Warning Against Adultery

Manasseh Reigns in Judah

21 ^(A)Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hephzibah. ² And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, ^(B)according to the despicable practices of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel. ³ For he rebuilt the high places ^(C)that Hezekiah his father had destroyed, and he erected altars for Baal and made ^(D)an Asherah, ^(E)as Ahab king of Israel had done, ^(F)and worshiped all the host of heaven and served them. ^4 (G)And he built altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord had said, ^(H)“In Jerusalem will I put my name.” ⁵ And he built altars ^(I)for all the host of heaven in ^(J)the two courts of the house of the Lord. ^6 (K)And he burned his son as an offering^[a] and ^(L)used fortune-telling and ^(M)omens and dealt ^(N)with mediums and with necromancers. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger. ⁷ And the carved image of ^(O)Asherah that he had made he set in the house of which the Lord said to David and to Solomon his son, “In this house, ^(P)and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put my name forever. ^8 (Q)And I will not cause the feet of Israel to wander anymore out of the land that I gave to their fathers, if only they will be careful to do according to all that I have commanded them, and according to all the Law that my servant Moses commanded them.” ⁹ But they did not listen, and Manasseh led them astray to do more evil than the nations had done whom the Lord destroyed before the people of Israel.

Manasseh's Idolatry Denounced

¹⁰ And the Lord said by his servants the prophets, ^11 (R)“Because Manasseh king of Judah has committed these abominations and has done things ^(S)more evil than all that the Amorites did, who were before him, ^(T)and has made Judah also to sin ^(U)with his idols, ¹² therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Behold, I am bringing upon Jerusalem and Judah such disaster^[b] that the ears of everyone who hears of it ^(V)will tingle. ^13 (W)And I will stretch over Jerusalem the measuring line of Samaria, and the plumb line of the house of Ahab, and I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down. ¹⁴ And I will forsake the remnant of my heritage and give them into the hand of their enemies, and they shall become a prey and a spoil to all their enemies, ¹⁵ because they have done what is evil in my sight and have provoked me to anger, since the day their fathers came out of Egypt, even to this day.”

^16 (X)Moreover, Manasseh shed very much innocent blood, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another, besides the sin ^(Y)that he made Judah to sin so that they did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.

^17 (Z)Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh and all that he did, and the sin that he committed, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? ^18 (AA)And Manasseh slept with his fathers and was buried in the garden of his house, ^(AB)in the garden of Uzza, and Amon his son reigned in his place.

Amon Reigns in Judah

¹⁹ Amon was twenty-two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Meshullemeth the daughter of Haruz of Jotbah. ²⁰ And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, ^(AC)as Manasseh his father had done. ²¹ He walked in all the way in which his father walked and served ^(AD)the idols that his father served and worshiped them. ^22 (AE)He abandoned the Lord, the God of his fathers, and did not walk in the way of the Lord. ²³ And the servants of Amon conspired against him and put the king to death in his house. ²⁴ But the people of the land struck down all those who had conspired against King Amon, and the people of the land made Josiah his son king in his place. ²⁵ Now the rest of the acts of Amon that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? ²⁶ And he was buried in his tomb ^(AF)in the garden of Uzza, and Josiah his son reigned in his place.

Josiah Reigns in Judah

22 ^(AG)Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jedidah the daughter of Adaiah of ^(AH)Bozkath. ² And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and walked in all the way of David his father, ^(AI)and he did not turn aside to the right or to the left.

Josiah Repairs the Temple

³ In the eighteenth year of King Josiah, the king sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, son of Meshullam, the secretary, to the house of the Lord, saying, ⁴ “Go up to ^(AJ)Hilkiah the high priest, that he may count the money ^(AK)that has been brought into the house of the Lord, which ^(AL)the keepers of the threshold have collected from the people. ^5 (AM)And let it be given into the hand of the workmen who have the oversight of the house of the Lord, and let them give it to the workmen who are at the house of the Lord, repairing the house ⁶ (that is, to the carpenters, and to the builders, and to the masons), and let them use it for buying timber and quarried stone to repair the house. ⁷ But ^(AN)no accounting shall be asked from them for the money that is delivered into their hand, for they deal honestly.”

Hilkiah Finds the Book of the Law

⁸ And Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the secretary, “I have found ^(AO)the Book of the Law in the house of the Lord.” And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it. ⁹ And Shaphan the secretary came to the king, and reported to the king, “Your servants have emptied out the money that was found in the house and have delivered it into the hand of the workmen who have the oversight of the house of the Lord.” ¹⁰ Then Shaphan the secretary told the king, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.” And Shaphan read it before the king.

