Day 196 of 365

2 Kgs 17:1–41

1 In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah, Hoshea the son of Elah began to reign in Samaria over Israel for nine years.

2 He did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, yet not as the kings of Israel who were before him.

3 Against him came up Shalmaneser king of Assyria; and Hoshea became his servant, and brought him tribute.

4 The king of Assyria found conspiracy in Hoshea; for he had sent messengers to So king of Egypt, and offered no tribute to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year: therefore the king of Assyria shut him up, and bound him in prison.

5 Then the king of Assyria came up throughout all the land, and went up to Samaria, and besieged it three years.

6 In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away to Assyria, and placed them in Halah, and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.

7 It was so, because the children of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, who brought them up out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods,

8 and walked in the statutes of the nations, whom the Lord cast out from before the children of Israel, and of the kings of Israel, which they made.

9 The children of Israel did secretly things that were not right against the Lord their God: and they built them high places in all their cities, from the tower of the watchmen to the fortified city;

10 and they set them up pillars and Asherim on every high hill, and under every green tree;

11 and there they burnt incense in all the high places, as did the nations whom the Lord carried away before them; and they worked wicked things to provoke the Lord to anger;

12 and they served idols, of which the Lord had said to them, "You shall not do this thing."

13 Yet the Lord testified to Israel, and to Judah, by every prophet, and every seer, saying, "Turn from your evil ways, and keep my commandments and my statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by my servants the prophets."

14 Notwithstanding, they would not listen, but hardened their neck, like the neck of their fathers, who did not believe in the Lord their God.

15 They rejected his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he testified to them; and they followed vanity, and became vain, and followed the nations that were around them, concerning whom the Lord had commanded them that they should not do like them.

16 They forsook all the commandments of the Lord their God, and made them molten images, even two calves, and made an Asherah, and worshiped all the army of the sky, and served Baal.

17 They caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire, and used divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke him to anger.

18 Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of his sight: there was none left but the tribe of Judah only.

19 Also Judah did not keep the commandments of the Lord their God, but walked in the statutes of Israel which they made.

20 The Lord rejected all the seed of Israel, and afflicted them, and delivered them into the hand of spoilers, until he had cast them out of his sight.

21 For he tore Israel from the house of David; and they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king: and Jeroboam drove Israel from following the Lord, and made them sin a great sin.

22 The children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did; they did not depart from them;

23 until the Lord removed Israel out of his sight, as he spoke by all his servants the prophets. So Israel was carried away out of their own land to Assyria to this day.

24 The king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Avva, and from Hamath and Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel; and they possessed Samaria, and lived in the cities of it.

25 So it was, at the beginning of their dwelling there, that they did not fear the Lord: therefore the Lord sent lions among them, which killed some of them.

26 Therefore they spoke to the king of Assyria, saying, "The nations which you have carried away, and placed in the cities of Samaria, do not know the law of the god of the land. Therefore he has sent lions among them, and behold, they kill them, because they do not know the law of the god of the land."

27 Then the king of Assyria commanded, saying, "Carry there one of the priests whom you brought from there; and let them go and dwell there, and let him teach them the law of the god of the land."

28 So one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and lived in Bethel, and taught them how they should fear the Lord.

29 However every nation made gods of their own, and put them in the houses of the high places which the Samaritans had made, every nation in their cities in which they lived.

30 The men of Babylon made Succoth Benoth, and the men of Cuth made Nergal, and the men of Hamath made Ashima,

31 and the Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak; and the Sepharvites burnt their children in the fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim.

32 [And they feared the Lord, yet they established their abominations in the houses of the high places which they made in Samaria, each nation in the city in which they dwelt.] And they feared the Lord, yet appointed from among themselves priests of the high places, who sacrificed for them in the houses of the high places.

33 And they feared the Lord, yet served their own gods, after the ways of the nations from among whom they had been carried away.

34 To this day they do what they did before: they do not fear the Lord, neither do they follow their statutes, or their ordinances, or the law or the commandment which the Lord commanded the children of Jacob, whom he named Israel;

35 with whom the Lord had made a covenant, and commanded them, saying, "You shall not fear other gods, nor bow yourselves to them, nor serve them, nor sacrifice to them;

36 but you shall fear the Lord, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt with great power and with an outstretched arm, and you shall bow yourselves to him, and you shall sacrifice to him.

37 The statutes and the ordinances, and the law and the commandment, which he wrote for you, you shall observe to do forevermore. You shall not fear other gods.

38 You shall not forget the covenant that I have made with you; neither shall you fear other gods.

39 But you shall fear the Lord your God; and he will deliver you out of the hand of all your enemies."

40 However they did not listen, but they did what they did before.

41 So these nations feared the Lord, and served their engraved images. Their children likewise, and their children's children, as their fathers did, so they do to this day.

Acts 17:16–34

16 Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw the city full of idols.

17 So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who met him.

18 Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also were conversing with him. Some said, "What does this babbler want to say?" Others said, "He seems to be advocating foreign deities," because he preached Jesus and the resurrection.

19 They took hold of him, and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, "May we know what this new teaching is, which is spoken by you?

20 For you bring certain strange things to our ears. We want to know therefore what these things mean."

21 Now all the Athenians and the strangers living there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell or to hear some new thing.

22 Paul stood in the middle of the Areopagus, and said, "You men of Athens, I perceive that you are very religious in all things.

23 For as I passed along, and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: 'TO AN UNKNOWN God.' What therefore you worship in ignorance, this I announce to you.

24 The God who made the world and all things in it, he, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands,

25 neither is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he himself gives to all life and breath, and all things.

26 He made from one every nation of men to dwell on all the surface of the earth, having determined appointed seasons, and the boundaries of their dwellings,

27 that they should seek God, if perhaps they might reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.

28 'For in him we live, and move, and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'For we are also his offspring.'

29 Being then the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold, or silver, or stone, engraved by art and design of man.

30 The times of ignorance therefore God overlooked. But now he commands that all people everywhere should repent,

31 because he has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he has ordained; of which he has given assurance to all men, in that he has raised him from the dead."

32 Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked; but others said, "We want to hear you again concerning this."

33 Thus Paul went out from among them.

34 But certain men joined with him, and believed, among whom also was Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.

Ps 84:1–12

1 How lovely are your dwellings, Lord of hosts!

2 My soul longs, and even faints for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.

3 Yes, the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young, near your altars, Lord of hosts, my King, and my God.

4 Blessed are those who dwell in your house. They are always praising you. Selah.

5 Blessed are those whose strength is in you; who have set their hearts on a pilgrimage.

6 Passing through the valley of Weeping, they make it a place of springs. Yes, the autumn rain covers it with blessings.

7 They go from strength to strength. Everyone of them appears before God in Zion.

8 Lord, God of Hosts, hear my prayer. Listen, God of Jacob. Selah.

9 Behold, God our shield, look at the face of your anointed.

10 For a day in your courts is better than a thousand. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.

11 For the Lord God is a sun and a shield. The Lord will give grace and glory. He withholds no good thing from those who walk blamelessly.

12 Lord of hosts, blessed is the man who trusts in you.