The Daily Audio Bible

Hoshea Reigns over Israel

17 In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah, Hoshea the son of Elah became king over Israel in Samaria, and reigned for nine years. ² He did evil in the sight of the Lord, but not as the kings of Israel who came before him. ^3 [a]Shalmaneser [V] king of Assyria came up against him, and Hoshea became his servant and paid him tribute (money). ⁴ But the king of Assyria discovered a conspiracy in Hoshea, who 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 arrested him and bound him in prison.

⁵ Then the king of Assyria invaded all the land [of Israel] and went up to ^[b]Samaria and besieged it for three years.

Israel Captive

⁶ In the ninth year of Hoshea, ^[c]the king of Assyria took Samaria and carried [the people of] Israel into exile to Assyria, and settled them in Halah and in Habor, by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.

Why Israel Fell

⁷ Now this came about because the Israelites had sinned against the Lord their God, who had brought them up from the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and they had feared [and worshiped] other gods ⁸ and walked in the customs of the [pagan] nations whom the Lord had driven out before the sons (descendants) of Israel, and in the pagan customs of the kings of Israel which they had introduced. ⁹ The Israelites ascribed things to the Lord their God which were not true. They built for themselves high places [of worship] in all their towns, from [the lonely] lookout tower to the [populous] fortified city. ¹⁰ They set up for themselves sacred pillars (memorial stones) and ^[d]Asherim on every high hill and under every green tree. ¹¹ There they burned incense on all the high places, just as the [pagan] nations whom the Lord had deported before them; and they did evil and contemptible things, provoking the Lord [to anger]. ¹² And they served idols, of which the Lord had said to them, “You shall not do this thing.” ¹³ Yet the Lord warned Israel and Judah through all His prophets and every seer, saying, “Turn from your evil ways and keep My commandments and My statutes, in accordance with all the Law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by My servants the prophets.” ¹⁴ However they did not listen, but stiffened their necks as did their fathers who did not believe (trust in, rely on, remain steadfast to) the Lord their God. ¹⁵ They rejected His statutes and His covenant which He made with their fathers, as well as His warnings that he gave them. And they followed vanity [that is, false gods, idols] and became vain (empty-headed). They followed the [pagan practices of the] nations which surrounded them, although the Lord had commanded that they were not to do as they did. ¹⁶ They abandoned all the commandments of the Lord their God and made for themselves cast images of two calves; and they made an Asherah [idol] and worshiped all the [starry] host of heaven and served Baal. ¹⁷ They made their sons and their daughters pass through the fire [as human sacrifices], and used divination [to foretell the future] and enchantments; and they sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking Him to anger. ¹⁸ Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel and removed them from His sight; none [of the tribes] was left except the tribe of Judah.

¹⁹ Judah did not keep the commandments of the Lord their God either, but walked in the customs which Israel introduced. ²⁰ So the Lord rejected all the descendants of Israel (Jacob) and [repeatedly] afflicted them and handed them over to plunderers, until He had cast them out of His sight.

²¹ When He had torn Israel from the [royal] house of David, they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king. And Jeroboam drove Israel away from following the Lord and made them commit a great sin. ²² For the Israelites walked in all the [idolatrous] sins which Jeroboam committed; they did not turn from them ²³ until the Lord removed Israel from His sight, just as He had foretold through all His servants the prophets. So Israel went into exile from their own land to Assyria to this day [the date of this writing].

Cities of Israel Filled with Strangers

²⁴ The king of Assyria brought men from Babylon and from Cuthah and from Avva and from Hamath and Sepharvaim, and settled them in the cities of Samaria in place of the sons (people) of Israel. They took possession of Samaria and lived in its cities. ²⁵ Now when they began to live there, they did not fear the Lord; therefore the Lord sent lions among them which killed some of them. ²⁶ So the king of Assyria was told, “The nations whom you have sent into exile and settled in the cities of Samaria do not know the custom of the god of the land; so He has sent lions among them, and they are killing them because they do not know the manner of [worship demanded by] the god of the land.”

²⁷ Then the king of Assyria commanded, “Take back [to Samaria] one of the priests whom you brought from there, and have him go and live there; and have him teach the people the custom of the god of the land.” ²⁸ So one of the priests whom they had exiled from Samaria came [back] and lived in Bethel and taught them how they should fear [and worship] the Lord.

