2 KINGS 22:3-23:30
ACTS 21:37-22:16
PSALM 1:1-6
PROVERBS 18:11-12
2 KINGS 22:3-23:30
In the eighteenth year of his reign, King Josiah sent Shaphan son of Azaliah and grandson of Meshullam, the court secretary, to the Temple of the LORD. He told him, 4 " Go up to Hilkiah the high priest and have him count the money the gatekeepers have collected from the people at the LORD's Temple. 5 Entrust this money to the men assigned to supervise the Temple's restoration. Then they can use it to pay workers to repair the Temple of the LORD. 6 They will need to hire carpenters, builders, and masons. Also have them buy the timber and the cut stone needed to repair the Temple. 7 But there will be no need for the construction supervisors to keep account of the money they receive, for they are honest people." 8 Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the court secretary, " I have found the Book of the Law in the LORD's Temple!" Then Hilkiah gave the scroll to Shaphan, and he read it. 9 Shaphan returned to the king and reported, " Your officials have given the money collected at the Temple of the LORD to the workers and supervisors at the Temple." 10 Shaphan also said to the king, " Hilkiah the priest has given me a scroll." So Shaphan read it to the king. 11 When the king heard what was written in the Book of the Law, he tore his clothes in despair. 12 Then he gave these orders to Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam son of Shaphan, Acbor son of Micaiah, Shaphan the court secretary, and Asaiah the king's personal adviser: 13 " Go to the Temple and speak to the LORD for me and for the people and for all Judah. Ask him about the words written in this scroll that has been found. The LORD's anger is burning against us because our ancestors have not obeyed the words in this scroll. We have not been doing what this scroll says we must do." 14 So Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam, Acbor, Shaphan, and Asaiah went to the newer Mishneh section of Jerusalem to consult with the prophet Huldah. She was the wife of Shallum son of Tikvah and grandson of Harhas, the keeper of the Temple wardrobe. 15 She said to them, " The LORD, the God of Israel, has spoken! Go and tell the man who sent you, 16 ` This is what the LORD says: I will destroy this city and its people, just as I stated in the scroll you read. 17 For my people have abandoned me and worshiped pagan gods, and I am very angry with them for everything they have done. My anger is burning against this place, and it will not be quenched.' 18 " But go to the king of Judah who sent you to seek the LORD and tell him: ` This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says concerning the message you have just heard: 19 You were sorry and humbled yourself before the LORD when you heard what I said against this city and its people, that this land would be cursed and become desolate. You tore your clothing in despair and wept before me in repentance. So I have indeed heard you, says the LORD. 20 I will not send the promised disaster against this city until after you have died and been buried in peace. You will not see the disaster I am going to bring on this place.' " So they took her message back to the king.23:1 THEN the king summoned all the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem. 2 And the king went up to the Temple of the LORD with all the people of Judah and Jerusalem, and the priests, and the prophets--all the people from the least to the greatest. There the king read to them the entire Book of the Covenant that had been found in the LORD's Temple. 3 The king took his place of authority beside the pillar and renewed the covenant in the LORD's presence. He pledged to obey the LORD by keeping all his commands, regulations, and laws with all his heart and soul. In this way, he confirmed all the terms of the covenant that were written in the scroll, and all the people pledged themselves to the covenant. 4 Then the king instructed Hilkiah the high priest and the leading priests and the Temple gatekeepers to remove from the LORD's Temple all the utensils that were used to worship Baal, Asherah, and all the forces of heaven. The king had all these things burned outside Jerusalem on the terraces of the Kidron Valley, and he carried the ashes away to Bethel. 5 He did away with the pagan priests, who had been appointed by the previous kings of Judah, for they had burned incense at the pagan shrines throughout Judah and even in the vicinity of Jerusalem. They had also offered incense to Baal, and to the sun, the moon, the constellations, and to all the forces of heaven. 6 The king removed the Asherah pole from the LORD's Temple and took it outside Jerusalem to the Kidron Valley, where he burned it. Then he ground the pole to dust and threw the dust in the public cemetery. 7 He also tore down the houses of the shrine prostitutes that were inside the Temple of the LORD, where the women wove coverings for the Asherah pole. 8 Josiah brought back to Jerusalem all the priests of the LORD, who were living in other towns of Judah. He also defiled all the pagan shrines, where they had burned incense, from Geba to Beersheba. He destroyed the shrines at the entrance to the gate of Joshua, the governor of Jerusalem. This gate was located to the left of the city gate as one enters the city. 9 The priests who had served at the pagan shrines were not allowed to serve at the LORD's altar in Jerusalem, but they were allowed to eat unleavened bread with the other priests. 10 Then the king defiled the altar of Topheth in the valley of Ben-hinnom, so no one could ever again use it to sacrifice a son or daughter in the fire as an offering to Molech. 11 He removed from the entrance of the LORD's Temple the horse statues that the former kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun. They were near the quarters of Nathan-melech the eunuch, an officer of the court. The king also burned the chariots dedicated to the sun. 12 Josiah tore down the altars that the kings of Judah had built on the palace roof above the upper room of Ahaz. The king destroyed the altars that Manasseh had built in the two courtyards of the LORD's Temple. He smashed them to bits and scattered the pieces in the Kidron Valley. 13 The king also desecrated the pagan shrines east of Jerusalem and south of the Mount of Corruption, where King Solomon of Israel had built shrines for Ashtoreth, the detestable goddess of the Sidonians; and for Chemosh, the detestable god of the Moabites; and for Molech, the detestable god of the Ammonites. 