July
11
2
Kings 19-21
2Ki
19:1 It happened, when king Hezekiah heard it, that he tore his
clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house
of Yahweh.
2Ki
19:2 He sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the
scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to
Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz.
2Ki
19:3 They said to him, Thus says Hezekiah, This day is a day of
trouble, and of rebuke, and of rejection; for the children are come
to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth.
2Ki
19:4 It may be Yahweh your God will hear all the words of Rabshakeh,
whom the king of Assyria his master has sent to defy the living God,
and will rebuke the words which Yahweh your God has heard. Therefore
lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.
2Ki
19:5 So the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah.
2Ki
19:6 Isaiah said to them, Thus you shall tell your master, Thus says
Yahweh, Don't be afraid of the words that you have heard, with which
the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.
2Ki
19:7 Behold, I will put a spirit in him, and he shall hear news, and
shall return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the
sword in his own land.
2Ki
19:8 So Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring
against Libnah; for he had heard that he was departed from Lachish.
2Ki
19:9 When he heard say of Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, Behold, he is
come out to fight against you, he sent messengers again to Hezekiah,
saying,
2Ki
19:10 Thus you shall speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, Don't
let your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying, Jerusalem shall
not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.
2Ki
19:11 Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to
all lands, by destroying them utterly: and shall you be delivered?
2Ki
19:12 Have the gods of the nations delivered them, which my fathers
have destroyed, Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the children of
Eden that were in Telassar?
2Ki
19:13 Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the
king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivvah?
2Ki
19:14 Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers,
and read it; and Hezekiah went up to the house of Yahweh, and spread
it before Yahweh.
2Ki
19:15 Hezekiah prayed before Yahweh, and said, Yahweh, the God of
Israel, who sit above
the cherubim, you are the God, even you alone, of all the kingdoms of
the earth; you have made heaven and earth.
2Ki
19:16 Incline your ear, Yahweh, and hear; open your eyes, Yahweh,
and see; and hear the words of Sennacherib, with which he has sent
him to defy the living God.
2Ki
19:17 Of a truth, Yahweh, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the
nations and their lands,
2Ki
19:18 and have cast their gods into the fire; for they were no gods,
but the work of men's hands, wood and stone; therefore they have
destroyed them.
2Ki
19:19 Now therefore, Yahweh our God, save us, I beg you, out of his
hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you Yahweh are
God alone.
2Ki
19:20 Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, Thus
says Yahweh, the God of Israel, Whereas you have prayed to me against
Sennacherib king of Assyria, I have heard you.
2Ki
19:21 This is the word that Yahweh has spoken concerning him: The
virgin daughter of Zion has despised you and ridiculed you; the
daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her head at you.
2Ki
19:22 Whom have you defied and blasphemed? and against whom have you
exalted your voice and lifted up your eyes on high? even
against the Holy One of Israel.
2Ki
19:23 By your messengers you have defied the Lord, and have said,
With the multitude of my chariots am I come up to the height of the
mountains, to the innermost parts of Lebanon; and I will cut down the
tall cedars of it, and the choice fir trees of it; and I will enter
into his farthest lodging place, the forest of his fruitful field.
2Ki
19:24 I have dug and drunk strange waters, and with the sole of my
feet will I dry up all the rivers of Egypt.
2Ki
19:25 Haven't you heard how I have done it long ago, and formed it
of ancient times? now have I brought it to pass, that it should be
yours to lay waste fortified cities into ruinous heaps.
2Ki
19:26 Therefore their inhabitants were of small power, they were
dismayed and confounded; they were as the grass of the field, and as
the green herb, as the grass on the housetops, and as grain blasted
before it is grown up.
2Ki
19:27 But I know your sitting down, and your going out, and your
coming in, and your raging against me.
2Ki
19:28 Because of your raging against me, and because your arrogance
is come up into my ears, therefore will I put my hook in your nose,
and my bridle in your lips, and I will turn you back by the way by
which you came.
