Friday in Season after Pentecost

18Verse 18. And the child grew, and one day he went out to his father, who was with the harvesters. 19Verse 19. “My head! My head!” he complained to his father. So his father told a servant, “Carry him to his mother.” 20Verse 20. After the servant had picked him up and carried him to his mother, the boy sat on her lap until noon, and then he died. 21Verse 21. And she went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God. Then she shut the door and went out. 22Verse 22. And the woman called her husband and said, “Please send me one of the servants and one of the donkeys, that I may go quickly to the man of God and return.” 23Verse 23. “Why would you go to him today?” he replied. “It is not a New Moon or a Sabbath.” “Everything is all right,” she said. 24Verse 24. Then she saddled the donkey and told her servant, “Drive onward; do not slow the pace for me unless I tell you.” 25Verse 25. So she set out and went to the man of God at Mount Carmel. When the man of God saw her at a distance, he said to his servant Gehazi, “Look, there is the Shunammite woman. 26Verse 26. Please run out now to meet her and ask, ‘Are you all right? Is your husband all right? Is your child all right?’” And she answered, “Everything is all right.” 27Verse 27. When she reached the man of God at the mountain, she clung to his feet. Gehazi came over to push her away, but the man of God said, “Leave her alone, for her soul is in deep distress, and the LORD has hidden it from me and has not told me.” 28Verse 28. Then she said, “Did I ask you for a son, my lord? Didn’t I say, ‘Do not deceive me?’” 29Verse 29. So Elisha said to Gehazi, “Tie up your garment, take my staff in your hand, and go! If you meet anyone, do not greet him, and if anyone greets you, do not answer him. Then lay my staff on the boy’s face.” 30Verse 30. And the mother of the boy said, “As surely as the LORD lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.” So he got up and followed her. 31Verse 31. Gehazi went on ahead of them and laid the staff on the boy’s face, but there was no sound or response. So he went back to meet Elisha and told him, “The boy has not awakened.”

47Verse 47. Therefore, behold, the days are coming when I will punish the idols of Babylon. Her entire land will suffer shame, and all her slain will lie fallen within her. 48Verse 48. Then heaven and earth and all that is in them will shout for joy over Babylon because the destroyers from the north will come against her,” 49Verse 49. “Babylon must fall on account of the slain of Israel, just as the slain of all the earth have fallen because of Babylon. 50Verse 50. You who have escaped the sword, depart and do not linger! Remember the LORD from far away, and let Jerusalem come to mind.” 51Verse 51. “We are ashamed because we have heard reproach; disgrace has covered our faces, because foreigners have entered the holy places of the LORD’s house.” 52Verse 52. “Therefore, behold, the days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will punish her idols, and throughout her land the wounded will groan. 53Verse 53. Even if Babylon ascends to the heavens and fortifies her lofty stronghold, the destroyers I send will come against her,” declares the LORD. 54Verse 54. “The sound of a cry comes from Babylon, the sound of great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans! 55Verse 55. For the LORD will destroy Babylon; He will silence her mighty voice. The waves will roar like great waters; the tumult of their voices will resound. 56Verse 56. For a destroyer is coming against her — against Babylon. Her warriors will be captured, and their bows will be broken, for the LORD is a God of retribution; He will repay in full. 57Verse 57. I will make her princes and wise men drunk, along with her governors, officials, and warriors. Then they will fall asleep forever and not wake up,” declares the King, whose name is the LORD of Hosts. 58Verse 58. This is what the LORD of Hosts says: “Babylon’s thick walls will be leveled, and her high gates consumed by fire. So the labor of the people will be for nothing; the nations will exhaust themselves to fuel the flames.”