Occurring Scripture for the Hour of Matins
Week of the 8th Sunday after Pentecost
Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday SaturdayLesson i
A reading from the Third Book of Kings
3 Kings 9:1-5And it came to pass when Solomon had finished the building of the house of the Lord, and the king's house, and all that he desired, and was pleased to do, that the Lord appeared to him the second time, as he had appeared to him in Gabaon. And the Lord said to him: "I have heard your prayer and supplication, which you made before Me: I have sanctified this house, which you have built, to put My name there for ever, and My eyes and My heart shall be there always. And if you will walk before me, as your father walked, in simplicity of heart, and in uprightness: and will do all that I have commanded you, and will keep My ordinances and my judgments, I will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel for ever, as I promised David your father, saying: 'There shall not fail to be a man of your race upon the throne of Israel.'"
Lesson ii
3 Kings 9:6-9"But if you and your children revolting shall turn away from following me, and will not keep my commandments, and my ceremonies, which I have set before you, but will go and worship strange gods, and adore them: I will take away Israel from the face of the land which I have given them; and the temple which I have sanctified to my name, I will cast out of my sight; and Israel shall be a proverb, and a byword among all people. And this house shall be made an example of: Every one that shall pass by it, shall be astonished, and shall hiss, and say: 'Why hath the Lord done thus to this land, and to this house:' And they shall answer: 'Because they forsook the Lord their God, who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and followed strange gods, and adored them, and worshipped them: therefore has the Lord brought upon them all this evil.'"
Lesson iii
3 Kings 9:10-14And when twenty years ended after Solomon had built the two houses, that is, the house of the Lord, and the house of the king, (Hiram the king of Tyre furnishing Solomon with cedar trees and fir trees, and gold according to all he had need of.) then Solomon gave Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee. And Hiram came out of Tyre, to see the towns which Solomon had given him, and they pleased him not, And he said: "Are these the cities which you have given me, brother?" And he called them the land of Chabul, until this day. And Hiram sent to king Solomon a hundred and twenty talents of gold.
Lesson iv
From The City of God by Saint Agustine, Bishop
Book XVII, chapter 8Things which were then still to come were in a certain manner imagined in Solomon, who built the temple, who had that peace which his name implies (for the name Solomon signifies "the peaceful one ") and who, at the beginning of his reign, was marvelously praiseworthy. By these things he foreshadowed in his own person, though he set not forth with his mouth, our Lord Christ. Thus are some things written of Solomon which are, as it were, things written concerning Christ, the Holy Scripture in this way, by giving the history of things past, prophesying all the while of things to come.
Lesson v
Nor besides the books of the Divine history wherein his reign is recorded, the seventy-first Psalm is superscribed with his name. In this Psalm are many things which cannot suit him, but are most clearly applicable to the Lord Christ, thus showing that Solomon was, as it were, a shadowy figure cast before, of that which was afterwards revealed in very truth in the Person of Christ.
Lesson vi
Without going into the rest, I may say that it is known what were the limits of Solomon's dominions, and yet in that Psalm we read "He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth" (Psalms 71:8). This we see fulfilled in Christ. It was from the river, that is, from His Baptism by John in Jordan, that He began His assumption of dominion, for then it was when John bore testimony to Him that His disciples began to acknowledge Him, calling Him, not Master only, but Lord.
Lesson vii
The continuation of the Holy Gospel according to Luke
Luke 16:1-9At that time, Jesus spoke this parable to His disciples: "There was a certain rich man who had a steward: and the same was accused to him, that he had wasted his goods. And he called him, and said to him: 'How is it that I hear this of thee? give an account of your stewardship: for now you can be steward no longer.' And the steward said within himself: 'What shall I do, because my lord take away from me the stewardship? To dig I am not able; to beg I am ashamed.... I know what I will do, that when I shall be removed from the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses.' Therefore calling together every one of his lord's debtors, he said to the first: 'How much do you owe my lord?' But he said: 'An hundred barrels of oil.' And he said to him: 'Take your bill and sit down quickly, and write fifty.' Then he said to another: 'And how much do you owe?' Who said: 'An hundred quarters of wheat.' He said to him: 'Take your bill, and write eighty.' And the lord commended the unjust steward, forasmuch as he had done wisely: for the children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light. And I say to you: Make friends of the mammon of iniquity; that when you shall fail, they may receive you into everlasting dwellings."
An Homily of Saint Jerome, Priest
Letter 151, to Algasia.The lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely though wickedly. The lord, although himself defrauded by it, could not but praise the shrewdness of his dishonest servant, because he had cheated him with profit to himself. How much more will our Master Christ, Who is above any defrauding by us, and is Himself the Great Forgiver, praise us if we win a blessing from Him by dealing indulgently with those who are to believe in Him?
