Bible in a Year.

On day 186, 2 Kings 20 recounts Hezekiah's restoration to health and his renewed commitment to God. 2 Chronicles 31 recounts the people's faithfulness in offerings and the organization of the temple under his leadership. Psalm 144 celebrates God's strength, protection, and blessings upon the faithful, encouraging praise and gratitude in all circumstances.

1. In those days Ezechias was sick unto death: and Isaias the son of Amos the prophet came and said to him: Thus saith the Lord God: Give charge concerning thy house, for thou shalt die, and not live.

2. And he turned his face to the wall, and prayed to the Lord, saying:

3. I beseech thee, O Lord, remember how I have walked before thee in truth, and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is pleasing before thee. And Ezechias wept with much weeping.

4. And before Isaias was gone out of the middle of the court, the word of the Lord came to him, saying:

5. Go back, and tell Ezechias the captain of my people: Thus saith the Lord the God of David thy father: I have heard thy prayer, and I have seen thy tears: and behold I have healed thee; on the third day thou shalt go up to the temple of the Lord.

6. And I will add to thy days fifteen years: and I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of the Assyrians, and I will protect this city for my own sake, and for David my servant's sake.

7. And Isaias said: Bring me a lump of figs. And when they had brought it, and laid it upon his boil. he was healed.

8. And Ezechias had said to Isaias: What shall be the sign that the Lord will heal me, and that I shall go up to the temple of the Lord the third day?

9. And Isaias said to him: This shall be the sign from the Lord, that the Lord will do the word which he hath spoken: Wilt thou that the shadow go forward ten lines, or that it go back so many degrees?

10. And Ezechias said: It is an easy matter for the shadow to go forward ten lines: and I do not desire that this be done, but let it return back ten degrees.

11. And Isaias the prophet called upon the Lord, and he brought the shadow ten degrees backwards by the lines, by which it had already gone down in the dial of Achaz.

12. At that time Berodach Baladan, the son of Baladan, king of the Babylonians, sent letters and presents to Ezechias: for he had heard that Ezechias had been sick.

13. And Ezechias rejoiced at their coming, and he showed them the house of his aromatical spices, and the gold and the silver, and divers precious odours, and ointments, and the house of his vessels, and all that he had in his treasures. There was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominions that Ezechias shewed them not.

14. And Isaias the prophet came to king Ezechias, and said to him: What said these men? or from whence came they to thee? And Ezechias said to him: From a far country they came to me out of Babylon.

15. And he said: What did they see in thy house? Ezechias said: They saw all the things that are in my house: there is nothing among my treasures that I have not shewn them.

16. And Isaias said to Ezechias: Hear the word of the Lord.

17. Behold the days shall come, that all that is in thy house, and that thy fathers have laid up in store unto this day, shall be carried into Babylon: nothing shall be left, saith the Lord.

18. And of thy sons also that shall issue from thee, whom thou shalt beget, they shall take away, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.

19. Ezechias said to Isaias: The word of the Lord, which thou hast spoken, is good: let peace and truth be in my days.

20. And the rest of the acts of Ezechias and all his might, and how he made a pool, and a conduit, and brought waters into the city, are they not written in the book of the words of the days of the kings of Juda?

21. And Ezechias slept with his fathers, and Manasses his son reigned in his stead.

1. And when these things had been duly celebrated, all Israel that were found in the cities of Juda, went out, and they broke the idols, and cut down the groves. demolished the high places, and destroyed the altars, not only out of all Juda and Benjamin, but out of Ephraim also and Manasses, till they had utterly destroyed them: then all the children of Israel returned to their possessions and cities.

2. And Ezechias appointed companies of the priests, and the Levites, by their courses, every man in his own office, to wit, both of the priests, and of the Levites, for holocausts, and for peace offerings, to minister, and to praise, and to sing in the gates of the camp of the Lord.

3. And the king's part was, that of his proper substance the holocaust should be offered always morning and evening, and on the sabbaths, and the new moons and the other solemnities, as it is written in the law of Moses.

4. He commanded also the people that dwelt in Jerusalem, to give to the priests, and the Levites their portion, that they might attend to the law of the Lord.

