Isaiah 36 - 37, 2 Kings 19, John 1:1-34, Psalm 63

Sennacherib Invades Judah

36^aNow it happened in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, that ^bSennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and seized them. ²And the ^aking of Assyria sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem to King Hezekiah with a heavy military force. And he stood by the ^bconduit of the upper pool on the highway of the ¹fuller’s field. ³Then ^aEliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and ^bShebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came out to him.

⁴Then ^aRabshakeh said to them, “Say now to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria, “What is this trust that you have? ⁵“I say, ‘Your counsel and might for the war are only ¹empty words.’ Now in whom do you trust, that ^ayou have rebelled against me? ⁶“Behold, you trust in the ^astaff of this crushed reed, even on Egypt, on which if a man leans, it will go into his ¹hand and pierce it. ^bSo is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him. ⁷“But if you say to me, ‘We trust in Yahweh our God,’ is it not He ^awhose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away and has said to Judah and to Jerusalem, ‘You shall worship before this altar’? ⁸“So now, ¹come make a bargain with my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to give riders for them. ⁹“How then can you ¹turn away one ²official of the least of my master’s servants and ^atrust in Egypt for chariots and for horsemen? ¹⁰“So now, have I come up ¹without the approval of Yahweh against this land to make it a ruin? ^aYahweh said to me, ‘Go up against this land and make it a ruin.’”’”

¹¹Then Eliakim and Shebna and Joah said to Rabshakeh, “Speak now to your servants in ^aAramaic, for we ¹understand it; and do not speak with us in ²^,^bJudean in the hearing of the people who are on the wall.” ¹²But Rabshakeh said, “Has my master sent me only to your master and to you to speak these words, and not to the men who sit on the wall, doomed to eat their own dung and drink their own urine with you?”

¹³Then Rabshakeh stood and ^acried with a loud voice in Judean and said, “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria. ¹⁴“Thus says the king, ‘Do not let Hezekiah ^adeceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you; ¹⁵and do not let Hezekiah make you ^atrust in Yahweh, saying, “Yahweh will surely deliver us, this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.” ¹⁶‘Do not listen to Hezekiah,’ for thus says the king of Assyria, ‘¹Make your peace with me and come out to me, and eat each of his ^avine and each of his fig tree, and drink each of the ^bwaters of his own cistern, ¹⁷until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards. ¹⁸‘Beware lest Hezekiah mislead you, saying, “^aYahweh will deliver us.” Has any one of the gods of the nations delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria? ¹⁹‘Where are the gods of ^aHamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of ^bSepharvaim? And when have they ^cdelivered Samaria from my hand? ²⁰‘Who among all the ^agods of these lands ¹have delivered their land from my hand, that ^bYahweh would deliver Jerusalem from my hand?’”

²¹But they were silent and ^aanswered him not a word, for the king’s commandment was, “Do not answer him.” ²²Then ^aEliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and ^bShebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn and told him the words of Rabshakeh.

Hezekiah Seeks Isaiah’s Help

37Now it happened that ^awhen King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and entered the house of Yahweh. ²Then he sent ^aEliakim, who was over the household with ^bShebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to ^cIsaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz. ³And they said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah, ‘This day is a ^aday of distress, reproof, and rejection; for ^bchildren have come to the point of breaking forth, but there is no strength to give birth. ⁴‘Perhaps Yahweh your God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to ¹^,^areproach the living God, and will reprove the words which Yahweh your God has heard. Therefore, lift up a prayer for ^bthe remnant that is left.’”

⁵So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah. ⁶And Isaiah said to them, “Thus you shall say to your master, ‘Thus says Yahweh, “^aDo not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the young men of the king of Assyria have blasphemed Me. ⁷“Behold, I will put a spirit in him so that he will ^ahear a report and ^breturn 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 ^aLibnah, for he had heard that ¹the king had set out from ^bLachish. ⁹Then he ^aheard them say concerning Tirhakah king of ¹^,^bEthiopia, “He has come out to fight against you.” So he heard it and sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, ¹⁰“Thus you shall say to Hezekiah king of ¹Judah, ‘^aDo not let your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying, “Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.” ¹¹‘^aBehold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands, devoting them to destruction. So will you be delivered? ¹²‘Did the gods of ¹those nations, which my fathers have brought to ruin, deliver them, even ^aGozan and ^bHaran and Rezeph and the sons of Eden who were in Telassar? ¹³‘Where 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 ¹letter from the hand of the messengers and read it, and he went up to the house of Yahweh and ²spread it out before Yahweh. ¹⁵And Hezekiah prayed to Yahweh saying, ¹⁶“O Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, ^awho is enthroned above the cherubim, You are the ^bGod, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. ^cYou have made heaven and earth. ¹⁷“^aIncline Your ear, O Yahweh, and hear; open Your eyes, O Yahweh, and see; and ^blisten to all the words of Sennacherib, who sent them to ¹^,^creproach the living God. ¹⁸“Truly, O Yahweh, the ^akings of Assyria have laid waste to all the countries and their lands ¹⁹and have cast their gods into the fire, for they were not gods but the ^awork of men’s hands, wood and stone. So they have ^bdestroyed them. ²⁰“But now, O Yahweh our God, ^asave us from his hand that ^ball the kingdoms of the earth may know that ¹You are Yahweh, You alone.”

