Sennacherib Invades Judah

¹After all these acts of faithfulness, Sennacherib king of Assyria came and invaded Judah. He laid siege to the fortified cities, intending to conquer them for himself.

²When Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib had come to make war against Jerusalem,

³he consulted with his leaders and mighty men about stopping up the waters of the springs outside the city, and they helped him carry it out.

⁴Many people assembled and stopped up all the springs and the stream that flowed through the land. “Why should the kingsof Assyria come and find plenty of water?” they said.

⁵Then Hezekiah worked resolutely to rebuild all the broken sections of the wall and to raise up towers on it. He also built an outer wall and reinforced the supporting terracesof the City of David, and he produced an abundance of weapons and shields.

⁶Hezekiah appointed military commanders over the people and gathered the people in the square of the city gate. Then he encouraged them, saying,

⁷“Be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged before the king of Assyria and the vast army with him, for there is a greater One with us than with him.

⁸With him is only the arm of flesh,but with us is the LORD our God to help us and to fight our battles.”So the people were strengthened by the words of Hezekiah king of Judah.

Sennacherib Threatens Jerusalem

⁹Later, as Sennacherib king of Assyria and all his forces besieged Lachish, he sent his servants to Jerusalem with a message for King Hezekiah of Judah and all the people of Judah who were in Jerusalem:

¹⁰“This is what Sennacherib king of Assyria says: What is the basis of your confidence, that you remain in Jerusalem under siege?

¹¹Is not Hezekiah misleading you to give you over to death by famine and thirst when he says, ‘The LORD our God will deliver us from the hand of the king of Assyria?’

¹²Did not Hezekiah himself remove His high places and His altars and say to Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You must worship before one altar, and on it you shall burn sacrifices’?

¹³Do you not know what I and my fathers have done to all the peoples of the lands? Have the gods of these nations ever been able to deliver their land from my hand?

¹⁴Who among all the gods of these nations that my fathers devoted to destructionhas been able to deliver his people from my hand? How then can your God deliver you from my hand?

¹⁵So now, do not let Hezekiah deceive you, and do not let him mislead you like this. Do not believe him, for no god of any nation or kingdom has been able to deliver his people from my hand or from the hand of my fathers. How much less will your God deliver you from my hand!”

¹⁶And the servants of Sennacherib spoke further against the LORD God and against His servant Hezekiah.

¹⁷He also wrote letters mocking the LORD, the God of Israel, and saying against Him: “Just as the gods of the nations did not deliver their people from my hand, so the God of Hezekiah will not deliver His people from my hand.”

¹⁸Then the Assyrians called out loudly in Hebrewto the people of Jerusalem who were on the wall, to frighten and terrify them in order to capture the city.

¹⁹They spoke against the God of Jerusalem as they had spoken against the gods of the peoples of the earth—the work of human hands.

Jerusalem Delivered from the Assyrians

²⁰In response, King Hezekiah and the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz cried out to heaven in prayer,

²¹and the LORD sent an angel who annihilated every mighty man of valor and every leader and commander in the camp of the king of Assyria. So he withdrew to his own land in disgrace. And when he entered the temple of his god, some of his own sons struck him down with the sword.

²²So the LORD saved Hezekiah and the people of Jerusalem from the hands of King Sennacherib of Assyria and all others, and He gave them rest on every side.

²³Many brought offerings to Jerusalem for the LORD and valuable gifts for Hezekiah king of Judah, and from then on he was exalted in the eyes of all nations.

Hezekiah’s Illness and Recovery

²⁴In those days Hezekiah became mortally ill. So he prayed to the LORD, who spoke to him and gave him a sign.

²⁵But because his heart was proud, Hezekiah did not repay the favor shown to him. Therefore wrath came upon him and upon Judah and Jerusalem.

²⁶Then Hezekiah humbled the pride of his heart—he and the people of Jerusalem—so that the wrath of the LORD did not come upon them during the days of Hezekiah.

²⁷Hezekiah had very great riches and honor, and he made treasuries for his silver, gold, precious stones, spices, shields, and all kinds of valuable articles.

²⁸He also made storehouses for the harvest of grain and new wine and oil, stalls for all kinds of livestock, and pens for the flocks.

²⁹He made cities for himself, and he acquired herds of sheep and cattle in abundance, for God gave him very great wealth.

³⁰It was Hezekiah who blocked the upper outlet of the Spring of Gihon and channeled it down to the west side of the City of David. And Hezekiah prospered in all that he did.

³¹And so when ambassadors of the rulers of Babylon were sent to him to inquire about the wonder that had happened in the land, God left him alone to test him, that He might know all that was in Hezekiah’s heart.

Hezekiah’s Death

³²As for the rest of the acts of Hezekiah and his deeds of loving devotion, they are indeed written in the vision of the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz in the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel.

³³And Hezekiah rested with his fathers and was buried in the upper tombs of David’s descendants. All Judah and the people of Jerusalem paid him honor at his death. And his son Manasseh reigned in his place.

Jacob’s Departure

¹So Isaac called for Jacob and blessed him. “Do not take a wife from the Canaanite women,” he commanded.

