Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Giving Thanks to God
63 O God, You are my God. I will look for You with all my heart and strength. My soul is thirsty for You. My flesh is weak wanting You in a dry and tired land where there is no water. 2 So I have seen You in the holy place. And I have seen Your power and Your shining-greatness. 3 My lips will praise You because Your loving-kindness is better than life. 4 So I will give honor to You as long as I live. I will lift up my hands in Your name. 5 My soul will be filled as with rich foods. And my mouth praises You with lips of joy.
6 On my bed I remember You. I think of You through the hours of the night. 7 For You have been my help. And I sing for joy in the shadow of Your wings. 8 My soul holds on to You. Your right hand holds me up.
9 But those who want to take my life and destroy it will go deep into the earth. 10 They will be given over to the power of the sword. They will become food for foxes. 11 But the king will be full of joy in God. All who are faithful to God will be full of joy. For the mouth of those who speak lies will be stopped.
15 The king broke down the altar at Bethel and the high place made by Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel sin, even that altar and the high place he broke down. He crushed its stones, ground them to dust, and burned the false goddess Asherah. 16 As Josiah turned, he saw the graves that were there on the mountain. He had the bones taken from the graves, and burned them on the altar. So he made the altar sinful, as the word of the Lord said would happen, through the man of God. 17 Then Josiah said, “What is this that I see?” The men of the city told him, “It is the grave of the man of God who came from Judah. He is the one who said that these things would happen which you have done against the altar of Bethel.” 18 Josiah said, “Let him alone. Let no one move his bones.” So they let his bones alone, with the bones of the man of God who came from Samaria. 19 Josiah took away all the houses of the high places in the cities of Samaria. The kings of Israel had made the Lord angry by building them. The king did to them just as he had done in Bethel. 20 And he killed on the altar all the religious leaders of the high places who were there. He burned human bones on them. Then he returned to Jerusalem.
Josiah Keeps the Passover
21 King Josiah told all the people, “Keep the Passover to the Lord your God, as it is written in this Book of the Law.” 22 For sure no such Passover had been kept since the days of the judges who ruled Israel. It had not been kept in all the days of the kings of Israel or Judah. 23 But this Passover was kept to the Lord in Jerusalem in the eighteenth year of King Josiah.
24 Josiah put away the people who spoke with spirits, and people who used their secret ways. He put away the house gods and the false gods and all the sinful things that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem. He did this to obey the words of the Law which were written in the book that was found in the Lord’s house by Hilkiah the religious leader. 25 Before Josiah there was no king like him who turned to the Lord with all his heart and soul and strength, obeying all the Law of Moses. And no one like him came after him.
The House of God
11 I was given a stick that is used to see how big things are. Someone said, “Go up to the house of God and find out how big it is. Find out about the altar also. See how many people are worshiping. 2 Do not find out about the porch of the house of God. It has been given over to the nations who do not know God. They will walk over all the Holy City to wreck it for forty-two months. 3 I will give power to my two men who tell what they know. They will speak for God for 1,260 days (forty-two months). They will be dressed in clothes made from the hair of animals.”
The Two Men Who Tell What They Know
4 These two men who tell what they know are the two olive trees and the two lights that stand before the Lord of the earth. 5 If anyone hates them and tries to hurt them, fire comes out of the mouths of these two men. The fire kills those who try to hurt them. 6 They have power to shut up the sky. During the time they speak for God, there will be no rain. They have power to change all waters into blood. They can send every kind of trouble to the earth whenever they want to.
The Death of the Two Men Who Speak for God
7 When they have finished speaking for God, the wild animal will make war with them. It will come up out of the hole without a bottom. This wild animal will have power over them and kill them. 8 Their dead bodies will lie in the street of Jerusalem. It is where their Lord was nailed to a cross. The city is sometimes called Sodom and Egypt. 9 For three-and-one-half days those from every people and from every family and from every language and from every nation will look at their dead bodies. People will not allow the dead bodies of these two men to be put in a grave. 10 Those who are living on the earth will be happy because of the death of these two men. They will do things to show they are happy. They will send gifts to each other. They will do this because these two men brought much trouble and suffering to the people of the earth.
The Two Men Come to Life Again
11 After three-and-one-half days, life from God came into them again. They stood on their feet. Those who saw them were very much afraid.
12 Then the two men who told what they knew heard a loud voice from heaven. It said, “Come up here.” And they went up to heaven in a cloud. All those who hated them watched them go. 13 At the same time the earth shook. One-tenth part of the buildings of the city fell down. Seven thousand people were killed. The rest of the people were afraid and gave honor to the God of heaven.
14 The second time of trouble is past. But look, the third time of trouble is coming soon.
Copyright © 1969, 2003 by Barbour Publishing, Inc.