he brought out ^(L)the Asherah from the house of the Lord, outside Jerusalem, to the brook Kidron, ^(M)and burned it at the brook Kidron ^(N)and beat it to dust and cast the dust of it upon the graves ^(O)of the common people. ⁷ And he broke down the houses of ^(P)the male cult prostitutes who were in the house of the Lord, ^(Q)where the women wove hangings for ^(R)the Asherah. ⁸ And he brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had made offerings, from ^(S)Geba to Beersheba. And he broke down the high places of the gates that were at the entrance of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were on one's left at the gate of the city.

Josiah Restores the Passover

²¹ And the king commanded all the people, ^(A)“Keep the Passover to the Lord your God, ^(B)as it is written in this Book of the Covenant.” ^22 (C)For no such Passover had been kept since the days of the judges who judged Israel, or during all the days of the kings of Israel or of the kings of Judah. ²³ But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah this Passover was kept to the Lord in Jerusalem.

²⁴ Moreover, Josiah put away ^(D)the mediums and the necromancers and ^(E)the household gods and ^(F)the idols and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, that he might establish ^(G)the words of the law that were written in the book ^(H)that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the Lord. ^25 (I)Before him there was no king like him, who turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, according to all the Law of Moses, nor did any like him arise after him.

The Light of the Gospel

4 Therefore, having ^(A)this ministry ^(B)by the mercy of God,^[a] we do not lose heart. ² But we have renounced ^(C)disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice^[b] cunning or ^(D)to tamper with God's word, but ^(E)by the open statement of the truth ^(F)we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God. ³ And even ^(G)if our gospel is veiled, ^(H)it is veiled to ^(I)those who are perishing. ⁴ In their case ^(J)the god of this world ^(K)has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing ^(L)the light of ^(M)the gospel of the glory of Christ, ^(N)who is the image of God. ⁵ For what ^(O)we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ^(P)ourselves as your servants^[c] for Jesus' sake. ⁶ For God, who said, ^(Q)“Let light shine out of darkness,” ^(R)has shone in our hearts to give ^(S)the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Treasure in Jars of Clay

⁷ But we have this treasure in ^(T)jars of clay, ^(U)to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. ⁸ We are ^(V)afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; ⁹ persecuted, but ^(W)not forsaken; ^(X)struck down, but not destroyed; ^10 (Y)always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, ^(Z)so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. ¹¹ For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. ¹² So ^(AA)death is at work in us, but life in you.