Day 197 of 365

¹In the seventeenth year of Pekah the son of Remaliah Ahaz the son of Jotham king of Judah began to reign.

²Twenty years old was Ahaz when he began to reign; and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem: and he did not do that which was right in the eyes of the Lord his God, like David his father.

³But he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, yes, and made his son to pass through the fire, according to the abominations of the nations, whom the Lord cast out from before the children of Israel.

⁴He sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places, and on the hills, and under every green tree.

⁵Then Rezin king of Syria and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel came up to Jerusalem to war: and they besieged Ahaz, but could not overcome him.

⁶At that time Rezin king of Syria recovered Elath to Syria, and drove the Jews from Elath; and the Syrians came to Elath, and lived there, to this day.

⁷So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath Pileser king of Assyria, saying, "I am your servant and your son. Come up, and save me out of the hand of the king of Syria, and out of the hand of the king of Israel, who rise up against me."

⁸Ahaz took the silver and gold that was found in the house of the Lord, and in the treasures of the king's house, and sent it for a present to the king of Assyria.

⁹The king of Assyria listened to him; and the king of Assyria went up against Damascus, and took it, and carried its people captive to Kir, and killed Rezin.

¹⁰King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath Pileser king of Assyria, and saw the altar that was at Damascus; and king Ahaz sent to Urijah the priest the fashion of the altar, and its pattern, according to all its workmanship.

¹¹Urijah the priest built an altar: according to all that king Ahaz had sent from Damascus, so Urijah the priest made it for the coming of king Ahaz from Damascus.

¹²When the king had come from Damascus, the king saw the altar: and the king drew near to the altar, and offered on it.

¹³He burnt his burnt offering and his meal offering, and poured his drink offering, and sprinkled the blood of his peace offerings, on the altar.

¹⁴The bronze altar, which was before the Lord, he brought from the forefront of the house, from between his altar and the house of the Lord, and put it on the north side of his altar.

¹⁵King Ahaz commanded Urijah the priest, saying, "On the great altar burn the morning burnt offering, and the evening meal offering, and the king's burnt offering, and his meal offering, with the burnt offering of all the people of the land, and their meal offering, and their drink offerings; and sprinkle on it all the blood of the burnt offering, and all the blood of the sacrifice; but the bronze altar shall be for me to inquire by."

¹⁶Urijah the priest did so, according to all that king Ahaz commanded.

¹⁷King Ahaz cut off the panels of the bases, and removed the basin from off them, and took down the sea from off the bronze oxen that were under it, and put it on a pavement of stone.

¹⁸The covered way for the Sabbath that they had built in the house, and the king's entry outside, turned he to the house of the Lord, because of the king of Assyria.

¹⁹Now the rest of the acts of Ahaz which he did, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?

²⁰Ahaz slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David: and Hezekiah his son reigned in his place.

¹In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah, Hoshea the son of Elah began to reign in Samaria over Israel for nine years.

²He did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, yet not as the kings of Israel who were before him.

³Against him came up Shalmaneser king of Assyria; and Hoshea became his servant, and brought him tribute.

⁴The king of Assyria found conspiracy in Hoshea; for he had sent messengers to So king of Egypt, and offered no tribute to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year: therefore the king of Assyria shut him up, and bound him in prison.

⁵Then the king of Assyria came up throughout all the land, and went up to Samaria, and besieged it three years.

⁶In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away to Assyria, and placed them in Halah, and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.

⁷It was so, because the children of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, who brought them up out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods,

⁸and walked in the statutes of the nations, whom the Lord cast out from before the children of Israel, and of the kings of Israel, which they made.

⁹The children of Israel did secretly things that were not right against the Lord their God: and they built them high places in all their cities, from the tower of the watchmen to the fortified city;

¹⁰and they set them up pillars and Asherim on every high hill, and under every green tree;

¹¹and there they burnt incense in all the high places, as did the nations whom the Lord carried away before them; and they worked wicked things to provoke the Lord to anger;

¹²and they served idols, of which the Lord had said to them, "You shall not do this thing."

¹³Yet the Lord testified to Israel, and to Judah, by every prophet, and every seer, saying, "Turn from your evil ways, and keep my commandments and my statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by my servants the prophets."

¹⁴Notwithstanding, they would not listen, but hardened their neck, like the neck of their fathers, who did not believe in the Lord their God.

¹⁵They rejected his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he testified to them; and they followed vanity, and became vain, and followed the nations that were around them, concerning whom the Lord had commanded them that they should not do like them.

¹⁶They forsook all the commandments of the Lord their God, and made them molten images, even two calves, and made an Asherah, and worshiped all the army of the sky, and served Baal.

¹⁷They caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire, and used divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke him to anger.

¹⁸Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of his sight: there was none left but the tribe of Judah only.

¹⁹Also Judah did not keep the commandments of the Lord their God, but walked in the statutes of Israel which they made.

²⁰The Lord rejected all the seed of Israel, and afflicted them, and delivered them into the hand of spoilers, until he had cast them out of his sight.

