BIBLE READING – May 14

John 4:1-30
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2 Kings 19
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Hezekiah Seeks the LORD’s Help

19 And it came to pass, when king Hezekiah heard it, that he rent (torn) his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the Lord.

² And he sent Eliakim, which 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.

³ And they said unto him, Thus saith (says) Hezekiah, This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and blasphemy; for the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth.

⁴ It may be the Lord thy (your) God will hear all the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master hath (has) sent to reproach the living God; and will reprove the words which the Lord thy (your) God hath (has) heard: wherefore lift up thy (your) prayer for the remnant (small remaining of people) that are left.

⁵ So the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah.

⁶ And Isaiah said unto them, Thus shall ye (you) say to your master, Thus saith (says) the Lord, Be not afraid of the words which thou hast (you have) heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.

⁷ Behold, I will send a blast upon him, and he shall hear a rumour, and shall return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.

⁸ So Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah: for he had heard that he was departed from Lachish.

⁹ And when he heard say of Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, Behold, he is come out to fight against thee (you): he sent messengers again unto Hezekiah, saying,

¹⁰ Thus shall ye (you) speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, Let not thy (your) God in whom thou trustest (you trust) deceive thee (you), saying, Jerusalem shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria.

¹¹ Behold, thou hast (you have) heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, by destroying them utterly (completely): and shalt thou (shall you) be delivered?

¹² Have the gods of the nations delivered them which my fathers have destroyed; as Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the children of Eden which were in Thelasar?

¹³ Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivah?

¹⁴ And Hezekiah received the letter of the hand of the messengers, and read it: and Hezekiah went up into the house of the Lord, and spread it before the Lord.

¹⁵ And Hezekiah prayed before the Lord, and said, O Lord God of Israel, which dwellest between the cherubims, thou art (You are) the God, even thou (You) alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; thou hast (you have) made heaven and earth.

¹⁶ Lord, bow down thine (your) ear, and hear: open, Lord, thine (your) eyes, and see: and hear the words of Sennacherib, which hath (has) sent him to reproach the living God.

¹⁷ Of a truth, Lord, the kings of Assyria have destroyed the nations and their lands,

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.

¹⁹ Now therefore, O Lord our God, I beseech thee (plead to you), save thou (You) us out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art (You are) the Lord God, even thou (You) only.

Isaiah Predicts Judah’s Deliverance

²⁰ Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, Thus saith (says) the Lord God of Israel, That which thou hast (you have) prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria I have heard.

²¹ This is the word that the Lord hath (has) spoken concerning him; The virgin the daughter of Zion hath (has) despised thee (hated you), and laughed thee (you)to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem hath (has) shaken her head at thee (you).

²² Whom hast thou (have you) reproached (taunted) and blasphemed? and against whom hast thou (you have) exalted thy (your) voice, and lifted up thine (your) eyes on high? even against the Holy One of Israel.

²³ By thy (your) messengers thou hast (you have) reproached the Lord, and hast (have) said, With the multitude of my chariots I am come up to the height of the mountains, to the sides of Lebanon, and will cut down the tall cedar trees thereof, and the choice fir trees thereof: and I will enter into the lodgings of his borders, and into the forest of his Carmel.

²⁴ I have digged (dug) and drunk strange (foreign) waters, and with the sole of my feet have I dried up all the rivers of besieged (surrounded) places.

²⁵ Hast thou (Have you) not heard long ago how I have done it, and of ancient times that I have formed it? now have I brought it to pass, that thou shouldest be to lay waste fenced cities into ruinous heaps.

²⁶ Therefore their inhabitants were of small power, they were dismayed and confounded (confused); they were as the grass of the field, and as the green herb, as the grass on the house tops, and as corn blasted before it be grown up.

²⁷ But I know thy (your) abode, and thy (your) going out, and thy (your) coming in, and thy (your) rage against me.

²⁸ Because thy (your) rage against me and thy (your) tumult is come up into mine (my) ears, therefore I will put my hook in thy (your) nose, and my bridle in thy (your) lips, and I will turn thee (you) back by the way by which thou camest (you came).

²⁹ And this shall be a sign unto thee (you), Ye (You) shall eat this year such things as grow of themselves, and in the second year that which springeth (springs) of the same; and in the third year sow ye (you), and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat the fruits thereof.

³⁰ And the remnant (small remaining of people) that is escaped of the house of Judah shall yet again take root downward, and bear fruit upward.

³¹ For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant (small remaining of people), and they that escape out of mount Zion: the zeal of the Lord of hosts shall do this.

³² Therefore thus saith (says) the Lord concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shield, nor cast a bank against it.

³³ By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and shall not come into this city, saith (says) the Lord.

³⁴ For I will defend this city, to save it, for mine (my) own sake, and for my servant David’s sake.

³⁵ And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the Lord went out, and smote (struck) in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand (185,000): and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.

³⁶ So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and dwelt (lived) at Nineveh.

³⁷ And it came to pass, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote (killed) him with the sword: and they escaped into the land of Armenia. And Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead (place).

2 Kings 20
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Hezekiah’s Sickness and Recovery

20 In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz came to him, and said unto him, Thus saith (says) the Lord, Set thine (your) house in order; for thou shalt (you shall) die, and not live.

² Then he turned his face to the wall, and prayed unto the Lord, saying,

³ I beseech thee (plead to you), O Lord, remember now how I have walked before thee (you) in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy (your) sight. And Hezekiah wept sore (bitterly).

⁴ And it came to pass, afore Isaiah was gone out into the middle court, that the word of the Lord came to him, saying,

⁵ Turn again, and tell Hezekiah the captain of my people, Thus saith (says) the Lord, the God of David thy (your) father, I have heard thy (your) prayer, I have seen thy (your) tears: behold, I will heal thee: on the third day thou shalt (you shall) go up unto the house of the Lord.

