Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

How Awesome Your Deeds

Psalm 66

Wicked Kings Manasseh and Amon

21 Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned 55 years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hephzi-bah. ² But he did what was evil in Adonai’s eyes, following the abominations of the nations that Adonai had dispossessed before Bnei-Yisrael. ³ For he rebuilt the shrines that his father Hezekiah had destroyed and he erected altars for Baal and made an Asherah pole, as King Ahab of Israel had done, and bowed down to all the host of heaven and worshipped them. ⁴ He even built altars in Adonai’s House, where Adonai had said, “In Jerusalem I will put My Name.” ⁵ He built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the House of Adonai. ⁶ He also made his son pass through the fire, practiced soothsaying and divination, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in Adonai’s eyes to provoke Him.

⁷ Then he set up the carved image of Asherah that he made in the House about which Adonai had said to David and to his son Solomon, “In this House and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen from all the tribes of Israel, I will put My Name forever. ⁸ No longer will I cause the feet of Israel to wander from the land which I gave their fathers—if only they will keep doing all I have commanded them and the whole Torah that My servant Moses commanded them.”

⁹ But they did not listen, so Manasseh led them astray to do more evil than the nations that Adonai had destroyed before Bnei-Yisrael. ¹⁰ Then Adonai spoke through His servants the prophets, saying: ¹¹ “Since King Manasseh of Judah has done these abominations, and has outdone in wickedness all that the Amorites who were before him did, and has also made Judah sin with his idols, ¹² therefore thus says Adonai, God of Israel, behold, I am bringing such evil on Jerusalem and Judah that whoever hears of it, both his ears will tingle! ¹³ I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria and the plummet of the house of Ahab, and I will utterly wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish—wiping it and turning it upside down. ¹⁴ Then I will cast off the remnant of My inheritance and hand them over to their enemies—they will become plunder and spoil to all their enemies. ¹⁵ For they have done such evil in My eyes, and kept provoking Me to anger since the day their fathers came out of Egypt up to this day.”

¹⁴ For we know that the Torah is spiritual; but I am of the flesh, sold to sin. ¹⁵ For I do not understand what I am doing—for what I do not want, this I practice; but what I hate, this I do. ¹⁶ But if I do what I do not want to do, then I agree with the Torah—that it is good.

¹⁷ So now it is no longer I doing it, but sin dwelling in me. ¹⁸ For I know that nothing good dwells in me—that is, in my flesh. For to will is present in me, but to do the good is not. ¹⁹ For the good that I want, I do not do; but the evil that I do not want, this I practice. ²⁰ But if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I doing it, but sin that dwells in me.

²¹ So I find the principle—that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. ²² For I delight in the Torah of God with respect to the inner man, ²³ but I see a different law in my body parts, battling against the law of my mind and bringing me into bondage under the law of sin which is in my body parts. ²⁴ Miserable man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? ²⁵ Thanks be to God—it is through Messiah Yeshua our Lord!^[a] So then, with my mind I myself serve the Torah of God; but with my flesh, I serve the law of sin.