Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

30 Then Hizkiyahu sent to all Isra’el and Y’hudah, and wrote letters also to Efrayim and M’nasheh, summoning them to the house of Adonai in Yerushalayim, to keep the Pesach to Adonai the God of Isra’el. ² For the king, his officials and the entire Yerushalayim community had agreed to keep the Pesach in the second month. ³ They had not been able to observe it at the proper time because the cohanim had not consecrated themselves in sufficient number; also the people had not assembled in Yerushalayim. ⁴ The idea had seemed right to the king and to the whole community; ⁵ so they issued a decree that it should be proclaimed throughout all Isra’el, from Be’er-Sheva to Dan, that they should come to keep the Pesach to Adonai the God of Isra’el at Yerushalayim; for only a few had been observing it as prescribed.

⁶ So runners went with the letters from the king and his officers throughout all Isra’el and Y’hudah. They conveyed the king’s order: “People of Isra’el! Turn back to Adonai, the God of Avraham, Yitz’chak and Ya‘akov! Then he will return to those of you who remain, who escaped capture by the kings of Ashur. ⁷ Don’t be like your ancestors, or like your kinsmen who sinned against Adonai the God of their ancestors, with the result that he allowed them to become an object of horror, as you see. ⁸ Don’t be stiffnecked now, as your ancestors were. Instead, yield yourselves to Adonai; enter his sanctuary, which he has made holy forever; and serve Adonai your God; so that his fierce anger will turn away from you. ⁹ For if you turn back to Adonai, your kinsmen and children will find that those who took them captive will have compassion on them, and they will come back to this land. Adonai your God is compassionate and merciful; he will not turn his face away from you if you return to him.”

¹⁰ So the runners passed from city to city through the territory of Efrayim and M’nasheh, as far as Z’vulun; but the people laughed at them and made fun of them. ¹¹ Nevertheless, some from Asher, M’nasheh and Z’vulun were humble enough to come to Yerushalayim. ¹² Also in Y’hudah the hand of God was at work, uniting their hearts to do what the king and the leaders had ordered in accordance with the word of Adonai.

¹⁰ For everyone who depends on legalistic observance of Torah commands lives under a curse, since it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not keep on doing everything written in the Scroll of the Torah.”^{[a] 11} Now it is evident that no one comes to be declared righteous by God through legalism, since “The person who is righteous will attain life by trusting and being faithful.”^{[b] 12} Furthermore, legalism is not based on trusting and being faithful, but on [a misuse of] the text that says, “Anyone who does these things will attain life through them.”^{[c] 13} The Messiah redeemed us from the curse pronounced in the Torah by becoming cursed on our behalf; for the Tanakh says, “Everyone who hangs from a stake comes under a curse.”^{[d] 14} Yeshua the Messiah did this so that in union with him the Gentiles might receive the blessing announced to Avraham, so that through trusting and being faithful, we might receive what was promised, namely, the Spirit.