Today's Reading

¹Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign; and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem.

²He did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, after the abominations of the nations whom the Lord cast out before the children of Israel.

³For he built again the high places which Hezekiah his father had broken down; and he reared up altars for the Baals, and made Asheroth, and worshiped all the army of the sky, and served them.

⁴He built altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord said, "My name shall be in Jerusalem forever."

⁵He built altars for all the army of the sky in the two courts of the house of the Lord.

⁶He also made his children to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom; and he practiced sorcery, and used enchantments, and practiced sorcery, and dealt with those who had familiar spirits, and with wizards: he worked much evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke him to anger.

⁷He set the engraved image of the idol, which he had made, in God's house, of which God said to David and to Solomon his son, "In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, will I put my name forever:

⁸neither will I any more remove the foot of Israel from off the land which I have appointed for your fathers, if only they will observe to do all that I have commanded them, even all the law and the statutes and the ordinances given by Moses."

⁹Manasseh seduced Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that they did more evil than the nations whom the Lord destroyed before the children of Israel did.

¹⁰The Lord spoke to Manasseh, and to his people; but they gave no heed.

¹¹Therefore the Lord brought on them the captains of the army of the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh in chains, and bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon.

¹²When he was in distress, he begged the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers.

¹³He prayed to him; and he was entreated by him, and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord was God.

¹⁴Now after this he built an outer wall to the city of David, on the west side of Gihon, in the valley, even to the entrance at the fish gate; and he encircled Ophel with it, and raised it up to a very great height: and he put valiant captains in all the fortified cities of Judah.

¹⁵He took away the foreign gods, and the idol out of the house of the Lord, and all the altars that he had built in the mountain of the house of the Lord, and in Jerusalem, and cast them out of the city.

¹⁶He built up the altar of the Lord, and offered thereon sacrifices of peace offerings and of thanksgiving, and commanded Judah to serve the Lord, the God of Israel.

¹⁷Nevertheless the people sacrificed still in the high places, but only to the Lord their God.

¹⁸Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh, and his prayer to his God, and the words of the seers who spoke to him in the name of the Lord, the God of Israel, behold, they are written among the acts of the kings of Israel.

¹⁹His prayer also, and how God was entreated of him, and all his sin and his trespass, and the places in which he built high places, and set up the Asherim and the engraved images, before he humbled himself: behold, they are written in the history of Hozai.

²⁰So Manasseh slept with his fathers, and they buried him in his own house: and Amon his son reigned in his place.

²¹Amon was twenty-two years old when he began to reign; and he reigned two years in Jerusalem.

²²He did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, as did Manasseh his father; and Amon sacrificed to all the engraved images which Manasseh his father had made, and served them.

²³He did not humble himself before the Lord, as Manasseh his father had humbled himself; but this same Amon trespassed more and more.

²⁴His servants conspired against him, and put him to death in his own house.

²⁵But the people of the land killed all those who had conspired against king Amon; and the people of the land made Josiah his son king in his place.

¹Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign; and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem.

²He did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord, and walked in the ways of David his father, and did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left.

³For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young, he began to seek after the God of David his father; and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places, and the Asherim, and the engraved images, and the molten images.

⁴They broke down the altars of the Baals in his presence; and the incense altars that were on high above them he cut down; and the Asherim, and the engraved images, and the molten images, he broke in pieces, and made dust of them, and strewed it on the graves of those who had sacrificed to them.

⁵He burnt the bones of the priests on their altars, and purged Judah and Jerusalem.

⁶He did this in the cities of Manasseh and Ephraim and Simeon, even to Naphtali, around in their ruins.

⁷He broke down the altars, and beat the Asherim and the engraved images into powder, and cut down all the incense altars throughout all the land of Israel, and returned to Jerusalem.

⁸Now in the eighteenth year of his reign, when he had purged the land and the house, he sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, and Maaseiah the governor of the city, and Joah the son of Joahaz the recorder, to repair the house of the Lord his God.

⁹They came to Hilkiah the high priest, and delivered the money that was brought into God's house, which the Levites, the keepers of the threshold, had gathered of the hand of Manasseh and Ephraim, and of all the remnant of Israel, and of all Judah and Benjamin, and of the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

¹⁰They delivered it into the hand of the workmen who had the oversight of the house of the Lord; and the workmen who labored in the house of the Lord gave it to mend and repair the house;

¹¹even to the carpenters and to the builders gave they it, to buy cut stone, and timber for couplings, and to make beams for the houses which the kings of Judah had destroyed.