14 He smashed the sacred pillars and cut down the Asherah poles. Then he desecrated these places by scattering human bones over them. 15 The king also tore down the altar at Bethel, the pagan shrine that Jeroboam son of Nebat had made when he led Israel into sin. Josiah crushed the stones to dust and burned the Asherah pole. 16 Then as Josiah was looking around, he noticed several tombs in the side of the hill. He ordered that the bones be brought out, and he burned them on the altar at Bethel to desecrate it. This happened just as the LORD had promised through the man of God as Jeroboam stood beside the altar at the festival. Then Josiah turned and looked up at the tomb of the man of God who had predicted these things. 17 " What is that monument over there?" Josiah asked. And the people of the town told him, " It is the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah and predicted the very things that you have just done to the altar at Bethel!" 18 Josiah replied, " Leave it alone. Don't disturb his bones." So they did not burn his bones or those of the old prophet from Samaria. 19 Then Josiah demolished all the buildings at the pagan shrines in the towns of Samaria, just as he had done at Bethel. They had been built by the various kings of Israel and had made the LORD very angry. 20 He executed the priests of the pagan shrines on their own altars, and he burned human bones on the altars to desecrate them. Finally, he returned to Jerusalem. 21 King Josiah then issued this order to all the people: " You must celebrate the Passover to the LORD your God, as it is written in the Book of the Covenant." 22 There had not been a Passover celebration like that since the time when the judges ruled in Israel, throughout all the years of the kings of Israel and Judah. 23 This Passover was celebrated to the LORD in Jerusalem during the eighteenth year of King Josiah's reign. 24 Josiah also exterminated the mediums and psychics, the household gods, and every other kind of idol worship, both in Jerusalem and throughout the land of Judah. He did this in obedience to all the laws written in the scroll that Hilkiah the priest had found in the LORD's Temple. 25 Never before had there been a king like Josiah, who turned to the LORD with all his heart and soul and strength, obeying all the laws of Moses. And there has never been a king like him since. 26 Even so, the LORD's anger burned against Judah because of all the great evils of King Manasseh, and he did not hold back his fierce anger from them. 27 For the LORD had said, " I will destroy Judah just as I have destroyed Israel. I will banish the people from my presence and reject my chosen city of Jerusalem and the Temple where my name was to be honored." 28 The rest of the events in Josiah's reign and all his deeds are recorded in The Book of the History of the Kings of Judah. 29 While Josiah was king, Pharaoh Neco, king of Egypt, went to the Euphrates River to help the king of Assyria. King Josiah marched out with his army to fight him, but King Neco killed him when they met at Megiddo. 30 Josiah's officers took his body back in a chariot from Megiddo to Jerusalem and buried him in his own tomb. Then the people anointed his son Jehoahaz and made him the next king.
ACTS 21:37-22:16
As Paul was about to be taken inside, he said to the commander, " May I have a word with you?" " Do you know Greek?" the commander asked, surprised. 38 " Aren't you the Egyptian who led a rebellion some time ago and took four thousand members of the Assassins out into the desert?" 39 " No," Paul replied, " I am a Jew from Tarsus in Cilicia, which is an important city. Please, let me talk to these people." 40 The commander agreed, so Paul stood on the stairs and motioned to the people to be quiet. Soon a deep silence enveloped the crowd, and he addressed them in their own language, Aramaic.22:1 " BROTHERS and esteemed fathers," Paul said, " listen to me as I offer my defense." 2 When they heard him speaking in their own language, the silence was even greater. 3 " I am a Jew, born in Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, and I was brought up and educated here in Jerusalem under Gamaliel. At his feet I learned to follow our Jewish laws and customs very carefully. I became very zealous to honor God in everything I did, just as all of you are today. 4 And I persecuted the followers of the Way, hounding some to death, binding and delivering both men and women to prison. 5 The high priest and the whole council of leaders can testify that this is so. For I received letters from them to our Jewish brothers in Damascus, authorizing me to bring the Christians from there to Jerusalem, in chains, to be punished. 6 " As I was on the road, nearing Damascus, about noon a very bright light from heaven suddenly shone around me. 7 I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, ` Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?' 8 " ` Who are you, sir?' I asked. And he replied, ` I am Jesus of Nazareth, the one you are persecuting.' 9 The people with me saw the light but didn't hear the voice. 10 " I said, ` What shall I do, Lord?' And the Lord told me, ` Get up and go into Damascus, and there you will be told all that you are to do.' 11 " I was blinded by the intense light and had to be led into Damascus by my companions. 12 A man named Ananias lived there. He was a godly man in his devotion to the law, and he was well thought of by all the Jews of Damascus. 13 He came to me and stood beside me and said, ` Brother Saul, receive your sight.' And that very hour I could see him! 14 " Then he told me, ` The God of our ancestors has chosen you to know his will and to see the Righteous One and hear him speak. 15 You are to take his message everywhere, telling the whole world what you have seen and heard. 16 And now, why delay? Get up and be baptized, and have your sins washed away, calling on the name of the Lord.'"
PSALM 1:1-6
Oh, the joys of those
who do not follow the advice of the wicked,
or stand around with sinners,
or join in with scoffers.
2 But they delight in doing everything the LORD wants;
day and night they think about his law.
3 They are like trees planted along the riverbank,
bearing fruit each season without fail.
Their leaves never wither,
and in all they do, they prosper.
4 But this is not true of the wicked.
They are like worthless chaff, scattered by the wind.
5 They will be condemned at the time of judgment.
Sinners will have no place among the godly.
6 For the LORD watches over the path of the godly,
but the path of the wicked leads to destruction.
PROVERBS 18:11-12
The rich think of their wealth as an impregnable defense; they imagine it is a high wall of safety. Haughtiness goes before destruction; humility precedes honor.
