2 Kings 19; 2 Kings 20; 2 Kings 21; John 4:1-30

1 When King Hezekiah heard the message, he tore his clothes and put on rough cloth to show how sad he was. Then he went into the Temple of the Lord.

2 Hezekiah sent Eliakim, the palace manager, and Shebna, the royal secretary, and the older priests to Isaiah. They were all wearing rough cloth when they came to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz.

3 They told Isaiah, "This is what Hezekiah says: Today is a day of sorrow and punishment and disgrace, as when a child should be born, but the mother is not strong enough to give birth to it.

4 The king of Assyria sent his field commander to make fun of the living God. Maybe the Lord your God will hear what the commander said and will punish him for it. So pray for the few of us who are left alive."

5 When Hezekiah's officers came to Isaiah,

6 he said to them, "Tell your master this: The Lord says, 'Don't be afraid of what you have heard. Don't be frightened by the words the servants of the king of Assyria have spoken against me.

7 Listen! I am going to put a spirit in the king of Assyria. He will hear a report that will make him return to his own country, and I will cause him to die by the sword there.'"

8 The field commander heard that the king of Assyria had left Lachish. When he went back, he found the king fighting against the city of Libnah.

9 The king received a report that Tirhakah, the Cushite king of Egypt, was coming to attack him. When the king of Assyria heard this, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying,

10 "Tell Hezekiah king of Judah: Don't be fooled by the god you trust. Don't believe him when he says Jerusalem will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.

11 You have heard what the kings of Assyria have done. They have completely defeated every country, so do not think you will be saved.

12 Did the gods of those people save them? My ancestors destroyed them, defeating the cities of Gozan, Haran, and Rezeph, and the people of Eden living in Tel Assar.

13 Where are the kings of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the kings of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?"

14 When Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers and read it, he went up to the Temple of the Lord. He spread the letter out before the Lord

15 and prayed to the Lord: "Lord, God of Israel, whose throne is between the gold creatures with wings, only you are God of all the kingdoms of the earth. You made the heavens and the earth.

16 Hear, Lord, and listen. Open your eyes, Lord, and see. Listen to the words Sennacherib has said to insult the living God.

17 It is true, Lord, that the kings of Assyria have destroyed these countries and their lands.

18 They have thrown the gods of these nations into the fire, but they were only wood and rock statues that people made. So the kings have destroyed them.

19 Now, Lord our God, save us from the king's power so that all the kingdoms of the earth will know that you, Lord, are the only God."

20 Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent a message to Hezekiah that said, "This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I have heard your prayer to me about Sennacherib king of Assyria.

21 This is what the Lord has said against Sennacherib: 'The people of Jerusalem hate you and make fun of you. laugh at you as you run away.

22 You have insulted me and spoken against me; you have raised your voice against me. You have a proud look on your face, which is against me, the Holy One of Israel.

23 You have sent your messengers to insult the Lord. You have said, "With my many chariots I have gone to the tops of the mountains, to the highest mountains of Lebanon. I have cut down its tallest cedars and its best pine trees. I have gone to its farthest places and to its best forests.

24 I have dug wells in foreign countries and drunk water there. By the soles of my feet, I have dried up all the rivers of Egypt."

25 "'King of Assyria, surely you have heard. Long ago I, the Lord, planned these things. Long ago I designed them, and now I have made them happen. I allowed you to turn those strong, walled cities into piles of rocks.

26 The people in those cities were weak; they were frightened and put to shame. They were like grass in the field, like tender, young grass, like grass on the housetop that is burned by the wind before it can grow.

27 "'I know when you rest, when you come and go, and how you rage against me.

28 Because you rage against me, and because I have heard your proud words, I will put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth. Then I will force you to leave my country the same way you came.'

29 "Then the Lord said, 'Hezekiah, I will give you this sign: This year you will eat the grain that grows wild, and the second year you will eat what grows wild from that. But in the third year, plant grain and harvest it. Plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

30 Some of the people in the family of Judah will escape. Like plants that take root, they will grow strong and have many children.

31 A few people will come out of Jerusalem alive; a few from Mount Zion will live. will make this happen.'

32 "So this is what the Lord says about the king of Assyria: 'He will not enter this city or even shoot an arrow here. He will not fight against it with shields or build a ramp to attack the city walls.

