Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

A song for old age

Josiah rules Judah as king

34 Josiah was eight years old when he became king.^[a] He ruled as king in Jerusalem for 31 years. ² Josiah did things that the Lord said were right. He lived in the good ways of his ancestor, King David. He did not turn away from the Lord's teaching in any way.

³ When Josiah had been king for eight years, he was still a young man. At that time he began to worship God, as his ancestor David had done. When he had been king for 12 years, he started to remove the places in Jerusalem and in all Judah where people worshipped false gods. He removed the altars on the hills, the Asherah poles, the idols and the images of false gods. ⁴ He told his men to knock down the altars where people worshipped the idols of Baal. He broke into pieces the altars for incense that were near the other altars. He destroyed the Asherah poles, the idols and the images. He broke them all into very small pieces. He threw the bits over the graves of the people who had offered sacrifices to those false gods.

⁵ Josiah took the bones of the priests who had made sacrifices to the false gods. He burned the priests' bones on their own altars. That is how Josiah made Judah and Jerusalem clean again. ⁶ He went to the towns that belonged to the tribes of Manasseh, Ephraim and Simeon. He even went as far as Naphtali.^[b] He did the same thing in all those towns, as well as in the villages around them where nobody lived. ⁷ He knocked down the altars and the Asherah poles. He completely destroyed the idols and the altars for incense everywhere in the kingdom of Israel. Then he returned to Jerusalem.

Gentiles receive the Holy Spirit

⁴⁴ While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit came down on all the people who were listening to his message. ⁴⁵ The Jewish believers who had come from Joppa with Peter were very surprised. They saw that God had now freely given his Holy Spirit to Gentiles. ⁴⁶ They heard the new believers speaking in strange languages. They were also praising God.

Then Peter said, ⁴⁷ ‘God has clearly given his Holy Spirit to these people, in the same way that he gave him to us. So we should now baptize them with water. You surely agree that this is the right thing to do.’ ⁴⁸ So Peter told the Jewish believers to baptize the new believers. They spoke the name of Jesus Christ when they baptized them. After that, Cornelius asked Peter to stay with them for a few days.