Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Praise for God’s mighty deeds and for his answer to prayer.

For the Chief Musician. A Song, a Psalm.

21 Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign; and he reigned five and fifty years in Jerusalem: and his mother’s name was Hephzibah. ² And he did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah, after the abominations of the nations whom Jehovah cast out before the children of Israel. ³ For he built again the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed; and he reared up altars for Baal, and made an Asherah, as did Ahab king of Israel, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served them. ⁴ And he built altars in the house of Jehovah, whereof Jehovah said, In Jerusalem will I put my name. ⁵ And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of Jehovah. ⁶ And he made his son to pass through the fire, and practised augury, and used enchantments, and ^[a]dealt with them that had familiar spirits, and with wizards: he wrought much evil in the sight of Jehovah, to provoke him to anger. ⁷ And he set the graven image of Asherah, that he had made, in the house of which Jehovah said to David and to Solomon his son, In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, will I put my name for ever; ⁸ neither will I cause the feet of Israel to wander any more out of the land which I gave their fathers, if only they will observe to do according to all that I have commanded them, and according to all the law that my servant Moses commanded them. ⁹ But they hearkened not: and Manasseh seduced them to do that which is evil more than did the nations whom Jehovah destroyed before the children of Israel.

¹⁰ And Jehovah spake by his servants the prophets, saying, ¹¹ Because Manasseh king of Judah hath done these abominations, and hath done wickedly above all that the Amorites did, that were before him, and hath made Judah also to sin with his idols; ¹² therefore thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel, Behold, I bring such evil upon Jerusalem and Judah, that whosoever heareth of it, both his ears shall tingle. ¹³ And I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria, and the plummet of the house of Ahab; and I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipeth a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down. ¹⁴ And I will cast off the remnant of mine inheritance, and deliver them into the hand of their enemies; and they shall become a prey and a spoil to all their enemies; ¹⁵ because they have done that which is evil in my sight, and have provoked me to anger, since the day their fathers came forth out of Egypt, even unto this day.

¹⁴ For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. ¹⁵ For that which I ^[a]do I know not: for not what I would, that do I practise; but what I hate, that I do. ¹⁶ But if what I would not, that I do, I consent unto the law that it is good. ¹⁷ So now it is no more I that ^[b]do it, but sin which dwelleth in me. ¹⁸ For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me, but to ^[c]do that which is good is not. ¹⁹ For the good which I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I practise. ²⁰ But if what I would not, that I do, it is no more I that ^[d]do it, but sin which dwelleth in me. ²¹ I find then ^[e]the law, that, to me who would do good, evil is present. ²² For I delight ^[f]in the law of God after the inward man: ²³ but I see a different law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity ^[g]under the law of sin which is in my members. ²⁴ Wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me out of ^[h]the body of this death? ^25 [i]I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then I of myself with the mind, indeed, serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.