Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Psalm 132(A)
A Song of Ascents.
1 O Lord, remember David
and all his afflictions,
2 how he swore unto the Lord,
and vowed unto the mighty God of Jacob:
3 “I will not come into my house,
nor go up to my bed;
4 I will not give sleep to my eyes,
or slumber to my eyelids,
5 until I find a place for the Lord,
a dwelling for the mighty God of Jacob.”
6 We heard of it in Ephrathah;
we found it in the fields of Jaar.
7 “We will go to His dwelling place,
we will worship at His footstool.”
8 Arise, O Lord, go to Your resting place,
You and the ark of Your strength.
9 Let Your priests be clothed with righteousness,
and let Your godly ones shout for joy.
10 For Your servant David’s sake,
do not turn away Your anointed king.
11 The Lord has sworn with a sure oath to David
that He will not turn from it:
“From the fruit of your body
I will set a son on your throne.
12 If your children will keep My covenant
and My testimonies that I shall teach them,
then their children shall also sit
upon your throne forever.”
13 For the Lord has chosen Zion;
He has desired it for His dwelling:
14 “This is My resting place forever;
here I will dwell, for I have chosen it.
15 I will abundantly bless her provisions;
I will satisfy her poor with bread.
16 I will also clothe her priests with salvation,
and her godly ones shall shout for joy.
17 “There I will make a horn sprout for David;
I have prepared a lamp for My anointed one.
18 His enemies I will clothe with shame,
but on him his crown will shine.”
Josiah Renews the Covenant(A)
23 Then the king sent them away and they gathered all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem to him. 2 The king went up to the house of the Lord, and all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him, 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 was found in the house of the Lord. 3 The king stood by a pillar and made a covenant before the Lord to follow the Lord, to keep His commandments, His testimonies, 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 agreed with the covenant.
4 The king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, the priests of the second order, and the keepers of the threshold to bring out of the temple of the Lord all the implements that were made for Baal, for Asherah, and for all the host of heaven. Then he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron and carried their ashes to Bethel. 5 Then he removed the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense on the high places at the cities of Judah and around Jerusalem; those also who burned incense to Baal, to the sun, to the moon, to the constellations, and to all the host of heaven. 6 He brought out the Asherah from the house of the Lord to the outside of Jerusalem, to the Kidron Valley. Then he burned it at the Kidron Valley, crushed it to dust, and threw its dust upon the graves of the people. 7 He tore down the houses of the male cult prostitutes that were in the house of the Lord, where the women were weaving 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 made offerings, from Geba to Beersheba. He broke down the high places of the gates at the entry of the gates of Joshua the governor of the city, which were on the left at the gate of the city. 9 However the priests of the high places did not go up to the altar of the Lord in Jerusalem. Instead they ate unleavened bread among their fellow priests.
10 He defiled Topheth, which is in the Valley of Ben Hinnom, so that no man would make his son or his daughter pass through the fire to Molek. 11 He removed the horses that the kings of Judah had given to the sun, at the entry of the house of the Lord, by the hall of Nathan-Melek the eunuch, which was in the vestibule. The chariots of the sun he burned with fire.
12 The altars that were on the roof of the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the Lord the king tore down and banished from there and threw their dust into the Kidron Valley. 13 The high places east of Jerusalem, south of the Mount of Corruption, which Solomon the king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, for Chemosh the abomination of the Moabites, and for Molek the abomination of the Ammonites, the king defiled. 14 He broke the standing stones, cut down the Asherah poles, and filled their sites with human bones.
He Who Comes From Heaven
31 He who comes from above is above all. He who is of the earth is earthly and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all. 32 He bears witness of what He has seen and heard, yet no one receives His testimony. 33 He who has received His testimony has certified that God is true. 34 For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without measure to Him. 35 The Father loves the Son, and has placed all things into His hand. 36 He who believes in the Son has eternal life. He who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.