Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

NUN

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.

²¹ The king commanded all the people, saying, “Keep the Passover to Yahweh your God, as it is written in this book of the covenant.” ²² Surely there was not kept such a Passover from the days of the judges who judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, nor of the kings of Judah; ²³ but in the eighteenth year of King Josiah, this Passover was kept to Yahweh in Jerusalem.

²⁴ Moreover, Josiah removed those who had familiar spirits, the wizards, and the teraphim,^[a] and the idols, and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, that he might confirm the words of the law which were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in Yahweh’s house. ²⁵ There was no king like him before him, who turned to Yahweh with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; and there was none like him who arose after him.

4 Therefore, seeing we have this ministry, even as we obtained mercy, we don’t faint. ² But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by the manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. ³ Even if our Good News is veiled, it is veiled in those who are dying, ⁴ in whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that the light of the Good News of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should not dawn on them. ⁵ For we don’t preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake, ⁶ seeing it is God who said, “Light will shine out of darkness,”^(A) who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

⁷ But we have this treasure in clay vessels, that the exceeding greatness of the power may be of God and not from ourselves. ⁸ We are pressed on every side, yet not crushed; perplexed, yet not to despair; ⁹ pursued, yet not forsaken; struck down, yet not destroyed; ¹⁰ always carrying in the body the putting to death of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. ¹¹ For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus may be revealed in our mortal flesh. ¹² So then death works in us, but life in you.