
II KINGS CHAPTER 18
1 Now it came to pass in the third year of Hoshea
son of Elah king of Israel, that Hezekiah the son of Ahaz king of Judah began to
reign.
2 Twenty and five years old was he when he began to reign; and he reigned twenty
and nine years in Jerusalem. His mother's name also was Abi, the daughter of
Zachariah.
3 And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, according to all
that David his father did.
4 He removed the high places, and brake the images, and cut down the groves, and
brake in pieces the brasen serpent that Moses had made: for unto those days the
children of Israel did burn incense to it: and he called it Nehushtan.
5 He trusted in the LORD God of Israel; so that after him was none like him
among all the kings of Judah, nor any that were before him.
6 For he clave to the LORD, and departed not from following him, but kept his
commandments, which the LORD commanded Moses.
7 And the LORD was with him; and he prospered whithersoever he went forth: and
he rebelled against the king of Assyria, and served him not.
8 He smote the Philistines, even unto Gaza, and the borders thereof, from the
tower of the watchmen to the fenced city.
9 And it came to pass in the fourth year of king Hezekiah, which was the seventh
year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, that Shalmaneser king of Assyria came
up against Samaria, and besieged it.
10 And at the end of three years they took it: even in the sixth year of
Hezekiah, that is the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel, Samaria was taken.
11 And the king of Assyria did carry away Israel unto Assyria, and put them in
Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes:
12 Because they obeyed not the voice of the LORD their God, but transgressed his
covenant, and all that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded, and would not
hear them, nor do them.
13 Now in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah did Sennacherib king of Assyria
come up against all the fenced cities of Judah, and took them.
14 And Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria to Lachish, saying, I
have offended; return from me: that which thou puttest on me will I bear. And
the king of Assyria appointed unto Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents
of silver and thirty talents of gold.
15 And Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the house of the LORD,
and in the treasures of the king's house.
16 At that time did Hezekiah cut off the gold from the doors of the temple of
the LORD, and from the pillars which Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid, and
gave it to the king of Assyria.
17 And the king of Assyria sent Tartan and Rabsaris and Rabshakeh from Lachish
to king Hezekiah with a great host against Jerusalem. And they went up and came
to Jerusalem. And when they were come up, they came and stood by the conduit of
the upper pool, which is in the highway of the fuller's field.
18 And when they had called to the king, there came out to them Eliakim the son
of Hilkiah, which was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah the
son of Asaph the recorder.
19 And Rabshakeh said unto them, Speak ye now to Hezekiah, Thus saith the great
king, the king of Assyria, What confidence is this wherein thou trustest?
20 Thou sayest, (but they are but vain words,) I have counsel and strength for
the war. Now on whom dost thou trust, that thou rebellest against me?
21 Now, behold, thou trustest upon the staff of this bruised reed, even upon
Egypt, on which if a man lean, it will go into his hand, and pierce it: so is
Pharaoh king of Egypt unto all that trust on him.
22 But if ye say unto me, We trust in the LORD our God: is not that he, whose
high places and whose altars Hezekiah hath taken away, and hath said to Judah
and Jerusalem, Ye shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem?
23 Now therefore, I pray thee, give pledges to my lord the king of Assyria, and
I will deliver thee two thousand horses, if thou be able on thy part to set
riders upon them.
24 How then wilt thou turn away the face of one captain of the least of my
master's servants, and put thy trust on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen?
25 Am I now come up without the LORD against this place to destroy it? The LORD
said to me, Go up against this land, and destroy it.
26 Then said Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, and Shebna, and Joah, unto Rabshakeh,
Speak, I pray thee, to thy servants in the Syrian language; for we understand
it: and talk not with us in the Jews' language in the ears of the people that
are on the wall.
27 But Rabshakeh said unto them, Hath my master sent me to thy master, and to
thee, to speak these words? hath he not sent me to the men which sit on the
wall, that they may eat their own dung, and drink their own piss with you?
28 Then Rabshakeh stood and cried with a loud voice in the Jews' language, and
spake, saying, Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria:
29 Thus saith the king, Let not Hezekiah deceive you: for he shall not be able
to deliver you out of his hand:
30 Neither let Hezekiah make you trust in the LORD, saying, The LORD will surely
deliver us, and this city shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of
Assyria.
31 Hearken not to Hezekiah: for thus saith the king of Assyria, Make an
agreement with me by a present, and come out to me, and then eat ye every man of
his own vine, and every one of his fig tree, and drink ye every one the waters
of his cistern:
32 Until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of corn
and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of oil olive and of honey, that
ye may live, and not die: and hearken not unto Hezekiah, when he persuadeth you,
saying, The LORD will deliver us.