Yahweh’s Answer Through Isaiah

²¹Then ^aIsaiah the son of Amoz sent word to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, ‘Because you have prayed to Me about Sennacherib king of Assyria, ²²this is the word that Yahweh has spoken against him: “She has despised you and mocked you,The ^avirgin ^bdaughter of Zion;She has ^cshaken her head behind you,The daughter of Jerusalem!

²³“Whom have you ¹^,^areproached and blasphemed?And against whom have you heightened your voiceAnd ²haughtily ^blifted up your eyes?Against the ^cHoly One of Israel!²⁴“Through your servants you have ¹reproached the Lord,And you have said, ‘With my many chariots I came up to the heights of the mountains,To the remotest parts of ^aLebanon;And I cut down its tall ^bcedars and its choice cypresses.And I will go to its ²highest peak, its thickest ^cforest.²⁵‘I dug wells and drank waters,And ^awith the sole of my feet I dried upAll the rivers of ¹Egypt.’²⁶“^aHave you not heard?Long ago I did it;From days of old I ^bformed it.Now ^cI have brought it to pass,That ^dyou should devastate fortified cities into ^eruinous heaps.²⁷“So their inhabitants were short of power;They were dismayed and put to shame;They were as the ^aplant of the field and as the green herb,As ^bgrass on the rooftops ¹is scorched before it rises.²⁸“But I ^aknow your sitting downAnd your going out and your coming inAnd your raging against Me.²⁹“Because of your raging against MeAnd because your ¹^,^apresumptuousness has come up to My ears,Therefore I will put My ^bhook in your noseAnd My ^cbridle in your lips,And I will turn you back ^dby the way which you came.

³⁰“Then this shall be the sign for you: ¹you will eat this year what ^agrows of its own accord, in the second year what springs from the same, and in the third year sow, reap, plant vineyards, and eat their fruit. ³¹“And the ^asurviving ^bremnant of the house of Judah will again ^ctake root downward and bear fruit upward. ³²“For out of Jerusalem will go forth a ^aremnant and out of Mount Zion ¹survivors. The ^bzeal of Yahweh of hosts will do this.”’

³³“Therefore, thus says Yahweh 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 ^asiege ramp against it. ³⁴‘^aBy the way that he came, by the same he will return, and he will not come to this city,’ declares Yahweh. ³⁵‘Indeed I will ^adefend this city to save it ^bfor My own sake and for My servant David’s sake.’”

The Defeat and Death of Sennacherib

³⁶Then the ^aangel of Yahweh went out and struck 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And ¹the men arose early in the morning, and behold, all of them were dead bodies. ³⁷So Sennacherib king of Assyria set out and ¹returned home and lived at ^aNineveh. ³⁸Now it happened that as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons struck him down with the sword; and they escaped into the land of ^aArarat. And ^bEsarhaddon his son became king in his place.

Isaiah Tells Hezekiah Not to Be Afraid

19^aNow it happened that when King Hezekiah heard it, he ^btore his clothes, ^ccovered himself with sackcloth, and entered the house of Yahweh. ²Then he sent Eliakim who was over the household with Shebna the scribe and the elders of the priests, ^acovered with sackcloth, to ^bIsaiah the prophet the son of Amoz. ³And they said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah, ‘This day is a day of distress, reproof, and rejection; for children have come to the point of breaking forth, but there is no strength to give birth. ⁴‘^aPerhaps Yahweh your God will hear all the words of Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent ^bto ¹reproach the living God, and will reprove the words which Yahweh your God has heard. Therefore, lift up a prayer for ^cthe remnant that is left.’” ⁵So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah. ⁶And Isaiah said to them, “Thus you shall say to your master, ‘Thus says Yahweh, “Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the ^ayoung men of the king of Assyria ^bhave blasphemed Me. ⁷“Behold, I will put a spirit in him so that ^ahe will hear a report and return to his own land. And ^bI will make him fall by the sword in his own land.”’”

