Today’s
Reading : 2Kings 21 - 23 and 2Corinthians 2 (KJV)
2Kings 21
2Ki
21:1 Manasseh was
twelve years old when he began to reign, and reigned fifty and five years in
Jerusalem. And his mother's name was
Hephzibah.
2Ki 21:2 And he did that
which was
evil in the sight of the LORD, after the abominations of the heathen, whom the
LORD cast out before the children of Israel.
2Ki 21:3 For he built up again the high places which
Hezekiah his father had destroyed; and he reared up altars for Baal, and made a
grove, as did Ahab king of Israel; and worshiped all the host of heaven, and
served them.
2Ki 21:4 And he built altars in the house of the LORD,
of which the LORD said, In Jerusalem will I put my name.
2Ki 21:5 And he built altars for all the host of
heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD.
2Ki 21:6 And he made his son pass through the fire,
and observed times, and used enchantments, and dealt with familiar spirits and
wizards: he wrought much wickedness in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger.
2Ki 21:7 And he set a graven image of the grove that
he had made in the house, of which the LORD said to David, and to Solomon his
son, In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all tribes of
Israel, will I put my name forever:
2Ki 21:8 Neither will I make the feet of Israel move
any more out of the land which I gave their fathers; only if they will observe
to do according to all that I have commanded them, and according to all the law
that my servant Moses commanded them.
2Ki 21:9 But they hearkened not: and Manasseh seduced
them to do more evil than did the nations whom the LORD destroyed before the
children of Israel.
2Ki 21:10 And the LORD spoke by his servants the
prophets, saying,
2Ki 21:11 Because Manasseh king of Judah hath done
these abominations, and hath done
wickedly above all that the Amorites did, which were
before him, and hath made Judah also to sin with his idols:
2Ki 21:12 Therefore thus saith
the LORD God of Israel, Behold, I am
bringing such evil upon Jerusalem and
Judah, that whosoever heareth of it, both his ears
shall tingle.
2Ki 21:13 And I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of
Samaria, and the plummet of the house of Ahab: and I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipeth a dish, wiping it,
and turning it upside down.
2Ki 21:14 And I will forsake the remnant of mine
inheritance, and deliver them into the hand of their enemies; and they shall
become a prey and a spoil to all their enemies;
2Ki 21:15 Because they have done that which
was evil in my sight, and have provoked
me to anger, since the day their fathers came forth out of Egypt, even unto
this day.
2Ki 21:16 Moreover Manasseh shed innocent blood very
much, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another; beside his sin
wherewith he made Judah to sin, in doing that
which was
evil in the sight of the LORD.
2Ki 21:17 Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh, and all
that he did, and his sin that he sinned, are
they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
2Ki 21:18 And Manasseh slept with his fathers, and was
buried in the garden of his own house, in the garden of Uzza:
and Amon his son reigned in his stead.
2Ki 21:19 Amon was twenty and two years old when he began to
reign, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Meshullemeth, the
daughter of Haruz of Jotbah.
2Ki 21:20 And he did that
which was
evil in the sight of the LORD, as his father Manasseh did.
2Ki 21:21 And he walked in all the way that his father
walked in, and served the idols that his father served, and worshiped them:
2Ki 21:22 And he forsook the LORD God of his fathers,
and walked not in the way of the LORD.
2Ki 21:23 And the servants of Amon
conspired against him, and slew the king in his own house.
2Ki 21:24 And the people of the land slew all them that
had conspired against king Amon; and the people of
the land made Josiah his son king in his stead.
2Ki 21:25 Now the rest of the acts of Amon which he did, are
they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
2Ki 21:26 And he was buried in his sepulchre in the
garden of Uzza: and Josiah his son reigned in his
stead.
2Kings 22
2Ki
22:1 Josiah was
eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned thirty and one years in
Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Jedidah, the daughter of Adaiah
of Boscath.
2Ki 22:2 And he did that
which was
right in the sight of the LORD, and walked in all the way of David his father,
and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left.
2Ki 22:3 And it came to pass in the eighteenth year of
king Josiah, that the king sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, the
son of Meshullam, the scribe, to the house of the
LORD, saying,
2Ki 22:4 Go up to Hilkiah
the high priest, that he may sum the silver which is brought into the house of
the LORD, which the keepers of the door have gathered of the people:
2Ki 22:5 And let them deliver it into the hand of the
doers of the work, that have the oversight of the house of the LORD: and let
them give it to the doers of the work which is
in the house of the LORD, to repair the breaches of the house,
2Ki 22:6 Unto carpenters, and builders, and masons,
and to buy timber and hewn stone to repair the house.
2Ki 22:7 Howbeit there was no reckoning made with them
of the money that was delivered into their hand, because they dealt faithfully.
2Ki 22:8 And Hilkiah the
high priest said unto Shaphan the scribe, I have
found the book of the law in the house of the LORD. And Hilkiah
gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it.
2Ki 22:9 And Shaphan the
scribe came to the king, and brought the king word again, and said, Thy
servants have gathered the money that was found in the house, and have
delivered it into the hand of them that do the work, that have the oversight of
the house of the LORD.
