Hezekiah’s Illness and Recovery

¹In those days Hezekiah became mortally ill. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz came to him and said, “This is what the LORD says: ‘Put your house in order, for you are about to die; you will not recover.’”

²Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD,

³saying, “Please, O LORD, remember how I have walked before You faithfully and with wholehearted devotion; I have done what is good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

⁴And the word of the LORD came to Isaiah, saying,

⁵“Go and tell Hezekiah that this is what the LORD, the God of your father David, says: ‘I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Behold, I will add fifteen years to your life.

⁶And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city.

⁷This will be a sign to you from the LORD that He will do what He has promised:

⁸I will make the sun’s shadow that falls on the stairway of Ahaz go back ten steps.’”So the sunlight went back the ten steps it had descended.

Hezekiah’s Song of Thanksgiving

⁹This is a writing by Hezekiah king of Judah after his illness and recovery:

¹⁰I said, “In the primeof my lifeI must go through the gates of Sheoland be deprived of the remainder of my years.”

¹¹I said, “I will never again see the LORD,even the LORD, in the land of the living;I will no longer look on mankindwith those who dwell in this world.

¹²My dwelling has been picked up and removed from melike a shepherd’s tent.I have rolled up my life like a weaver;He cuts me off from the loom;from day until night You make an end of me.

¹³I composed myselfuntil the morning.Like a lion He breaks all my bones;from day until night You make an end of me.

¹⁴I chirp like a swallow or crane;I moan like a dove.My eyes grow weak as I look upward.O Lord, I am oppressed; be my security.”

¹⁵What can I say?He has spoken to me, and He Himself has done this.I will walk slowly all my yearsbecause of the anguish of my soul.

¹⁶O Lord, by such things men live,and in all of them my spirit finds life.You have restored me to healthand have let me live.

¹⁷Surely for my own welfareI had such great anguish;but Your love has delivered me from the pit of oblivion,for You have cast all my sins behind Your back.

¹⁸For Sheol cannot thank You;Death cannot praise You.Those who descend to the Pitcannot hope for Your faithfulness.

¹⁹The living, only the living, can thank You,as I do today;fathers will tell their childrenabout Your faithfulness.

²⁰The LORD will save me;we will play songs on stringed instrumentsall the days of our livesin the house of the LORD.

²¹Now Isaiah had said, “Prepare a lump of pressed figs and apply it to the boil, and he will recover.”

²²And Hezekiah had asked, “What will be the sign that I will go up to the house of the LORD?”

The Defeat of Og

¹Then we turned and went up the road to Bashan, and Og king of Bashan and his whole army came out to meet us in battle at Edrei.

²But the LORD said to me, “Do not fear him, for I have delivered him into your hand, along with all his people and his land. Do to him as you did to Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon.”

³So the LORD our God also delivered Og king of Bashan and his whole army into our hands. We struck them down until no survivor was left.

⁴At that time we captured all sixty of his cities. There was not a single city we failed to take—the entire region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan.

⁵All these cities were fortified with high walls and gates and bars, and there were many more unwalled villages.

⁶We devoted them to destruction,as we had done to Sihon king of Heshbon, utterly destroying the men, women, and children of every city.

⁷But all the livestock and plunder of the cities we carried off for ourselves.

⁸At that time we took from the two kings of the Amorites the land across the Jordan, from the Arnon Valley as far as Mount Hermon—

⁹which the Sidonians call Sirion but the Amorites call Senir—

¹⁰all the cities of the plateau, all of Gilead, and all of Bashan as far as the cities of Salecah and Edrei in the kingdom of Og.

¹¹(For only Og king of Bashan had remained of the remnant of the Rephaim. His bed of iron, nine cubits long and four cubits wide,is still in Rabbah of the Ammonites.)

Land Division East of the Jordan

¹²So at that time we took possession of this land. To the Reubenites and Gadites I gave the land beyond Aroer along the Arnon Valley, and half the hill country of Gilead, along with its cities.

¹³To the half-tribe of Manasseh I gave the rest of Gilead and all of Bashan, the kingdom of Og. (The entire region of Argob, the whole territory of Bashan, used to be called the land of the Rephaim.)

¹⁴Jair, a descendant of Manasseh, took the whole region of Argob as far as the border of the Geshurites and Maacathites. He renamed Bashan after himself, Havvoth-jair,by which it is called to this day.