33 Hath any of the gods of the nations delivered at all his land out of the hand
of the king of Assyria?
34 Where are the gods of Hamath, and of Arpad? where are the gods of Sepharvaim,
Hena, and Ivah? have they delivered Samaria out of mine hand?
35 Who are they among all the gods of the countries, that have delivered their
country out of mine hand, that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem out of mine
hand?
36 But the people held their peace, and answered him not a word: for the king's
commandment was, saying, Answer him not.
37 Then came Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, which was over the household, and
Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder, to Hezekiah with
their clothes rent, and told him the words of Rabshakeh.
II KINGS CHAPTER 19
1 And it came to pass, when king Hezekiah heard it, that he rent 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 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 God will hear all the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king
of Assyria his master hath sent to reproach the living God; and will reprove the
words which the LORD thy God hath heard: wherefore lift up thy prayer for the
remnant that are left.
5 So the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah.
6 And Isaiah said unto them, Thus shall ye say to your master, Thus saith the
LORD, Be not afraid of the words which thou hast 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: he sent messengers again unto Hezekiah, saying,
10 Thus shall ye speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, Let not thy God in
whom thou trustest deceive thee, saying, Jerusalem shall not be delivered into
the hand of the king of Assyria.
11 Behold, thou hast heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, by
destroying them utterly: and shalt thou 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 the God, even thou alone, of all the
kingdoms of the earth; thou hast made heaven and earth.
16 LORD, bow down thine ear, and hear: open, LORD, thine eyes, and see: and hear
the words of Sennacherib, which hath 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, save thou us out of his hand,
that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the LORD God, even
thou only.
20 Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, Thus saith the LORD God
of Israel, That which thou hast prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria
I have heard.
21 This is the word that the LORD hath spoken concerning him; The virgin the
daughter of Zion hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn; the daughter of
Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee.
22 Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed? and against whom hast thou exalted
thy voice, and lifted up thine eyes on high? even against the Holy One of
Israel.
23 By thy messengers thou hast reproached the Lord, and hast 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 and drunk strange waters, and with the sole of my feet have I
dried up all the rivers of besieged places.
25 Hast thou 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; they were as the grass of the field, and as the green herb, as the
grass on the housetops, and as corn blasted before it be grown up.
27 But I know thy abode, and thy going out, and thy coming in, and thy rage
against me.
28 Because thy rage against me and thy tumult is come up into mine ears,
therefore I will put my hook in thy nose, and my bridle in thy lips, and I will
turn thee back by the way by which thou camest.
29 And this shall be a sign unto thee, Ye shall eat this year such things as
grow of themselves, and in the second year that which springeth of the same; and
in the third year sow ye, and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat the fruits
thereof.
30 And the remnant 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, and they that escape out of
mount Zion: the zeal of the LORD of hosts shall do this.
32 Therefore thus saith 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 the LORD.
34 For I will defend this city, to save it, for mine 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 in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand: 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 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 him with the sword: and they
escaped into the land of Armenia. And Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead.
II CHRONICLES CHAPTER 32
1 After these things, and the establishment thereof,
Sennacherib king of Assyria came, and entered into Judah, and encamped against
the fenced cities, and thought to win them for himself.
2 And when Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib was come, and that he was purposed to
fight against Jerusalem,
3 He took counsel with his princes and his mighty men to stop the waters of the
fountains which were without the city: and they did help him.
4 So there was gathered much people together, who stopped all the fountains, and
the brook that ran through the midst of the land, saying, Why should the kings
of Assyria come, and find much water?
5 Also he strengthened himself, and built up all the wall that was broken, and
raised it up to the towers, and another wall without, and repaired Millo in the
city of David, and made darts and shields in abundance.
6 And he set captains of war over the people, and gathered them together to him
in the street of the gate of the city, and spake comfortably to them, saying,
7 Be strong and courageous, be not afraid nor dismayed for the king of Assyria,
nor for all the multitude that is with him: for there be more with us than with
him:
8 With him is an arm of flesh; but with us is the LORD our God to help us, and
to fight our battles. And the people rested themselves upon the words of
Hezekiah king of Judah.
9 After this did Sennacherib king of Assyria send his servants to Jerusalem,
(but he himself laid siege against Lachish, and all his power with him,) unto
Hezekiah king of Judah, and unto all Judah that were at Jerusalem, saying,
10 Thus saith Sennacherib king of Assyria, Whereon do ye trust, that ye abide in
the siege in Jerusalem?
