2 Kings 21

JUDAH’S KING MANASSEH
Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hephzibah.
2 He did what was evil in the Lord’s sight, imitating the detestable practices of the nations that the Lord had dispossessed before the Israelites. 3 He rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had destroyed and reestablished the altars for Baal. He made an Asherah, as King Ahab of Israel had done; he also bowed in worship to all the stars in the sky and served them. 4 He built altars in the Lord’s temple, where the Lord had said, “Jerusalem is where I will put my name.” 5 He built altars to all the stars in the sky in both courtyards of the Lord’s temple. 6 He sacrificed his son in the fire, practiced witchcraft and divination, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did a huge amount of evil in the Lord’s sight, angering him.

7 Manasseh set up the carved image of Asherah, which he made, in the temple that the Lord had spoken about to David and his son Solomon: “I will establish my name forever in this temple and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel. 8 I will never again cause the feet of the Israelites to wander from the land I gave to their ancestors if only they will be careful to do all I have commanded them ​— ​the whole law that my servant Moses commanded them.” 9 But they did not listen; Manasseh caused them to stray so that they did worse evil than the nations the Lord had destroyed before the Israelites.

10 The Lord said through his servants the prophets, 11 “Since King Manasseh of Judah has committed all these detestable acts ​— ​worse evil than the Amorites who preceded him had done ​— ​and by means of his idols has also caused Judah to sin, 12 this is what the Lord God of Israel says: ‘I am about to bring such a disaster on Jerusalem and Judah that everyone who hears about it will shudder. 13 I will stretch over Jerusalem the measuring line used on Samaria and the mason’s level used on the house of Ahab, and I will wipe Jerusalem clean as one wipes a bowl ​— ​wiping it and turning it upside down. 14 I will abandon the remnant of my inheritance and hand them over to their enemies. They will become plunder and spoil to all their enemies, 15 because they have done what is evil in my sight and have angered me from the day their ancestors came out of Egypt until today.’ ”

16 Manasseh also shed so much innocent blood that he filled Jerusalem with it from one end to another. This was in addition to his sin that he caused Judah to commit, so that they did what was evil in the Lord’s sight.

MANASSEH’S DEATH
17 The rest of the events of Manasseh’s reign, along with all his accomplishments and the sin that he committed, are written in the Historical Record of Judah’s Kings. 18 Manasseh rested with his ancestors and was buried in the garden of his own house, the garden of Uzza. His son Amon became king in his place.

JUDAH’S KING AMON
19 Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Meshullemeth daughter of Haruz; she was from Jotbah. 20 He did what was evil in the Lord’s sight, just as his father Manasseh had done. 21 He walked in all the ways his father had walked; he served the idols his father had served, and he bowed in worship to them. 22 He abandoned the Lord God of his ancestors and did not walk in the ways of the Lord.

23 Amon’s servants conspired against him and put the king to death in his own house. 24 The common people killed all who had conspired against King Amon, and they made his son Josiah king in his place.

25 The rest of the events of Amon’s reign, along with his accomplishments, are written in the Historical Record of Judah’s Kings. 26 He was buried in his tomb in the garden of Uzza, and his son Josiah became king in his place.

Hebrews 3

OUR APOSTLE AND HIGH PRIEST
Therefore, holy brothers and sisters, who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession.
2 He was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses was in all God’s household. 3 For Jesus is considered worthy of more glory than Moses, just as the builder has more honor than the house. 4 Now every house is built by someone, but the one who built everything is God. 5 Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s household, as a testimony to what would be said in the future. 6 But Christ was faithful as a Son over his household. And we are that household if we hold on to our confidence and the hope in which we boast.

WARNING AGAINST UNBELIEF
7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says:

Today, if you hear his voice,

8 do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,

on the day of testing in the wilderness,

9 where your ancestors tested me, tried me,

and saw my works 10 for forty years.

Therefore I was provoked to anger with that generation

and said, “They always go astray in their hearts,

and they have not known my ways.”

