Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

89 I will sing the mercies of the LORD forever. With my mouth I will declare Your truth from generation to generation.

² For I said, “Mercy shall be set up forever. Your truth shall You establish in the very heavens.

³ “I have made a covenant with My Chosen. I have sworn to David My servant,

⁴ “‘Your Seed will I establish forever and set up your Throne from generation to generation.’” Selah.

⁵ O LORD, even the heavens shall praise Your wondrous work; indeed, Your truth, in the Congregation of the saints.

⁶ For who is equal to the LORD in the heaven? Who is like the LORD among the sons of the gods?

⁷ God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be reverenced above all who are around Him.

⁸ O, LORD God of Hosts, Who is a mighty LORD like You? And Your truth surrounds You.

⁹ You rule the raging of the sea. When the waves thereof arise, You still them.

¹⁰ You have beaten down Rahab as a man slain. You have scattered Your enemies with Your mighty arm.

¹¹ The heavens are Yours. The Earth is also Yours. You have laid the foundation of the world and all that therein is.

¹² You have created the north and the south. Tabor and Hermon shall rejoice in Your Name.

¹³ You have a mighty arm. Your hand is strong. Your right hand is high.

¹⁴ Righteousness and equity are the establishment of Your throne. Mercy and truth go before Your face.

¹⁵ Blessed is the people who can rejoice in You. They shall walk in the light of Your countenance, O LORD.

¹⁶ They shall rejoice continually in Your Name; and in Your righteousness they shall exalt themselves.

¹⁷ For You are the glory of their strength; and by Your favor our horns shall be exalted.

¹⁸ For our shield belongs to the LORD, and our King to the Holy One of Israel.

33 Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign. And he reigned for fifty-five years in Jerusalem.

² And he did 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 went back and built the high places which Hezekiah his father had broken down. And he set up altars for Baal and made groves and worshipped all the host of the heaven and served them.

⁴ Also, he built altars in the House of the LORD, of which the LORD had said, “In Jerusalem shall My Name be forever.”

⁵ And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the House of the LORD.

⁶ And he made his sons pass through the fire in the valley of Ben-hinnom. He gave himself to witchcraft and to charming and to sorcery. And he used mediums and soothsayers. He did very much evil in the sight of the LORD to anger Him.

⁷ He also put the carved image 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, I will put My Name forever.

⁸ “I will no longer remove the foot of Israel out of the land which I have appointed for your fathers, so that they consider and do all that I have Commanded them, according to the Law and Statutes and Judgments by the hand of Moses.”

⁹ So, Manasseh made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem err, 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 pay attention.

¹¹ Therefore, the LORD brought the captains of the army of the king of Assyria upon them, who took Manasseh in fetters and bound him in chains and carried him to Babel.

¹² And when he was in tribulation, he prayed to the LORD his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers,

¹³ and prayed to him. And God was moved by him, and heard his prayer, and brought him back to Jerusalem, into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD was God.

¹⁴ Now after this, he built a wall outside the City of David, on the western side of Gihon, in the valley, at the entry of the Fish Gate. And it surrounded Ophel and was raised very high. And he put captains of war in all the strong cities of Judah.

¹⁵ And he took away the strange gods and the image out of the House of the LORD, and all the altars that he had built on the mount of the House of the LORD, and in Jerusalem, and cast them out of the city.

¹⁶ Also, he prepared the Altar of the LORD, and sacrificed Peace Offerings on it, and those of thanks, and commanded Judah to serve the LORD God of Israel.

¹⁷ Nonetheless, the people still sacrificed in the high places, but to the LORD their God.

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

² For by it our elders were given a good report.

³ Through faith, we understand that the world was ordained by the Word of God, so that the things which we see are not made of things which are visible.

⁴ By faith, Abel offered a greater sacrifice to God than Cain - by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts - also by which he, being dead, still speaks.

⁵ By faith, Enoch was translated, so that he would not see death. Nor was he found. For God had taken him away. For before he was transformed, it was reported of him that he had pleased God.

⁶ But without faith it is impossible to please Him. He who comes to God must believe that God is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.

⁷ By faith, Noah being warned by God of the things which were as yet not seen, moved with reverence, prepared the Ark to the saving of his household (through which He condemned the world), and was made heir of the righteousness which is by faith.