Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

15 The Spirit of God came on ‘Azaryah the son of ‘Oded; ² he went out to meet Asa and said to him, “Listen to me, Asa, and all Y’hudah and Binyamin! Adonai is with you, as long as you are with him; if you seek him, you will find him; but if you abandon him, he will abandon you! ³ For a long time Isra’el was without the true God, without a cohen who could teach, and without Torah. ⁴ But when, in their distress, they turned to Adonai the God of Isra’el and sought him, they found him. ⁵ In those times people going about their business were insecure, and great disturbances afflicted all the inhabitants of the lands; ⁶ so that they were shattered to pieces, nation against nation and city against city, as God troubled them with every kind of distress. ⁷ But you, be strong, and don’t slack off; for your work will be rewarded.”

⁸ When Asa heard these words prophesied by ‘Oded the prophet, it gave him courage to throw the disgusting things out of the whole land of Y’hudah and Binyamin and out of the cities he had captured in the hills of Efrayim; he also renewed the altar of Adonai which was in front of the vestibule of Adonai. ⁹ Then he gathered all Y’hudah and Binyamin, along with those from Efrayim, M’nasheh and Shim‘on who were staying with him (for they had defected to him in large numbers upon seeing that Adonai his God was with him). ¹⁰ They assembled together at Yerushalayim in the third month of the fifteenth year of Asa’s reign. ¹¹ That day they sacrificed to Adonai 700 oxen and 7,000 sheep from the spoil they had brought; ¹² and they entered into a covenant to seek Adonai, the God of their ancestors, with all their heart and with all their being; ¹³ [they also agreed] that whoever refused to seek Adonai the God of Isra’el should be put to death, whether small or great, man or woman. ¹⁴ They swore this to Adonai in a loud voice, with shouting and blowing of trumpets and shofars. ¹⁵ All Y’hudah was full of joy at this oath; for they had sworn with all their heart and had sought him with all their will; and they found him, and Adonai gave them rest all around.

¹⁵ The angel speaking with me had a gold measuring-rod with which to measure the city, its gates and its wall. ¹⁶ The city is laid out in a square, its length equal to its width. With his rod he measured the city at 1,500 miles, with length, width and height the same. ¹⁷ He measured its wall at 216 feet by human standards of measurement, which the angel was using. ¹⁸ The wall was made of diamond and the city of pure gold resembling pure glass. ¹⁹ The foundations of the city wall were decorated with all kinds of precious stones — the first foundation stone was diamond, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald, ²⁰ the fifth sardonyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh turquoise and the twelfth amethyst. ²¹ The twelve gates were twelve pearls, with each gate made of a single pearl. The city’s main street was pure gold, transparent as glass.

²² I saw no Temple in the city, for Adonai, God of heaven’s armies, is its Temple, as is the Lamb.