33 He will return to his country the same way he came, and he will not enter this city,' says the Lord.

34 'I will defend and save this city for my sake and for the sake of David, my servant.'"

35 That night the angel of the Lord went out and killed one hundred eighty-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up early the next morning, they saw all the dead bodies.

36 So Sennacherib king of Assyria left and went back to Nineveh and stayed there.

37 One day as Sennacherib was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer killed him with a sword. Then they escaped to the land of Ararat. So Sennacherib's son Esarhaddon became king of Assyria.

1 At that time Hezekiah became so sick he almost died. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz went to see him and told him, "This is what the Lord says: Make arrangements because you are not going to live, but die."

2 Hezekiah turned toward the wall and prayed to the Lord,

3 "Lord, please remember that I have always obeyed you. I have given myself completely to you and have done what you said was right." Then Hezekiah cried loudly.

4 Before Isaiah had left the middle courtyard, the Lord spoke his word to Isaiah:

5 "Go back and tell Hezekiah, the leader of my people: 'This is what the Lord, the God of your ancestor David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears, so I will heal you. Three days from now you will go up to the Temple of the Lord.

6 I will add fifteen years to your life. I will save you and this city from the king of Assyria; I will protect the city for my sake and for the sake of my servant David.'"

7 Then Isaiah said, "Make a paste from figs." So they made it and put it on Hezekiah's boil, and he got well.

8 Hezekiah had asked Isaiah, "What will be the sign that the Lord will heal me and that I will go up to the Temple of the Lord on the third day?"

9 Isaiah said, "The Lord will do what he says. This is the sign from the Lord to show you: Do you want the shadow to go forward ten steps or back ten steps?"

10 Hezekiah answered, "It's easy for the shadow to go forward ten steps. Instead, let it go back ten steps."

11 Then Isaiah the prophet called to the Lord, and the Lord brought the shadow ten steps back up the stairway of Ahaz that it had gone down.

12 At that time Merodach-Baladan son of Baladan was king of Babylon. He sent letters and a gift to Hezekiah, because he had heard that Hezekiah was sick.

13 Hezekiah listened to the messengers, so he showed them what was in his storehouses: the silver, gold, spices, expensive perfumes, his swords and shields, and all his wealth. He showed them everything in his palace and his kingdom.

14 Then Isaiah the prophet went to King Hezekiah and asked him, "What did these men say? Where did they come from?" Hezekiah said, "They came from a faraway country -- from Babylon."

15 So Isaiah asked him, "What did they see in your palace?" Hezekiah said, "They saw everything in my palace. I showed them all my wealth."

16 Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, "Listen to the words of the Lord:

17 'In the future everything in your palace and everything your ancestors have stored up until this day will be taken away to Babylon. Nothing will be left,' says the Lord.

18 'Some of your own children, those who will be born to you, will be taken away. And they will become servants in the palace of the king of Babylon.'"

19 Hezekiah told Isaiah, "These words from the Lord are good." He said this because he thought, "There will be peace and security in my lifetime."

20 Everything else Hezekiah did -- all his victories, his work on the pool, his work on the tunnel to bring water into the city -- is written in the book of the history of the kings of Judah.

21 Then Hezekiah died, and his son Manasseh became king in his place.

1 Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he was king fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hephzibah.

2 He did what the Lord said was wrong. He did the hateful things the other nations had done -- the nations that the Lord had forced out of the land ahead of the Israelites.

3 Manasseh's father, Hezekiah, had destroyed the places where gods were worshiped, but Manasseh rebuilt them. He built altars for Baal, and he made an Asherah idol as Ahab king of Israel had done. Manasseh also worshiped all the stars of the sky and served them.

4 The Lord had said about the Temple, "I will be worshiped in Jerusalem," but Manasseh built altars in the Temple of the Lord.

5 He built altars to worship the stars in the two courtyards of the Temple of the Lord.

6 He made his own son pass through fire. He practiced magic and told the future by explaining signs and dreams, and he got advice from mediums and fortune-tellers. He did many things the Lord said were wrong, which made the Lord angry.

7 Manasseh carved an Asherah idol and put it in the Temple. The Lord had said to David and his son Solomon about the Temple, "I will be worshiped forever in this Temple and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen from all the tribes of Israel.

8 I will never again make the Israelites wander out of the land I gave their ancestors. But they must obey everything I have commanded them and all the teachings my servant Moses gave them."

