Answered Prayer for Deliverance from Adversaries

To the Chief Musician. With ^[a]stringed instruments. A ^[b]Contemplation of David ^(A)when the Ziphites went and said to Saul, “Is David not hiding with us?”

Israel Carried Captive to Assyria^(A)

⁵ Now ^(B)the king of Assyria went throughout all the land, and went up to Samaria and besieged it for three years. ^6 (C)In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria took Samaria and ^(D)carried Israel away to Assyria, ^(E)and placed them in Halah and by the Habor, the River of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.

⁷ For ^(F)so it was that the children of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, who had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and they had ^(G)feared other gods, ⁸ and ^(H)had walked in the statutes of the nations whom the Lord had cast out from before the children of Israel, and of the kings of Israel, which they had made. ⁹ Also the children of Israel secretly did against the Lord their God things that were not right, and they built for themselves ^[a]high places in all their cities, ^(I)from watchtower to fortified city. ^10 (J)They set up for themselves sacred pillars and ^(K)wooden images^{[b] (L)}on every high hill and under every green tree. ¹¹ There they burned incense on all the high places, like the nations whom the Lord had carried away before them; and they did wicked things to provoke the Lord to anger, ¹² for they served idols, ^(M)of which the Lord had said to them, ^(N)“You shall not do this thing.”

¹³ Yet the Lord testified against Israel and against Judah, by all of His ^(O)prophets, ^(P)every seer, saying, ^(Q)“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.” ¹⁴ Nevertheless they would not hear, but ^(R)stiffened their necks, like the necks of their fathers, who ^(S)did not believe in the Lord their God. ¹⁵ And they ^(T)rejected His statutes ^(U)and His covenant that He had made with their fathers, and His testimonies which He had testified against them; they followed ^(V)idols, ^(W)became idolaters, and went after the nations who were all around them, concerning whom the Lord had charged them that they should ^(X)not do like them. ¹⁶ So they left all the commandments of the Lord their God, ^(Y)made for themselves a molded image and two calves, ^(Z)made a wooden image and worshiped all the ^(AA)host of heaven, ^(AB)and served Baal. ^17 (AC)And they caused their sons and daughters to pass through the fire, ^(AD)practiced witchcraft and soothsaying, and ^(AE)sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger. ¹⁸ Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel, and removed them from His sight; there was none left ^(AF)but the tribe of Judah alone.

^29 (A)“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build the tombs of the prophets and ^[a]adorn the monuments of the righteous, ³⁰ and say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.’

³¹ “Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that ^(B)you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. ^32 (C)Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers’ guilt. ³³ Serpents, ^(D)brood^[b] of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell? ^34 (E)Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes: ^(F)some of them you will kill and crucify, and ^(G)some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city, ^35 (H)that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, ^(I)from the blood of righteous Abel to ^(J)the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. ³⁶ Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.

Jesus Laments over Jerusalem^(K)

^37 (L)“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets ^(M)and stones those who are sent to her! How often ^(N)I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks ^(O)under her wings, but you were not willing! ³⁸ See! Your house is left to you desolate; ³⁹ for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, ^(P)‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’ ”