†
TWELFTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME
CYCLE II
THURSDAY
†
FIRST READING
2 KINGS 24:8-17
†
A READING FROM THE SECOND BOOK OF KINGS
(THE KING OF BABYLON DEPORTED JEHOIACHIN AND ALL THE NOBILITY OF THE COUNTRY TO BABYLON.)
Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he came to the throne,
and he reigned for three months in Jerusalem.
His mother’s name was Nehushta, daughter of Elnathan, from Jerusalem.
He did what is displeasing to the Lord,
just as his father had done.
At the time the troops of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched on Jerusalem,
and the city was besieged.
Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon
himself came to attack the city while his troops were besieging it.
Then Jehoiachin king of Judah surrendered to the king of Babylon,
he,
his mother, his officers, his nobles and his eunuchs,
and the king of Babylon took them prisoner.
This was in the eighth year of king Nebuchadnezzar.
The latter carried off all the treasures of the Temple of the Lord
and the treasures of the royal palace,
and broke up all the golden furnishings
that Solomon king of Israel had made for the sanctuary of the Lord,
as the Lord had foretold.
He carried off all Jerusalem into exile,
all the nobles and all the notables,
ten thousand of these were exiled,
with all the blacksmiths and metalworkers;
only the poorest people in the country were left behind.
He deported Jehoiachin to Babylon,
as also the king’s mother, his eunuchs
and the nobility of the country;
he made them all leave Jerusalem for exile in Babylon.
All the men of distinction, seven thousand of them,
the blacksmiths and metalworkers, one thousand of them,
all of them men capable of bearing arms,
were led into exile in Babylon
by the king of Babylon.
The king of Babylon made Mattaniah, Jehoiachin’s uncle,
king in succession to him,
and changed his name to Zedekiah.
The word of the Lord.
R.) Thanks be to God.
†
responsorialpsalmcatholic 