Well, summer vacation time is here and I will not be able to post anything until I get back on July 15th. See you then, I hope. We'll pick up with Sirach and Acts when I get back.

Well, summer vacation time is here and I will not be able to post anything until I get back on July 15th. See you then, I hope. We'll pick up with Sirach and Acts when I get back.

Well, summer vacation time is here and I will not be able to post anything until I get back on July 15th. See you then, I hope. We'll pick up with Sirach and Acts when I get back.

Well, summer vacation time is here and I will not be able to post anything until I get back on July 15th. See you then, I hope. We'll pick up with Sirach and Acts when I get back.

Sirach 4 – He begins with lines of advice on dealing with the poor, the angry and the destitute, “for if a man curses you in the bitterness of his soul, his maker will hear his imprecation. Gain the love of the community, bow your head to a man of authority. To the poor man lend an ear, and return his greeting courteously” (4:7-9).

“Whoever loves her [wisdom] loves life, those who wait on her early will be filled with happiness” (4:12). For, “though she takes him at…

The Apocrypha – Books of the Old Testament – about 16 of them - included in the Septuagint and Latin Vulgate but not in the Masoretic Bible or the Protestant Bibles. The word in Greek originally meant “hidden” or “secret” – thought to be somewhat beyond the reach of ordinary readers - but because of the exclusion of some of the texts from the Masoretic text, compiled by Torah scholars between the 7^th and 11^th centuries AD. Their criteria was generally to accept…

Esther 7 – The king’s eunuchs come to get him for the banquet with Esther. There, the king asks Esther what it is she wants; and she tells him she desires only “the lives of [her] people” (7:4). In the course of talking to him about the matter, Haman’s name comes up as the one behind the terror. The king leaves the banquet in a fury and Haman realizes the “gig is up.” He begs Esther for mercy and help. When the king returns he thinks Haman is trying to assault Esther. One of the…

Chapter 4 – A long chapter what with Greek additions: Mordecai puts on sackcloth and ashes when he hears about the order that has gone out, and so do all the Jews when they hear the decree.

Mordecai goes to see Esther, but cannot be admitted to the palace in sackcloth. A eunuch, Hathach is the go-between. Mordecai sends her a message begging her not to forget her “humbler circumstances” and telling her she should go and plead for her people. She sends back a message…

Please excuse font and paragraph irregularities - sometimes they just happen and I can't seem to fix them.

The Book of Esther is part of what are called Writings in the Hebrew Scriptures. It is dated somewhere in the 3^rd or 4^th century BC and was thought to be a redaction of a text originally written the man Mordecai, who is part of the story. It is a story that explains the background and meaning of the Jewish festival of Purim [Day of…

Tobit 13 – A song of praise to God:

                                    Blessed be God who lives forever,

                                   for his reign endures throughout all ages!

                                  By turns he punishes and pardons;

                                  he sends men down to the depths of the underworld

                                 and draws them up from supreme…

Tobit 11 – Raphael and Tobias decide to go ahead of Sarah and the rest so as to greet Tobit and put the “gall” from the fish on his eyes so he will be cured. They do and of course both Tobit and his wife are overjoyed to see their son. Tobias applies the gall and Tobit’s sight is restored. They praise God and go off to the gates of Nineveh to greet Sarah.

Tobit 12 – Tobit tells Tobias they need to reward Azariah [Raphael] for all his help. Tobias thinks half of…

Tobit 9 – Tobias sends Azariah (Raphael) to Gabael, the cousin of his father with whom he long ago left the silver. He also lives in Media. Tobias wants him to come to the wedding feast that is planned. Azariah goes to Gabael, presents him with the receipt [Tobit’s half] and tells him about the marriage of Tobias and Sarah. The seals to the sacks of silver are “still intact” (9:7). They load the silver on the camels and the next morning set off for the feast together. When Gabael sees…

Tobit 7 – They go to Raguel’s home and are well-received. Raguel learns that Tobias is son of his kinsman, Tobit. Raguel responds warmly to Tobias’ appeal to marry his daughter, and he tells the whole story about the seven husbands. They are given in marriage and Sarah’s mother goes to prepare the place where they will come together.

Tobit 8 – Tobias does as he was instructed and burns the fish’s organs on the incense. This drives the demon to the “remotest…

Tobit 5 – Tobias answers that he will go and try to get the silver his father left in Media some twenty years earlier, but he wonders how he will get the money since the man to whom it was given does not know him. Tobit says that he “set his signature to a note which I cut in two, so that each could keep half of it. I took one piece, and put the other with the silver” (5:3). CLEVER!

Tobias needs to get someone who knows how to get to Media; so he does. He finds the…

Tobit 3 – There follows a lovely ode on his unworthiness and desire for God’s forgiveness – here is some of it:

                                            You are just, O Lord,

                                            And just are all your works,

                                            All your ways are grace and truth,

                                            And you are the Judge of the…

Tobit is not in the Protestant Bible; it is part of what is called the “apocrypha.” My Jerusalem Bible introduction to the books says they were “only recognized by the Church after a certain hesitancy in the patristic period” but they have been “read and quoted from early days and appear in the official canonical lists in the West from the time of the Roman Synod of 382 and, in the East, from 682” (601). All three “belong to the same type of literature”; they all deal with…

2 Kings 24 – King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. Jerusalem Bible says Nabu-kudur-usur, founder of the Neo-Babylonian or Chaldean Empire, which succeeded Assyria from 605-562. This expedition to Palestine took place around 602. He defeated Pharaoh at Carchemish in 605. He comes to dominate Judah. Jehoiakim “became his servant for three years,” but then Jehoiakim rebels. “The Lord” sent against them bands of Chaldeans, Arameans, Moabites and Ammonites “to destroy” Judah…

2 Kings 22 – Josiah is just eight years old when he comes to the throne.  He will serve 31 years (640-609), and he will do “what [is] right in the sight of the Lord” (22:2). He begins another restoration of the temple (the last was done by Joash of Judah during his reign about two hundred years earlier). Hilkiah reports that (in the process of restoration?) they have found in the Temple the book of the law. 

This is almost certainly the book of…

2 Kings 20 – Hezekiah becomes sick—he has some kind of boil—and Isaiah comes to tell him he should set his house in order; he is going to die.  He turns “his face to the wall” and prays that the Lord will “remember . . . how I have walked before you in faithfulness with a whole heart, and have done what is good in your sight” (20:3).

As Isaiah is leaving, the Lord comes to him and tells him to go back and say to Hezekiah that He has heard Hezekiah’s…

2 Kings 18 – Hezekiah (715-686 BC), begins his reign in Judah. He is 25. His mother was Abijah, daughter of Zechariah. He did what was right in the sight of the Lord. He removes the high places (finally), breaks down the sacred pillars and cuts down the sacred poles. He breaks the bronze serpent Moses was said to have made in the desert (it was called Nehushtan or “thing of brass”); it had become an idol over the years. It is interesting to ponder the thought that even in…