Sennacherib Deceives Hezekiah

⁸Then Rabshakeh returned and found the king of Assyria fighting against ^aLibnah, for he had heard that ¹the king had set out from ^bLachish. ⁹Then he heard them say concerning Tirhakah king of ¹Ethiopia, “Behold, he has come out to fight against you.” So he sent messengers again to Hezekiah saying, ¹⁰“Thus you shall say to Hezekiah king of ¹Judah, ‘Do not ^alet your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying, “^bJerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.” ¹¹‘Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands, devoting them to destruction. So will you be delivered? ¹²‘^aDid the gods of ¹those nations which my fathers brought to ruin deliver them, even ^bGozan and ^cHaran and Rezeph and ^dthe sons of Eden who were in Telassar? ¹³‘^aWhere is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, and of Hena and Ivvah?’”

Hezekiah’s Prayer

¹⁴Then ^aHezekiah took the ¹letter from the hand of the messengers and read it, and he went up to the house of Yahweh and ²spread it out before Yahweh. ¹⁵And Hezekiah prayed before Yahweh and said, “O Yahweh, the God of Israel, ^awho is ¹enthroned above the cherubim, ^bYou are the God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. ¹⁶“^aIncline Your ear, O Yahweh, and hear; ^bopen Your eyes, O Yahweh, and see; and listen to the words of Sennacherib, who sent them ^cto ¹reproach the living God. ¹⁷“Truly, O Yahweh, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands ¹⁸and have put their gods into the fire, ^afor they were not gods but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone. So they have destroyed them. ¹⁹“But now, O Yahweh our God, I pray, save us from his hand ^athat all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, O ^bYahweh, are God.”

Isaiah Speaks of Sennacherib’s Fall

²⁰Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent word to Hezekiah saying, “Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, ‘Because you have prayed to Me about Sennacherib king of Assyria, ^aI have heard you.’ ²¹“This is the word that Yahweh has spoken against him: ‘She has despised you and mocked you,^aThe virgin daughter of Zion;She ^bhas shaken her head behind you,The daughter of Jerusalem!

²²‘Whom have you ¹^,^areproached and ^bblasphemed?And against whom have you heightened your voice,And ²haughtily lifted up your eyes?Against the ^cHoly One of Israel!²³‘^aThrough your messengers you have ¹reproached the Lord,And you have said, “With my many chariotsI came up to the heights of the mountains,To the remotest parts of Lebanon;And I ²cut down its tall cedars and its choice cypresses.And I ³entered its farthest lodging place, its ^bthickest forest.²⁴“I dug wells and drank foreign waters,And with the sole of my feet I ¹^,^adried upAll the rivers of ²Egypt.”²⁵‘^aHave you not heard?Long ago I did it;From days of old I formed it.^bNow I have brought it to pass,That you should devastate fortified cities into ruinous heaps.²⁶‘So their inhabitants were short of power,They were dismayed and put to shame;They were ^aas the plant of the field and as the green herb,As grass on the rooftops is scorched before it rises.²⁷‘But ^aI know your sitting down,And your going out and your coming in,And your raging against Me.²⁸‘Because of your raging against Me,And because your ¹presumptuousness has come up to My ears,Therefore I ^awill put My hook in your nose,And My bridle in your lips,And ^bI will turn you back by the way which you came.

²⁹‘Then this shall be ^athe sign for you: ¹you will eat this year what grows of its own accord, in the second year what springs from the same, and in the third year sow, reap, plant vineyards, and eat their fruit. ³⁰‘^aAnd the surviving remnant of the house of Judah will again take root downward and bear fruit upward. ³¹‘For out of Jerusalem will go forth a remnant, and ^aout of Mount Zion ¹survivors. ^bThe zeal of ²Yahweh will do this.

³²‘Therefore thus says Yahweh concerning the king of Assyria, “^aHe 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. ³³“^aBy the way that he came, by the same he will return, and he shall not come to this city,”’ declares Yahweh. ³⁴‘^aIndeed I will defend this city to save it for My own sake and ^bfor My servant David’s sake.’”

³⁵^aNow it happened that night, that the angel of Yahweh went out and struck 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And the ¹men arose early in the morning, and behold, all of ²them were dead bodies. ³⁶So ^aSennacherib king of Assyria set out and went away and returned home and lived at ^bNineveh. ³⁷Now it happened that as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, ¹^,^aAdrammelech and Sharezer struck him down with the sword; and they escaped into ^bthe land of Ararat. And ^cEsarhaddon his son became king in his place.

