I Cry Out Day and Night Before You

A Song. A Psalm of ^(A)the Sons of Korah. To the choirmaster: according to ^(B)Mahalath Leannoth. A Maskil^[a] of ^(C)Heman the Ezrahite.

Josiah Reigns in Judah

34 ^(A)Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem. ² And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, and walked in the ways of David his father; and he did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. ³ For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet a boy, he began to seek the God of David his father, and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the ^(B)Asherim, and the carved and the metal images. ⁴ And they chopped down the altars of the Baals in his presence, and he cut down the ^(C)incense altars that stood above them. And he broke in pieces the ^(D)Asherim and the carved and the metal images, and he made dust of them and ^(E)scattered it over the graves of those who had sacrificed to them. ^5 (F)He also burned the bones of the priests on their altars and cleansed Judah and Jerusalem. ⁶ And in the ^(G)cities of Manasseh, Ephraim, and Simeon, and as far as Naphtali, in their ruins^[a] all around, ⁷ he broke down the altars and beat the ^(H)Asherim and the images ^(I)into powder and cut down all the incense altars throughout all the land of Israel. Then he returned to Jerusalem.

The Book of the Law Found

^8 (J)Now in the eighteenth year of his reign, when he had cleansed the land and the house, he sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, and Maaseiah the ^(K)governor of the city, and Joah the son of Joahaz, ^(L)the recorder, to repair the house of the Lord his God. ⁹ They came to ^(M)Hilkiah the high priest and gave him the money that had been brought into the house of God, which the Levites, the keepers of the threshold, had collected from ^(N)Manasseh and Ephraim and from all the remnant of Israel and from all Judah and Benjamin and from the inhabitants of Jerusalem. ¹⁰ And they gave it to the workmen who were working in the house of the Lord. And the workmen who were working in the house of the Lord gave it for repairing and restoring the house. ¹¹ They gave it to the carpenters and the builders to buy quarried stone, and timber for binders and ^(O)beams for the buildings that the kings of Judah had let go to ruin. ¹² And the men did the work faithfully. Over them were set Jahath and Obadiah the Levites, of the sons of Merari, and Zechariah and Meshullam, of the sons of the Kohathites, to have oversight. ^(P)The Levites, all who were skillful with instruments of music, ¹³ were over ^(Q)the burden-bearers and directed all who did work in every kind of service, and some of the Levites were scribes and officials and gatekeepers.

¹⁴ While they were bringing out the money that had been brought into the house of the Lord, ^(R)Hilkiah the priest found the Book of the Law of the Lord given through^[b] Moses. ¹⁵ Then Hilkiah answered and said to Shaphan the secretary, “I have found the Book of the Law in the house of the Lord.” And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan. ¹⁶ Shaphan brought the book to the king, and further reported to the king, “All that was committed to your servants they are doing. ¹⁷ They have emptied out the money that was found in the house of the Lord and have given it into the hand of the overseers and the workmen.” ¹⁸ Then Shaphan the secretary told the king, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.” And Shaphan read from it before the king.

¹⁹ And when the king heard the words of the Law, ^(S)he tore his clothes. ²⁰ And the king commanded Hilkiah, Ahikam the son of Shaphan, Abdon the son of Micah, Shaphan the secretary, 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 has been found. For great is ^(T)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.”

Huldah Prophesies Disaster

²² So Hilkiah and those whom the king had sent^[c] went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tokhath, son of Hasrah, keeper of the wardrobe (now she lived in Jerusalem in the Second Quarter) and spoke to her to that effect. ²³ And she 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 upon this place and upon its inhabitants, all the curses that are written in the book that was read before the king of Judah. ²⁵ Because they have forsaken me and ^(U)have made offerings to other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the works of their hands, therefore ^(V)my wrath will be poured out on this place and will not be quenched. ²⁶ But to the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the Lord, thus shall you say to him, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Regarding the words that you have heard, ²⁷ because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before God when you heard his words against this place and its inhabitants, and you have humbled yourself before me and have torn your clothes and wept before me, I also have heard you, declares the Lord. ²⁸ Behold, I will gather you to your fathers, and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace, and your eyes shall not see all the disaster that I will bring upon this place and its inhabitants.’” And they brought back word to the king.

^29 (W)Then the king sent and gathered together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. ³⁰ And the king went up to the house of the Lord, with all the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the priests and the Levites, all the people both great and small. And he read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant that had been found in the house of the Lord. ³¹ And the king ^(X)stood in his place ^(Y)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 all his soul, to perform the words of the covenant that were written in this book. ³² Then he made all who were present in Jerusalem and in Benjamin join in it. And the inhabitants of Jerusalem did according to the covenant of God, the God of their fathers. ³³ And Josiah took away ^(Z)all the abominations from all the territory that belonged to the people of Israel and made all who were present in Israel serve the Lord their God. All his days they did not turn away from following the Lord, the God of their fathers.

Children of God

²⁸ And now, little children, abide in him, so that ^(A)when he appears ^(B)we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his ^(C)coming. ²⁹ If you know that ^(D)he is righteous, you may be sure that ^(E)everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.

3 See ^(F)what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called ^(G)children of God; and so we are. The reason why ^(H)the world does not know us is that ^(I)it did not know him. ² Beloved, we are ^(J)God's children ^(K)now, and what we will be ^(L)has not yet appeared; but we know that ^(M)when he appears^{[a] (N)}we shall be like him, because ^(O)we shall see him as he is. ³ And everyone who ^(P)thus hopes in him ^(Q)purifies himself as he is pure.

⁴ Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; ^(R)sin is lawlessness. ⁵ You know that ^(S)he appeared in order to ^(T)take away sins, and ^(U)in him there is no sin. ⁶ No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; ^(V)no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. ⁷ Little children, ^(W)let no one deceive you. ^(X)Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. ^8 (Y)Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was ^(Z)to destroy the works of the devil. ^9 (AA)No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's^[b] seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God. ¹⁰ By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, ^(AB)nor is the one who ^(AC)does not love his brother.

Love One Another

¹¹ For ^(AD)this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, ^(AE)that we should love one another. ¹² We should not be like ^(AF)Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? ^(AG)Because his own deeds were evil and his brother's righteous. ¹³ Do not be surprised, brothers,^{[c] (AH)}that the world hates you. ¹⁴ We know that ^(AI)we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. ^15 (AJ)Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that ^(AK)no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

¹⁶ By this we know love, that ^(AL)he laid down his life for us, and ^(AM)we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. ¹⁷ But ^(AN)if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet ^(AO)closes his heart against him, ^(AP)how does God's love abide in him? ¹⁸ Little children, let us not ^(AQ)love in word or talk but in deed and ^(AR)in truth.

¹⁹ By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; ²⁰ for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. ²¹ Beloved, ^(AS)if our heart does not condemn us, ^(AT)we have confidence before God; ²² and ^(AU)whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and ^(AV)do what pleases him. ²³ And this is his commandment, ^(AW)that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and ^(AX)love one another, ^(AY)just as he has commanded us. ^24 (AZ)Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God,^[d] and God^[e] in him. And ^(BA)by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.