First Reading
2 Kings 24:8-17
Read this as the first big movement of the day. Notice what God is doing, who is speaking, and what part of the story or teaching should stay with you.
8Joachin was eighteen years old when he began to reign, a and he reigned three months in Jerusalem: the name of his mother was Nohesta the daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem.
9And he did evil before the Lord, according to all that his father had done.
10At that time the servants of Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon came up against Jerusalem, and the city was surrounded with their forts.
11And Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon came to the city with his servants to assault it.
12And Joachin king of Juda went out to the king of Babylon, he end his mother, and his servants, and his nobles, and his eunuchs: and the king of Babylon received him in the eighth year of his reign.
13And he brought out from from there all the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king's house: and he cut in pieces all the containers of gold which Solomon king of Israel had made in the temple of the Lord, according to the word of the Lord.
14And he carried away all Jerusalem, and all the leaders, and all the valiant men of the army, to the number of ten thousand into captivity: and every artificer and smith: and none were left, but the poor sort of the people of the land.
15And he carried away Joachin into Babylon, and the king's mother, and the king's wives, and his eunuchs: and the judges of the land he carried into captivity from Jerusalem into Babylon.
16And all the strong men, seven thousand, and the artificers, and the smiths a thousand, all that were valiant men and fit for war: and the king of Babylon led them captives into Babylon.
17And he appointed Matthanias his uncle in his stead: and called his name Sedecias.