Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Psalm 132

The Eternal Dwelling of God in Zion

A Song of Ascents.

Josiah’s Reformation

23 Then the king directed that all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem should be gathered to him.^{(A) 2} The king went up to the house of the Lord, and with him went all the people of Judah, all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the priests, the prophets, and all the people, both small and great; he read in their hearing all the words of the book of the covenant that had been found in the house of the Lord.^{(B) 3} The king stood by the pillar and made a covenant before the Lord, to follow the Lord, keeping his commandments, his decrees, and his statutes, with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. All the people joined in the covenant.^(C)

⁴ The king commanded the high priest Hilkiah, the priests of the second order, and the guardians of the threshold to bring out of the temple of the Lord all the vessels made for Baal, for Asherah, and for all the host of heaven; he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron and carried their ashes to Bethel.^{(D) 5} He deposed the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had ordained to make offerings in the high places at the cities of Judah and around Jerusalem, those also who made offerings to Baal, to the sun, the moon, the constellations, and all the host of the heavens. ⁶ He brought out the image of^[a] Asherah from the house of the Lord, outside Jerusalem, to the Wadi Kidron, burned it at the Wadi Kidron, beat it to dust, and threw the dust of it upon the graves of the common people.^{(E) 7} He broke down the houses of the illicit priests who were in the house of the Lord, where the women did weaving for Asherah.^{(F) 8} He brought all the priests out of the towns of Judah and defiled the high places where the priests had made offerings, from Geba to Beer-sheba; he broke down the high places of the gates that were at the entrance of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were on the left at the gate of the city.^{(G) 9} The priests of the high places, however, did not come up to the altar of the Lord in Jerusalem but ate unleavened bread among their kindred.^{(H) 10} He defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of Ben-hinnom, so that no one would make a son or a daughter pass through fire as an offering to Molech.^{(I) 11} He removed the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun at the entrance to the house of the Lord, by the chamber of the eunuch Nathan-melech, which was in the precincts;^[b] then he burned the chariots of the sun with fire. ¹² The altars on the roof of the upper chamber of Ahaz that the kings of Judah had made and the altars that Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the Lord he pulled down from there and broke in pieces and threw the rubble into the Wadi Kidron.^{(J) 13} The king defiled the high places that were east of Jerusalem, to the south of the Mount of Destruction, which King Solomon of Israel had built for Astarte the abomination of the Sidonians, for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.^{(K) 14} He broke the pillars in pieces, cut down the sacred poles,^[c] and covered the sites with human bones.^(L)

The One Who Comes from Heaven

³¹ The one who comes from above is above all; the one who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks about earthly things. The one who comes from heaven is above all.^{(A) 32} He testifies to what he has seen and heard, yet no one accepts his testimony.^{(B) 33} Whoever has accepted his testimony has certified^[a] this, that God is true.^{(C) 34} He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure.^{(D) 35} The Father loves the Son and has placed all things in his hands.^{(E) 36} Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever disobeys the Son will not see life but must endure God’s wrath.^(F)