Bible in a Year.

On day 170, 2 Kings 1 recounts the conflicts faced by King Ahaziah, while 2 Chronicles 24 highlights Joash's faithfulness in seeking the restoration of the temple. Psalm 69 echoes as an intense cry to God in times of affliction, reminding us that trust in the Lord is essential in all circumstances. This day invites us to persevere in faith and divine obedience.

1. And Moab rebelled against Israel, after the death of Achab.

2. And Ochozias fell through the lattices of his upper chamber which he had in Samaria, and was sick: and he sent messengers, saying to them: Go, consult Beelzebub, the god of Accaron, whether I shall recover of this my illness.

3. And an angel of the Lord spoke to Elias the Thesbite, saying: Arise, and go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria, and say to them: Is there not a God in Israel, that ye go to consult Beelzebub the god of Accaron?

4. Wherefore thus saith the Lord: From the bed, on which thou art gone up, thou shalt not come down, but thou shalt surely die. And Elias went away.

5. And the messengers turned back to Ochozias. And he said to them: Why are you come back?

6. But they answered him: A man met us, and said to us: Go, and return to the king, that sent you, and you shall say to him: Thus saith the Lord: Is it because there was no God in Israel that thou sendest to Beelzebub the god of Accaron? Therefore thou shalt not come down from the bed, on which thou art gone up, but then shalt surely die.

7. And he said to them: What manner of man was he who met you, and spoke these words?

8. But they said: A hairy man with a girdle of leather about his loins. And he said: It is Elias the Thesbite.

9. And he sent to him a captain of fifty, and the fifty men that were under him. And he went up to him, and as he was sitting on the top of a hill, said to him: Man of God, the king hath commanded that thou come down.

10. And Elias answering, said to the captain of fifty: If I be a man of God, let fire come down from heaven, and consume thee, and thy fifty. And there came down fire from heaven, and consumed him, and the fifty that were with him.

11. And again he sent to him another captain of fifty men, and his fifty with him. And he said to him: Man of God, thus saith the king: Make haste and come down.

12. Elias answering, said: If I be a man of God, let fire come down from heaven, and consume thee and thy fifty. And fire came down from heaven, and consumed him and his fifty.

13. Again he sent a third captain of fifty men, and the fifty that were with him. And when he was come, he fell upon his knees, before Elias, and besought him and said: Man of God, despise not my life, and the lives of thy servants that are with me.

14. Behold fire came down from heaven, and consumed the two first captains of fifty men, and the fifties that were with them: but now I beseech thee to spare my life.

15. And the angel of the Lord spoke to Elias, saying: Go down with him, fear not. He arose therefore, and went down with him to the king,

16. And said to him: Thus saith the Lord: Because thou hast sent messengers to consult Beelzebub the god of Accaron, as though there were not a God in Israel, of whom thou mightest inquire the word; therefore from the bed on which thou art gone up, thou shalt not come down, but thou shalt surely die.

17. So he died according to the word of the Lord which Elias spoke, and Joram his brother reigned in his stead, in the second year of Joram the son of Josaphat king of Juda: because he had no son.

18. But the rest of the acts of Ochozias which he did, are they not written in the book of the words of the days of the kings of Israel?

1. Joas was seven years old when he began to reign: and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem : the name of his mother was Sebia of Bersabee.

2. And he did that which is good before the Lord all the days of Joiada the priest.

3. And Joiada took for him two wives, by whom he had sons and daughters.

4. After this Joas had a mind to repair the house of the Lord.

5. And he assembled the priests, and the Levites, and said to them: Go out to the cities of Juda, and gather of all Israel money to repair the temple of your God, from year to year: and do this with speed: but the Levites were negligent.

6. And the king called Joiada the chief, and said to him: Why hast thou not taken care to oblige the Levites to bring in out of Juda and Jerusalem the money that was appointed by Moses the servant of the Lord for all the multitude of Israel to bring into the tabernacle of the testimony?

7. For that wicked woman Athalia, and her children have destroyed the house of God, and adorned the temple of Baal with all the things that had been dedicated in the temple of the Lord.

8. And the king commanded, and they made a chest: and set it by the gate of the house of the Lord on the outside.

9. And they made a proclamation in Juda and Jerusalem, that every man should bring to the Lord the money which Moses the servant of God appointed for all Israel, in the desert.

10. And all the princes, and all the people rejoiced: and going In they contributed and cast so much into the chest of the Lord, that it was filled.

11. And when it was time to bring the chest before the king by the hands of the Levites, (for they saw there was much money,) the king's scribe, and he whom the high priest had appointed went in: and they poured out the money that was in the chest: and they carried back the chest to its place: and thus they did from day to day, and there was gathered an immense sum of money.

12. And the king and Joiada gave it to those who were over the works of the house of the Lord: but they hired with it stonecutters, and artificers of every kind of work to repair the house of the Lord: and such as wrought in iron and brass, to uphold what began to be falling.

13. And the workmen were diligent, and the breach of the walls was closed up by their hands, and they set up the house of the Lord in its former state, and made it stand firm.

