For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was still a boy, he began to seek the God of his ancestor David, and in the twelfth year he began to cleanse Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the sacred poles, and the carved and the cast images.
Remember your creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come and the years draw near when you will say, “I have no pleasure in them”;
Scarcely had I passed them, when I found him whom my soul loves. I held him and would not let him go until I brought him into my mother’s house and into the chamber of her that conceived me.
I did not speak in secret in a land of darkness; I did not say to the offspring of Jacob, “Seek me in chaos.” I the Lord speak the truth; I declare what is right.
But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to me; do not stop them, for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs.
They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me, and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.”
Therefore the Lord the God of Israel declares: I promised that your family and the family of your ancestor should go in and out before me forever, but now the Lord declares: Far be it from me, for those who honor me I will honor, and those who despise me shall be treated with contempt.