June 21, 2014

Reading

The Second Book of Chronicles     24: 17- 25

24:17	Then, after Jehoiada passed away, the leaders of Judah entered and reverenced the king. And he was enticed by their obsequiousness, and so he acquiesced to them.
24:18	And they abandoned the temple of the Lord, the God of their fathers, and they served sacred groves and graven images. And wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem because of this sin.
24:19	And he sent prophets to them, so that they might return to the Lord. And though they were offering testimony, they were not willing to listen to them.
24:20	And so the Spirit of God clothed Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada the priest. And he stood in the sight of the people, and he said to them: “Thus says the Lord God: Why have you transgressed the precept of the Lord, though it was not to your benefit, and why have you abandoned the Lord, so that he would then abandon you?”
24:21	And gathering together against him, they stoned him, beside the place of the king, in the atrium of the house of the Lord.
24:22	And king Joash did not remember the mercy with which Jehoiada, his father, had treated him; instead he put to death his son. And as he was dying, he said: “May the Lord see and take account.”
24:23	And when a year had turned, the army of Syria ascended against him. And they went to Judah and Jerusalem. And they put to death all the leaders of the people. And they sent all the spoils to the king of Damascus.
24:24	And although certainly there had arrived a very small number of Syrians, the Lord delivered into their hands an immense multitude. For they had forsaken the Lord, the God of their fathers. Also, against Joash they executed disgraceful judgments.
24:25	And upon departing, they left him greatly debilitated. Then his servants rose up against him, in vengeance for the blood of the son of Jehoiada the priest. And they killed him on his bed, and he died. And they buried him in the City of David, but not in the sepulchers of the kings.