17th Sunday, Year A, First Reading (1 Kings 3:5, 7-12)

5 At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon during the night in a dream, and God said, “Ask for whatever you want me to give you.” … 7 “Now, Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David. But I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties. 8 Your servant is here among

13th Sunday, Year A, First Reading (2 Kings 4:8-11, 14-16)

8 One day Elisha went to Shunem. And a well-to-do woman was there, who urged him to stay for a meal. So whenever he came by, he stopped there to eat. 9 She said to her husband, “I know that this man who often comes our way is a holy man of God. 10 Let’s make a small room on the

The Day of the Lord (Joel 2:1-5)

Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy hill. Let all who live in the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming. It is close at hand—2     a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness. Like dawn spreading across the mountains a large and mighty army comes, such as never was in

Calling to God (Hosea 7:11-16)

11 “Ephraim is like a dove, easily deceived and senseless—now calling to Egypt, now turning to Assyria. 12 When they go, I will throw my net over them; I will pull them down like the birds in the sky. When I hear them flocking together, I will catch them. 13 Woe to them, because they have strayed from me! Destruction to

Introduction to the Minor Prophets

In 2022-2023, at St. Joseph’s bible study, we’ll be studying the minor prophets. These are the last books of the Old Testament and so make a kind of bridge to the New Testament. They show Israel’s unfaithfulness and failures but they also give hope. The people of God, who signed a covenant with him on

28th Sunday, Year C, 1st Reading (2 Kings 5:14-17)

14 So Naaman went down and dipped himself in the Jordan seven times, as Elisha had told him, and his flesh was restored and became clean like that of a young boy. 15 Then Naaman and all his attendants went back to the man of God. He stood before him and said, “Now I know that there is no God in

The Book of Kings and the New Testament

The Book of Kings ends with Jerusalem destroyed, Judah occupied and most of its people in exile. To be fair, the final verses of Kings are not entirely dark for we discover that one member at least of the royal family survived, Jehoiakin who is seen at the end sitting at the Babylonian king’s table

The Destruction of Jerusalem (2 Kings 25:1-12)

So in the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched against Jerusalem with his whole army. He encamped outside the city and built siege works all around it. 2 The city was kept under siege until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah. 3 By the ninth day of the fourth month

The Babylonian Conquest Begins (2 Kings 24:8-17)

8 Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem three months. His mother’s name was Nehushta daughter of Elnathan; she was from Jerusalem. 9 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father had done. 10 At that time the officers of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon advanced on Jerusalem and laid siege to it, 11 and

Josiah’s Death (2 Kings 23:26-30)

26 Nevertheless, the Lord did not turn away from the heat of his fierce anger, which burned against Judah because of all that Manasseh had done to arouse his anger. 27 So the Lord said, “I will remove Judah also from my presence as I removed Israel, and I will reject Jerusalem, the city I chose, and this temple, about which I said, ‘My Name shall be