Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

89 I will sing of the mercies of the Lord for ever; with my mouth will I make known Thy faithfulness to all generations.

² For I have said, “Mercy shall be built up for ever; Thy faithfulness shalt Thou establish in the very heavens.”

³ “I have made a covenant with My chosen, I have sworn unto David My servant:

⁴ ‘Thy Seed will I establish for ever, and build up thy throne to all generations.’” Selah

⁵ And the heavens shall praise Thy wonders, O Lord, Thy faithfulness also in the congregation of the saints.

⁶ For who in the heaven can be compared unto the Lord? Who among the sons of the mighty can be likened unto the Lord?

⁷ God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be held in reverence by all them that are about Him.

⁸ O Lord God of hosts, who is a strong Lord like unto Thee? Or to Thy faithfulness round about Thee?

⁹ Thou rulest the raging of the sea; when the waves thereof arise, Thou stillest them.

¹⁰ Thou hast broken Rahab in pieces, as one that is slain; Thou hast scattered Thine enemies with Thy strong arm.

¹¹ The heavens are Thine, the earth also is Thine; as for the world and the fullness thereof, Thou hast founded them.

¹² The north and the south, Thou hast created them; Tabor and Hermon shall rejoice in Thy name.

¹³ Thou hast a mighty arm; strong is Thy hand, and high is Thy right hand.

¹⁴ Justice and judgment are the habitation of Thy throne; mercy and truth shall go before Thy face.

¹⁵ Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound! They shall walk, O Lord, in the light of Thy countenance.

¹⁶ In Thy name shall they rejoice all the day, and in Thy righteousness shall they be exalted.

¹⁷ For Thou art the glory of their strength, and in Thy favor our horn shall be exalted.

¹⁸ For the Lord is our defense, and the Holy One of Israel is our King.

33 Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty and five years in Jerusalem.

² But he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, like the abominations of the heathen whom the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel.

³ For he built again the high places which Hezekiah his father had broken down, and he reared up altars for the Baalim, and made Asherah poles, and worshiped all the host of heaven and served them.

⁴ Also he built altars in the house of the Lord, whereof the Lord had said, “In Jerusalem shall My name be for ever.”

⁵ And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord.

⁶ And he caused his children to pass through the fire in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom; also he observed omens, and used enchantments, and used witchcraft, and dealt with mediums and with wizards. He wrought much evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke Him to anger.

⁷ And he set a carved image, the idol which he had made, in the house of God, of which God had said to David and to Solomon his son, “In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen before all the tribes of Israel, will I put My name for ever;

⁸ neither will I any more remove the foot of Israel from out of the land which I have appointed for your fathers, so that they will take heed to do all that I have commanded them, according to the whole law and the statutes and the ordinances by the hand of Moses.”

⁹ So Manasseh made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to err and to do worse than the heathen whom the Lord had destroyed before the children of Israel.

¹⁰ And the Lord spoke to Manasseh and to his people, but they would not hearken.

¹¹ Therefore the Lord brought upon them the captains of the host of the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh among the thorns, and bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon.

¹² And when he was in affliction, he besought the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers,

¹³ and prayed unto Him; and He was entreated by him and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord, He was God.

¹⁴ Now after this he built a wall outside the City of David on the west side of Gihon in the valley, even to the entrance at the Fish Gate, and it compassed about Ophel; and he raised it up a very great height, and put captains of war in all the fortified cities of Judah.

¹⁵ And he took away the strange gods and the idol out of the house of the Lord, and all the altars that he had built in the mount of the house of the Lord and in Jerusalem, and cast them out of the city.

¹⁶ And he repaired the altar of the Lord, and sacrificed thereon peace offerings and thank offerings, and commanded Judah to serve the Lord God of Israel.

¹⁷ Nevertheless the people sacrificed still in the high places, but unto the Lord their God only.

11 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

² For by it the elders obtained a good report.

³ Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.

⁴ By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and by it he, being dead, yet speaketh.

⁵ By faith Enoch was translated, that he should not see death, “and was not found because God had translated him.” For before his translation he had this testimony: that he pleased God.

⁶ But without faith it is impossible to please Him. For he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

⁷ By faith Noah, being warned by God of things not yet seen, moved with fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his house, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.