⁶ And I will add unto thy (your) days fifteen years; and I will deliver thee (you) and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city for mine own sake, and for my servant David’s sake.

⁷ And Isaiah said, Take a lump of figs. And they took and laid it on the boil, and he recovered.

⁸ And Hezekiah said unto Isaiah, What shall be the sign that the Lord will heal me, and that I shall go up into the house of the Lord the third day?

⁹ And Isaiah said, This sign shalt thou (shall you) have of the Lord, that the Lord will do the thing that he hath spoken: shall the shadow go forward ten degrees, or go back ten degrees?

¹⁰ And Hezekiah answered, It is a light thing for the shadow to go down ten degrees: nay, but let the shadow return backward ten degrees.

¹¹ And Isaiah the prophet cried unto the Lord: and he brought the shadow ten degrees backward, by which it had gone down in the dial of Ahaz.

Envoys from Babylon

¹² At that time Berodachbaladan, the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present unto Hezekiah: for he had heard that Hezekiah had been sick.

¹³ And Hezekiah hearkened unto (paid attention to) them, and shewed (showed) them all the house of his precious things, the silver, and the gold, and the spices, and the precious ointment, and all the house of his armour, and all that was found in his treasures: there was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominion, that Hezekiah shewed (showed) them not.

¹⁴ Then came Isaiah the prophet unto king Hezekiah, and said unto him, What said these men? and from whence (where) came they unto thee (you)? And Hezekiah said, They are come from a far country, even from Babylon.

¹⁵ And he said, What have they seen in thine (your) house? And Hezekiah answered, All the things that are in mine (my) house have they seen: there is nothing among my treasures that I have not shewed (showed) them.

¹⁶ And Isaiah said unto Hezekiah, Hear the word of the Lord.

¹⁷ Behold, the days come, that all that is in thine (your) house, and that which thy (your) fathers have laid up in store unto this day, shall be carried into Babylon: nothing shall be left, saith (says) the Lord.

¹⁸ And of thy (your) sons that shall issue from thee (you), which thou shalt (you shall) beget, shall they take away; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.

¹⁹ Then said Hezekiah unto Isaiah, Good is the word of the Lord which thou hast (you have) spoken. And he said, Is it not good, if peace and truth be in my days?

²⁰ And the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, and all his might, and how he made a pool, and a conduit (a channel for conveying water), and brought water into the city, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?

²¹ And Hezekiah slept with his fathers: and Manasseh his son reigned in his stead (place).

2 Kings 21
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Manasseh Rules in Judah

21 Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and reigned fifty and five years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Hephzibah.

² And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, after the abominations of the heathen (pagans, unbelievers), whom the Lord cast out before the children of Israel.

³ For he built up again the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed; and he reared up altars for Baal, and made a grove, as did Ahab king of Israel; and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served them.

(NOTE: Baal = a Canaanite-Phoenician idol [opposite of the One True Almighty God] that looks like a cow with two horns which is associated with or equivalent Satan / Devil or His demons)

(NOTE: grove = In Hebrew: asherah, properly a wooden image, or a pillar representing Ashtoreth, a sensual Canaanitish goddess)

⁴ And he built altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord said, In Jerusalem will I put my name.

⁵ And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord.

⁶ And he made his son pass through the fire, and observed times, and used enchantments, and dealt with familiar spirits and wizards: he wrought much wickedness in the sight of the Lord, to provoke him to anger.

⁷ And he set a graven image of the grove that he had made in the house, of which the Lord said to David, and to Solomon his son, In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all tribes of Israel, will I put my name for ever:

⁸ Neither will I make the feet of Israel move any more out of the land which I gave their fathers; only if 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.

⁹ But they hearkened not (But did not pay attention): and Manasseh seduced them to do more evil than did the nations whom the Lord destroyed before the children of Israel.

¹⁰ And the Lord spake (spoke) by his servants the prophets, saying,

¹¹ Because Manasseh king of Judah hath (has) done these abominations, and hath done wickedly above all that the Amorites did, which were before him, and hath (has) made Judah also to sin with his idols:

¹² Therefore thus saith (says) the Lord God of Israel, Behold, I am bringing such evil upon Jerusalem and Judah, that whosoever heareth (hears) of it, both his ears shall tingle.

¹³ And 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 wipeth a dish, wiping it, and turning it upside down.

¹⁴ And I will forsake the remnant (small remaining of people) of mine (my) inheritance, and deliver them into the hand of their enemies; and they shall become a prey and a spoil to all their enemies;

¹⁵ Because they have done that which was evil in my sight, and have provoked me to anger, since the day their fathers came forth out of Egypt, even unto this day.

¹⁶ Moreover Manasseh shed innocent blood very much, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another; beside his sin wherewith he made Judah to sin, in doing that which was evil in the sight of the Lord.

¹⁷ Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh, and all that he did, and his sin that he sinned, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?

¹⁸ And 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 stead (place).

Amon Rules in Judah

¹⁹ Amon was twenty and 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.

²⁰ And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, as his father Manasseh did.

²¹ And he walked in all the way that his father walked in, and served the idols that his father served, and worshipped them:

²² And he forsook the Lord God of his fathers, and walked not in the way of the Lord.

²³ And the servants of Amon conspired against him, and slew the king in his own house.

²⁴ And the people of the land slew (killed) all them that had conspired against king Amon; and the people of the land made Josiah his son king in his stead (place).

²⁵ Now the rest of the acts of Amon which he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?

²⁶ And he was buried in his sepulchre (tomb) in the garden of Uzza: and Josiah his son reigned in his stead (place).