¹²The men did the work faithfully: and their overseers were Jahath and Obadiah, the Levites, of the sons of Merari; and Zechariah and Meshullam, of the sons of the Kohathites, to set it forward; and others of the Levites, all who were skillful with instruments of music.

¹³Also they were over the bearers of burdens, and set forward all who did the work in every kind of service: and of the Levites there were scribes, and officers, and porters.

¹⁴When they brought out the money that was brought into the house of the Lord, Hilkiah the priest found the book of the law of the Lord given by Moses.

¹⁵Hilkiah answered Shaphan the scribe, "I have found the book of the law in the house of the Lord." Hilkiah delivered the book to Shaphan.

¹⁶Shaphan carried the book to the king, and moreover brought back word to the king, saying, "All that was committed to your servants, they are doing.

¹⁷They have emptied out the money that was found in the house of the Lord, and have delivered it into the hand of the overseers, and into the hand of the workmen."

¹⁸Shaphan the scribe told the king, saying, "Hilkiah the priest has delivered me a book." Shaphan read therein before the king.

¹⁹It happened, when the king had heard the words of the law, that he tore his clothes.

²⁰The king commanded Hilkiah, and Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and Abdon the son of Micah, and Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah the king's servant, saying,

²¹"Go inquire of the Lord for me, and for those who are left in Israel and in Judah, concerning the words of the book that is found; for great is the wrath of the Lord that is poured out on us, because our fathers have not kept the word of the Lord, to do according to all that is written in this book."

²²So Hilkiah, and they whom the king had commanded, went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tokhath, the son of Hasrah, keeper of the wardrobe; (now she lived in Jerusalem in the second quarter;) and they spoke to her to that effect.

²³She said to them, "Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: 'Tell the man who sent you to me,

²⁴"Thus says the Lord, 'Behold, I will bring disaster on this place, and on its inhabitants, even all the curses that are written in the book which they have read before the king of Judah.

²⁵Because they have forsaken me, and have burned incense to other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the works of their hands; therefore is my wrath poured out on this place, and it shall not be quenched.'"'

²⁶But to the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the Lord, thus you shall tell him, 'Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: "As touching the words which you have heard,

²⁷because your heart was tender, and you humbled yourself before God, when you heard his words against this place, and against its inhabitants, and have humbled yourself before me, and have torn your clothes, and wept before me; I also have heard you," says the Lord.

²⁸"Behold, I will gather you to your fathers, and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace, neither shall your eyes see all the disaster that I will bring on this place, and on its inhabitants."'" They brought back word to the king.

²⁹Then the king sent and gathered together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem.

³⁰The king went up to the house of the Lord, and all the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the priests, and the Levites, and all the people, both great and small: and he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant that was found in the house of the Lord.

³¹The king stood in his place, and made a covenant before the Lord, to walk after the Lord, and to keep his commandments, and his testimonies, and his statutes, with all his heart, and with all his soul, to perform the words of the covenant that were written in this book.

³²He caused all who were found in Jerusalem and Benjamin to stand. The inhabitants of Jerusalem did according to the covenant of God, the God of their fathers.

³³Josiah took away all the abominations out of all the countries that pertained to the children of Israel, and made all who were found in Israel to serve, even to serve the Lord their God. All his days they did not depart from following the Lord, the God of their fathers.

¹Josiah kept a Passover to the Lord in Jerusalem: and they killed the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month.

²He set the priests in their offices, and encouraged them to the service of the house of the Lord.

³He said to the Levites who taught all Israel, who were holy to the Lord, "Put the holy ark in the house which Solomon the son of David king of Israel built. There shall no more be a burden on your shoulders. Now serve the Lord your God, and his people Israel.

⁴Prepare yourselves after your fathers' houses by your divisions, according to the writing of David king of Israel, and according to the writing of Solomon his son.

⁵Stand in the holy place according to the divisions of the fathers' houses of your brothers the children of the people, and let there be for each a portion of a fathers' house of the Levites.