9 But the people did not listen. Manasseh led them to do more evil than the nations the Lord had destroyed ahead of the Israelites.

10 The Lord said through his servants the prophets,

11 "Manasseh king of Judah has done these hateful things. He has done more evil than the Amorites before him. He also has led Judah to sin with his idols.

12 So this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: 'I will bring so much trouble on Jerusalem and Judah that anyone who hears about it will be shocked.

13 I will stretch the measuring line of Samaria over Jerusalem, and the plumb line used against Ahab's family will be used on Jerusalem. I will wipe out Jerusalem as a person wipes a dish and turns it upside down.

14 I will throw away the rest of my people who are left. I will give them to their enemies, and they will be robbed by all their enemies,

15 because my people did what I said was wrong. They have made me angry from the day their ancestors left Egypt until now.'"

16 Manasseh also killed many innocent people, filling Jerusalem from one end to the other with their blood. This was besides the sin he led Judah to do; he led Judah to do what the Lord said was wrong.

17 The other things Manasseh did as king, even the sin he did, are written in the book of the history of the kings of Judah.

18 Manasseh died and was buried in the garden of his own palace, the garden of Uzza. Then Manasseh's son Amon became king in his place.

19 Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he was king for two years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Meshullemeth daughter of Haruz, who was from Jotbah.

20 Amon did what the Lord said was wrong, as his father Manasseh had done.

21 He lived in the same way his father had lived: he worshiped the idols his father had worshiped, and he bowed down before them.

22 Amon rejected the Lord, the God of his ancestors, and did not follow the ways of the Lord.

23 Amon's officers made plans against him and killed him in his palace.

24 Then the people of the land killed all those who had made plans to kill King Amon, and they made his son Josiah king in his place.

25 Everything else Amon did is written in the book of the history of the kings of Judah.

26 He was buried in his grave in the garden of Uzza, and his son Josiah became king in his place.

1 The Pharisees heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more fol- lowers than John,

2 although Jesus himself did not baptize people, but his followers did.

3 Jesus knew that the Pharisees had heard about him, so he left Judea and went back to Galilee.

4 But on the way he had to go through the country of Samaria.

5 In Samaria Jesus came to the town called Sychar, which is near the field Jacob gave to his son Joseph.

6 Jacob's well was there. Jesus was tired from his long trip, so he sat down beside the well. It was about twelve o'clock noon.

7 When a Samaritan woman came to the well to get some water, Jesus said to her, "Please give me a drink."

8 (This happened while Jesus' followers were in town buying some food.)

9 The woman said, "I am surprised that you ask me for a drink, since you are a Jewish man and I am a Samaritan woman." (Jewish people are not friends with Samaritans.n)

10 Jesus said, "If you only knew the free gift of God and who it is that is asking you for water, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water."

11 The woman said, "Sir, where will you get this living water? The well is very deep, and you have nothing to get water with.

12 Are you greater than Jacob, our father, who gave us this well and drank from it himself along with his sons and flocks?"

13 Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again,

14 but whoever drinks the water I give will never be thirsty. The water I give will become a spring of water gushing up inside that person, giving eternal life."

15 The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water so I will never be thirsty again and will not have to come back here to get more water."

16 Jesus told her, "Go get your husband and come back here."

17 The woman answered, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You are right to say you have no husband.

18 Really you have had five husbands, and the man you live with now is not your husband. You told the truth."

19 The woman said, "Sir, I can see that you are a prophet.

20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews say that Jerusalem is the place where people must worship."

21 Jesus said, "Believe me, woman. The time is coming when neither in Jerusalem nor on this mountain will you actually worship the Father.

22 You Samaritans worship something you don't understand. We understand what we worship, because salvation comes from the Jews.

23 The time is coming when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, and that time is here already. You see, the Father too is actively seeking such people to worship him.

24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth."

25 The woman said, "I know that the Messiah is coming." (Messiah is the One called Christ.) "When the Messiah comes, he will explain everything to us."

26 Then Jesus said, "I am he -- I, the one talking to you."

27 Just then his followers came back from town and were surprised to see him talking with a woman. But none of them asked, "What do you want?" or "Why are you talking with her?"

28 Then the woman left her water jar and went back to town. She said to the people,

29 "Come and see a man who told me everything I ever did. Do you think he might be the Christ?"

30 So the people left the town and went to see Jesus.