14. And when they had finished all the works, they brought the rest of the money before the king and Joiada: and with it were made vessels for the temple for the ministry, and for holocausts and bowls, and other vessels of gold and silver : and holocausts were offered in the house of the Lord continually all the days of Joiada.

15. But Joiada grew old and was full of days, and died when he was a hundred and thirty years old.

16. And they buried him in the city of David among the kings, because he had done good to Israel, and to his house.

17. And after the death of Joiada, the princes of Juda went in, and worshipped the king: and he was soothed by their services and hearkened to them.

18. And they forsook the temple of the Lord the God of their fathers, and served groves and idols, and wrath came upon Juda and Jerusalem for this sin.

19. And he sent prophets to them to bring them back to the Lord, and they would not give ear when they testified against them.

20. The spirit of God then came upon Zacharias the son of Joiada the priest, and he stood in the sight of the people, and said to them: Thus saith the Lord God: Why transgress you the commandment of the Lord which will not be for your good, and have forsaken the Lord, to make him forsake you?

21. And they gathered themselves together against him, and stoned him at the king's commandment in the court of the house of the Lord.

22. And king Joas did not remember the kindness that Joiada his father had done to him, but killed his son. And when he died, he said: The Lord see, and require it.

23. And when a year was come about, the army of Syria came up against him: and they came to Juda and Jerusalem, end killed all the princes of the people, and they sent all the spoils to the king of Damascus.

24. And whereas there came a very small number of the Syrians, the Lord delivered into their hands an infinite multitude, because they had forsaken the Lord the God of their fathers: and on Joas they executed shameful judgments.

25. And departing they left him in diseases: and his servants rose up him, for revenge of the blood of the son of Joiada the priest, and they slew him in his bed, and he died: and they buried him in the city of David, but not in the sepulchres of the kings.

26. Now the men that conspired against him were Zabad the son of Semmaath an Ammonitess, and Jozabad the son of Semarith a Moabitess.

27. And concerning his sons, and the sum of money which was gathered under him, and the repairing the house of God; they are written more diligently in the book of kings: and Amasias his son reigned in his stead.

1. Unto the end, for them that shall be changed; for David.

2. SAVE me, O God: for the waters are come in even unto my soul.

3. I stick fast in the mire of the deep: and there is no sure standing. I am come into the depth of the sea: and a tempest hath overwhelmed me.

4. I have laboured with crying; my jaws are become hoarse: my eyes have failed, whilst I hope in my God.

5. They are multiplied above the hairs of my head, who hate me without cause. My enemies are grown strong who have wrongfully persecuted me: then did I pay that which I took not away.

6. O God, thou knowest my foolishness; and my offences are not hidden from thee:

7. Let not them be ashamed for me, who look for thee, O Lord, the Lord of hosts. Let them not be confounded on my account, who seek thee, O God of Israel.

8. Because for thy sake I have borne reproach; shame hath covered my face.

9. I am become a stranger to my brethren, and an alien to the sons of my mother.

10. For the zeal of thy house hath eaten me up: and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me.

11. And I covered my soul in fasting: and it was made a reproach to me.

12. And I made haircloth my garment: and I became a byword to them.

13. They that sat in the gate spoke against me: and they that drank wine made me their song.

14. But as for me, my prayer is to thee, O Lord; for the time of thy good pleasure, O God. In the multitude of thy mercy hear me, in the truth of thy salvation.

15. Draw me out of the mire, that I may not stick fast: deliver me from them that hate me, and out of the deep waters.

16. Let not the tempest of water drown me, nor the deep swallow me up: and let not the pit shut her mouth upon me.

17. Hear me, O Lord, for thy mercy is kind; look upon me according to the multitude of thy tender mercies.

18. And turn not away thy face from thy servant: for I am in trouble, hear me speedily.

19. Attend to my soul, and deliver it: save me because of my enemies.

20. Thou knowest my reproach, and my confusion, and my shame.

21. In thy sight are all they that afflict me; my heart hath expected reproach and misery. And I looked for one that would grieve together with me, but there was none: and for one that would comfort me, and I found none.

22. And they gave me gall for my food, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.

23. Let their table become as a snare before them, and a recompense, and a stumblingblock.

24. Let their eyes be darkened that they see not; and their back bend thou down always.

25. Pour out thy indignation upon them: and let thy wrathful anger take hold of them.

26. Let their habitation be made desolate: and let there be none to dwell in their tabernacles.

27. Because they have persecuted him whom thou hast smitten; and they have added to the grief of my wounds.

28. Add thou iniquity upon their iniquity: and let them not come into thy justice.

29. Let them be blotted out of the book of the living; and with the just let them not be written.

30. But I am poor and sorrowful: thy salvation, O God, hath set me up.

31. I will praise the name of God with a canticle: and I will magnify him with praise.

32. And it shall please God better than a young calf, that bringeth forth horns and hoofs.

33. Let the poor see and rejoice: seek ye God, and your soul shall live.

34. For the Lord hath heard the poor: and hath not despised his prisoners.

35. Let the heavens and the earth praise him; the sea, and every thing that creepeth therein.

36. For God will save Sion, and the cities of Juda shall be built up. And they shall dwell there, and acquire it by inheritance.

37. And the seed of his servants shall possess it; and they that love his name shall dwell therein.