2 Kings 18; 2 Kings 19; Psalms 46; Psalms 80; Psalms 135

1 King Hoshea, son of Elah, had been king in Israel for three years when King Hezekiah, son of Ahaz of Judah, began to rule as king.

2 Hezekiah was 25 years old when he began to rule, and he ruled for 29 years in Jerusalem. His mother was Abi, daughter of Zechariah.

3 He did what the LORD considered right, as his ancestor David had done.

4 He got rid of the illegal places of worship, crushed the sacred stones, and cut down the poles dedicated to the goddess Asherah. He even crushed the bronze snake that Moses had made because up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it. They called it Nehushtan.

5 Hezekiah trusted the LORD God of Israel. No king among all the kings of Judah was like Hezekiah.

6 He was loyal to the LORD and never turned away from him. He obeyed the commands that the LORD had given through Moses,

7 so the LORD was with him. He succeeded in everything he tried: He rebelled against the king of Assyria and wouldn't serve him anymore.

8 He conquered the Philistines from the [smallest] watchtower to the [largest] fortified city all the way to Gaza and its territory.

9 In Hezekiah's fourth year as king (which was the seventh year in the reign of King Hoshea, son of Elah of Israel) King Shalmaneser of Assyria attacked Samaria, blockaded it,

10 and captured it at the end of three years. Samaria was taken in Hezekiah's sixth year as king (which was Hoshea's ninth year as king of Israel).

11 The king of Assyria took the Israelites to Assyria as captives. He put them in Halah, along the Habor River in Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.

12 This happened because they refused to obey the LORD their God and disregarded the conditions of the promise he made to them. They refused to obey everything that Moses, the LORD's servant, had commanded.

13 In Hezekiah's fourteenth year as king, King Sennacherib of Assyria attacked all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them.

14 Then King Hezekiah of Judah sent this message to the king of Assyria at Lachish: "I have done wrong. Go away, and leave me alone. I'll pay whatever penalty you give me." So the king of Assyria demanded that King Hezekiah of Judah pay 22,500 pounds of silver and 2,250 pounds of gold.

15 Hezekiah gave him all the silver that could be found in the LORD's temple and in the royal palace treasury.

16 At that time Hezekiah stripped [the gold] off the doors and doorposts of the LORD's temple. ([Earlier] Hezekiah had them covered [with gold].) He gave the gold to the king of Assyria.

17 Then the king of Assyria sent his commander-in-chief, his quartermaster, and his field commander with a large army from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. They came there and stood at the channel for the Upper Pool on the road to the Laundryman's Field.

18 When they called for King Hezekiah, Eliakim, who was in charge of the palace and was the son of Hilkiah, Shebnah the scribe, and Joah, who was the royal historian and the son of Asaph, went out to the field commander.

19 He said to them, "Tell Hezekiah, 'This is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says: What makes you so confident?

20 You give useless advice about getting ready for war. Whom, then, do you trust for support in your rebellion against me?

21 Now, look! When you trust Egypt, you're trusting a broken stick for a staff. If you lean on it, it stabs your hand and goes through it. This is what Pharaoh (the king of Egypt) is like for everyone who trusts him.

22 Suppose you tell me, "We're trusting the LORD our God." He's the god whose places of worship and altars Hezekiah got rid of. He told Judah and Jerusalem, "Worship at this altar in Jerusalem."'

23 "Now, make a deal with my master, the king of Assyria. I'll give you 2,000 horses if you can put riders on them.

24 How can you defeat my master's lowest-ranking officers when you trust Egypt for chariots and horses?

25 "Have I come to destroy this place without the LORD on my side? The LORD said to me, 'Attack this country, and destroy it.'"

26 Then Eliakim (son of Hilkiah), Shebnah, and Joah said to the field commander, "Speak to us in Aramaic, since we understand it. Don't speak to us in the Judean language as long as there are people on the wall listening."

27 But the field commander asked them, "Did my master send me to tell these things only to you and your master? Didn't he send me to the men sitting on the wall who will have to eat their own excrement and drink their own urine with you?"

28 Then the field commander stood and shouted loudly in the Judean language, "Listen to the great king, the king of Assyria.

29 This is what the king says: Don't let Hezekiah deceive you. He can't rescue you from me.

30 Don't let Hezekiah get you to trust the LORD by saying, 'The LORD will certainly rescue us, and this city will not be put under the control of the king of Assyria.'

31 Don't listen to Hezekiah, because this is what the king of Assyria says: Make peace with me! Come out and give yourselves up to me! Everyone will eat from his own grapevine and fig tree and drink from his own cistern.

