Read the Bible with Me!

Welcome to the Pauline Family's "Year of the Bible"! I'm reading the Bible clear through this year, and I invite you to read along with me. But first, let us pray: 

My God, I adore and thank your loving and wise Providence, manifested on every page of Sacred Scripture. You have always been close to sinful and erring humanity, and have indicated the way and given hope. Amid the shadows of error and corruption, you kindled the light of your truth; amid universal corruption, you are the Just One; amid so much idolatry, humanity in every corner of the earth has cultivated a sincere worship of you.
Let my reading today increase my trust in your goodness, your mercy, and your unfailing faithfulness.

Today's chapters are 2 Kings 15-17 and (for Lent) Psalm 58.

In chapter 15, after a series of coups, we see the dismantling of the northern kingdom by the powerful kingdom of Assyria. Deportations began with Galilee, but eventually extended to the whole of the kingdom, while refugees from Israel began to filter to the south. Assyria then transplanted some of their own subject peoples into the land of Israel. Notice that the worship of the pagan deities did not go very well: Assyria was obliged to repatriate one of the exiled priests to teach the new arrivals what the local Divinity required. This is (in a nutshell) the origin of the "Samaritans" whom we will meet in the Gospel.

Psalm 58 is a prayer in the face of a towering injustice, such as the devastating deportation to Assyria. Notice how it ends: with the conviction that God's justice will still, somehow, prevail. 

Start reading 2 Kings here and Psalm 58 here.

If you are looking for a solid but approachable companion to the Bible, I can wholeheartedly recommend A Catholic Introduction to the Bible: The Old Testament by John Bergsma and Brant Pitre. Although the authors are top-level Scripture scholars, they write for "real" readers. Notes include recent findings from archaeology and ancient manuscripts, and how each book of the Bible has been understood by the Church Fathers and used in Liturgy.