The Deity of Jesus Christ

1^aIn the beginning was ^bthe Word, and the Word was ^cwith God, and ^dthe Word was God. ²¹He was in the beginning with God. ³^aAll things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. ⁴^aIn Him was life, and the life was ^bthe Light of men. ⁵^aAnd the Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overtake it.

The Witness of John the Baptist

⁶There was a man having been sent from God, whose name was ¹^,^aJohn. ⁷¹He came ²^,^aas a witness, to bear witness about the Light, ^bso that all might believe through him. ⁸¹^,^aHe was not the Light, but he came to bear witness about the Light.

⁹There was ^athe true Light ¹which, coming into the world, enlightens everyone. ¹⁰He was in the world, and ^athe world ¹was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. ¹¹He came to what was His ¹own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. ¹²But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become ^achildren of God, even ^bto those who believe in His name, ¹³^awho were ¹born, not of ²blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

The Word Became Flesh

¹⁴And ^athe Word ^bbecame flesh, and ¹^,^cdwelt among us, and ^dwe beheld His glory, glory as of the ²only begotten from the Father, full of ^egrace and ^ftruth. ¹⁵John *^abore witness about Him and cried out, saying, “This was He of whom I said, ‘^bHe who comes after me ¹has been ahead of me, ^cfor He existed before me.’” ¹⁶For of His ^afullness ¹we have all received, and grace ²upon grace. ¹⁷For ^athe Law was given through Moses; ^bgrace and ^ctruth came through Jesus Christ. ¹⁸^aNo one has seen God at any time; ^bthe only begotten God who is ^cin the bosom of the Father, ^dHe has explained Him.

A Voice in the Wilderness

¹⁹And this is ^athe witness of John, when ^bthe ¹Jews sent to him priests and Levites ^cfrom Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” ²⁰And he confessed and did not deny, but confessed, “^aI am not the ¹Christ.” ²¹And they asked him, “What then? Are you ^aElijah?” And he *said, “I am not.” “Are you ^bthe Prophet?” And he answered, “No.” ²²Therefore, they said to him, “Who are you, so that we may give an answer to those who sent us? What do you say about yourself?” ²³He said, “I am ^aa voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the ¹Lord,’ as Isaiah the prophet said.”

²⁴Now they had been sent from the Pharisees. ²⁵And they asked him, and said to him, “Why then are you baptizing, if you are not the ¹Christ, nor Elijah, nor ^athe Prophet?” ²⁶John answered them, saying, “^aI baptize with water, but among you stands One whom you do not know. ²⁷“This One is ^aHe who comes after me, of whom I am not worthy to untie the ^bstrap of His sandal.” ²⁸These things took place in Bethany ^abeyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

²⁹On the next day, he *saw Jesus coming to him and *said, “Behold, ^athe Lamb of God who ^btakes away the sin of the world! ³⁰“This is He of whom I said, ‘^aAfter me comes a man who has been ¹ahead of me, ^bfor He existed before me.’ ³¹“I did not know ¹Him, but so that He might be manifested to Israel, I came baptizing with water.” ³²And John ^abore witness saying, “^bI have beheld the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and He abided on Him. ³³“And I did not know ¹Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘The One upon whom you see the Spirit descending and abiding on Him, ^athis is the One who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ ³⁴“And I myself have seen, and have borne witness that this is ^athe Son of God.”

My Soul Thirsts for You

A Psalm of David. ¹When he was in the wilderness of Judah.

O God, ^aYou are my God; I shall seek You ²earnestly;My soul ^bthirsts for You, my flesh ³yearns for You,In a ^cdry and weary land without water.²Thus I have ^abeheld You in the sanctuary,To see Your power and Your glory.³Because Your ^alovingkindness is better than life,My lips will laud You.⁴Thus I will bless You ^aas long as I live;I will ^blift up my hands in Your name.⁵My soul is ^asatisfied as with fatness and richness,And my mouth offers ^bpraises with lips of joyful songs.⁶When I remember You ^aon my bed,I meditate on You in the ^bnight watches,⁷For ^aYou have been my help,And in the ^bshadow of Your wings I sing for joy.⁸My soul ^aclings ¹to You;Your ^bright hand upholds me.⁹But those who ^aseek my ¹life to destroy it,Will go into the ²^,^bdepths of the earth.¹⁰¹They will be ^adelivered over to the power of the sword;They will be a ^bportion for foxes.¹¹But the ^aking will be glad in God;Everyone who ^bswears by Him will boast,For the ^cmouths of those who speak lies will be closed.