32 Then I will come and take you away to a country like your own. It's a country with grain and new wine, a country with bread and vineyards, a country with olive trees, olive oil, and honey. Live! Don't die! Don't listen to Hezekiah when he tries to mislead you by saying to you, 'The LORD will rescue us.'

33 Did any of the gods of the nations rescue their countries from the king of Assyria?

34 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah? Did they rescue Samaria from my control?

35 Did the gods of those countries rescue them from my control? Could the LORD then rescue Jerusalem from my control?"

36 But the people were silent and didn't say anything to him because the king commanded them not to answer him.

37 Then Eliakim, who was in charge of the palace and was the son of Hilkiah, Shebna the scribe, and Joah, who was the royal historian and the son of Asaph, went to Hezekiah with their clothes torn in grief. They told him the message from the field commander.

1 When King Hezekiah heard the message, he tore his clothes in grief, covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the LORD's temple.

2 Then he sent Eliakim, who was in charge of the palace, Shebna the scribe, and the leaders of the priests, clothed in sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah, son of Amoz.

3 They said to him, "This is what Hezekiah says: Today is a day filled with misery, punishment, and disgrace. We are like a woman who is about to give birth but doesn't have the strength to do it.

4 The LORD your God may have heard all the words of the field commander. His master, the king of Assyria, sent him to defy the living God. The LORD your God may punish him because of the message that the LORD your God heard. Pray for the few people who are left."

5 So King Hezekiah's men went to Isaiah.

6 Isaiah answered them, "Say this to your master, 'This is what the LORD says: Don't be afraid of the message that you heard when the Assyrian king's assistants slandered me.

7 I'm going to put a spirit in him so that he will hear a rumor and return to his own country. I'll have him assassinated in his own country.'"

8 The field commander returned and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah. He had heard that the king left Lachish.

9 Now, Sennacherib heard that King Tirhakah of Sudan was coming to fight him. Sennacherib sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying,

10 "Tell King Hezekiah of Judah, 'Don't let the god whom you trust deceive you by saying that Jerusalem will not be put under the control of the king of Assyria.

11 You heard what the kings of Assyria did to all countries, how they totally destroyed them. Will you be rescued?

12 Did the gods of the nations which my ancestors destroyed rescue Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden who were in Telassar?

13 Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, and the king of the cities of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?'"

14 Hezekiah took the letters from the messengers, read them, and went to the LORD's temple. He spread them out in front of the LORD

15 and prayed to the LORD, "LORD of Armies, God of Israel, you are enthroned over the angels. You alone are God of all the kingdoms of the world. You made heaven and earth.

16 Turn your ear toward me, LORD, and listen. Open your eyes, LORD, and see. Listen to the message that Sennacherib sent to defy the living God.

17 It is true, LORD, that the kings of Assyria have leveled nations.

18 They have thrown the gods from these countries into fires because these gods aren't real gods. They're only wooden and stone statues made by human hands. So the Assyrians have destroyed them.

19 Now, LORD our God, rescue us from Assyria's control so that all the kingdoms on earth will know that you alone are the LORD God."

20 Then Isaiah, son of Amoz, sent a message to Hezekiah, "This is what the LORD God of Israel says: You prayed to me about King Sennacherib of Assyria. I have heard you.

21 This is the message that the LORD speaks to him, 'My dear people in Zion despise you and laugh at you. My people in Jerusalem shake their heads behind your back.

22 Whom are you defying and slandering? Against whom are you shouting? Who are you looking at so arrogantly? It is the Holy One of Israel!

23 Through your servants you defy the Lord and say, "With my many chariots I'll ride up the high mountains, up the slopes of Lebanon. I'll cut down its tallest cedars and its finest cypresses. I'll come to its most distant borders and its most fertile forests.

24 I'll dig wells and drink foreign water. I'll dry up all the streams of Egypt with the trampling of my feet."

25 "'Haven't you heard? I did this long ago. I planned it in the distant past. Now I make it happen so that you will turn fortified cities into piles of rubble.

26 Those who live in these cities are weak, discouraged, and ashamed. They will be like plants in the field, like fresh, green grass on the roofs, scorched before it sprouted.

27 I know when you [get up] and sit down, when you go out and come in, and how you rage against me.

28 Since you rage against me and your boasting has reached my ears, I will put my hook in your nose and my bridle in your mouth. I will make you go back the way you came.

29 "'And this will be a sign for you, Hezekiah: You will eat what grows by itself this year and next year. But in the third year you will plant and harvest, plant vineyards, and eat what is produced.

30 Those few people from the nation of Judah who escape will again take root and produce crops.

31 Those few people will go out from Jerusalem, and those who escape will go out of Mount Zion. The LORD is determined to do this.'

