Tuesday in Season after Pentecost

1Verse 1. Behold, the LORD lays waste the earth and leaves it in ruins. He will twist its surface and scatter its inhabitants— 2Verse 2. people and priest alike, servant and master, maid and mistress, buyer and seller, lender and borrower, creditor and debtor. 3Verse 3. The earth will be utterly laid waste and thoroughly plundered. 4Verse 4. The earth mourns and withers; the world languishes and fades; the exalted of the earth waste away. 5Verse 5. The earth is defiled by its people; they have transgressed the laws; they have overstepped the decrees and broken the everlasting covenant. 6Verse 6. Therefore a curse has consumed the earth, and its inhabitants must bear the guilt; the earth’s dwellers have been burned, and only a few survive. 7Verse 7. The new wine dries up, the vine withers. All the merrymakers now groan. 8Verse 8. The joyful tambourines have ceased; the noise of revelers has stopped; the joyful harp is silent. 9Verse 9. They no longer sing and drink wine; strong drink is bitter to those who consume it. 10Verse 10. The city of chaos is shattered; every house is closed to entry. 11Verse 11. In the streets they cry out for wine. All joy turns to gloom; rejoicing is exiled from the land. 12Verse 12. The city is left in ruins; its gate is reduced to rubble. 13Verse 13. So will it be on the earth and among the nations, like a harvested olive tree, like a gleaning after a grape harvest.

22Verse 22. So Hilkiah and those the king had designated went and spoke to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum son of Tokhath, the son of Hasrah, the keeper of the wardrobe. She lived in Jerusalem, in the Second District. 23Verse 23. And Huldah said to them, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Tell the man who sent you 24Verse 24. that this is what the LORD says: I am about to bring calamity on this place and on its people, according to all the curses written in the book that has been read in the presence of the king of Judah, 25Verse 25. because they have forsaken Me and burned incense to other gods, that they might provoke Me to anger with all the works of their hands. My wrath will be poured out upon this place and will not be quenched.’ 26Verse 26. But as for the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the LORD, tell him that this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘As for the words that you heard, 27Verse 27. because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before God when you heard His words against this place and against its people, and because you have humbled yourself before Me and have torn your clothes and wept before Me, I have heard you,’ declares the LORD. 28Verse 28. ‘Now I will indeed gather you to your fathers, and you will be gathered to your grave in peace. Your eyes will not see all the calamity that I will bring on this place and on its people.’” So they brought her answer back to the king. 29Verse 29. Then the king summoned all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. 30Verse 30. And he went up to the house of the LORD with all the people of Judah and Jerusalem, as well as the priests and the Levites— all the people great and small— and in their hearing he read all the words of the Book of the Covenant that had been found in the house of the LORD. 31Verse 31. So the king stood by the pillar and made a covenant before the LORD to follow the LORD and to keep His commandments, decrees, and statutes with all his heart and all his soul, and to carry out the words of the covenant that were written in this book. 32Verse 32. Then he had everyone in Jerusalem and Benjamin take a stand in agreement to it. So all the people of Jerusalem carried out the covenant of God, the God of their fathers. 33Verse 33. And Josiah removed all the abominations from all the lands belonging to the Israelites, and he required everyone in Israel to serve the LORD their God. Throughout his reign they did not turn aside from following the LORD, the God of their fathers.