²¹For he tore Israel from the house of David; and they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king: and Jeroboam drove Israel from following the Lord, and made them sin a great sin.

²²The children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did; they did not depart from them;

²³until the Lord removed Israel out of his sight, as he spoke by all his servants the prophets. So Israel was carried away out of their own land to Assyria to this day.

²⁴The king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Avva, and from Hamath and Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel; and they possessed Samaria, and lived in the cities of it.

²⁵So it was, at the beginning of their dwelling there, that they did not fear the Lord: therefore the Lord sent lions among them, which killed some of them.

²⁶Therefore they spoke to the king of Assyria, saying, "The nations which you have carried away, and placed in the cities of Samaria, do not know the law of the god of the land. Therefore he has sent lions among them, and behold, they kill them, because they do not know the law of the god of the land."

²⁷Then the king of Assyria commanded, saying, "Carry there one of the priests whom you brought from there; and let them go and dwell there, and let him teach them the law of the god of the land."

²⁸So one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and lived in Bethel, and taught them how they should fear the Lord.

²⁹However every nation made gods of their own, and put them in the houses of the high places which the Samaritans had made, every nation in their cities in which they lived.

³⁰The men of Babylon made Succoth Benoth, and the men of Cuth made Nergal, and the men of Hamath made Ashima,

³¹and the Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak; and the Sepharvites burnt their children in the fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim.

³²[And they feared the Lord, yet they established their abominations in the houses of the high places which they made in Samaria, each nation in the city in which they dwelt.] And they feared the Lord, yet appointed from among themselves priests of the high places, who sacrificed for them in the houses of the high places.

³³And they feared the Lord, yet served their own gods, after the ways of the nations from among whom they had been carried away.

³⁴To this day they do what they did before: they do not fear the Lord, neither do they follow their statutes, or their ordinances, or the law or the commandment which the Lord commanded the children of Jacob, whom he named Israel;

³⁵with whom the Lord had made a covenant, and commanded them, saying, "You shall not fear other gods, nor bow yourselves to them, nor serve them, nor sacrifice to them;

³⁶but you shall fear the Lord, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt with great power and with an outstretched arm, and you shall bow yourselves to him, and you shall sacrifice to him.

³⁷The statutes and the ordinances, and the law and the commandment, which he wrote for you, you shall observe to do forevermore. You shall not fear other gods.

³⁸You shall not forget the covenant that I have made with you; neither shall you fear other gods.

³⁹But you shall fear the Lord your God; and he will deliver you out of the hand of all your enemies."

⁴⁰However they did not listen, but they did what they did before.

⁴¹So these nations feared the Lord, and served their engraved images. Their children likewise, and their children's children, as their fathers did, so they do to this day.

¹Now it happened in the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, that Hezekiah the son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign.

²He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign; and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem: and his mother's name was Abi the daughter of Zechariah.

³He did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that David his father had done.

⁴He removed the high places, and broke the pillars, and cut down the Asherah: and he broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made; for in those days the children of Israel burned incense to it; and he called it Nehushtan.

⁵He trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel; so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor among them that were before him.

⁶For he joined with the Lord; he did not depart from following him, but kept his commandments, which the Lord commanded Moses.

⁷The Lord was with him; wherever he went forth he prospered: and he rebelled against the king of Assyria, and did not serve him.

⁸He struck the Philistines to Gaza and its borders, from the tower of the watchmen to the fortified city.

⁹It happened 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.

¹⁰At the end of three years they took it: in the sixth year of Hezekiah, which was the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel, Samaria was taken.

¹¹The king of Assyria carried Israel away to Assyria, and put them in Halah, and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes,

¹²because they did not obey the voice of the Lord their God, but transgressed his covenant, even all that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded, and would not hear it, nor do it.

¹³Now in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah, and took them.

¹⁴Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria to Lachish, saying, "I have offended; return from me. That which you put on me, I will bear." The king of Assyria appointed to Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.

¹⁵Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the house of the Lord, and in the treasures of the king's house.

¹⁶At that time, Hezekiah cut off the gold from the doors of the Lord's temple, and from the pillars which Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid, and gave it to the king of Assyria.

¹⁷The king of Assyria sent Tartan and Rabsaris and Rabshakeh from Lachish to king Hezekiah with a great army to Jerusalem. They went up and came to Jerusalem. When they had come up, they came and stood by the conduit of the upper pool, which is in the highway of the fuller's field.

¹⁸When they had called to the king, there came out to them Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebnah the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder.

¹⁹Rabshakeh said to them, "Say now to Hezekiah, 'Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria, "What confidence is this in which you trust?

²⁰You say (but they are but vain words), 'There is counsel and strength for war.' Now on whom do you trust, that you have rebelled against me?

²¹Now, behold, you trust in the staff of this bruised reed, even in Egypt. If a man leans on it, it will go into his hand, and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust on him.

²²But if you tell me, 'We trust in the Lord our God;' isn't that he whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away, and has said to Judah and to Jerusalem, 'You shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem?'