²⁹ But every nation still made gods of its own and put them in the houses (shrines) of the high places which the Samaritans had made, every nation in the cities where they lived. ³⁰ The men of Babylon made Succoth-benoth, the men of Cuth made Nergal, the men of Hamath made Ashima, ³¹ the Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak; and the Sepharvites burned their children in the fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim. ³² They also feared the Lord and appointed from among themselves priests of the high places, who sacrificed for them in the houses of the high places. ³³ They feared the Lord, yet served their own gods, following the custom of the nations from among whom they had been sent into exile.

³⁴ To this day they act in accordance with their former [pagan] customs: they do not [really] fear the Lord, nor do they obey their statutes and ordinances, nor the law, nor the commandments which the Lord commanded the sons (descendants) of Jacob, whom He named Israel; ³⁵ with whom the Lord had made a covenant and commanded them, saying, “You shall not fear other gods or bow yourselves to them nor serve them, nor sacrifice to them. ³⁶ But the Lord, who brought you up from the land of Egypt with great power and an outstretched arm, Him you shall fear, and to Him you shall bow yourselves down, and to Him you shall sacrifice. ³⁷ The statutes and the ordinances and the law and the commandment which He wrote for you [by the hand of Moses], you shall observe and do forever. You shall not fear (worship, serve) other gods. ³⁸ The covenant that I have made with you, you shall not forget; you shall not fear other gods. ³⁹ But the Lord your God you shall fear [and worship]; then He will rescue you from the hands of all your enemies.” ⁴⁰ However, they did not listen, but they acted in accordance with their former custom. ⁴¹ So these nations [superficially] feared the Lord; they also served their idols, as did their children and their children’s children, just as their fathers did, so do they to this day [the date of this writing].

Hezekiah Reigns over Judah

18 Now it came about in the third year of Hoshea the son of Elah king of Israel, Hezekiah the son of Ahaz king of Judah became king. ² He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Abi the daughter of Zechariah. ³ Hezekiah did right in the sight of the Lord, in accordance with everything that David his father (ancestor) had done. ⁴ He removed the high places [of pagan worship], broke down the images (memorial stones) and cut down the Asherim. He also crushed to pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the Israelites had burned incense to it; and it was called ^[e]Nehushtan [a bronze sculpture].^{(A) 5} Hezekiah trusted in and relied confidently on the Lord, the God of Israel; so that after him there was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, nor among those who were before him. ⁶ For he clung to the Lord; he did not turn away from [faithfully] following Him, but he kept His commandments, which the Lord had commanded Moses.

Hezekiah Victorious

⁷ And the Lord was with Hezekiah; he was successful wherever he went. And he rebelled against the king of Assyria and refused to serve him. ⁸ He defeated the Philistines as far as Gaza [the most distant city] and its borders, from the [isolated] lookout tower to the [populous] fortified city.

⁹ Now in the fourth year of King Hezekiah, which was the seventh of Hoshea the son of Elah king of Israel, Shalmaneser the king of Assyria went up against Samaria and besieged it. ¹⁰ At the end of three years they captured it; in the sixth year of Hezekiah, which was the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Israel, Samaria was taken. ¹¹ Then the king of Assyria sent Israel into exile to Assyria, and put them in Halah, and on the Habor, the river of [the city of] Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes, ¹² because they did not obey the voice of the Lord their God, but broke His covenant, everything that Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded; and they would not listen nor do it.

Paul in Macedonia and Greece

20 After the uproar had ended, Paul sent for the disciples, and when he had encouraged them he told them goodbye, and set off to go to ^[a]Macedonia. ² After he had gone through those districts and had encouraged the believers, he came to Greece. ³ And he stayed three months, and when a plot was formed against him by the Jews as he was about to set sail for Syria, he decided to return through Macedonia (northern Greece). ⁴ He was accompanied by Sopater of Berea, the son of Pyrrhus, and by Aristarchus and Secundus of the Thessalonians, and by Gaius of Derbe, and Timothy, and Tychicus and Trophimus of Asia. ⁵ These men went on ahead and were waiting for us (including Luke) at Troas. ⁶ We sailed from Philippi after the days of Unleavened Bread (Passover week), and within five days we reached them at Troas, where we stayed for seven days.