11 Doth not Hezekiah persuade you to give over yourselves to die by famine and
by thirst, saying, The LORD our God shall deliver us out of the hand of the king
of Assyria?
12 Hath not the same Hezekiah taken away his high places and his altars, and
commanded Judah and Jerusalem, saying, Ye shall worship before one altar, and
burn incense upon it?
13 Know ye not what I and my fathers have done unto all the people of other
lands? were the gods of the nations of those lands any ways able to deliver
their lands out of mine hand?
14 Who was there among all the gods of those nations that my fathers utterly
destroyed, that could deliver his people out of mine hand, that your God should
be able to deliver you out of mine hand?
15 Now therefore let not Hezekiah deceive you, nor persuade you on this manner,
neither yet believe him: for no god of any nation or kingdom was able to deliver
his people out of mine hand, and out of the hand of my fathers: how much less
shall your God deliver you out of mine hand?
16 And his servants spake yet more against the LORD God, and against his servant
Hezekiah.
17 He wrote also letters to rail on the LORD God of Israel, and to speak against
him, saying, As the gods of the nations of other lands have not delivered their
people out of mine hand, so shall not the God of Hezekiah deliver his people out
of mine hand.
18 Then they cried with a loud voice in the Jews' speech unto the people of
Jerusalem that were on the wall, to affright them, and to trouble them; that
they might take the city.
19 And they spake against the God of Jerusalem, as against the gods of the
people of the earth, which were the work of the hands of man.
20 And for this cause Hezekiah the king, and the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz,
prayed and cried to heaven.
21 And the LORD sent an angel, which cut off all the mighty men of valour, and
the leaders and captains in the camp of the king of Assyria. So he returned with
shame of face to his own land. And when he was come into the house of his god,
they that came forth of his own bowels slew him there with the sword.
22 Thus the LORD saved Hezekiah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem from the hand
of Sennacherib the king of Assyria, and from the hand of all other, and guided
them on every side.
23 And many brought gifts unto the LORD to Jerusalem, and presents to Hezekiah
king of Judah: so that he was magnified in the sight of all nations from
thenceforth.
24 In those days Hezekiah was sick to the death, and prayed unto the LORD: and
he spake unto him, and he gave him a sign.
25 But Hezekiah rendered not again according to the benefit done unto him; for
his heart was lifted up: therefore there was wrath upon him, and upon Judah and
Jerusalem.
26 Notwithstanding Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart, both he
and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the wrath of the LORD came not upon
them in the days of Hezekiah.
27 And Hezekiah had exceeding much riches and honour: and he made himself
treasuries for silver, and for gold, and for precious stones, and for spices,
and for shields, and for all manner of pleasant jewels;
28 Storehouses also for the increase of corn, and wine, and oil; and stalls for
all manner of beasts, and cotes for flocks.
29 Moreover he provided him cities, and possessions of flocks and herds in
abundance: for God had given him substance very much.
30 This same Hezekiah also stopped the upper watercourse of Gihon, and brought
it straight down to the west side of the city of David. And Hezekiah prospered
in all his works.
31 Howbeit in the business of the ambassadors of the princes of Babylon, who
sent unto him to enquire of the wonder that was done in the land, God left him,
to try him, that he might know all that was in his heart.
32 Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, and his goodness, behold, they are
written in the vision of Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, and in the book of
the kings of Judah and Israel.
33 And Hezekiah slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the chiefest of
the sepulchres of the sons of David: and all Judah and the inhabitants of
Jerusalem did him honour at his death. And Manasseh his son reigned in his
stead.
EPHESIANS CHAPTER 5
1 Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear
children;
2 And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us
an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.
3 But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once
named among you, as becometh saints;
4 Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not
convenient: but rather giving of thanks.
5 For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man,
who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
6 Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the
wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.
7 Be not ye therefore partakers with them.
8 For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as
children of light:
9 (For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;)
10 Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord.
11 And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather
reprove them.
12 For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in
secret.
13 But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light: for
whatsoever doth make manifest is light.
14 Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and
Christ shall give thee light.
15 See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise,
16 Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
17 Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.
18 And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;
19 Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and
making melody in your heart to the Lord;
20 Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of
our Lord Jesus Christ;
21 Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.
22 Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.
23 For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the
church: and he is the saviour of the body.
24 Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their
own husbands in every thing.
25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave
himself for it;
26 That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
27 That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or
wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.
28 So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife
loveth himself.
29 For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it,
even as the Lord the church:
30 For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.
31 For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined
unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.
32 This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.
33 Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as
himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband.