Day 265 of 365

¹The wilderness and the dry land will be glad. The desert will rejoice and blossom like a rose.

²It will blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing. Lebanon's glory Lebanon will be given to it, the excellence of Carmel and Sharon. They will see the Lord's glory, the excellence of our God.

³Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees.

⁴Tell those who have a fearful heart, "Be strong. Do not be afraid. Behold, your God will come with vengeance, God's retribution. He will come and save you.

⁵Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped.

⁶Then the lame man will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute will sing; for waters will break out in the wilderness, and streams in the desert.

⁷The burning sand will become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water. Grass with reeds and rushes will be in the habitation of jackals, where they lay.

⁸A highway will be there, a road, and it will be called The Holy Way. The unclean shall not pass over it, but it will be for those who walk in the Way. Wicked fools will not go there.

⁹No lion will be there, nor will any ravenous animal go up on it. They will not be found there; but the redeemed will walk there.

¹⁰The Lord's ransomed ones will return, and come with singing to Zion; and everlasting joy will be on their heads. They will obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing will flee away."

¹Now it happened in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah, that Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all of the fortified cities of Judah, and captured them.

²The king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem to king Hezekiah with a large army. He stood by the aqueduct from the upper pool in the fuller's field highway.

³Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, the recorder came out to him.

⁴Rabshakeh said to them, "Now tell Hezekiah, 'Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria, "What confidence is this in which you trust?

⁵I say that your counsel and strength for the war are only vain words. Now in whom do you trust, that you have rebelled against me?

⁶Behold, you trust in the staff of this bruised reed, even in Egypt, which 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 in him.

⁷But 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?'"

⁸Now therefore, please make a pledge 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.

⁹How 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?

¹⁰Have I come up now without the Lord against this land to destroy it? The Lord said to me, "Go up against this land, and destroy it."'"

¹¹Then Eliakim, Shebna and Joah said to Rabshakeh, "Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it; and do not speak to us in the Jews' language 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, who will eat their own dung and drink their own urine with you?"

¹³Then Rabshakeh stood, and called out with a loud voice in the Jews' language, and said, "Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria!

¹⁴Thus says the king, 'Do not let Hezekiah deceive you; for he will not be able to deliver you.

¹⁵Do not let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord, saying, "The Lord will surely deliver us. This city won't be given into the hand of the king of Assyria."'

¹⁶Do not listen to Hezekiah, for thus says the king of Assyria, 'Make your peace with me, and come out to me; and each of you eat from his vine, and each one from his fig tree, and each one of you drink the waters 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.

¹⁸Beware lest Hezekiah persuade you, saying, "The Lord will deliver us." Have any of the gods of the nations delivered their lands from the hand of the king of Assyria?

¹⁹Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they delivered Samaria from my hand?

²⁰Who are they among all the gods of these countries that have delivered their country out of my hand, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?'"

²¹But they remained silent, and said nothing in reply, for the king's commandment was, "Do not answer him."

²²Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and told him the words of Rabshakeh.

¹It happened, when king Hezekiah heard it, that he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the Lord's house.

²He sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and 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 trouble, and of rebuke, and of rejection; for the children have come to the birth, and there is no strength to bring forth.

⁴It may be the Lord your God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master has sent to defy the living God, and will rebuke the words which the Lord your God has heard. Therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.'"

⁵So the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah.

⁶Isaiah said to them, "Tell your master, 'Thus says the Lord, "Do not be afraid 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 and he will hear news, and will return to his own land. I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land."'"

⁸So Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah, for he had heard that he was departed from Lachish.

⁹He heard news concerning Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, "He has come out to fight against you." When he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying,

¹⁰"Thus you shall speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, 'Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying, "Jerusalem won't be given into the hand of the king of Assyria."

¹¹Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, by destroying them utterly. Shall you be delivered?

¹²Have the gods of the nations delivered them, which my fathers have destroyed, Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the children of Eden who were in Telassar?

¹³Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivvah?'"

¹⁴Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it. Then Hezekiah went up to the Lord's house, and spread it before the Lord.

¹⁵Hezekiah prayed to the Lord, saying,

¹⁶"Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, who is enthroned among the cherubim, you are the God, even you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth.

¹⁷Turn your ear, Lord, and hear. Open your eyes, Lord, and behold. Hear all of the words of Sennacherib, who has sent to defy the living God.

¹⁸Truly, Lord, the kings of Assyria have destroyed all the countries and their land,

¹⁹and have cast their gods into the fire; for they were no gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone; therefore they have destroyed them.

²⁰Now therefore, Lord our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you are the Lord, even you only."

²¹Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, "Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, 'Because you have prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria,

²²this is the word which the Lord has spoken concerning him. The virgin daughter of Zion has despised you and ridiculed you. The daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her head at you.

²³Whom have you defied and blasphemed? Against whom have you exalted your voice and lifted up your eyes on high? Against the Holy One of Israel.

²⁴By your servants, have you defied the Lord, and have said, "With the multitude of my chariots I have come up to the height of the mountains, to the innermost parts of Lebanon. I will cut down its tall cedars and its choice fir trees. I will enter into its farthest height, the forest of its fruitful field.

