2 Corinthians 6; 2 Corinthians 7; 2 Kings 19; Nahum 1

2 Corinthians 6

1 Working together with Him, we also appeal to you: "Don't receive God's grace in vain."

2 For He says: In an acceptable time, I heard you, and in the day of salvation, I helped you. Look, now is the acceptable time; look, now is the day of salvation.

3 We give no opportunity for stumbling to anyone, so that the ministry will not be blamed.

4 But in everything, as God's ministers, we commend ourselves: by great endurance, by afflictions, by hardship, by pressures,

5 by beatings, by imprisonments, by riots, by labors, by sleepless nights, by times of hunger,

6 by purity, by knowledge, by patience, by kindness, by the Holy Spirit, by sincere love,

7 by the message of truth, by the power of God; through weapons of righteousness on the right hand and the left,

8 through glory and dishonor, through slander and good report; as deceivers yet true;

9 as unknown yet recognized; as dying and look-we live; as being chastened yet not killed;

10 as grieving yet always rejoicing; as poor yet enriching many; as having nothing yet possessing everything.

11 We have spoken openly to you, Corinthians; our heart has been opened wide.

12 You are not limited by us, but you are limited by your own affections.

13 Now in like response-I speak as to children-you also should be open to us.

14 Do not be mismatched with unbelievers. For what partnership is there between righteousness and lawlessness? Or what fellowship does light have with darkness?

15 What agreement does Christ have with Belial? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?

16 And what agreement does God's sanctuary have with idols? For we are the sanctuary of the living God, as God said: I will dwell among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be My people.

17 Therefore, come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord; do not touch any unclean thing, and I will welcome you.

18 I will be a Father to you, and you will be sons and daughters to Me, says the Lord Almighty.

2 Corinthians 7

1 Therefore dear friends, since we have such promises, we should wash ourselves clean from every impurity of the flesh and spirit, making our sanctification complete in the fear of God.

2 Take us into your hearts. We have wronged no one, corrupted no one, defrauded no one.

3 I don't say this to condemn you, for I have already said that you are in our hearts, to die together and to live together.

4 I have great confidence in you; I have great pride in you. I am filled with encouragement; I am overcome with joy in all our afflictions.

5 In fact, when we came into Macedonia, we had no rest. Instead, we were afflicted in every way: struggles on the outside, fears inside.

6 But God, who comforts the humble, comforted us by the coming of Titus,

7 and not only by his coming, but also by the comfort he received from you. He announced to us your deep longing, your sorrow, your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced even more.

8 For although I grieved you with my letter, I do not regret it-even though I did regret it since I saw that the letter grieved you, though only for a little while.

9 Now I am rejoicing, not because you were grieved, but because your grief led to repentance. For you were grieved as God willed, so that you didn't experience any loss from us.

10 For godly grief produces a repentance not to be regretted and leading to salvation, but worldly grief produces death.

11 For consider how much diligence this very thing-this grieving as God wills-has produced in you: what a desire to clear yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what deep longing, what zeal, what justice! In every way you have commended yourselves to be pure in this matter.

12 So even though I wrote to you, it was not because of the one who did wrong, or because of the one who was wronged, but in order that your diligence for us might be made plain to you in the sight of God.

13 For this reason we have been comforted. In addition to our comfort, we were made to rejoice even more over the joy Titus had, because his spirit was refreshed by all of you.

14 For if I have made any boast to him about you, I have not been embarrassed; but as I have spoken everything to you in truth, so our boasting to Titus has also turned out to be the truth.

15 And his affection toward you is even greater as he remembers the obedience of all of you, and how you received him with fear and trembling.

16 I rejoice that I have complete confidence in you.

2 Kings 19

1 When King Hezekiah heard [their report], he tore his clothes, 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 court secretary, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz.

3 They said to him, "This is what Hezekiah says: 'Today is a day of distress, rebuke, and disgrace, for children have come to the point of birth, but there is no strength to deliver [them].

4 Perhaps the Lord your God will hear all the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria sent to mock the living God, and will rebuke [him for] the words that the Lord your God has heard. Therefore, offer a prayer for the surviving remnant.' "

5 So the servants of King Hezekiah went to Isaiah,

6 who said to them, "Tell your master this, 'The Lord says: Don't be afraid because of the words you have heard, that the king of Assyria's attendants have blasphemed Me with.

7 I am about to put a spirit in him, and he will hear a rumor and return to his own land where I will cause him to fall by the sword.' "

8 When the Rabshakeh heard that the king of Assyria had left Lachish, he returned and found him fighting against Libnah.

9 The king had heard this about Tirhakah king of Cush: "Look, he has set out to fight against you." So he again sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying,

10 "Say this to Hezekiah king of Judah: 'Don't let your God, whom you trust, deceive you by promising that Jerusalem will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.

11 Look, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the countries: they destroyed them completely. Will you be rescued?

