Hezekiah Seeks Isaiah’s Help

1And when King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth and entered the house of the Lord. 2Then he sent Eliakim who was over the household with Shebna the scribe and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz. 3They said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah, ‘This day is a day of distress, rebuke and rejection; for children have come to birth, and there is no strength to deliver. 4Perhaps the Lord your God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to reproach the living God, and will rebuke the words which the Lord your God has heard. Therefore, offer a prayer for the remnant that is left.’ ”

5So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah. 6Isaiah said to them, “Thus you shall say to your master, ‘Thus says the Lord, “Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed Me. 7Behold, I will put a spirit in him so that he will hear a rumor and return to his own land. And I will make him fall by the sword in his own land.” ’ ”

8Then Rabshakeh returned and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah, for he had heard that the king had left Lachish. 9When he heard them say concerning Tirhakah king of Cush, “He has come out to fight against you,” and when he heard it he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, 10“Thus you shall say to Hezekiah king of Judah, ‘Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying, “Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.” 11Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands, destroying them completely. So will you be spared? 12Did the gods of those nations which my fathers have destroyed deliver them, even Gozan and Haran and Rezeph and the sons of Eden who were in Telassar? 13Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, and of Hena and Ivvah?’ ”

Hezekiah’s Prayer in the Temple

14Then Hezekiah took the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it, and he went up to the house of the Lord and spread it out before the Lord. 15Hezekiah prayed to the Lord saying, 16“O Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, who is enthroned above the cherubim, You are the God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. 17Incline Your ear, O Lord, and hear; open Your eyes, O Lord, and see; and listen to all the words of Sennacherib, who sent them to reproach the living God. 18Truly, O Lord, the kings of Assyria have devastated all the countries and their lands, 19and have cast their gods into the fire, for they were not gods but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone. So they have destroyed them. 20Now, O Lord our God, deliver us from his hand that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, Lord, are God.”

God Answers through Isaiah

21Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent word to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Because you have prayed to Me about Sennacherib king of Assyria, 22this is the word that the Lord has spoken against him:

“She has despised you and mocked you,

The virgin daughter of Zion;

She has shaken her head behind you,

The daughter of Jerusalem!

23Whom have you reproached and blasphemed?

And against whom have you raised your voice

And haughtily lifted up your eyes?

Against the Holy One of Israel!

24Through your servants you have reproached the Lord,

And you have said, ‘With my many chariots I came up to the heights of the mountains,

To the remotest parts of Lebanon;

And I cut down its tall cedars and its choice cypresses.

And I will go to its highest peak, its thickest forest.

25I dug wells and drank waters,

And with the sole of my feet I dried up

All the rivers of Egypt.’

26Have you not heard?

Long ago I did it,

From ancient times I planned it.

Now I have brought it to pass,

That you should turn fortified cities into ruinous heaps.

27Therefore their inhabitants were short of strength,

They were dismayed and put to shame;

They were as the vegetation of the field and as the green herb,

As grass on the housetops is scorched before it is grown up.

28But I know your sitting down

And your going out and your coming in

And your raging against Me.

29Because of your raging against Me

And because your arrogance has come up to My ears,

Therefore I will put My hook in your nose

And My bridle in your lips,

And I will turn you back by the way which you came.

30“Then this shall be the sign for you: you will eat this year what grows of itself, in the second year what springs from the same, and in the third year sow, reap, plant vineyards and eat their fruit. 31The surviving remnant of the house of Judah will again take root downward and bear fruit upward. 32For out of Jerusalem will go forth a remnant and out of Mount Zion survivors. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.” ’

33“Therefore, thus says the Lord concerning the king of Assyria, ‘He will not come to this city or shoot an arrow there; and he will not come before it with a shield, or throw up a siege ramp against it. 34By the way that he came, by the same he will return, and he will not come to this city,’ declares the Lord. 35‘For I will defend this city to save it for My own sake and for My servant David’s sake.’ ”

Assyrians Destroyed

36Then the angel of the Lord went out and struck 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians; and when men arose early in the morning, behold, all of these were dead. 37So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and returned home and lived at Nineveh. 38It came about as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons killed him with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son became king in his place.

