1 Samuel 8:15
New Catholic Bible
15 He will take a tenth of your grain harvest and the harvest of your vineyards and give it to his officials and his attendants.
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1 Samuel 15:2
New Catholic Bible
2 Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘I will remember what the Amalekites did to Israel when they waylaid them as they were coming up out of Egypt.
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1 Kings 3:16-28
New Catholic Bible
16 Solomon’s Wisdom. Now two prostitutes came to the king and stood before him. 17 One of the women said, “O my lord, I and this woman live in the same house. I had a child while this woman was in the house.
18 “Three days after I had my child, this woman also had a child. We were there together, and there was no one else with us in the house, only the two of us. 19 This woman’s child died during the night because she rolled over upon it. 20 She got up in the middle of the night, and she took my son from my side while your servant was asleep. She put him by her breast, and she put her dead son by my breast. 21 When I got up the next morning to nurse my son, he was dead. I examined him carefully in the morning, and behold, it was not the son whom I had borne.”
22 The other woman said, “No! My son is the living one; your son is the dead one!” The first woman said, “No! Your son is the dead one, and my son is the living one!” They argued this way before the king.
23 The king said, “The one says, ‘This is my son, the living one, and that is your son, the dead one,’ while the other one says, ‘No! Your son is dead, my son is alive.’ ” 24 The king said, “Bring me a sword.” So they brought a sword to the king. 25 The king said, “Divide the living child in two. Give one-half to one of them, and one-half to the other.”
26 The woman whose child was alive was moved to compassion for her son and she said to the king, “O my lord, give her the living child. Do not kill him!” But the other said, “Neither I nor you will have him. Cut him in two!”
27 The king then said, “Give her the living child. Do not kill him. She is his mother.” 28 When all of Israel heard about how the king had judged the case, they were filled with awe toward the king. They realized that he had the wisdom of God by the way he was able to judge properly.
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1 Kings 10:9
New Catholic Bible
9 Blessed be the Lord, your God, who delights in you, placing you upon the throne of Israel. The Lord of Israel has established you as king to exercise justice and righteousness because he has loved you forever.”
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2 Kings 8:1-6
New Catholic Bible
Chapter 8
Famine Predicted. 1 Now Elisha spoke to the woman whose son he had restored to life, saying, “You and your household must get up and go to dwell wherever you can, for the Lord has called a famine down upon the land, and it will last for seven years.”
2 The woman rose up and did what the man of God had told her to do. She and her household went and dwelt in the land of the Philistines for seven years. 3 At the end of seven years, the woman returned from the land of the Philistines. She went to the king and begged for her house and her land.
4 The king had been talking to Gehazi, the servant of the man of God, and he had said, “Please tell me all of the great things that Elisha has done.” 5 Just as he was recounting to the king how he had restored a dead body to life, the woman whose son he had restored to life beseeched the king for her house and her land. Gehazi said, “My lord, O king, this is the woman whose son Elisha restored to life.”
6 The king questioned the woman about it, and she told him about it. The king assigned an official for her case, saying, “Restore everything to her, including the produce from the field from the day she left the land up until the present.”
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Psalm 1
New Catholic Bible
Prologue—Psalms 1–2[a]
Psalm 1[b]
True Happiness
1 Blessed[c] is the man
who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stand in the way of sinners,
nor sit in the company of scoffers.
2 Rather, his delight is in the law of the Lord,[d]
and on that law he meditates day and night.
3 He is like a tree planted near streams of water,
which bears fruit in its season,
and whose leaves never wither.[e]
In the same way,
everything he does will prosper.
4 This is not true of the wicked,
for they are like chaff that the wind blows away.[f]
5 Therefore, the wicked will not stand firm at the judgment,[g]
nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.
6 For the Lord watches over[h] the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked will perish.
Footnotes
- Psalm 1:1 These first two psalms are regarded as a preface to the entire Psalter. Collections of psalms that were originally different were gradually regrouped to comprise the Psalter as we have it; the psalms attributed to David (3–41 and 51–72), the songs of Ascents (120–134), and the chants of the Hallel (105–107, 111–118, 135–150) constitute the most remarkable of these primary collections. But as presently arranged in our Bible, the Book of Psalms is divided like the Pentateuch (the first five Books of the Bible that are called the Law) into five unequal parts, each of which ends with a formula of acclamation.
- Psalm 1:1 At the entrance to the collection of the Psalms, we are immediately placed before a life-choice: God or nothingness. This option imposes itself on us throughout all the pages of the Bible. In the historical accounts, law codes, prophecies, prayers, and meditative texts, a line of division is set forth. It distinguishes between righteousness and impiety, self-reliance and faith, good and evil, wickedness and love. The words are varied and the experiences are numerous in order to bear witness to this rupture.
They mark a division between peoples, between individuals, and between the acts and projects of our lives. Appearances may produce change and daily contradict the faithful’s overly naive dreams about prosperity; however, one fact remains: a life of righteousness and truth is a path of happiness, a path to God, whereas those who deaden their conscience for their own ends have no other future but ruin.
Every time a reader prays a psalm, he or she is forced to choose between the “two ways” (see Deut 30:15; Prov 4:18f; Jer 21:8), the difference between which is underscored by Jesus (see Mt 7:13; 25). The righteous are blessed for they are separated from sin, Bible-centered, and prosperous. Unlike them are the wicked who are doomed to judgment. - Psalm 1:1 The Psalter begins by declaring the blessedness of the righteous (v. 1) and concludes by summoning all creation to praise God in heaven and on earth (Ps 150). Human beings are made for happiness, and the revealed moral law is oriented toward that happiness. Blessed: the happy state of life in fellowship with God, revering him and obeying his laws (see Pss 94:12; 112:1; 119:1f; 128:1; Prov 29:18). Scoffers: those who reject God and his law (see Prov 1:10-19).
- Psalm 1:2 The law of the Lord: either the first five Books of the Bible, known as the Torah (law), or divine instruction. Meditates: literally, “murmurs,” i.e., assimilates the law of life that incarnates the presence of God and teaches the believer how to attain joyous intimacy with the Lord. Indeed, the law is a judgment of God and a happiness for human beings.
- Psalm 1:3 Like a tree . . . never wither: the righteous are able to withstand the rigors of life. Like a tree planted on fertile ground, they are able to enhance their spiritual life.
- Psalm 1:4 Like chaff . . . blows away: the wicked are completely powerless spiritually, for they are like chaff that is easily borne away, even by the slightest breeze.
- Psalm 1:5 At the judgment—either God’s judgment of the wicked during life (see Pss 76:7f; 130:3; Ezr 9:15) or his judgment of them at the end of time (see Mal 3:2; Mt 25:31-46; Rev 6:17)—the wicked will bear the brunt of their misdeeds. Righteous: a name for the faithful People of God, i.e., those who reverence God and diligently strive to carry out his laws in every phase of their lives.
- Psalm 1:6 Watches over: the Lord takes an avid interest in their conduct (see Pss 31:7f; 37:18; Gen 18:19; Am 3:2; Nah 1:7). The way of the wicked will perish: a similar fate is set forth for the wicked in Ps 112:10: “the desires of the wicked will be fruitless.” The theme of the two ways has already been found in Deut 30:15f and Jer 21:8; it will be taken up again in Prov 4:18f and Mt 7:13.