⁶Kill the Passover, and sanctify yourselves, and prepare for your brothers, to do according to the word of the Lord by Moses."

⁷Josiah gave to the children of the people, of the flock, lambs and young goats, all of them for the Passover offerings, to all who were present, to the number of thirty thousand, and three thousand bulls: these were of the king's substance.

⁸His princes gave for a freewill offering to the people, to the priests, and to the Levites. Hilkiah and Zechariah and Jehiel, the rulers of God's house, gave to the priests for the Passover offerings two thousand and six hundred small livestock, and three hundred head of cattle.

⁹Conaniah also, and Shemaiah and Nethanel, his brothers, and Hashabiah and Jeiel and Jozabad, the chiefs of the Levites, gave to the Levites for the Passover offerings five thousand small livestock, and five hundred head of cattle.

¹⁰So the service was prepared, and the priests stood in their place, and the Levites by their divisions, according to the king's commandment.

¹¹They killed the Passover, and the priests sprinkled the blood which they received of their hand, and the Levites flayed them.

¹²They removed the burnt offerings, that they might give them according to the divisions of the fathers' houses of the children of the people, to offer to the Lord, as it is written in the book of Moses. So they did with the cattle.

¹³They roasted the Passover with fire according to the ordinance: and the holy offerings boiled they in pots, and in caldrons, and in pans, and carried them quickly to all the children of the people.

¹⁴Afterward they prepared for themselves, and for the priests, because the priests the sons of Aaron were busy with offering the burnt offerings and the fat until night: therefore the Levites prepared for themselves, and for the priests the sons of Aaron.

¹⁵The singers the sons of Asaph were in their place, according to the commandment of David, and Asaph, and Heman, and Jeduthun the king's seer; and the porters were at every gate: they did not need to depart from their service; for their brothers the Levites prepared for them.

¹⁶So all the service of the Lord was prepared the same day, to keep the Passover, and to offer burnt offerings on the altar of the Lord, according to the commandment of king Josiah.

¹⁷The children of Israel who were present kept the Passover at that time, and the feast of unleavened bread seven days.

¹⁸There was no Passover like that kept in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet; neither did any of the kings of Israel keep such a Passover as Josiah kept, and the priests, and the Levites, and all Judah and Israel who were present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

¹⁹In the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah was this Passover kept.

²⁰After all this, when Josiah had prepared the temple, Neco king of Egypt went up to fight against Carchemish by the Euphrates: and Josiah went out against him.

²¹But he sent ambassadors to him, saying, "What have I to do with you, you king of Judah? I come not against you this day, but against the house with which I have war. God has commanded me to make haste. Beware that it is God who is with me, that he not destroy you."

²²Nevertheless Josiah would not turn his face from him, but disguised himself, that he might fight with him, and did not listen to the words of Neco from the mouth of God, and came to fight in the valley of Megiddo.

²³The archers shot at king Josiah; and the king said to his servants, "Take me away, because I am seriously wounded!"

²⁴So his servants took him out of the chariot, and put him in the second chariot that he had, and brought him to Jerusalem; and he died, and was buried in the tombs of his fathers. All Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah.

²⁵Jeremiah lamented for Josiah: and all the singing men and singing women spoke of Josiah in their lamentations to this day; and they made them an ordinance in Israel: and behold, they are written in the lamentations.

²⁶Now the rest of the acts of Josiah, and his good deeds, according to that which is written in the law of the Lord,

²⁷and his acts, first and last, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah.

¹Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes,

²to the church of God which is at Corinth; those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place, both theirs and ours:

³Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

⁴I always thank my God concerning you, for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus;

⁵that in everything you were enriched in him, in all speech and all knowledge;

⁶even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you:

⁷so that you come behind in no gift; waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ;

⁸who will also confirm you until the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

⁹God is faithful, through whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.

¹⁰Now I beg you, brothers, through the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfected together in the same mind and in the same judgment.

¹¹For it has been reported to me concerning you, my brothers, by those who are from Chloe's household, that there are contentions among you.

¹²Now I mean this, that each one of you says, "I follow Paul," "I follow Apollos," "I follow Cephas," and, "I follow Christ."

¹³Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized into the name of Paul?

¹⁴I thank God that I baptized none of you, except Crispus and Gaius,

¹⁵so that no one should say that you had been baptized into my own name.