2Ki 22:10 And Shaphan the
scribe showed the king, saying, Hilkiah the priest
hath delivered me a book. And Shaphan read it before
the king.
2Ki 22:11 And it came to pass, when the king had heard
the words of the book of the law, that he rent his clothes.
2Ki 22:12 And the king commanded Hilkiah
the priest, and Ahikam the son of Shaphan,
and Achbor the son of Michaiah,
and Shaphan the scribe, and Asahiah
a servant of the king's, saying,
2Ki 22:13 Go ye, inquire of the LORD for me, and for
the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that is found:
for great is the wrath of the LORD that
is kindled against us, because our fathers have not hearkened unto the words of
this book, to do according unto all that which is written concerning us.
2Ki 22:14 So Hilkiah the
priest, and Ahikam, and Achbor,
and Shaphan, and Asahiah,
went unto Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tikvah, the
son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe; (now she dwelt
in Jerusalem in the college;) and they communed with her.
2Ki 22:15 And she said unto them, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Tell the man that sent you to
me,
2Ki 22:16 Thus saith the
LORD, Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, and upon the inhabitants
thereof, even all the words of the book
which the king of Judah hath read:
2Ki 22:17 Because they have forsaken me, and have
burned incense unto other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all
the works of their hands; therefore my wrath shall be kindled against this
place, and shall not be quenched.
2Ki 22:18 But to the king of Judah which sent you to
inquire of the LORD, thus shall ye say to him, Thus saith
the LORD God of Israel, As touching the words which thou hast heard;
2Ki 22:19 Because thine heart
was tender, and thou hast humbled thyself before the LORD, when thou heardest what I spoke against this place, and against the
inhabitants thereof, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and hast
rent thy clothes, and wept before me; I also have heard thee, saith the LORD.
2Ki 22:20 Behold therefore, I will gather thee unto thy
fathers, and thou shalt be gathered into thy grave in
peace; and thine eyes shall not see all the evil
which I will bring upon this place. And they brought the king word again.
2Kings 23
2Ki
23:1 And the king sent, and they gathered unto him
all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem.
2Ki 23:2 And the king went up into the house of the
LORD, and all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him,
and the priests, and the prophets, and all the people, both small and great:
and he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant which was
found in the house of the LORD.
2Ki 23:3 And the king stood by a pillar, 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 their
heart and all their soul, to perform the
words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people stood
to the covenant.
2Ki 23:4 And the king commanded Hilkiah
the high priest, and the priests of the second order, and the keepers of the
door, to bring forth out of the temple of the LORD all the vessels that were
made for Baal, and for the grove, and for all the host of heaven: and he burned
them without Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron, and
carried the ashes of them unto Bethel.
2Ki 23:5 And he put down the idolatrous priests, whom
the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places in the
cities of Judah, and in the places round about Jerusalem; them also that burned
incense unto Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets, and to all
the host of heaven.
2Ki 23:6 And he brought out the grove from the house
of the LORD, without Jerusalem, unto the brook Kidron,
and burned it at the brook Kidron, and stamped it small to powder, and cast the powder thereof
upon the graves of the children of the people.
2Ki 23:7 And he broke down the houses of the
sodomites, that were by the house of the
LORD, where the women wove hangings for the grove.
2Ki 23:8 And he brought all the priests out of the
cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had burned
incense, from Geba to Beer-sheba,
and broke down the high places of the gates that were
in the entering in of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were on a man's left hand at the gate of the
city.
2Ki 23:9 Nevertheless the priests of the high places
came not up to the altar of the LORD in Jerusalem, but they did eat of the
unleavened bread among their brethren.
2Ki 23:10 And he defiled Topheth,
which is in the valley of the children
of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his
daughter to pass through the fire to Molech.
2Ki 23:11 And he took away the horses that the kings of
Judah had given to the sun, at the entering in of the house of the LORD, by the
chamber of Nathan-melech the chamberlain, which was in the suburbs, and burned the chariots of
the sun with fire.
2Ki 23:12 And the altars that were on the top of the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars
which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the LORD, did the
king beat down, and broke them down from
thence, and cast the dust of them into the brook Kidron.
2Ki 23:13 And the high places that were before Jerusalem, which were on the right hand of the mount of
corruption, which Solomon the king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the
abomination of the Zidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of the Moabites, and for Milcom the abomination of the children of Ammon, did the king defile.
2Ki 23:14 And he broke in pieces the images, and cut
down the groves, and filled their places with the bones of men.
2Ki 23:15 Moreover the altar that was at Bethel, and
the high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who
made Israel to sin, had made, both that altar and the high place he broke down,
and burned the high place, and stamped it small to powder, and burned the grove.
2Ki 23:16 And as Josiah turned himself, he spied the sepulchres
that were there in the mount, and sent,
and took the bones out of the sepulchres, and burned them upon the altar, and polluted it, according to the word of
the LORD which the man of God proclaimed, who proclaimed these words.
2Ki 23:17 Then he said, What title is that that I see? And the men of the city told
him, It is
the sepulchre of the man of God, which came from Judah, and proclaimed these
things that thou hast done against the altar of Bethel.