32 "This is what the LORD says about the king of Assyria: He will never come into this city, shoot an arrow here, hold a shield in front of it, or put up dirt ramps to attack it.

33 He will go back the way he came, and he won't come into this city," declares the LORD of Armies.

34 "I will shield this city to rescue it for my sake and for the sake of my servant David."

35 It happened that night. The LORD's angel went out and killed 185,000 [soldiers] in the Assyrian camp. When the Judeans got up early in the morning, they saw all the corpses.

36 Then King Sennacherib of Assyria left. He went home to Nineveh and stayed there.

37 While he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, Adrammelech and Sharezer assassinated him and escaped to the land of Ararat. His son Esarhaddon succeeded him as king.

1 God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in times of trouble.

2 That is why we are not afraid even when the earth quakes or the mountains topple into the depths of the sea.

3 Water roars and foams, and mountains shake at the surging waves. Selah

4 There is a river whose streams bring joy to the city of God, the holy place where the Most High lives.

5 God is in that city. It cannot fall. God will help it at the break of dawn.

6 Nations are in turmoil, and kingdoms topple. The earth melts at the sound of [God's] voice.

7 The LORD of Armies is with us. The God of Jacob is our stronghold. Selah

8 Come, see the works of the LORD, the devastation he has brought to the earth.

9 He puts an end to wars all over the earth. He breaks an archer's bow. He cuts spears in two. He burns chariots.

10 Let go [of your concerns]! Then you will know that I am God. I rule the nations. I rule the earth.

11 The LORD of Armies is with us. The God of Jacob is our stronghold. Selah

1 Open your ears, O Shepherd of Israel, the one who leads [the descendants of] Joseph like sheep, the one who is enthroned over the angels.

2 Appear in front of Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh. Wake up your power, and come to save us.

3 O God, restore us and smile on us so that we may be saved.

4 O LORD God, commander of armies, how long will you smolder in anger against the prayer of your people?

5 You made them eat tears as food. You often made them drink [their own] tears.

6 You made us a source of conflict to our neighbors, and our enemies made fun of us.

7 O God, commander of armies, restore us and smile on us so that we may be saved.

8 You brought a vine from Egypt. You forced out the nations and planted it.

9 You cleared the ground for it so that it took root and filled the land.

10 Its shade covered the mountains. Its branches covered the mighty cedars.

11 It reached out with its branches to the Mediterranean Sea. Its shoots reached the Euphrates River.

12 Why did you break down the stone fences around this vine? All who pass by are picking its fruit.

13 Wild boars from the forest graze on it. Wild animals devour it.

14 O God, commander of armies, come back! Look from heaven and see! Come to help this vine.

15 Take care of what your right hand planted, the son you strengthened for yourself.

16 The vine has been cut down and burned. Let them be destroyed by the threatening look on your face.

17 Let your power rest on the man you have chosen, the son of man you strengthened for yourself.

18 Then we will never turn away from you. Give us life again, and we will call on you.

19 O LORD God, commander of armies, restore us, and smile on us so that we may be saved.

1 Hallelujah! Praise the name of the LORD. Praise him, you servants of the LORD

2 who are standing in the house of the LORD, in the courtyards of the house of our God.

3 Praise the LORD because he is good. Make music to praise his name because his name is beautiful.

4 The LORD chose Jacob to be his own and chose Israel to be his own special treasure.

5 I know that the LORD is great, that our Lord is greater than all the false gods.

6 The LORD does whatever he wants in heaven or on earth, on the seas or in all the depths of the oceans.

7 He is the one who makes the clouds rise from the ends of the earth, who makes lightning for the thunderstorms, and who brings wind out of his storerooms.

8 He is the one who killed every firstborn male in Egypt. He killed humans and animals alike.

9 He sent miraculous signs and amazing things into the heart of Egypt against Pharaoh and all his officials.

10 He is the one who defeated many nations and killed mighty kings:

11 King Sihon of the Amorites, King Og of Bashan, and all the kingdoms in Canaan.

12 He gave their land as an inheritance, an inheritance to his people Israel.

13 O LORD, your name endures forever. O LORD, you will be remembered throughout every generation.

14 The LORD will provide justice for his people and have compassion on his servants.

15 The idols of the nations are made of silver and gold. They were made by human hands.

16 They have mouths, but they cannot speak. They have eyes, but they cannot see.

17 They have ears, but they cannot hear. They cannot breathe.

18 Those who make idols end up like them. So does everyone who trusts them.

19 Descendants of Israel, praise the LORD. Descendants of Aaron, praise the LORD.

20 Descendants of Levi, praise the LORD. You people who fear the LORD, praise the LORD.

21 Thank the LORD in Zion. Thank the one who lives in Jerusalem. Hallelujah!