¹⁵To Machir I gave Gilead,

¹⁶and to the Reubenites and Gadites I gave the territory from Gilead to the Arnon Valley (the middle of the valley was the border) and up to the Jabbok River, the border of the Ammonites.

¹⁷The Jordan River in the Arabah bordered it from Chinnereth to the Sea of the Arabah (the Salt Sea) with the slopes of Pisgah to the east.

¹⁸At that time I commanded you: “The LORD your God has given you this land to possess. All your men of valor are to cross over, armed for battle, ahead of your brothers, the Israelites.

¹⁹But your wives, your children, and your livestock—I know that you have much livestock—may remain in the cities I have given you,

²⁰until the LORD gives rest to your brothers as He has to you, and they too have taken possession of the land that the LORD your God is giving them across the Jordan. Then each of you may return to the possession I have given you.”

²¹And at that time I commanded Joshua: “Your own eyes have seen all that the LORD your God has done to these two kings. The LORD will do the same to all the kingdoms you are about to enter.

²²Do not be afraid of them, for the LORD your God Himself will fight for you.”

Moses Forbidden to Cross the Jordan

²³At that time I also pleaded with the LORD:

²⁴“O Lord GOD, You have begun to show Your greatness and power to Your servant. For what god in heaven or on earth can perform such works and mighty acts as Yours?

²⁵Please let me cross over and see the good land beyond the Jordan—that pleasant hill country as well as Lebanon!”

²⁶But the LORD was angry with me on account of you, and He would not listen to me. “That is enough,” the LORD said to me. “Do not speak to Me again about this matter.

²⁷Go to the top of Pisgah and look to the west and north and south and east. See the land with your own eyes, for you will not cross this Jordan.

²⁸But commission Joshua, encourage him, and strengthen him, for he will cross over ahead of the people and enable them to inherit the land that you will see.”

²⁹So we stayed in the valley opposite Beth-peor.

David’s Righteous Branch

¹“Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasture!” declares the LORD.

²Therefore this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says about the shepherds who tend My people: “You have scattered My flock and driven them away, and have not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for the evil of your deeds, declares the LORD.

³Then I Myself will gather the remnant of My flock from all the lands to which I have banished them, and I will return them to their pasture, where they will be fruitful and multiply.

⁴I will raise up shepherds over them who will tend them, and they will no longer be afraid or dismayed, nor will any go missing, declares the LORD.

⁵Behold, the days are coming,declares the LORD,when I will raise up for Davida righteous Branch,and He will reign wisely as Kingand will administer justice and righteousness in the land.

⁶In His days Judah will be saved,and Israel will dwell securely.And this is His name by which He will be called:The LORD Our Righteousness.

⁷So behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when they will no longer say, ‘As surely as the LORD lives, who brought the Israelites up out of the land of Egypt.’

⁸Instead they will say, ‘As surely as the LORD lives, who brought and led the descendants of the house of Israel up out of the land of the north and all the other lands to which He had banished them.’ Then they will dwell once more in their own land.”

Lying Prophets

⁹As for the prophets:My heart is broken within me,and all my bones tremble.I have become like a drunkard,like a man overcome by wine,because of the LORD,because of His holy words.

¹⁰For the land is full of adulterers—because of the curse, the land mournsand the pastures of the wilderness have dried up—their course is eviland their power is misused.

¹¹“For both prophet and priest are ungodly;even in My house I have found their wickedness,”declares the LORD.

¹²“Therefore their path will become slick;they will be driven away into the darkness and fall into it.For I will bring disaster upon themin the year of their punishment,”declares the LORD.

¹³“Among the prophets of SamariaI saw an offensive thing:They prophesied by Baaland led My people Israel astray.

¹⁴And among the prophets of JerusalemI have seen a horrible thing:They commit adulteryand walk in lies.They strengthen the hands of evildoers,so that no one turns his back on wickedness.They are all like Sodom to Me;the people of Jerusalem are like Gomorrah.”

¹⁵Therefore this is what the LORD of Hosts says concerning the prophets:“I will feed them wormwoodand give them poisoned water to drink,for from the prophets of Jerusalemungodliness has spread throughout the land.”

¹⁶This is what the LORD of Hosts says:“Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you.They are filling you with false hopes.They speak visions from their own minds,not from the mouth of the LORD.

