2 Chronicles 33

• 1. Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem fifty-five years.
• 2. He did what was evil in the LORD's sight, imitating the detestable practices of the pagan nations whom the LORD had driven from the land ahead of the Israelites.
• 3. He rebuilt the pagan shrines his father Hezekiah had destroyed. He constructed altars for the images of Baal and set up Asherah poles. He also bowed before all the stars of heaven and worshiped them.
• 4. He even built pagan altars in the Temple of the LORD, the place where the LORD had said his name should be honored forever.
• 5. He put these altars for the stars of heaven in both courtyards of the LORD's Temple.
• 6. Manasseh even sacrificed his own sons in the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom. He practiced sorcery, divination, and witchcraft, and he consulted with mediums and psychics. He did much that was evil in the LORD's sight, arousing his anger.
• 7. Manasseh even took a carved idol he had made and set it up in God's Temple, the very place where God had told David and his son Solomon: "My name will be honored here forever in this Temple and in Jerusalem--the city I have chosen from among all the other tribes of Israel.
• 8. If the Israelites will obey my commands--all the instructions, laws, and regulations given through Moses--I will not send them into exile from this land that I gave their ancestors."
• 9. But Manasseh led the people of Judah and Jerusalem to do even more evil than the pagan nations whom the LORD had destroyed when the Israelites entered the land.
• 10. The LORD spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they ignored all his warnings.
• 11. So the LORD sent the Assyrian armies, and they took Manasseh prisoner. They put a ring through his nose, bound him in bronze chains, and led him away to Babylon.
• 12. But while in deep distress, Manasseh sought the LORD his God and cried out humbly to the God of his ancestors.
• 13. And when he prayed, the LORD listened to him and was moved by his request for help. So the LORD let Manasseh return to Jerusalem and to his kingdom. Manasseh had finally realized that the LORD alone is God!
• 14. It was after this that Manasseh rebuilt the outer wall of the City of David, from west of the Gihon Spring in the Kidron Valley to the Fish Gate, and continuing around the hill of Ophel, where it was built very high. And he stationed his military officers in all of the fortified cities of Judah.
• 15. Manasseh also removed the foreign gods from the hills and the idol from the LORD's Temple. He tore down all the altars he had built on the hill where the Temple stood and all the altars that were in Jerusalem, and he dumped them outside the city.
• 16. Then he restored the altar of the LORD and sacrificed peace offerings and thanksgiving offerings on it. He also encouraged the people of Judah to worship the LORD, the God of Israel.
• 17. However, the people still sacrificed at the pagan shrines, but only to the LORD their God.
• 18. The rest of the events of Manasseh's reign, his prayer to God, and the words the seers spoke to him in the name of the LORD, the God of Israel, are recorded in The Book of the Kings of Israel.
• 19. Manasseh's prayer, the account of the way God answered him, and an account of all his sins and unfaithfulness are recorded in The Record of the Seers. It includes a list of the locations where he built pagan shrines and set up Asherah poles and idols before he repented.
• 20. When Manasseh died, he was buried at his palace. Then his son Amon became the next king.
• 21. Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem two years.
• 22. He did what was evil in the LORD's sight, just as his father Manasseh had done. He worshiped and sacrificed to all the idols his father had made.
• 23. But unlike his father, he did not humble himself before the LORD. Instead, Amon sinned even more.
• 24. At last Amon's own officials plotted against him and assassinated him in his palace.
• 25. But the people of the land killed all those who had conspired against King Amon, and they made his son Josiah the next king.

Revelation 19

• 1. After this, I heard the sound of a vast crowd in heaven shouting, "Hallelujah! Salvation is from our God. Glory and power belong to him alone.
• 2. His judgments are just and true. He has punished the great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her immorality, and he has avenged the murder of his servants."
• 3. Again and again their voices rang, "Hallelujah! The smoke from that city ascends forever and forever!"
• 4. Then the twenty-four elders and the four living beings fell down and worshiped God, who was sitting on the throne. They cried out, "Amen! Hallelujah!"
• 5. And from the throne came a voice that said, "Praise our God, all his servants, from the least to the greatest, all who fear him."
• 6. Then I heard again what sounded like the shout of a huge crowd, or the roar of mighty ocean waves, or the crash of loud thunder: "Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns.
• 7. Let us be glad and rejoice and honor him. For the time has come for the wedding feast of the Lamb, and his bride has prepared herself.
• 8. She is permitted to wear the finest white linen." (Fine linen represents the good deeds done by the people of God.)
• 9. And the angel said, "Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb." And he added, "These are true words that come from God."
• 10. Then I fell down at his feet to worship him, but he said, "No, don't worship me. For I am a servant of God, just like you and other brothers and sisters who testify of their faith in Jesus. Worship God. For the essence of prophecy is to give a clear witness for Jesus. "
• 11. Then I saw heaven opened, and a white horse was standing there. And the one sitting on the horse was named Faithful and True. For he judges fairly and then goes to war.
• 12. His eyes were bright like flames of fire, and on his head were many crowns. A name was written on him, and only he knew what it meant.
• 13. He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and his title was the Word of God.
• 14. The armies of heaven, dressed in pure white linen, followed him on white horses.
• 15. From his mouth came a sharp sword, and with it he struck down the nations. He ruled them with an iron rod, and he trod the winepress of the fierce wrath of almighty God.
• 16. On his robe and thigh was written this title: King of kings and Lord of lords.
• 17. Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, shouting to the vultures flying high in the sky: "Come! Gather together for the great banquet God has prepared.
• 18. Come and eat the flesh of kings, captains, and strong warriors; of horses and their riders; and of all humanity, both free and slave, small and great."
• 19. Then I saw the beast gathering the kings of the earth and their armies in order to fight against the one sitting on the horse and his army.
• 20. And the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who did mighty miracles on behalf of the beast--miracles that deceived all who had accepted the mark of the beast and who worshiped his statue. Both the beast and his false prophet were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur.
• 21. Their entire army was killed by the sharp sword that came out of the mouth of the one riding the white horse. And all the vultures of the sky gorged themselves on the dead bodies.

Malachi 1

• 1. This is the message that the LORD gave to Israel through the prophet Malachi.
• 2. "I have loved you deeply," says the LORD. But you retort, "Really? How have you loved us?" And the LORD replies, "I showed my love for you by loving your ancestor Jacob. Yet Esau was Jacob's brother,
• 3. and I rejected Esau and devastated his hill country. I turned Esau's inheritance into a desert for jackals."
• 4. And Esau's descendants in Edom may say, "We have been shattered, but we will rebuild the ruins." But this is what the LORD Almighty says: "They may try to rebuild, but I will demolish them again! Their country will be known as `The Land of Wickedness,' and their people will be called `The People with Whom the LORD Is Forever Angry.'
• 5. When you see the destruction for yourselves, you will say, `Truly, the LORD's great power reaches far beyond our borders!'"
• 6. The LORD Almighty says to the priests: "A son honors his father, and a servant respects his master. I am your father and master, but where are the honor and respect I deserve? You have despised my name! "But you ask, `How have we ever despised your name?'
• 7. "You have despised my name by offering defiled sacrifices on my altar. "Then you ask, `How have we defiled the sacrifices?'"You defile them by saying the altar of the LORD deserves no respect.
• 8. When you give blind animals as sacrifices, isn't that wrong? And isn't it wrong to offer animals that are crippled and diseased? Try giving gifts like that to your governor, and see how pleased he is!" says the LORD Almighty.
• 9. "Go ahead, beg God to be merciful to you! But when you bring that kind of offering, why should he show you any favor at all?" asks the LORD Almighty.
• 10. "I wish that someone among you would shut the Temple doors so that these worthless sacrifices could not be offered! I am not at all pleased with you," says the LORD Almighty, "and I will not accept your offerings.
• 11. But my name is honored by people of other nations from morning till night. All around the world they offer sweet incense and pure offerings in honor of my name. For my name is great among the nations," says the LORD Almighty.
• 12. "But you dishonor my name with your actions. By bringing contemptible food, you are saying it's all right to defile the Lord's table.
• 13. You say, `It's too hard to serve the LORD,' and you turn up your noses at his commands," says the LORD Almighty. "Think of it! Animals that are stolen and mutilated, crippled and sick--presented as offerings! Should I accept from you such offerings as these?" asks the LORD.
• 14. "Cursed is the cheat who promises to give a fine ram from his flock but then sacrifices a defective one to the Lord. For I am a great king," says the LORD Almighty, "and my name is feared among the nations!

New Living Translation: 362 of 365 days.