2Ki
19:29 This shall be the sign to you: You shall eat this year that
which grows of itself, and in the second year that which springs of
the same; and in the third year sow, and reap, and plant vineyards,
and eat its fruit.
2Ki
19:30 The remnant that has escaped of the house of Judah shall again
take root downward, and bear fruit upward.
2Ki
19:31 For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and out of
Mount Zion those who shall escape: the zeal of Yahweh shall perform
this.
2Ki
19:32 Therefore thus says Yahweh concerning the king of Assyria, He
shall not come to this city, nor shoot an arrow there, neither shall
he come before it with shield, nor cast up a mound against it.
2Ki
19:33 By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and he
shall not come to this city, says Yahweh.
2Ki
19:34 For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake, and
for my servant David's sake.
2Ki
19:35 It happened that night, that the angel of Yahweh went forth,
and struck in the camp of the Assyrians one hundred eighty-five
thousand: and when men arose early in the morning, behold, these were
all dead bodies.
2Ki
19:36 So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and
returned, and lived at Nineveh.
2Ki
19:37 It happened, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his
god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him with the sword: and
they escaped into the land of Ararat. Esar Haddon his son reigned in
his place.
2Ki
20:1 In those days was Hezekiah sick to death. Isaiah the prophet
the son of Amoz came to him, and said to him, Thus says Yahweh, Set
your house in order: for you shall die, and not live.
2Ki
20:2 Then he turned his face to the wall, and prayed to Yahweh,
saying,
2Ki
20:3 Remember now, Yahweh, I beg you, how I have walked before you
in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good
in your sight. Hezekiah wept sore.
2Ki
20:4 It happened, before Isaiah was gone out into the middle part of
the city, that the word of Yahweh came to him, saying,
2Ki
20:5 Turn back, and tell Hezekiah the prince of my people, Thus says
Yahweh, the God of David your father, I have heard your prayer, I
have seen your tears: behold, I will heal you; on the third day you
shall go up to the house of Yahweh.
2Ki
20:6 I will add to your days fifteen years; and I will deliver you
and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will
defend this city for my own sake, and for my servant David's sake.
2Ki
20:7 Isaiah said, Take a cake of figs. They took and laid it on the
boil, and he recovered.
2Ki
20:8 Hezekiah said to Isaiah, What shall be the sign that Yahweh
will heal me, and that I shall go up to the house of Yahweh the third
day?
2Ki
20:9 Isaiah said, This shall be the sign to you from Yahweh, that
Yahweh will do the thing that he has spoken: shall the shadow go
forward ten steps, or go back ten steps?
2Ki
20:10 Hezekiah answered, It is a light thing for the shadow to
decline ten steps: nay, but let the shadow return backward ten steps.
2Ki
20:11 Isaiah the prophet cried to Yahweh; and he brought the shadow
ten steps backward, by which it had gone down on the dial of Ahaz.
2Ki
20:12 At that time Berodach Baladan the son of Baladan, king of
Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah; for he had heard
that Hezekiah had been sick.
2Ki
20:13 Hezekiah listened to them, and showed them all the house of
his precious things, the silver, and the gold, and the spices, and
the precious oil, and the house of his armor, and all that was found
in his treasures: there was nothing in his house, nor in all his
dominion, that Hezekiah didn't show them.
2Ki
20:14 Then came Isaiah the prophet to king Hezekiah, and said to
him, What did these men say? and from where did they come to you?
Hezekiah said, They are come from a far country, even from Babylon.
2Ki
20:15 He said, What have they seen in your house? Hezekiah answered,
All that is in my house have they seen: there is nothing among my
treasures that I have not shown them.
2Ki
20:16 Isaiah said to Hezekiah, Hear the word of Yahweh.
2Ki
20:17 Behold, the days come, that all that is in your house, and
that which your fathers have laid up in store to this day, shall be
carried to Babylon: nothing shall be left, says Yahweh.
2Ki
20:18 Of your sons who shall issue from you, whom you shall father,
shall they take away; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the
king of Babylon.