²³Now therefore, please give pledges to my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to set riders on them.

²⁴How then can you turn away the face of one captain of the least of my master's servants, and put your trust on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen?

²⁵Have 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.'"'"

²⁶Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, and Shebnah, and Joah, said to Rabshakeh, "Please speak to your servants in the Syrian language; for we understand it. Do not speak with us in the Jews' language, in the hearing of the people who are on the wall."

²⁷But Rabshakeh said to them, "Has my master sent me to your master, and to you, to speak these words? Hasn't he sent me to the men who sit on the wall, to eat their own dung, and to drink their own water with you?"

²⁸Then Rabshakeh stood, and cried with a loud voice in the Jews' language, and spoke, saying, "Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria.

²⁹Thus says the king, 'Do not let Hezekiah deceive you; for he will not be able to deliver you out of his hand.

³⁰Neither let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord, saying, "The Lord will surely deliver us, and this city shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria."

³¹Do not listen to Hezekiah.' For thus says the king of Assyria, 'Make your peace with me, and come out to me; and everyone of you eat of his vine, and everyone of his fig tree, and everyone drink the waters of his own cistern;

³²until 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, a land of olive trees and of honey, that you may live, and not die. Do not listen to Hezekiah, when he persuades you, saying, "The Lord will deliver us."

³³Has any of the gods of the nations ever delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria?

³⁴Where are the gods of Hamath, and of Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivvah? Have they delivered Samaria out of my hand?

³⁵Who are they among all the gods of the countries, that have delivered their country out of my hand, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?'"

³⁶But the people held their peace, and answered him not a word; for the king's commandment was, "Do not answer him."

³⁷Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, came with Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder, to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and told him the words of Rabshakeh.

¹Oh clap your hands, all you nations. Shout to God with the voice of triumph!

²For the Lord Most High is awesome. He is a great King over all the earth.

³He subdues nations under us, and peoples under our feet.

⁴He chooses our inheritance for us, the glory of Jacob whom he loved. Selah.

⁵God has gone up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet.

⁶Sing praise to God, sing praises. Sing praises to our King, sing praises.

⁷For God is the King of all the earth. Sing praises with understanding.

⁸God reigns over the nations. God sits on his holy throne.

⁹The princes of the peoples are gathered together, the people of the God of Abraham. For the shields of the earth belong to God. He is greatly exalted!

¹A false balance is an abomination to the Lord, but accurate weights are his delight.

²When pride comes, then comes shame, but with humility comes wisdom.

³The integrity of the upright shall guide them, but the perverseness of the treacherous shall destroy them.

⁴Riches do not profit in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death.

⁵The righteousness of the blameless will direct his way, but the wicked shall fall by his own wickedness.

⁶The righteousness of the upright shall deliver them, but the unfaithful will be trapped by evil desires.

⁷When a wicked man dies, hope perishes, and expectation of power comes to nothing.

⁸A righteous person is delivered out of trouble, and the wicked takes his place.

⁹With his mouth the godless man destroys his neighbor, but the righteous will be delivered through knowledge.

¹⁰When it goes well with the righteous, the city rejoices. When the wicked perish, there is shouting.

¹¹By the blessing of the upright, the city is exalted, but it is overthrown by the mouth of the wicked.

¹²One who despises his neighbor is void of wisdom, but a man of understanding holds his peace.

¹³One who brings gossip betrays a confidence, but one who is of a trustworthy spirit is one who keeps a secret.

¹⁴Where there is no wise guidance, the nation falls, but in the multitude of counselors there is victory.

¹⁵He who is collateral for a stranger will suffer for it, but he who refuses pledges of collateral is secure.

¹⁶A gracious woman obtains honor, but violent men obtain riches.

¹⁷The merciful man does good to his own soul, but he who is cruel troubles his own flesh.

¹⁸Wicked people earn deceitful wages, but one who sows righteousness reaps a sure reward.

¹⁹He who is truly righteous gets life. He who pursues evil gets death.

²⁰Those who are perverse in heart are an abomination to the Lord, but those whose ways are blameless are his delight.

²¹Most certainly, the evil man will not be unpunished, but the seed of the righteous will be delivered.

²²Like a gold ring in a pig's snout, is a beautiful woman who lacks discretion.

²³The desire of the righteous is only good. The expectation of the wicked is wrath.

²⁴There is one who scatters, and increases yet more. There is one who withholds more than is appropriate, but gains poverty.

²⁵The liberal soul shall be made fat. He who waters shall be watered also himself.

²⁶People curse someone who withholds grain, but blessing will be on the head of him who sells it.

²⁷He who diligently seeks good seeks favor, but he who searches after evil, it shall come to him.

²⁸He who trusts in his riches will fall, but the righteous shall flourish as the green leaf.

²⁹He who troubles his own house shall inherit the wind. The foolish shall be servant to the wise of heart.

³⁰The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life. He who is wise wins souls.

³¹Behold, the righteous shall be repaid in the earth; how much more the wicked and the sinner!