2Ki 23:18 And he said, Let him alone; let no man move
his bones. So they let his bones alone, with the bones of the prophet that came
out of Samaria.
2Ki 23:19 And all the houses also of the high places
that were in the cities of Samaria,
which the kings of Israel had made to provoke the
LORD to anger, Josiah took away, and did to them according to all
the acts that he had done in Bethel.
2Ki 23:20 And he slew all the priests of the high
places that were there upon the altars,
and burned men's bones upon them, and returned to Jerusalem.
2Ki 23:21 And the king commanded all the people,
saying, Keep the passover unto the LORD your God, as it is
written in the book of this covenant.
2Ki 23:22 Surely there was not holden
such a passover from the days of the judges that
judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, nor of the kings of
Judah;
2Ki 23:23 But in the eighteenth year of king Josiah, wherein this passover
was holden to the LORD in Jerusalem.
2Ki 23:24 Moreover the workers
with familiar spirits, and the wizards,
and the images, and the idols, and all the abominations that were spied in the
land of Judah and in Jerusalem, did Josiah put away, that he might perform the
words of the law which were written in the book that Hilkiah
the priest found in the house of the LORD.
2Ki 23:25 And like unto him was there no king before
him, that turned to the LORD with all his heart, and with all his soul, and
with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; neither after him arose
there any like him.
2Ki 23:26 Notwithstanding the LORD turned not from the
fierceness of his great wrath, wherewith his anger was kindled against Judah,
because of all the provocations that Manasseh had provoked him withal.
2Ki 23:27 And the LORD said, I will remove Judah also
out of my sight, as I have removed Israel, and will cast off this city
Jerusalem which I have chosen, and the house of which I said, My name shall be
there.
2Ki 23:28 Now the rest of the acts of Josiah, and all
that he did, are they not written in the
book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
2Ki 23:29 In his days Pharaoh Necho
king of Egypt went up against the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates: and
king Josiah went against him; and he slew him at Megiddo, when he had seen him.
2Ki 23:30 And his servants carried him in a chariot
dead from Megiddo, and brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own sepulchre.
And the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of
Josiah, and anointed him, and made him king in his father's stead.
2Ki 23:31 Jehoahaz was twenty and three years old when he began to
reign; and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Hamutal, the
daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.
2Ki 23:32 And he did that
which was
evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his fathers had done.
2Ki 23:33 And Pharaoh Necho
put him in bands at Riblah in the land of Hamath, that he might not reign in Jerusalem; and put the
land to a tribute of a hundred talents of silver, and a talent of gold.
2Ki 23:34 And Pharaoh Necho
made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in the room of
Josiah his father, and turned his name to Jehoiakim,
and took Jehoahaz away: and he came to Egypt, and
died there.
2Ki 23:35 And Jehoiakim gave
the silver and the gold to Pharaoh; but he taxed the land to give the money according
to the commandment of Pharaoh: he exacted the silver and the gold of the people
of the land, of every one according to his taxation, to give it unto Pharaoh Necho.
2Ki 23:36 Jehoiakim was twenty and five years old when he began to
reign; and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Zebudah, the
daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah.
2Ki 23:37 And he did that
which was
evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his fathers had done.
2Corinthians 2
2Co
2:1 But I determined this with myself, that I
would not come again to you in heaviness.
2Co 2:2 For if I make you sorry, who is he then that maketh me glad, but the same which is made sorry by me?
2Co 2:3 And I wrote this same unto you, lest, when I
came, I should have sorrow from them of whom I ought to rejoice; having
confidence in you all, that my joy is the
joy of you all.
2Co 2:4 For out of much affliction and anguish of
heart I wrote unto you with many tears; not that ye should be grieved, but that
ye might know the love which I have more abundantly unto you.
2Co 2:5 But if any have caused grief, he hath not
grieved me, but in part: that I may not overcharge you all.
2Co 2:6 Sufficient to such a man is this punishment, which was inflicted
of many.
2Co 2:7 So that contrariwise ye ought rather to forgive him, and comfort him,
lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow.
2Co 2:8 Wherefore I beseech you that ye would confirm
your love toward him.
2Co 2:9 For to this end also did I write, that I
might know the proof of you, whether ye be obedient in all things.
2Co 2:10 To whom ye forgive any thing, I forgive also: for if I forgave any thing, to whom
I forgave it, for your sakes forgave I it in the person of Christ;
2Co 2:11 Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for
we are not ignorant of his devices.
2Co 2:12 Furthermore, when I came to Troas to preach Christ's gospel, and a door was opened
unto me of the Lord,
2Co 2:13 I had no rest in my spirit, because I found
not Titus my brother: but taking my leave of them, I went from thence into
Macedonia.
2Co 2:14 Now thanks be
unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in
Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his
knowledge by us in every place.
2Co 2:15 For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ,
in them that are saved, and in them that perish:
2Co 2:16 To the one we
are the savour of death unto death; and
to the other the savour of life unto life. And who is
sufficient for these things?
2Co 2:17 For we are not as many, which corrupt the
word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we
in Christ.