²“Go at once to Paddan-aram,to the house of your mother’s father Bethuel, and take a wife from among the daughters of Laban, your mother’s brother.

³May God Almightybless you and make you fruitful and multiply you, so that you may become a company of peoples.

⁴And may He give the blessing of Abraham to you and your descendants, so that you may possess the land where you dwell as a foreigner, the land God gave to Abraham.”

⁵So Isaac sent Jacob to Paddan-aram, to Laban son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, who was the mother of Jacob and Esau.

Esau Marries Mahalath

⁶Now Esau learned that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him to Paddan-aram to take a wife there, commanding him, “Do not marry a Canaanite woman,”

⁷and that Jacob had obeyed his father and mother and gone to Paddan-aram.

⁸And seeing that his father Isaac disapproved of the Canaanite women,

⁹Esau went to Ishmael and married Mahalath, the sister of Nebaioth and daughter of Abraham’s son Ishmael, in addition to the wives he already had.

Jacob’s Ladder

¹⁰Meanwhile Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Haran.

¹¹On reaching a certain place, he spent the night there because the sun had set. And taking one of the stones from that place, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep.

¹²And Jacob had a dream about a ladder that rested on the earth with its top reaching up to heaven, and God’s angels were going up and down the ladder.

¹³And there at the topthe LORD was standing and saying, “I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you now lie.

¹⁴Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and east and north and south. All the families of the earth will be blessed through you and your offspring.

¹⁵Look, I am with you, and I will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”

¹⁶When Jacob woke up, he said, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was unaware of it.”

¹⁷And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven!”

The Stone of Bethel

¹⁸Early the next morning, Jacob took the stone that he had placed under his head, and he set it up as a pillar. He poured oil on top of it,

¹⁹and he called that place Bethel,though previously the city had been named Luz.

²⁰Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and watch over me on this journey, and if He will provide me with food to eat and clothes to wear,

²¹so that I may return safely to my father’s house, then the LORD will be my God.

²²And this stone I have set up as a pillar will be God’s house, and of all that You give me I will surely give You a tenth.”

The Promise of Restoration

¹“When all these things come upon you—the blessings and curses I have set before you—and you call them to mind in all the nations to which the LORD your God has banished you,

²and when you and your children return to the LORD your God and obey His voice with all your heart and all your soul according to everything I am giving you today,

³then He will restore you from captivityand have compassion on you and gather you from all the nations to which the LORD your God has scattered you.

⁴Even if you have been banished to the farthest horizon,He will gather you and return you from there.

⁵And the LORD your God will bring you into the land your fathers possessed, and you will take possession of it. He will cause you to prosper and multiply more than your fathers.

⁶The LORD your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, and you will love Him with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live.

⁷Then the LORD your God will put all these curses upon your enemies who hate you and persecute you.

⁸And you will again obey the voice of the LORD and follow all His commandments I am giving you today.

⁹So the LORD your God will make you abound in all the work of your hands and in the fruit of your womb, the offspring of your livestock, and the produce of your land. Indeed, the LORD will again delight in your prosperity, as He delighted in that of your fathers,

¹⁰if you obey the LORD your God by keeping His commandments and statutes that are written in this Book of the Law, and if you turn to Him with all your heart and with all your soul.

The Choice of Life or Death

¹¹For this commandment I give you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach.

¹²It is not in heaven, that you should need to ask, ‘Who will ascend into heavento get it for us and proclaim it, that we may obey it?’

¹³And it is not beyond the sea, that you should need to ask, ‘Who will cross the seato get it for us and proclaim it, that we may obey it?’

¹⁴But the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,so that you may obey it.

¹⁵See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, as well as death and disaster.

¹⁶For I am commanding you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, statutes, and ordinances, so that you may live and increase, and the LORD your God may bless you in the land that you are entering to possess.

¹⁷But if your heart turns away and you do not listen, but are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them,

¹⁸I declare to you today that you will surely perish; you shall not prolong your days in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess.

¹⁹I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Therefore choose life, so that you and your descendants may live,

²⁰and that you may love the LORD your God, obey Him, and hold fast to Him. For He is your life, and He will prolong your life in the land that the LORD swore to give to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”

The Blessed Fear of the LORD

¹Hallelujah!Blessed is the man who fears the LORD,who greatly delights in His commandments.

²His descendants will be mighty in the land;the generation of the upright will be blessed.

³Wealth and riches are in his house,and his righteousness endures forever.

⁴Light dawns in the darkness for the upright—for the gracious, compassionate, and righteous.

⁵It is well with the man who is generous and lends freely,whose affairs are guided by justice.

⁶Surely he will never be shaken;the righteous man will be remembered forever.

⁷He does not fear bad news;his heart is steadfast, trusting in the LORD.

⁸His heart is assured; he does not fear,until he looks in triumph on his foes.

⁹He has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor;his righteousness endures forever;his horn will be lifted high in honor.

¹⁰The wicked man will see and be grieved;he will gnash his teeth and waste away;the desires of the wicked will perish.