5. Which when it was noised abroad in the ears of the people, the children of Israel offered in abundance the firstfruits of corn, wine, and oil, and honey: and brought the tithe of all things which the ground bringeth forth.

6. Moreover the children of Israel and Juda, that dwelt in the cities of Juda, brought in the tithes of oxen, and sheep, and the tithes of holy things, which they had vowed to the Lord their God: and carrying them all, made many heaps.

7. In the third month they began to lay the foundations of the heaps, and in the seventh month, they finished them.

8. And when Ezechias and his princes came in, they saw the heaps, and they blessed the Lord and the people of Israel.

9. And Ezechias asked the priests and the Levites, why the heaps lay so.

10. Azarias the chief priest of the race of Sadoc answered him, saying: Since the firstfruits began to be offered in the house of the Lord, we have eaten, and have been filled, and abundance is left, because the Lord hath blessed his people: and of that which is left is this great store which thou seest.

11. Then Ezechias commanded to prepare storehouses in the house of the Lord. And when they had done so,

12. They brought in faithfully both the firstfruits, and the tithes, and all they had vowed. And the overseer of them was Chonenias the Levite, and Semei his brother was the second,

13. And after him Jehiel, and Azarias, and Nahath, and Asael, and Jerimoth, and Jozabad, and Eliel, and Jesmachias, and Mahath, and Banaias, overseers under the hand of Chonenias, and Semei his brother, by the commandment of Ezechias the king, and Azarias the high priest of the house of God, to whom all things appertained.

14. But Core the son of Jemna the Levite, the porter of the east gate, was overseer of the things which were freely offered to the Lord, and of the firstfruits and the things dedicated for the holy of holies.

15. And under his charge were Eden, and Benjamin, Jesue, and Semeias, and Amarias, and Sechenias, in the cities of the priests, to distribute faithfully portions to their brethren, both little and great:

16. Besides the males from three years old and upward, to all that went into the temple of the Lord, and whatsoever there was need of in the ministry, and their offices according to their courses, day by day.

17. To the priests by their families, and to the Levites from the twentieth year and upward, by their classes and companies.

18. And to all the multitude, both to their wives, and to their children of both sexes, victuals were given faithfully out of the things that had been sanctified.

19. Also of the sons of Aaron who were in the fields and in the suburbs of each city, there were men appointed, to distribute portions to all the males, among the priests and the Levites.

20. So Ezechias did all things, which we have said in all Juda, and wrought that which was good; and right, and truth, before the Lord his God,

21. In all the service of the ministry of the house of the Lord according to the law and the ceremonies, desiring to seek his God with all his heart, and he did it and prospered,

1. Blessed be the Lord my God, who teacheth my hands to fight, and my fingers to war.

2. My mercy, and my refuge: my support, and my deliverer: My protector, and I have hoped in him: who subdueth my people under me.

3. Lord, what is man, that thou art made known to him? or the son of man, that thou makest account of him?

4. Man is like to vanity: his days pass away like a shadow.

5. Lord, bow down thy heavens and descend: touch the mountains and they shall smoke.

6. Send forth lightning, and thou shalt scatter them: shoot out thy arrows, and thou shalt trouble them.

7. Put forth thy hand from on high, take me out, and deliver me from many waters: from the hand of strange children:

8. Whose mouth hath spoken vanity: and their right hand is the right hand of iniquity.

9. To thee, O God, I will sing a new canticle: on the psaltery and an instrument of ten strings I will sing praises to thee.

10. Who givest salvation to kings: who hast redeemed thy servant David from the malicious sword:

11. Deliver me, And rescue me out of the hand of strange children; whose mouth hath spoken vanity: and their right hand is the right hand of iniquity:

12. Whose sons are as new plants in their youth: Their daughters decked out, adorned round about after the similitude of a temple:

13. Their storehouses full, flowing out of this into that. Their sheep fruitful in young, abounding in their goings forth:

14. their oxen fat. There is no breach of wall, nor passage, nor crying out in their streets.

15. They have called the people happy, that hath these things: but happy is that people whose God is the Lord.