11 So I swore in my anger,

“They will not enter my rest.”

12 Watch out, brothers and sisters, so that there won’t be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. 13 But encourage each other daily, while it is still called today, so that none of you is hardened by sin’s deception. 14 For we have become participants in Christ if we hold firmly until the end the reality that we had at the start. 15 As it is said:

Today, if you hear his voice,

do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.

16 For who heard and rebelled? Wasn’t it all who came out of Egypt under Moses? 17 With whom was God angry for forty years? Wasn’t it with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, if not to those who disobeyed? 19 So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.

Hosea 14

A PLEA TO REPENT
Israel, return to the Lord your God,
for you have stumbled in your iniquity.
2 Take words of repentance with you
and return to the Lord.
Say to him, “Forgive all our iniquity
and accept what is good,
so that we may repay you
with praise from our lips.
3 Assyria will not save us,
we will not ride on horses,
and we will no longer proclaim, ‘Our gods! ’
to the work of our hands.
For the fatherless receives compassion in you.”
A PROMISE OF RESTORATION
4 I will heal their apostasy;
I will freely love them,
for my anger will have turned from him.
5 I will be like the dew to Israel;
he will blossom like the lily
and take root like the cedars of Lebanon.
6 His new branches will spread,
and his splendor will be like the olive tree,
his fragrance, like the forest of Lebanon.
7 The people will return and live beneath his shade.
They will grow grain
and blossom like the vine.
His renown will be like the wine of Lebanon.
8 Ephraim, why should I have anything more
to do with idols?
It is I who answer and watch over him.
I am like a flourishing pine tree;
your fruit comes from me.
9 Let whoever is wise understand these things,
and whoever is insightful recognize them.
For the ways of the Lord are right,
and the righteous walk in them,
but the rebellious stumble in them.

Psalm 75

GOD JUDGES THE WICKED
For the choir director: “Do Not Destroy.” A psalm of Asaph. A song.

We give thanks to you, God;
we give thanks to you, for your name is near.
People tell about your wondrous works.
2 “When I choose a time,
I will judge fairly.
3 When the earth and all its inhabitants shake,
I am the one who steadies its pillars. Selah
4 I say to the boastful, ‘Do not boast,’
and to the wicked, ‘Do not lift up your horn.
5 Do not lift up your horn against heaven
or speak arrogantly.’ ”
6 Exaltation does not come
from the east, the west, or the desert,
7 for God is the Judge:
He brings down one and exalts another.
8 For there is a cup in the Lord’s hand,
full of wine blended with spices, and he pours from it.
All the wicked of the earth will drink,
draining it to the dregs.
9 As for me, I will tell about him forever;
I will sing praise to the God of Jacob.
10 “I will cut off all the horns of the wicked,
but the horns of the righteous will be lifted up.”

Psalm 76

GOD, THE POWERFUL JUDGE
For the choir director: with stringed instruments. A psalm of Asaph. A song.

God is known in Judah;
his name is great in Israel.
2 His tent is in Salem,
his dwelling place in Zion.
3 There he shatters the bow’s flaming arrows,
the shield, the sword, and the weapons of war. Selah
4 You are resplendent and majestic
coming down from the mountains of prey.
5 The brave-hearted have been plundered;
they have slipped into their final sleep.
None of the warriors was able to lift a hand.
6 At your rebuke, God of Jacob,
both chariot and horse lay still.
7 And you ​— ​you are to be feared.
When you are angry,
who can stand before you?
8 From heaven you pronounced judgment.
The earth feared and grew quiet
9 when God rose up to judge
and to save all the lowly of the earth. Selah
10 Even human wrath will praise you;
you will clothe yourself
with the wrath that remains.
11 Make and keep your vows
to the Lord your God;
let all who are around him bring tribute
to the awe-inspiring one.
12 He humbles the spirit of leaders;
he is feared by the kings of the earth.

— 2 Kings 21, Hebrews 3, Hosea 14, Psalm 75-76 (CSB)