Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

A Song of Ascents.

23 The king sent, and they gathered to him all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem. ² The king went up to Yahweh’s house, and all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him—with the priests, the prophets, and all the people, both small and great; and he read in their hearing all the words of the book of the covenant which was found in Yahweh’s house. ³ The king stood by the pillar and made a covenant before Yahweh to walk after Yahweh and to keep his commandments, his testimonies, and his statutes with all his heart and all his soul, to confirm the words of this covenant that were written in this book; and all the people agreed to the covenant.

⁴ The king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, and the priests of the second order, and the keepers of the threshold, to bring out of Yahweh’s temple all the vessels that were made for Baal, for the Asherah, and for all the army of the sky; and he burned them outside of Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron, and carried their ashes to Bethel. ⁵ He got rid of the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah and in the places around Jerusalem; those also who burned incense to Baal, to the sun, to the moon, to the planets, and to all the army of the sky. ⁶ He brought out the Asherah from Yahweh’s house, outside of Jerusalem, to the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron, and beat it to dust, and cast its dust on the graves of the common people. ⁷ He broke down the houses of the male shrine prostitutes that were in Yahweh’s house, where the women wove hangings for the Asherah. ⁸ He brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense, from Geba to Beersheba; and 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 a man’s left hand at the gate of the city. ⁹ Nevertheless the priests of the high places didn’t come up to Yahweh’s altar in Jerusalem, but they ate unleavened bread among their brothers. ¹⁰ He defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech. ¹¹ He took away the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun, at the entrance of Yahweh’s house, by the room of Nathan Melech the officer who was in the court; and he burned the chariots of the sun with fire. ¹² The king broke down the altars that were on the roof of the upper room of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of Yahweh’s house, and beat them down from there, and cast their dust into the brook Kidron. ¹³ The king defiled the high places that were before Jerusalem, which were on the right hand of the mountain of corruption, which Solomon the king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Milcom the abomination of the children of Ammon. ¹⁴ He broke in pieces the pillars, cut down the Asherah poles, and filled their places with men’s bones.

³¹ “He who comes from above is above all. He who is from the earth belongs to the earth and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all. ³² What he has seen and heard, of that he testifies; and no one receives his witness. ³³ He who has received his witness has set his seal to this, that God is true. ³⁴ For he whom God has sent speaks the words of God; for God gives the Spirit without measure. ³⁵ The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into his hand. ³⁶ One who believes in the Son has eternal life, but one who disobeys^[a] the Son won’t see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.”