¹¹ When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, ^(AP)he tore his clothes. ¹² And the king commanded Hilkiah the priest, and ^(AQ)Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and ^(AR)Achbor the son of ^(AS)Micaiah, and Shaphan the secretary, and Asaiah the king's servant, saying, ¹³ “Go, inquire of the Lord for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that has been found. For great is ^(AT)the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book, to do according to all that is written concerning us.”

¹⁴ So Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam, and Achbor, and Shaphan, and Asaiah went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of ^(AU)Tikvah, son of ^(AV)Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe (now she lived in Jerusalem in ^(AW)the Second Quarter), and they talked with her. ¹⁵ And she said to them, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: ‘Tell the man who sent you to me, ¹⁶ Thus says the Lord, Behold, I will bring disaster upon this place and upon its inhabitants, all the words of the book that the king of Judah has read. ^17 (AX)Because they have forsaken me and have made offerings to other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the work of their hands, therefore ^(AY)my wrath will be kindled against this place, and it will not be quenched. ¹⁸ But to the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the Lord, thus shall you say to him, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Regarding the words that you have heard, ^19 (AZ)because your heart was penitent, and you ^(BA)humbled yourself before the Lord, when you heard how I spoke against this place and against its inhabitants, that they should become ^(BB)a desolation and ^(BC)a curse, and you ^(BD)have torn your clothes and wept before me, I also have heard you, declares the Lord. ²⁰ Therefore, behold, I will gather you to your fathers, and ^(BE)you shall be gathered to your grave in peace, and your eyes shall not see all the disaster that I will bring upon this place.’” And they brought back word to the king.

Josiah's Reforms

23 ^(BF)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 ^(BG)he read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant ^(BH)that had been found in the house of the Lord. ³ And the king stood ^(BI)by the pillar and ^(BJ)made a covenant before the Lord, ^(BK)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 ^(BL)of the second order and the keepers of the threshold to bring out of the temple of the Lord all the vessels made for ^(BM)Baal, for ^(BN)Asherah, and for all the host of heaven. ^(BO)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 ^(BP)and all the host of the heavens. ⁶ And he brought out ^(BQ)the Asherah from the house of the Lord, outside Jerusalem, to the brook Kidron, ^(BR)and burned it at the brook Kidron ^(BS)and beat it to dust and cast the dust of it upon the graves ^(BT)of the common people. ⁷ And he broke down the houses of ^(BU)the male cult prostitutes who were in the house of the Lord, ^(BV)where the women wove hangings for ^(BW)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 ^(BX)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. ^9 (BY)However, the priests of the high places did not come up to the altar of the Lord in Jerusalem, but they ate unleavened bread among their brothers. ¹⁰ And he defiled ^(BZ)Topheth, which is ^(CA)in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, ^(CB)that no one might burn his son or his daughter as an offering to ^(CC)Molech.^{[c] 11} And he removed the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun, at the entrance to the house of the Lord, by the chamber of Nathan-melech the chamberlain, which was in the precincts.^[d] And he burned the chariots of the sun with fire. ¹² And the altars ^(CD)on the roof of the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars ^(CE)that Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the Lord, he pulled down and broke in pieces^[e] and cast the dust of them ^(CF)into the brook Kidron. ¹³ And the king defiled the high places that were east of Jerusalem, to the south of ^(CG)the mount of corruption, which Solomon the king of Israel had built for ^(CH)Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, and for ^(CI)Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for ^(CJ)Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. ¹⁴ And he broke in pieces the ^(CK)pillars and cut down the Asherim and filled their places with the bones of men.

¹⁵ Moreover, the altar at Bethel, the high place erected ^(CL)by Jeroboam the son of Nebat, ^(CM)who made Israel to sin, ^(CN)that altar with the high place he pulled down and burned,^[f] reducing it to dust. He also burned the Asherah. ¹⁶ And as Josiah turned, he saw the tombs there on the mount. And he sent and took the bones out of the tombs and burned them on the altar and defiled it, ^(CO)according to the word of the Lord that the man of God proclaimed, who had predicted these things. ¹⁷ Then he said, “What is that monument that I see?” And the men of the city told him, ^(CP)“It is the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah and predicted^[g] these things that you have done against the altar at Bethel.” ¹⁸ And he said, “Let him be; let no man move his bones.” So they let his bones alone, with the bones ^(CQ)of the prophet who came out of Samaria. ¹⁹ And Josiah removed all the shrines also of the high places that were ^(CR)in the cities of Samaria, which kings of Israel had made, provoking the Lord to anger. He did to them according to all that he had done at Bethel. ²⁰ And ^(CS)he sacrificed all the priests of the high places who were there, on the altars, ^(CT)and burned human bones on them. Then he returned to Jerusalem.