2Ki
20:19 Then said Hezekiah to Isaiah, Good is the word of Yahweh which
you have spoken. He said moreover, Isn't it so, if peace and truth
shall be in my days?
2Ki
20:20 Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, and all his might, and
how he made the pool, and the conduit, and brought water into the
city, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings
of Judah?
2Ki
20:21 Hezekiah slept with his fathers; and Manasseh his son reigned
in his place.
2Ki
21:1 Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign; and he
reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem: and his mother's name was
Hephzibah.
2Ki
21:2 He did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, after the
abominations of the nations whom Yahweh cast out before the children
of Israel.
2Ki
21:3 For he built again the high places which Hezekiah his father
had destroyed; and he reared up altars for Baal, and made an Asherah,
as did Ahab king of Israel, and worshiped all the army of the sky,
and served them.
2Ki
21:4 He built altars in the house of Yahweh, of which Yahweh said,
In Jerusalem will I put my name.
2Ki
21:5 He built altars for all the army of the sky in the two courts
of the house of Yahweh.
2Ki
21:6 He made his son to pass through the fire, and practiced
sorcery, and used enchantments, and dealt with those who had familiar
spirits, and with wizards: he worked much evil in the sight of
Yahweh, to provoke him to anger.
2Ki
21:7 He set the engraved image of Asherah, that he had made, in the
house of which Yahweh said to David and to Solomon his son, In this
house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of
Israel, will I put my name forever;
2Ki
21:8 neither will I cause the feet of Israel to wander any more out
of the land which I gave their fathers, if only they will observe to
do according to all that I have commanded them, and according to all
the law that my servant Moses commanded them.
2Ki
21:9 But they didn't listen: and Manasseh seduced them to do that
which is evil more than did the nations whom Yahweh destroyed before
the children of Israel.
2Ki
21:10 Yahweh spoke by his servants the prophets, saying,
2Ki
21:11 Because Manasseh king of Judah has done these abominations,
and has done wickedly above all that the Amorites did, who were
before him, and has made Judah also to sin with his idols;
2Ki
21:12 therefore thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, Behold, I bring
such evil on Jerusalem and Judah, that whoever hears of it, both his
ears shall tingle.
2Ki
21:13 I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria, and the
plummet of the house of Ahab; and I will wipe Jerusalem as a man
wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down.
2Ki
21:14 I will cast off the remnant of my inheritance, and deliver
them into the hand of their enemies; and they shall become a prey and
a spoil to all their enemies;
2Ki
21:15 because they have done that which is evil in my sight, and
have provoked me to anger, since the day their fathers came forth out
of Egypt, even to this day.
2Ki
21:16 Moreover Manasseh shed innocent blood very much, until he had
filled Jerusalem from one end to another; besides his sin with which
he made Judah to sin, in doing that which was evil in the sight of
Yahweh.
2Ki
21:17 Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh, and all that he did, and
his sin that he sinned, aren't they written in the book of the
chronicles of the kings of Judah?
2Ki
21:18 Manasseh slept with his fathers, and was buried in the garden
of his own house, in the garden of Uzza: and Amon his son reigned in
his place.
2Ki
21:19 Amon was twenty-two years old when he began to reign; and he
reigned two years in Jerusalem: and his mother's name was
Meshullemeth the daughter of Haruz of Jotbah.
2Ki
21:20 He did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, as did
Manasseh his father.
2Ki
21:21 He walked in all the way that his father walked in, and served
the idols that his father served, and worshiped them:
2Ki
21:22 and he forsook Yahweh, the God of his fathers, and didn't walk
in the way of Yahweh.
2Ki
21:23 The servants of Amon conspired against him, and put the king
to death in his own house.
2Ki
21:24 But the people of the land killed all those who had conspired
against king Amon; and the people of the land made Josiah his son
king in his place.
2Ki
21:25 Now the rest of the acts of Amon which he did, aren't they
written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
2Ki
21:26 He was buried in his tomb in the garden of Uzza: and Josiah
his son reigned in his place.