Lesson viii
After this parable the Lord said: "Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness." This word "mammon" is a Syriac (not an Hebrew) word, signifying ill-gotten gains. If then even ill-gotten gains can be so used by such as have them as to profit them, how much more can they who, like the Apostles, are " stewards of the mysteries of God," those true and blameless riches, how much more can they profit themselves, even everlastingly, by their right use of them?
Lesson ix
Therefore it is immediately written: "He that is faithful in that which is least—that is to say, in bodily things—is faithful also in much that is to say, in spiritual things. "And he that is unjust in the least" that is to say, by not giving to his needy brother succor of those things which are needful for the body, and which God has made for all men, such an one is unjust also in much—that is to say, he will deal out spiritual things unfairly, this to one and that to another, and not according to their true spiritual needs. "If therefore," said the Lord, "you have not been faithful in the" use of earthly riches which pass away, "who will commit to your trust the true and abiding riches," that is, the spiritual riches of the word of God?''
Let us pray:
Grant to us, O Lord, we beseech Thee, the spirit to think and do always such things as are right; that we who cannot exist without Thee may be able to live according to Thy will.Lesson i
A reading from the Third Book of Kings
3 Kings 10:1-3And the queen of Saba, having; heard of the fame of Solomon in the name of the Lord, came to try him with hard questions. And entering into Jerusalem with a great train, and riches, and camels that carried spices, and an immense quantity of gold, and precious stones, she came to king Solomon, and spoke to him all that she had in her heart. And Solomon informed her of all the things she proposed to him: there was not any word the king was ignorant of, and which he could not answer her.
Lesson ii
3 Kings 10:4-7And when the queen of Saba saw all the wisdom of Solomon, and the house which he had built, and the meat of his table, and the apartments of his servants, and the order of his ministers, and their apparel, and the cupbearers, and the holocausts, which he offered in the house of the Lord: she had no longer any spirit in her. And she said to the king: "The report is true, which I heard in my own country, concerning your words, and concerning your wisdom. And I did not believe them that told me, till I came myself, and saw with my own eyes, and have found that the half of it has not been told me: your wisdom and your works, exceed the fame which I heard."
Lesson iii
3 Kings 10:8-11"Blessed are your men, and blessed are your servants, who stand before you always, and hear your wisdom. Blessed be the Lord your God, whom you have pleased, and who has set you upon the throne of Israel, because the Lord has loved Israel for ever, and has appointed you king, to do judgment and justice. And she gave the king a hundred and twenty talents of gold, and of spices a very great store, and precious stones: there was brought no more such abundance of spices as these which the queen of Saba gave to king Solomon. (Also the navy of Hiram, which brought gold from Ophir, brought from Ophir great plenty of thyine trees, and precious stones....)
Lesson i
A reading from the Third Book of Kings
3 Kings 11:1-4And king Solomon loved many strange women besides the daughter of Pharao, and women of Moab, and of Ammon, and of Edom, and of Sidon, and of the Hethites: Of the nations concerning which the Lord said to the children of Israel: "You shall not go in to them, neither shall any of them come in to yours: for they will most certainly turn away your heart to follow their gods." And to these was Solomon joined with a most ardent love. And he had seven hundred wives as queens, and three hundred concubines: and the women turned away his heart. And when he was now old, his heart was turned away by women to follow strange gods: and his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father.
Lesson ii
3 Kings 11:5-8But Solomon worshipped Astarthe the goddess of the Sidonians, and Moloch the idol of the ammonites. And Solomon did that which was not pleasing before the Lord, and did not fully follow the Lord, as David his father. Then Solomon built a temple for Chamos the idol of Moab, on the hill that is over against Jerusalem, and for Moloch the idol of the children of Ammon. And he did in this manner for all his wives that were strangers, who burnt incense, and offered sacrifice to their gods.
Lesson iii
3 Kings 11: 9-12And the Lord was angry with Solomon, because his mind was turned away from the Lord the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice, And had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not follow strange gods: but he kept not the things which the Lord commanded him. The Lord therefore said to Solomon: Because you have done this, and have not kept My covenant, and My precepts, which I have commanded you, I will divide and rend your kingdom, and will give it to your servant. Nevertheless in your days I will not do it, for David your father' s sake: but I will rend it out of the hand of your son.
Lesson i
From the Third Book of Kings
3 Kings 11:26-28Jeroboam also the son of Nabat an Ephrathite of Sareda, a servant of Solomon, whose mother was named Sarua, a widow woman, lifted up his hand against the king. And this is the cause of his rebellion against him, for Solomon built Mello, and filled up the breach of the city of David his father. And Jeroboam was a valiant and mighty man: and Solomon seeing him a young man ingenious and industrious, made him chief over the tributes of all the house of Joseph.
Lesson ii
3 kings 11:29-31So it came to pass at that time, that Jeroboam went out of Jerusalem, and the prophet Ahias the Silonite, clad with a new garment, found him in the way: and they two were alone in the field. And Ahias taking his new garment, wherewith he was clad, divided it into twelve parts: And he said to Jeroboam: "Take ten pieces: for thus says the Lord the God of Israel: 'Behold I will rend the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon, and will give you ten tribes.'"