¹⁷They keep saying to those who despise Me,‘The LORD says that you will have peace,’and to everyone who walks in the stubbornness of his own heart,‘No harm will come to you.’

¹⁸But which of them has stood in the council of the LORDto see and hear His word?Who has given heed to His wordand obeyed it?

¹⁹Behold, the storm of the LORDhas gone out with fury,a whirlwind swirling downupon the heads of the wicked.

²⁰The anger of the LORD will not turn backuntil He has fully accomplished the purposes of His heart.In the days to comeyou will understand this clearly.

²¹I did not send these prophets,yet they have run with their message;I did not speak to them,yet they have prophesied.

²²But if they had stood in My council,they would have proclaimed My words to My peopleand turned them backfrom their evil ways and deeds.”

²³“Am I only a God nearby,” declares the LORD, “and not a God far away?”

²⁴“Can a man hide in secret places where I cannot see him?” declares the LORD.“Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?” declares the LORD.

²⁵“I have heard the sayings of the prophets who prophesy lies in My name: ‘I had a dream! I had a dream!’

²⁶How long will this continue in the hearts of these prophets who prophesy falsehood, these prophets of the delusion of their own minds?

²⁷They suppose the dreams that they tell one another will make My people forget My name, just as their fathers forgot My name through the worship of Baal.

²⁸Let the prophet who has a dream retell it, but let him who has My word speak it truthfully. For what is straw compared to grain?” declares the LORD.

²⁹“Is not My word like fire,” declares the LORD, “and like a hammer that smashes a rock?”

³⁰“Therefore behold,” declares the LORD, “I am against the prophets who steal from one another words they attribute to Me.”

³¹“Yes,” declares the LORD, “I am against the prophets who wag their own tongues and proclaim, ‘The LORD declares it.’”

³²“Indeed,” declares the LORD, “I am against those who prophesy false dreams and retell them to lead My people astray with their reckless lies. It was not I who sent them or commanded them, and they are of no benefit at all to these people,” declares the LORD.

False Prophecies

³³“Now when this people or a prophet or priest asks you, ‘What is the burden of the LORD?’ you are to say to them, ‘What burden? I will forsake you, declares the LORD.’

³⁴As for the prophet or priest or anyone who claims, ‘This is the burden of the LORD,’ I will punish that man and his household.

³⁵This is what each man is to say to his friend and to his brother: ‘What has the LORD answered?’ or ‘What has the LORD spoken?’

³⁶But refer no more to the burden of the LORD, for each man’s word becomes the burden, so that you pervert the words of the living God, the LORD of Hosts, our God.

³⁷Thus you are to say to the prophet: ‘What has the LORD answered you?’ and ‘What has the LORD spoken?’

³⁸But if you claim, ‘This is the burden of the LORD,’ then this is what the LORD says: Because you have said, ‘This is the burden of the LORD,’ and I specifically told you not to make this claim,

³⁹therefore I will surely forget you and will cast you out of My presence, both you and the city that I gave to you and your fathers.

⁴⁰And I will bring upon you everlasting shame and perpetual humiliation that will never be forgotten.”

I Stretch Out My Hands to You

¹O LORD, hear my prayer.In Your faithfulness, give ear to my plea;in Your righteousness, answer me.

²Do not bring Your servant into judgment,for no one alive is righteous before You.

³For the enemy has pursued my soul,crushing my life to the ground,making me dwell in darknesslike those long since dead.

⁴My spirit grows faint within me;my heart is dismayed inside me.

⁵I remember the days of old;I meditate on all Your works;I consider the work of Your hands.

⁶I stretch out my hands to You;my soul thirsts for You like a parched land.Selah

⁷Answer me quickly, O LORD;my spirit fails.Do not hide Your face from me,or I will be like those who descend to the Pit.

⁸Let me hear Your loving devotion in the morning,for I have put my trust in You.Teach me the way I should walk,for to You I lift up my soul.

⁹Deliver me from my enemies, O LORD;I flee to You for refuge.

¹⁰Teach me to do Your will,for You are my God.May Your good Spirit lead meon level ground.

¹¹For the sake of Your name, O LORD,revive me.In Your righteousness,bring my soul out of trouble.

¹²And in Your loving devotion,cut off my enemies.Destroy all who afflict me,for I am Your servant.