Today’s Readings – Friday of Week 12 of Ordinary Time - First Reading

Commentary on 2 Kings 25:1-12

Today we come to the end of the sad story of Israel’s degradation and humiliation—the second deportation. Yesterday we saw how Mattaniah, renamed Zedekiah, had been made a puppet or vassal king of Judah, the southern kingdom, by Nebuchadnezzar. He was no improvement on his predecessors. The passage which comes between yesterday’s and today’s readings is as follows:

Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he began to reign; he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem...He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, just as Jehoiakim had done. Indeed, Jerusalem and Judah so angered the Lord that he expelled them [the two kings] from his presence. Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon. (2 Kings 24:18-20)


Rebelling against the king w … Continue

Yesterday’s Readings – Thursday of Week 12 of Ordinary Time - First Reading

Commentary on 2 Kings 24:8-17

The fate of the southern kingdom, including Jerusalem, was to be no better than that of the north. Today’s passage describes the first deportation of the Hebrews from Jerusalem into Babylon. However, the conquerors now are not the Assyrians, but the n … Continue