Hezekiah Healed

1In those days Hezekiah became mortally ill. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him and said to him, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live.’ ” 2Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, 3and said, “Remember now, O Lord, I beseech You, how I have walked before You in truth and with a whole heart, and have done what is good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

4Then the word of the Lord came to Isaiah, saying, 5“Go and say to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of your father David, “I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; behold, I will add fifteen years to your life. 6I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city.” ’

7“This shall be the sign to you from the Lord, that the Lord will do this thing that He has spoken: 8Behold, I will cause the shadow on the stairway, which has gone down with the sun on the stairway of Ahaz, to go back ten steps.” So the sun’s shadow went back ten steps on the stairway on which it had gone down.

9A writing of Hezekiah king of Judah after his illness and recovery:

10I said, “In the middle of my life

I am to enter the gates of Sheol;

I am to be deprived of the rest of my years.”

11I said, “I will not see the Lord,

The Lord in the land of the living;

I will look on man no more among the inhabitants of the world.

12Like a shepherd’s tent my dwelling is pulled up and removed from me;

As a weaver I rolled up my life.

He cuts me off from the loom;

From day until night You make an end of me.

13I composed my soul until morning.

Like a lion—so He breaks all my bones,

From day until night You make an end of me.

14Like a swallow, like a crane, so I twitter;

I moan like a dove;

My eyes look wistfully to the heights;

O Lord, I am oppressed, be my security.

15“What shall I say?

For He has spoken to me, and He Himself has done it;

I will wander about all my years because of the bitterness of my soul.

16O Lord, by these things men live,

And in all these is the life of my spirit;

O restore me to health and let me live!

17Lo, for my own welfare I had great bitterness;

It is You who has kept my soul from the pit of nothingness,

For You have cast all my sins behind Your back.

18For Sheol cannot thank You,

Death cannot praise You;

Those who go down to the pit cannot hope for Your faithfulness.

19It is the living who give thanks to You, as I do today;

A father tells his sons about Your faithfulness.

20The Lord will surely save me;

So we will play my songs on stringed instruments

All the days of our life at the house of the Lord.”

21Now Isaiah had said, “Let them take a cake of figs and apply it to the boil, that he may recover.” 22Then Hezekiah had said, “What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the Lord?”

Bear One Another’s Burdens

1Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted. 2Bear one another’s burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ. 3For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. 4But each one must examine his own work, and then he will have reason for boasting in regard to himself alone, and not in regard to another. 5For each one will bear his own load.

6The one who is taught the word is to share all good things with the one who teaches him. 7Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. 8For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. 9Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary. 10So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith.

11See with what large letters I am writing to you with my own hand. 12Those who desire to make a good showing in the flesh try to compel you to be circumcised, simply so that they will not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. 13For those who are circumcised do not even keep the Law themselves, but they desire to have you circumcised so that they may boast in your flesh. 14But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. 15For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. 16And those who will walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God.

17From now on let no one cause trouble for me, for I bear on my body the brand-marks of Jesus.

18The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brethren. Amen.

PSALM 65

God’s Abundant Favor to Earth and Man.

For the choir director. A Psalm of David. A Song.

1There will be silence before You, and praise in Zion, O God,

And to You the vow will be performed.

2O You who hear prayer,

To You all men come.

3Iniquities prevail against me;

As for our transgressions, You forgive them.

4How blessed is the one whom You choose and bring near to You

To dwell in Your courts.

We will be satisfied with the goodness of Your house,

Your holy temple.

5By awesome deeds You answer us in righteousness, O God of our salvation,

You who are the trust of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest sea;

6Who establishes the mountains by His strength,

Being girded with might;

7Who stills the roaring of the seas,

The roaring of their waves,

And the tumult of the peoples.

8They who dwell in the ends of the earth stand in awe of Your signs;

You make the dawn and the sunset shout for joy.

9You visit the earth and cause it to overflow;

You greatly enrich it;

The stream of God is full of water;

You prepare their grain, for thus You prepare the earth.

10You water its furrows abundantly,

You settle its ridges,

You soften it with showers,

You bless its growth.

11You have crowned the year with Your bounty,

And Your paths drip with fatness.

12The pastures of the wilderness drip,

And the hills gird themselves with rejoicing.

13The meadows are clothed with flocks

And the valleys are covered with grain;

They shout for joy, yes, they sing.

24The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice,

And he who sires a wise son will be glad in him.