Bible in a Year.

On day 173, 2 Kings 4 recounts powerful miracles performed by Elisha, evidencing God's care and provision. 2 Chronicles 28 recounts Judah's decline, showing the consequences of disobedience. Psalm 127 reminds us that all human effort is futile without the Lord's blessing, teaching us to depend completely on God.

1. Now a certain woman of the wives of the prophets cried to Eliseus, saying: Thy servant my husband is dead, and thou knowest that thy servant was one that feared God, and behold the creditor is come to take away my two sons to serve him.

2. And Eliseus said to her: What wilt thou have me to do for thee? Tell me, what hast thou in thy house? And she answered: I thy handmaid have nothing in my house but a little oil, to anoint me.

3. And he said to her: Go, borrow of all thy neighbours empty vessels not a few.

4. And go in, and shut thy door, when thou art within, and thy sons: and pour out thereof into all those vessels: and when they are full take them away.

5. So the woman went, and shut the door upon her, and upon her sons: they brought her the vessels, and she poured in.

6. And when the vessels were full, she said to her son: Bring me yet a vessel. And he answered: I have no more. And the oil stood.

7. And she came, and told the man of God. And he said: Go, sell the oil, and pay thy creditor: and thou and thy sons live of the rest.

8. And there was a day when Eliseus passed by Sunam: now there was a great woman there, who detained him to eat bread; and as he passed often that way, he turned into her house to eat bread.

9. And she said to her husband: I perceive that this is a holy man of God, who often passeth by us.

10. Let us therefore make him a little chamber, and put a little bed in it for him, and a table, and a stool, and a candlestick, that when he cometh to us, he may abide there.

11. Now there was a certain day when he came and turned in to the chamber, and rested there.

12. And he said to Giezi his servant Call this Sunamitess. And when he had called her, and she stood before him,

13. He said to his servant: Say to her Behold thou hast diligently served us in all things, what wilt thou have me to de for thee? hast thou any business, and wilt thou that I speak to the king, or to the general of the army? And she answered: I dwell in the midst of my own people.

14. And he said : What will she then that I do for her? And Giezi said: Do not ask, for she hath no son, and her husband is old.

15. Then he bid him call her: And when she was called, and stood before the door.

16. He said to her: At this time, and this same hour, if life accompany, thou shalt have a son in thy womb. But she answered: Do not, I beseech thee, my lord, thou man of God, do not lie to thy handmaid.

17. And the woman conceived, and brought forth a son in the time, and at the same hour, that Eliseus had said.

18. And the child grew. And on a certain day, when he went out to his father to the reapers,

19. He said to his father: My head acheth, my head acheth. But he said to his servant: Take him, and carry him to his mother.

20. And when he had taken him, and brought him to his mother, she set him on her knees until noon, and then he died.

21. And she went up and laid him upon the bed of the man of God, and shut the door: and going out,

22. She called her husband, and said: Send with me, I beseech thee, one of thy servants, and an ass that I may run to the man of God, and come again.

23. And he said to her: Why dost thou go to him? to day is neither new moon nor sabbath. She answered: I will go.

24. And she saddled an ass, and commanded her servant: Drive, and make haste, make no stay in going. And do that which I bid thee.

25. So she went forward, and came to the man of God to mount Carmel: and when the mall of God saw her coming towards, he said to Giezi his servant : Behold that Sunamitess.

26. Go therefore to meet her, and say to her: Is all well with thee, and with thy husband, and with thy son? and she answered: Well.

27. And when she came to the man of God to the mount, she caught hold on his feet: and Giezi came to remove her. And the man of God said: Let her alone for her soul is in anguish, and the Lord hath hid it from me, and hath not told me.

28. And she said to him: Did I ask a son of my lord? did I not say to thee: Do not deceive me?

29. Then he said to Giezi: Gird up thy loins, and take my staff in thy hand, and go. If any man meet thee, salute him not: and if any man salute thee, answer him not: and lay my staff upon the face of the child.

30. But the mother of the child said: As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. He arose, therefore, and followed her.

31. But Giezi was gone before them, and laid the staff upon the face of the child, and there was no voice nor sense: and he returned to meet him, and told him, saying: The child is not risen.

32. Eliseus therefore went into the house, and behold the child lay dead on his bed.

33. And going in he shut the door upon him, and upon the child, and prayed to the Lord.

34. And he went up, and lay upon the child: and he put his mouth upon his mouth, and his eyes upon his eyes, and his hands upon his hands: and he bowed himself upon him, and the child's flesh grew warm.

35. Then he returned and walked in the house, once to and fro: and he went up, and lay upon him: and the child gaped seven times, and opened his eyes.

36. And he called Giezi, and said to him: Call this Sunamitess. And she being called, went in to him: and he said: Take up thy son.

37. She came and fell at his feet, and worshipped upon the ground: and took up her son, and went out.

38. And Eliseus returned to Galgal, and there was a famine in the land, and the sons of the prophets dwelt before him. And he said to one of his servants: Set on the great pot, and boil pottage for the sons of the prophets.

39. And one went out into the field to gather wild herbs: and he found something like a wild vine, and gathered of it wild gourds of the field, and filled his mantle, and coming back he shred them into the pot of pottage, for he knew not what it was.

40. And they poured it out for their companions to eat: and when they had tasted of the pottage, they cried out, saying: Death is in the pot, O man of God. And they could not eat thereof.

41. But he said: Bring some meal. And when they had brought it, he cast it into the pot, and said: Pour out for the people, that they may eat. And there was now no bitterness in the pot.

42. And a certain man came from Baalsalisa bringing to the man of God bread of the firstfruits, twenty leaves of barley, and new corn in his scrip. And he said: Give to the people, that they may eat.

43. And his servant answered him: How much is this, that I should set it before a hundred men? He said again: Give to the people, that they may eat: for thus saith the Lord: They shall eat, and there shall be left.

44. So he fief it before them: and they ate, and there was left according to the word of the Lord.

1. Achaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem: he did not that which was right in the sight of the Lord as David his father had done,

2. But walked in the ways of the kings of Israel; moreover also he cast statues for Baalim.

3. It was he that burnt incense in the valley of Benennom, and consecrated his sons in the fire according to the manner of the nations, which the Lord slew at the coming of the children of Israel.

4. He sacrificed also, and burnt incense in the high places, and on the hills, and under every green tree.

5. And the Lord his God delivered him into the hands of the king of Syria, who defeated him, and took a great booty out of his kingdom, and carried it to Damascus: he was also delivered into the hands of the king of Israel, who overthrew him with a great slaughter.

6. For Phacee the son of Romelia slew of Juda a hundred and twenty thousand in one day, all valiant men: because they had forsaken the Lord the God of their fathers.

7. At the same time Zechri a powerful man of Ephraim, slew Maasias the king's son, and Ezricam the governor of his house, and Elcana who was next to the king.

8. And the children of Israel carried away of their brethren two hundred thousand women, boys, and girls, and an immense booty: and they brought it to Samaria.

9. At that time there was a prophet of the Lord there, whose name was Oded: and he went out to meet the army that came to Samaria, and said to them: Be- hold the Lord the God of your fathers being angry with Juda, hath delivered them into your hands, and you have butchered them cruelly, so that your cruelty hath reached up to heaven.

10. Moreover you have a mind to keep under the children of Juda and Jerusalem for your bondmen and bondwomen, which ought not to be done : for you have sinned in this against the Lord your God.

11. But hear ye my counsel, and release the captives that you have brought of your brethren, because a great indignation of the Lord hangeth over you.

12. Then some of the chief men of the sons of Ephraim, Azarias the son of Johanan, Barachias the son of Mosollamoth, Ezechias the son of Sellum, and Amasa the son of Adali, stood up against them that came from the war.

13. And they said to them: You shall not bring in the captives hither, lest we sin against the Lord. Why will you add to our sins, and heap up upon our former offences? for the sin is great, and the fierce anger of the Lord hangeth over Israel.

14. So the soldiers left the spoils, and all that they had taken, before the princes and all the multitude.

15. And the men, whom we mentioned above, rose up and took the captives, and with the spoils clothed all them that were naked: and when they had clothed and shed them, and refreshed them with meat and drink, and anointed them because of their labour, and had taken care of them, they set such of them as could not walk, and were feeble, upon beasts, and brought them to Jericho the city of palm trees to their brethren, and they returned to Samaria.

16. At that time king Achaz sent to the king of the Assyrians asking help.

17. And the Edomites came and slew many of Juda, and took a great booty.

18. The Philistines also spread themselves among the cities of the plains, and to the south of Juda: and they took Bethsames, and Aialon, and Gaderoth, and Socho, and Thamnan, and Gamzo, with their villages, and they dwelt in them.

19. For the Lord had humbled Juda because of Achaz the king of Juda, for he had stripped it of help, and had contemned the Lord.

20. And he brought, against him Thelgathphalnasar king of the Assyrians, who also afflicted him, and plundered him without any resistance.

21. And Achaz stripped the house of the Lord, and the house of the kings, and of the princes, and gave gifts to the king of the Assyrians, and yet it availed him nothing.

22. Moreover also in the time of his distress he increased contempt against the Lord: king Achaz himself by himself,

23. Sacrificed victims to the gods of Damascus that struck him, and he said: The gods of the kings of Syria help them, and I will appease them with victims, and they will help me; whereas on the contrary they were the ruin of him, and of all Israel.

24. Then Achaz having taken away all the vessels of the house of God, and broken them, shut up the doors of the temple of God, and made himself altars in all the corners of Jerusalem.

25. And in all the cities of Juda he built altars to burn frankincense, and he provoked the Lord the God of his fathers to wrath.

26. But the rest of his acts, and all his works first and last are written in the book of the kings of Juda and Israel.

27. And Achaz slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of Jerusalem: for they received him not into the sepulchres of the kings of Israel. And Ezechias his son reigned in his stead.

1. Unless the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it. Unless the Lord keep the city, he watcheth in vain that keepeth it.

2. It is vain for you to rise before light, rise ye after you have sitten, you that eat the bread of sorrow. When he shall give sleep to his beloved,

3. behold the inheritance of the Lord are children: the reward, the fruit of the womb.

4. As arrows in the hand of the mighty, so the children of them that have been shaken.

5. Blessed is the man that hath filled the desire with them; he shall not be confounded when he shall speak to his enemies in the gate.