Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Psalm 93

15 When God’s spirit came upon Azariah, Oded’s son, ² he confronted Asa: “Listen to me, Asa and all Judah and Benjamin,” he said. “The Lord is with you as long as you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you abandon him, he will abandon you. ³ For a long time Israel was without the true God, without a priest to teach them, and without the Instruction. ⁴ But in their time of trouble they turned to the Lord, Israel’s God. They sought him and found him! ⁵ At that time, it wasn’t safe to travel because great turmoil affected all the inhabitants of the area. ⁶ Nation was crushed by nation and city by city, as God troubled them with every kind of problem. ⁷ But as for you, be brave and don’t lose heart, because your work will be rewarded!”

Asa’s reforms

⁸ As soon as Asa heard these words and the prophecy of Azariah, Oded’s son,^[a] he felt brave and removed the detestable idols from all of Judah and Benjamin, as well as from the cities he had captured in Ephraim’s highlands, and he repaired the Lord’s altar that stood before the Lord’s entrance hall. ⁹ Then Asa gathered all Judah and Benjamin, along with those who were living among them as immigrants from Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon, because many people from Israel had joined up with him when they saw that the Lord his God was with him. ¹⁰ They gathered in Jerusalem in the third month of the fifteenth year of Asa’s rule. ¹¹ On that day they sacrificed to the Lord part of the loot they had taken: seven hundred oxen and seven thousand sheep. ¹² They made a covenant to seek the Lord, the God of their ancestors, with all their heart and all their being. ¹³ They agreed that anyone who refused to seek the Lord, Israel’s God, would be put to death, whether young or old, male or female. ¹⁴ They swore this to the Lord with a loud voice, shouts of joy, and blasts from trumpets and horns. ¹⁵ All Judah was delighted with the solemn pledge because they had sworn it with all their hearts. When they enthusiastically sought God, he was found by them, and the Lord gave them peace on every side.

¹⁵ The angel who spoke to me had a gold measuring rod with which to measure the city, its gates, and its wall. ¹⁶ Now the city was laid out as a square. Its length was the same as its width. He measured the city with the rod, and it was fifteen hundred miles.^[a] Its length and width and height were equal. ¹⁷ He also measured the thickness of its wall. It was two hundred sixteen feet^[b] thick, as a person—or rather, an angel—measures things. ¹⁸ The wall was built of jasper, and the city was pure gold, like pure glass. ¹⁹ The city wall’s foundations were decorated with every kind of jewel. The first foundation was jasper, the second was sapphire, the third was chalcedony, and the fourth was emerald. ²⁰ The fifth was sardonyx, the sixth was carnelian, the seventh was chrysolite, and the eighth was beryl. The ninth was topaz, the tenth was chrysoprase, the eleventh was jacinth, and the twelfth was amethyst. ²¹ The twelve gates were twelve pearls; each one of the gates was made from a single pearl. And the city’s main street was pure gold, as transparent as glass.

²² I didn’t see a temple in the city, because its temple is the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb.