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33  Teach me, O Lord, the way of your statutes ♦︎
   and I shall keep it to the end.
34  Give me understanding and I shall keep your law; ♦︎
   I shall keep it with my whole heart.
35  Lead me in the path of your commandments, ♦︎
   for therein is my delight.
36  Incline my heart to your testimonies ♦︎
   and not to unjust gain.
37  Turn away my eyes lest they gaze on vanities; ♦︎
   O give me life in your ways.
38  Confirm to your servant your promise, ♦︎
   which stands for all who fear you.
39  Turn away the reproach which I dread, ♦︎
   because your judgements are good.
40  Behold, I long for your commandments; ♦︎
   in your righteousness give me life.
41  Let your faithful love come unto me, O Lord, ♦︎
   even your salvation, according to your promise.
42  Then shall I answer those who taunt me, ♦︎
   for my trust is in your word.
43  O take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth, ♦︎
   for my hope is in your judgements.
44  So shall I always keep your law; ♦︎
   I shall keep it for ever and ever.
45  I will walk at liberty, ♦︎
   because I study your commandments.
46  I will tell of your testimonies, even before kings, ♦︎
   and will not be ashamed.
47  My delight shall be in your commandments, ♦︎
   which I have greatly loved.
48  My hands will I lift up to your commandments,
      which I love, ♦︎
   and I will meditate on your statutes.
49  Remember your word to your servant, ♦︎
   on which you have built my hope.
50  This is my comfort in my trouble, ♦︎
   that your promise gives me life.
51  The proud have derided me cruelly, ♦︎
   but I have not turned aside from your law.
52  I have remembered your everlasting judgements, O Lord, ♦︎
   and have been comforted.
53  I am seized with indignation at the wicked, ♦︎
   for they have forsaken your law.
54  Your statutes have been like songs to me ♦︎
   in the house of my pilgrimage.
55  I have thought on your name in the night, O Lord, ♦︎
   and so have I kept your law.
56  These blessings have been mine, ♦︎
   for I have kept your commandments.

19 When the king heard the words of the law he tore his clothes. ²⁰Then the king commanded Hilkiah, Ahikam son of Shaphan, Abdon son of Micah, the secretary Shaphan, and the king’s servant Asaiah: 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 the wrath of the Lord that is poured out on us is great, because our ancestors did not keep the word of the Lord, to act in accordance with all that is written in this book.’

The Prophet Huldah Consulted

22 So Hilkiah and those whom the king had sent went to the prophet Huldah, the wife of Shallum son of Tokhath son of Hasrah, keeper of the wardrobe (who lived in Jerusalem in the Second Quarter) and spoke to her to that effect. ²³She declared to them, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Tell the man who sent you to me, ²⁴Thus says the Lord: I will indeed 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. ²⁵Because they have forsaken me and have made offerings to other gods, so that they have provoked me to anger with all the works of their hands, my wrath will be poured out on this place and will not be quenched. ²⁶But as 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, ²⁷because your heart was penitent 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, says the Lord. ²⁸I will gather you to your ancestors and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace; your eyes shall not see all the disaster that I will bring on this place and its inhabitants.’ They took the message back to the king.

The Covenant Renewed

29 Then the king sent word and gathered together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. ³⁰The king went up to the house of the Lord, with all the people of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the priests and the Levites, all the people both great and small; he read in their hearing all the words of the book of the covenant that had been found in the house of the Lord. ³¹The king stood in his place and made a covenant before the Lord, to follow the Lord, keeping his commandments, his decrees, and his statutes, with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of the covenant that were written in this book. ³²Then he made all who were present in Jerusalem and in Benjamin pledge themselves to it. And the inhabitants of Jerusalem acted according to the covenant of God, the God of their ancestors. ³³Josiah took away all the abominations from all the territory that belonged to the people of Israel, and made all who were in Israel worship the Lord their God. All his days they did not turn away from following the Lord the God of their ancestors.

Life in the Spirit

8There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. ²For the law of the Spirit^* of life in Christ Jesus has set you^* free from the law of sin and of death. ³For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and to deal with sin,^* he condemned sin in the flesh, ⁴so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.^{* 5}For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit^* set their minds on the things of the Spirit.^{* 6}To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit^* is life and peace. ⁷For this reason the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law—indeed it cannot, ⁸and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

9 But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit,^* since the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. ¹⁰But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit^* is life because of righteousness. ¹¹If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ^* from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through^* his Spirit that dwells in you.