⁷ Now on the first day of the week (Sunday), when we were gathered together to break bread (share communion), Paul began talking with them, intending to leave the next day; and he kept on with his message until midnight. ⁸ Now there were many lamps in the upper room where we were assembled, ⁹ and there was a young man named Eutychus (“Lucky”) sitting on the window sill. He was sinking into a deep sleep, and as Paul ^[b]kept on talking longer and longer, he was completely overcome by sleep and fell down from the third story; and he was picked up dead. ¹⁰ But Paul went down and threw himself on him and embraced him, and said [to those standing around him], “Do not be troubled, because ^[c]he is alive.” ¹¹ When Paul had gone back upstairs and had broken the bread and eaten, he talked [informally and confidentially] with them for a long time—until daybreak [in fact]—and then he left. ¹² They took the boy [Eutychus] home alive, and were greatly comforted and encouraged.

Troas to Miletus

¹³ But we went on ahead to the ship and set sail for Assos, intending to take Paul on board there; for that was what he had arranged, intending himself to go [a shorter route] by land. ¹⁴ So when he met us at Assos, we took him on board and sailed on to Mitylene. ¹⁵ Sailing from there, we arrived the next day [at a point] opposite Chios; the following day we crossed over to Samos, and the next day we arrived at Miletus [about 30 miles south of Ephesus]. ¹⁶ Paul had decided to sail on past Ephesus so that he would not end up spending time [unnecessarily] in [the province of] Asia (modern Turkey); for he was in a hurry to be in Jerusalem, if possible, on the day of ^[d]Pentecost.

Farewell to Ephesus

¹⁷ However, from Miletus he sent word to Ephesus and summoned the elders of the church [to meet him there]. ¹⁸ And when they arrived he said to them:

“You know well how I [lived when I] was with you, from the first day that I set foot in Asia [until now], ¹⁹ serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and trials which came on me because of the plots of the Jews [against me]; ²⁰ [you know] how I did not shrink back in fear from telling you anything that was for your benefit, or from teaching you in public meetings, and from house to house, ²¹ solemnly [and wholeheartedly] testifying to both Jews and Greeks, urging them to turn in repentance to God and [to have] faith in our Lord Jesus Christ [for salvation]. ²² And now, compelled by the Spirit and obligated by my convictions, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there, ²³ except that the Holy Spirit solemnly [and emphatically] affirms to me in city after city that imprisonment and suffering await me. ²⁴ But I do not consider my life as something of value or dear to me, so that I may [with joy] finish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify faithfully of the good news of God’s [precious, undeserved] grace [which makes us free of the guilt of sin and grants us eternal life].

²⁵ “And now, listen carefully: I know that none of you, among whom I went about preaching the kingdom, ^[e]will see me again. ²⁶ For that reason I testify to you on this [our parting] day that I am innocent of the blood of all people. ²⁷ For I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose and plan of God. ²⁸ Take care and be on guard for yourselves and for the whole flock over which the Holy Spirit has appointed you as overseers, to shepherd (tend, feed, guide) the church of God which He bought with His own blood. ²⁹ I know that after I am gone, [false teachers like] ferocious wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; ³⁰ even from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse and distorted things, to draw away the disciples after themselves [as their followers]. ³¹ Therefore be continually alert, remembering that for three years, night or day, I did not stop admonishing and advising each one [of you] with tears. ³² And now I commend you to God [placing you in His protective, loving care] and [I commend you] to the word of His grace [the counsel and promises of His unmerited favor]. His grace is able to build you up and to give you the [rightful] inheritance among all those who are sanctified [that is, among those who are set apart for God’s purpose—all believers]. ³³ I had no desire for anyone’s silver or gold or [expensive] clothes. ³⁴ You know personally that these hands ministered to my own needs [working in manual labor] and to [those of] the people who were with me. ³⁵ In everything I showed you [by example] that by working hard in this way you must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He Himself said, ‘It is more blessed [and brings greater joy] to give than to receive.’”

³⁶ When he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all. ³⁷ And ^[f]they began to weep openly and threw their arms around Paul’s neck, and repeatedly kissed him, ³⁸ grieving and distressed especially over the word which he had spoken, that they would not see him again. And they accompanied him to the ship.

The Whole Creation Invoked to Praise the Lord.