Josiah Restores the Passover

²¹ And the king commanded all the people, ^(CU)“Keep the Passover to the Lord your God, ^(CV)as it is written in this Book of the Covenant.” ^22 (CW)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 ^(CX)the mediums and the necromancers and ^(CY)the household gods and ^(CZ)the idols and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, that he might establish ^(DA)the words of the law that were written in the book ^(DB)that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the Lord. ^25 (DC)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.

²⁶ Still the Lord did not turn from the burning of his great wrath, by which his anger was kindled against Judah, ^(DD)because of all the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked him. ²⁷ And the Lord said, “I will remove Judah also out of my sight, ^(DE)as I have removed Israel, and I will cast off this city that I have chosen, Jerusalem, ^(DF)and the house of which I said, My name shall be there.”

Josiah's Death in Battle

²⁸ Now the rest of the acts of Josiah and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? ^29 (DG)In his days ^(DH)Pharaoh Neco king of Egypt went up to the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates. King Josiah went to meet him, and Pharaoh Neco killed him at ^(DI)Megiddo, as soon as he saw him. ^30 (DJ)And his servants carried him dead in a chariot from ^(DK)Megiddo and brought him to Jerusalem and buried him in his own tomb. ^(DL)And the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, and anointed him, and made him king in his father's place.

Jehoahaz's Reign and Captivity

^31 (DM)Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. His mother's name was ^(DN)Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. ³² And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, ^(DO)according to all that his fathers had done. ³³ And ^(DP)Pharaoh Neco put him in bonds at ^(DQ)Riblah in the land of ^(DR)Hamath, that he might not reign in Jerusalem, and laid on the land a tribute of a hundred talents^[h] of silver and a talent of gold. ³⁴ And ^(DS)Pharaoh Neco made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in the place of Josiah his father, and ^(DT)changed his name to Jehoiakim. But he took Jehoahaz away, ^(DU)and he came to Egypt and died there. ³⁵ And Jehoiakim ^(DV)gave the silver and the gold to Pharaoh, but he taxed the land to give the money according to the command of Pharaoh. He exacted the silver and the gold of the people of the land, from everyone according to his assessment, to give it to Pharaoh Neco.

Jehoiakim Reigns in Judah

^36 (DW)Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Zebidah the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah. ³⁷ And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, ^(DX)according to all that his fathers had done.

Walk in Love

5 ^(A)Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. ² And ^(B)walk in love, ^(C)as Christ loved us and ^(D)gave himself up for us, a ^(E)fragrant ^(F)offering and sacrifice to God.

³ But ^(G)sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness ^(H)must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. ⁴ Let there be ^(I)no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, ^(J)which are out of place, but instead ^(K)let there be thanksgiving. ⁵ For you may be sure of this, that ^(L)everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (^(M)that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. ^6 (N)Let no one ^(O)deceive you with empty words, for because of these things ^(P)the wrath of God comes upon ^(Q)the sons of disobedience. ⁷ Therefore ^(R)do not become partners with them; ⁸ for ^(S)at one time you were ^(T)darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. ^(U)Walk as children of light ⁹ (for ^(V)the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), ¹⁰ and ^(W)try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. ^11 (X)Take no part in the ^(Y)unfruitful ^(Z)works of darkness, but instead ^(AA)expose them. ¹² For ^(AB)it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. ¹³ But when ^(AC)anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, ¹⁴ for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says,

^15 (AG)Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, ^16 (AH)making the best use of the time, because ^(AI)the days are evil. ¹⁷ Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what ^(AJ)the will of the Lord is. ¹⁸ And ^(AK)do not get drunk with wine, for that is ^(AL)debauchery, but ^(AM)be filled with the Spirit, ¹⁹ addressing one another in ^(AN)psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, ^20 (AO)giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father ^(AP)in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, ^21 (AQ)submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.

Wives and Husbands

^22 (AR)Wives, ^(AS)submit to your own husbands, ^(AT)as to the Lord. ²³ For ^(AU)the husband is the head of the wife even as ^(AV)Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is ^(AW)himself its Savior. ²⁴ Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit ^(AX)in everything to their husbands.

^25 (AY)Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and ^(AZ)gave himself up for her, ²⁶ that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by ^(BA)the washing of water ^(BB)with the word, ²⁷ so ^(BC)that he might present the church to himself in splendor, ^(BD)without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.^{[a] 28} In the same way ^(BE)husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. ²⁹ For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, ³⁰ because ^(BF)we are members of his body. ^31 (BG)“Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and ^(BH)the two shall become one flesh.” ³² This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. ³³ However, ^(BI)let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she ^(BJ)respects her husband.