²⁵I have dug and drunk water, and with the sole of my feet I will dry up all the rivers of Egypt."

²⁶Have you not heard how I have done it long ago, and formed it in ancient times? Now I have brought it to pass, that it should be yours to destroy fortified cities, turning them into ruinous heaps.

²⁷Therefore their inhabitants had little power. They were dismayed and confounded. They were like the grass of the field, and like the green herb, like the grass on the housetops, and like a field before its crop has grown.

²⁸But I know your sitting down, your going out, your coming in, and your raging against me.

²⁹Because of your raging against me, and because your arrogance has come up into my ears, therefore will I put my hook in your nose and my bridle in your lips, and I will turn you back by the way by which you came.

³⁰This shall be the sign to you. You will eat this year that which grows of itself, and in the second year that which springs from the same; and in the third year sow and reap and plant vineyards, and eat their fruit.

³¹The remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah will again take root downward, and bear fruit upward.

³²For out of Jerusalem a remnant will go forth, and survivors will escape from Mount Zion. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.'

³³Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the king of Assyria, 'He will not come to this city, nor shoot an arrow there, neither will he come before it with shield, nor cast up a mound against it.

³⁴By the way that he came, by the same he shall return, and he shall not come to this city,' says the Lord.

³⁵'For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake, and for my servant David's sake.'"

³⁶The angel of the Lord went out and struck one hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the camp of the Assyrians. When men arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies.

³⁷So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, went away, returned to Nineveh, and stayed there.

³⁸It happened, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons struck him with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat. Esar Haddon his son reigned in his place.

¹Not to us, Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory, for your loving kindness, and for your truth's sake.

²Why should the nations say, "Where is their God, now?"

³But our God is in the heavens. He does whatever he pleases.

⁴Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands.

⁵They have mouths, but they do not speak. They have eyes, but they do not see.

⁶They have ears, but they do not hear. They have noses, but they do not smell.

⁷They have hands, but they do not feel. They have feet, but they do not walk, neither do they speak through their throat.

⁸Those who make them will be like them; yes, everyone who trusts in them.

⁹Israel, trust in the Lord! He is their help and their shield.

¹⁰House of Aaron, trust in the Lord! He is their help and their shield.

¹¹You who fear the Lord, trust in the Lord! He is their help and their shield.

¹²The Lord remembers us. He will bless us. He will bless the house of Israel. He will bless the house of Aaron.

¹³He will bless those who fear the Lord, both small and great.

¹⁴May the Lord increase you more and more, you and your children.

¹⁵Blessed are you by the Lord, who made heaven and earth.

¹⁶The heavens are the heavens of the Lord; but the earth has he given to the children of men.

¹⁷The dead do not praise Yah, neither any who go down into silence;

¹⁸But we will bless Yah, from this time forth and forevermore. Praise the Lord!

¹Better is a dry morsel with quietness, than a house full of feasting with strife.

²A servant who deals wisely will rule over a son who causes shame, and shall have a part in the inheritance among the brothers.

³The refining pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold, but the Lord tests the hearts.

⁴An evildoer heeds wicked lips. A liar gives ear to a mischievous tongue.

⁵Whoever mocks the poor reproaches his Maker. He who is glad at calamity shall not be unpunished.

⁶Children's children are the crown of old men; the glory of children are their parents.

⁷Arrogant speech isn't fitting for a fool, much less do lying lips fit a prince.

⁸A bribe is a precious stone in the eyes of him who gives it; wherever he turns, he prospers.

⁹He who covers an offense promotes love; but he who repeats a matter separates best friends.

¹⁰A rebuke enters deeper into one who has understanding than a hundred lashes into a fool.

¹¹An evil man seeks only rebellion; therefore a cruel messenger shall be sent against him.

¹²Let a bear robbed of her cubs meet a man, rather than a fool in his folly.

¹³Whoever rewards evil for good, evil shall not depart from his house.

¹⁴The beginning of strife is like breaching a dam, therefore stop contention before quarreling breaks out.

¹⁵He who justifies the wicked, and he who condemns the righteous, both of them alike are an abomination to the Lord.

¹⁶Why is there money in the hand of a fool to buy wisdom, seeing he has no understanding?

¹⁷A friend loves at all times; and a brother is born for adversity.

¹⁸A man void of understanding strikes hands, and becomes collateral in the presence of his neighbor.

¹⁹He who loves disobedience loves strife. One who builds a high gate seeks destruction.

²⁰One who has a perverse heart doesn't find prosperity, and one who has a deceitful tongue falls into trouble.

²¹He who becomes the father of a fool grieves. The father of a fool has no joy.

²²A cheerful heart makes good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.

²³A wicked man receives a bribe in secret, to pervert the ways of justice.

²⁴Wisdom is before the face of one who has understanding, but the eyes of a fool wander to the ends of the earth.

²⁵A foolish son brings grief to his father, and bitterness to her who bore him.

²⁶Also to punish the righteous is not good, nor to flog officials for their integrity.

²⁷He who spares his words has knowledge. He who is even tempered is a man of understanding.

²⁸Even a fool, when he keeps silent, is counted wise. When he shuts his lips, he is thought to be discerning.