12 Did the gods of the nations that my predecessors destroyed rescue them-[nations such as] Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the Edenites in Telassar?

13 Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, Hena, or Ivvah?' "

14 Hezekiah took the letter from the hand of the messengers, read it, then went up to the Lord's temple, and spread it out before the Lord.

15 Then Hezekiah prayed before the Lord: "Lord God of Israel who is enthroned [above] the cherubim, You are God-You alone-of all the kingdoms of the earth. You made the heavens and the earth.

16 Listen closely, Lord, and hear; open Your eyes, Lord, and see; hear the words that Sennacherib has sent to mock the living God.

17 Lord, it is true that the kings of Assyria have devastated the nations and their lands.

18 They have thrown their gods into the fire, for they were not gods but made by human hands-wood and stone. So they have destroyed them.

19 Now, Lord our God, please save us from his hand so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You are the Lord God-You alone."

20 Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent [a message] to Hezekiah: "The Lord, the God of Israel says: 'I have heard your prayer to Me about Sennacherib king of Assyria.'

21 This is the word the Lord has spoken against him: The young woman, Daughter Zion, despises you and scorns you: Daughter Jerusalem shakes [her] head behind your back.

22 Who is it you mocked and blasphemed? Against whom have you raised [your] voice and lifted your eyes in pride? Against the Holy One of Israel!

23 You have mocked the Lord through your messengers. You have said: With my many chariots I have gone up to the heights of the mountains, to the far recesses of Lebanon. I cut down its tallest cedars, its choice cypress trees. I came to its farthest outpost, its densest forest.

24 I dug [wells], and I drank foreign waters. I dried up all the streams of Egypt with the soles of my feet.

25 Have you not heard? I designed it long ago; I planned it in days gone by. I have now brought it to pass, and you have crushed fortified cities into piles of rubble.

26 Their inhabitants have become powerless, dismayed, and ashamed. They are plants of the field, tender grass, grass on the rooftops, blasted by the east wind.

27 But I know your sitting down, your going out and your coming in, and your raging against Me.

28 Because your raging against Me and your arrogance have reached My ears, I will put My hook in your nose and My bit in your mouth; I will make you go back the way you came.

29 This will be the sign for you: This year you will eat what grows on its own, and in the second year what grows from that. But in the third year sow and reap, plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

30 The surviving remnant of the house of Israel will again take root downward and bear fruit upward.

31 For a remnant will go out from Jerusalem, and survivors from Mount Zion. The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will accomplish this.

32 Therefore, this is what the Lord says about the king of Assyria: He will not enter this city or shoot an arrow there or come before it with a shield or build up an assault ramp against it.

33 He will go back on the road that he came and he will not enter this city, declares the Lord.

34 I will defend this city and rescue it for My sake and for the sake of My servant David.

35 That night the angel of the Lord went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. When the people got up the [next] morning-there were all the dead bodies!

36 So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and left. He returned [home] and lived in Nineveh.

37 One day, while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him down with the sword and escaped to the land of Ararat. Then his son Esar-haddon became king in his place.

Nahum 1

1 The oracle concerning Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite.

2 The Lord is a jealous and avenging God; the Lord takes vengeance and is fierce in wrath. The Lord takes vengeance against His foes; He is furious with His enemies.

3 The Lord is slow to anger but great in power; the Lord will never leave [the guilty] unpunished. His path is in the whirlwind and storm, and clouds are the dust beneath His feet.

4 He rebukes the sea so that it dries up, and He makes all the rivers run dry. Bashan and Carmel wither; even the flower of Lebanon withers.

5 The mountains quake before Him, and the hills melt; the earth trembles at His presence- the world and all who live in it.

6 Who can withstand His indignation? Who can endure His burning anger? His wrath is poured out like fire, even rocks are shattered before Him.

7 The Lord is good, a stronghold in a day of distress; He cares for those who take refuge in Him.

8 But He will completely destroy Nineveh with an overwhelming flood, and He will chase His enemies into darkness.

9 Whatever you plot against the Lord, He will bring [it] to complete destruction; oppression will not rise up a second time.

10 For they will be consumed like entangled thorns, like a drunkard's drink, and like straw that is fully dry.

11 One has gone out from Nineveh, who plots evil against the Lord, and is a wicked counselor.

12 This is what the Lord says: Though they are strong and numerous, they will still be mowed down, and he will pass away. Though I have afflicted you, I will afflict you no longer.

13 For I will now break off his yoke from you and tear off your shackles.

14 The Lord has issued an order concerning you: There will be no offspring to carry on your name. I will eliminate the carved idol and cast image from the house of your gods; I will prepare your grave, for you are contemptible.

15 Look to the mountains- the feet of one bringing good news and proclaiming peace! Celebrate your festivals, Judah; fulfill your vows. For the wicked one will never again march through you; he will be entirely wiped out.