◀ All Reading Plans / Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary) / Psalm 119:105-112 (The law is light); 2 Kings 23:1-8 21-25 (King Josiah keeps the law); 2 Corinthians 4:1-12 (Christ the light) (New American Bible (Revised Edition))

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Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Daily Bible readings that follow the church liturgical year, with thematically matched Old and New Testament readings.

Duration: 1245 days

Psalm 119:105-112

Nun

¹⁰⁵Your word is a lamp for my feet,
    a light for my path.^(A)
¹⁰⁶I make a solemn vow
    to observe your righteous judgments.
¹⁰⁷I am very much afflicted, Lord;
    give me life in accord with your word.
¹⁰⁸Accept my freely offered praise;^(B)
    Lord, teach me your judgments.
¹⁰⁹My life is always at risk,
    but I do not forget your law.
¹¹⁰The wicked have set snares for me,
    but from your precepts I do not stray.
¹¹¹Your testimonies are my heritage forever;
    they are the joy of my heart.
¹¹²My heart is set on fulfilling your statutes;
    they are my reward forever.

2 Kings 23:1-8

Chapter 23

¹The king then had all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem summoned before him. ²The king went up to the house of the Lord with all the people of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem: priests, prophets, and all the people, great and small. He read aloud to them all the words of the book of the covenant that had been found in the house of the Lord.^(A) ³The king stood by the column and made a covenant in the presence of the Lord to follow the Lord and to observe his commandments, statutes, and decrees with his whole heart and soul, and to re-establish the words of the covenant written in this book. And all the people stood by the covenant.

Josiah’s Religious Reform. ⁴Then the king commanded the high priest Hilkiah, his assistant priests, and the doorkeepers to remove from the temple of the Lord all the objects that had been made for Baal, Asherah, and the whole host of heaven. These he burned outside Jerusalem on the slopes of the Kidron; their ashes were carried to Bethel.^(B) ⁵He also put an end to the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had appointed to burn incense on the high places in the cities of Judah and in the vicinity of Jerusalem, as well as those who burned incense to Baal, to the sun, moon, and signs of the zodiac, and to the whole host of heaven.^(C) ⁶From the house of the Lord he also removed the Asherah to the Wadi Kidron, outside Jerusalem; he burned it and beat it to dust, in the Wadi Kidron, and scattered its dust over the graveyard of the people of the land.^[a]^(D) ⁷He tore down the apartments of the cult prostitutes in the house of the Lord, where the women wove garments for the Asherah.^(E) ⁸He brought in all the priests from the cities of Judah, and then defiled, from Geba to Beer-sheba, the high places where they had offered incense. He also tore down the high places of the gates, which were at the entrance of the Gate of Joshua, governor of the city, north of the city gate.

2 Kings 23:21-25

²¹The king issued a command to all the people: “Observe the Passover of the Lord, your God, as it is written in this book of the covenant.”^(A) ²²No Passover such as this had been observed during the period when the judges ruled Israel, or during the entire period of the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah, ²³until the eighteenth year of King Josiah, when this Passover of the Lord was kept in Jerusalem.

²⁴Further, Josiah purged the consultation of ghosts and spirits, with the household gods, idols,^[a] and all the other horrors to be seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, so that he might carry out the words of the law that were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest had found in the house of the Lord.^(B)

²⁵Before him there had been no king who turned to the Lord as he did, with his whole heart, his whole being, and his whole strength, in accord with the entire law of Moses; nor did any king like him arise after him.^(C)

2 Corinthians 4:1-12

Chapter 4

Integrity in the Ministry. ¹^[a]Therefore, since we have this ministry through the mercy shown us, we are not discouraged. ²Rather, we have renounced shameful, hidden things; not acting deceitfully or falsifying the word of God, but by the open declaration of the truth we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God.^(A) ³And even though our gospel is veiled,^[b] it is veiled for those who are perishing,^(B) ⁴in whose case the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, so that they may not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.^(C) ⁵For we do not preach ourselves^[c] but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your slaves for the sake of Jesus. ⁶^[d]For God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to bring to light the knowledge of the glory of God on the face of [Jesus] Christ.^(D)

The Paradox of the Ministry. ⁷^[e]But we hold this treasure^[f] in earthen vessels, that the surpassing power may be of God and not from us. ⁸^[g]We are afflicted in every way, but not constrained; perplexed, but not driven to despair;^(E) ⁹persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed; ¹⁰^[h]^(F)always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our body. ¹¹For we who live are constantly being given up to death for the sake of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh.^(G)

¹²^[i]So death is at work in us, but life in you.

Footnotes

4:1–2 A ministry of this sort generates confidence and forthrightness; cf. 2 Cor 1:12–14; 2:17.
4:3–4 Though our gospel is veiled: the final application of the image. Paul has been reproached either for obscurity in his preaching or for his manner of presenting the gospel. But he confidently asserts that there is no veil over his gospel. If some fail to perceive its light, that is because of unbelief. The veil lies over their eyes (2 Cor 3:14), a blindness induced by Satan, and a sign that they are headed for destruction (cf. 2 Cor 2:15).
4:5 We do not preach ourselves: the light seen in his gospel is the glory of Christ (2 Cor 4:4). Far from preaching himself, the preacher should be a transparent medium through whom Jesus is perceived (cf. 2 Cor 4:10–11). Your slaves: Paul draws attention away from individuals as such and toward their role in relation to God, Christ, and the community; cf. 1 Cor 3:5; 2 Cor 4:1.
4:6 Autobiographical allusion to the episode at Damascus clarifies the origin and nature of Paul’s service; cf. Acts 9:1–19; 22:3–16; 26:2–18. “Let light shine out of darkness”: Paul seems to be thinking of Gn 1:3 and presenting his apostolic ministry as a new creation. There may also be an allusion to Is 9:1 suggesting his prophetic calling as servant of the Lord and light to the nations; cf. Is 42:6, 16; 49:6; 60:1–2, and the use of light imagery in Acts 26:13–23. To bring to light the knowledge: Paul’s role in the process of revelation, expressed at the beginning under the image of the odor and aroma (2 Cor 2:14–15), is restated now, at the end of this first moment of the development, in the imagery of light and glory (2 Cor 4:3–6).
4:7–5:10 Paul now confronts the difficulty that his present existence does not appear glorious at all; it is marked instead by suffering and death. He deals with this by developing the topic already announced in 2 Cor 3:3, 6, asserting his faith in the presence and ultimate triumph of life, in his own and every Christian existence, despite the experience of death.
4:7 This treasure: the glory that he preaches and into which they are being transformed. In earthen vessels: the instruments God uses are human and fragile; some imagine small terracotta lamps in which light is carried.
4:8–9 A catalogue of his apostolic trials and afflictions. Yet in these the negative never completely prevails; there is always some experience of rescue, of salvation.
4:10–11 Both the negative and the positive sides of the experience are grounded christologically. The logic is similar to that of 2 Cor 1:3–11. His sufferings are connected with Christ’s, and his deliverance is a sign that he is to share in Jesus’ resurrection.
4:12–15 His experience does not terminate in himself, but in others (12, 15; cf. 2 Cor 1:4–5). Ultimately, everything is ordered even beyond the community, toward God (2 Cor 4:15; cf. 2 Cor 1:11).

New American Bible (Revised Edition) (NABRE)

Scripture texts, prefaces, introductions, footnotes and cross references used in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

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