¹⁶(I also baptized the household of Stephanas; besides them, I do not know whether I baptized any other.)

¹⁷For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to proclaim the Good News-not in wisdom of words, so that the cross of Christ would not be made void.

¹⁸For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are dying, but to us who are saved it is the power of God.

¹⁹For it is written, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, I will bring the discernment of the discerning to nothing."

²⁰Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the Law scholar of this world? Hasn't God made foolish the wisdom of this world?

²¹For seeing that in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom did not know God, it was God's good pleasure through the foolishness of the proclaiming to save those who believe.

²²For Jews ask for signs, Greeks seek after wisdom,

²³but we proclaim Christ crucified; a stumbling block to Jews, and foolishness to Gentiles,

²⁴but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.

²⁵Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

²⁶For you see your calling, brothers, that not many are wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, and not many noble;

²⁷but God chose the foolish things of the world that he might put to shame those who are wise. God chose the weak things of the world, that he might put to shame the things that are strong;

²⁸and God chose the lowly things of the world, and the things that are despised, and the things that are not, that he might bring to nothing the things that are:

²⁹that no flesh should boast before God.

³⁰But of him, you are in Christ Jesus, who was made to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption:

³¹that, according as it is written, "He who boasts, let him boast in the Lord."

¹ Look! Praise the Lord, all you servants of the Lord, who stand by night in the Lord's house!

²Lift up your hands in the sanctuary. Praise the Lord!

³May the Lord bless you from Zion; even he who made heaven and earth.

¹The proverbs of Solomon. A wise son makes a glad father; but a foolish son brings grief to his mother.

²Treasures of wickedness profit nothing, but righteousness delivers from death.

³The Lord will not allow the soul of the righteous to go hungry, but he thrusts away the desire of the wicked.

⁴He becomes poor who works with a lazy hand, but the hand of the diligent brings wealth.

⁵He who gathers in summer is a wise son, but he who sleeps during the harvest is a son who causes shame.

⁶Blessings are on the head of the righteous, but violence covers the mouth of the wicked.

⁷The memory of the righteous is blessed, but the name of the wicked will rot.

⁸The wise in heart accept commandments, but a chattering fool will fall.

⁹He who walks blamelessly walks surely, but he who perverts his ways will be found out.

¹⁰One winking with the eye causes sorrow, but a chattering fool will fall.

¹¹The mouth of the righteous is a spring of life, but violence covers the mouth of the wicked.

¹²Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all wrongs.

¹³Wisdom is found on the lips of him who has discernment, but a rod is for the back of him who is void of understanding.

¹⁴Wise men lay up knowledge, but the mouth of the foolish is near ruin.

¹⁵The rich man's wealth is his strong city. The destruction of the poor is their poverty.

¹⁶The labor of the righteous leads to life. The increase of the wicked leads to sin.

¹⁷He is in the way of life who heeds correction, but he who forsakes reproof leads others astray.

¹⁸He who hides hatred has lying lips. He who utters a slander is a fool.

¹⁹In the multitude of words there is no lack of disobedience, but he who restrains his lips does wisely.

²⁰The tongue of the righteous is like choice silver. The heart of the wicked is of little worth.

²¹The lips of the righteous feed many, but the foolish die for lack of understanding.

²²The Lord's blessing brings wealth, and he adds no trouble to it.

²³It is a fool's pleasure to do wickedness, but wisdom is a man of understanding's pleasure.

²⁴What the wicked fear, will overtake them, but the desire of the righteous will be granted.

²⁵When the whirlwind passes, the wicked is no more; but the righteous stand firm forever.

²⁶As vinegar to the teeth, and as smoke to the eyes, so is the sluggard to those who send him.

²⁷The fear of the Lord prolongs days, but the years of the wicked shall be shortened.

²⁸The prospect of the righteous is joy, but the hope of the wicked will perish.

²⁹The way of the Lord is a stronghold to the upright, but it is a destruction to the workers of iniquity.

³⁰The righteous will never be removed, but the wicked will not dwell in the land.

³¹The mouth of the righteous brings forth wisdom, but the perverse tongue will be cut off.

³²The lips of the righteous know what is acceptable, but the mouth of the wicked is perverse.