Lesson iii
3 Kings 11:40-44Solomon therefore sought to kill Jeroboam: but he arose, and fled into Egypt to Sesac the king of Egypt, and was in Egypt till the death of Solomon. And the rest of the words of Solomon, and all that he did, and his wisdom: behold they are all written in the book of the words of the days of Solomon. And the days that Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel, were forty years. And Solomon slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David his father, and Roboam his son reigned in his stead.
Lesson i
A reading from the Third Book of Kings
3 Kings 12:1-5And Roboam went to Sichem: for there all Israel came together to make him king. But Jeroboam the son of Nabat, who was yet in Egypt, a fugitive from the face of king Solomon, hearing of his death, returned out of Egypt. And they sent and called him: and Jeroboam came, and all the multitude of Israel, and they spoke to Roboam, saying: "Your father laid a grievous yoke upon us: now therefore, take off a little of the grievous service of your father, and of his most heavy yoke, which he put upon us, and we will serve you." And he said to them: "Go till the third day, and come to me again."
Lesson ii
3 Kings 12:5-8And when the people was gone, King Roboam took counsel with the old men, that stood before Solomon his father while he yet lived, and he said: "What counsel do you give me, that I may answer this people?" They said to him: "If you yield to this people today, and condescend to them, and grant their petition, and speak gentle words to them, they will be your servants always." But he left the counsel of the old men, which they had given him, and consulted with the young men, that had been brought up with him, and stood before him.
Lesson iii
3 Kings 12:13-16And the king answered the people roughly, leaving the counsel of the old men, which they had given him. And he spoke to them according to the counsel of the young men, saying: "My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to your yoke: my father beat you with whips, but I will beat you with scorpions." And the king condescended not to the people: for the Lord was turned away from him, to make good his word, which he had spoken in the hand of Ahias the Silonite, to Jeroboam the son of Nabat. Then the people seeing that the king would not hearken to them, answered him, saying: "What portion have we in David? or what inheritance in the son of Isai? Go home to your dwellings, O Israel, now David look to your own house." So Israel departed to their dwellings.
Lesson i
From the Third Book of Kings
3 Kings 14:5-6And the Lord said to Ahias: "Behold the wife of Jeroboam comes in, to consult you concerning her son that is sick: thus and thus shall you speak to her." So when she was coming in, and made as if she were another woman, Ahias heard the sound of her feet coming in at the door, and said: "Come in, wife of Jeroboam: why do you feign to be another? But I am sent to you with heavy tidings."
Lesson ii
3 Kings 14:7-9Go, and tell Jeroboam: "Thus says the Lord the God of Israel: 'Forasmuch as I exalted you from among the people, and made you prince over my people Israel: And rent the kingdom away from the house of David, and gave it to you, and you have not been as my servant David, who kept My commandments, and followed Me with all his heart, doing that which was well pleasing in My sight: But you have done evil above all that was before you, and have made strange gods and molten gods, to provoke Me to anger, and have cast Me behind your back.
Lesson iii
3 Kings 14:10-12Therefore. behold I will bring evils upon the house of Jeroboam, and will cut off from Jeroboam him that pisses against the wall, and him that is shut up, and the last in Israel: and I will sweep away the remnant of the house of Jeroboam, as dung is swept away till everything is clean. Those who shall die of Jeroboam in the city, the dogs shall eat: and them that shall die in the field, the birds of the air shall devour: for the Lord hath spoken it. Arise therefore, and go to your house: and when your feet shall be entering into the city, the child shall die.
Lesson i
A reading from the Third Book of Kings
3 Kings 18:21-22And Elias coming to all the people, said: "How long do you halt between two sides? if the Lord be God, follow Him: but if Baal, then follow him." And the people did not answer him a word. And Elias said again to the people: "I only remain a prophet of the Lord: but the prophets of Baal are four hundred and fifty men."
Lesson ii
3 Kings 18:23-24"Let two bullocks be given us, and let them choose one bullock for themselves, and cut it in pieces and lay it upon wood, but put no fire under: and I will dress the other bullock, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under it. Call ye on the names of your gods, and I will call on the name of my Lord: and the God that shall answer by fire, let him be God." And all the people answering said: "A very good proposal."
Lesson iii
3 Kings 18:25-27Then Elias said to the prophets of Baal: "Choose you one bullock and dress it first, because you are many: and call on the names of your gods, but put no fire under it." And they took the bullock which he gave them, and dressed it: and they called on the name of Baal from morning, even till noon, saying: "O Baal, hear us." But there was no voice, nor any that answered: and they leaped over the altar that they had made. And when it was now noon, Elias jested at them, saying: "Cry with a louder voice: for he is a god, and perhaps he is talking, or is in an inn, or on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep, and must be awaked."
