³⁴ “When Your people go out to battle against their enemies, wherever You send them, and when they pray to You toward this city which You have chosen and the temple which I have built for Your name,

⁶ and said: “O Lord God of our fathers, are You not ^(A)God in heaven, and ^(B)do You not rule over all the kingdoms of the nations, and ^(C)in Your hand is there not power and might, so that no one is able to withstand You? ⁷ Are You not ^(D)our God, who ^(E)drove out the inhabitants of this land before Your people Israel, and gave it to the descendants of Abraham ^(F)Your friend forever? ⁸ And they dwell in it, and have built You a sanctuary in it for Your name, saying, ^9 (G)‘If disaster comes upon us—sword, judgment, pestilence, or famine—we will stand before this temple and in Your presence (for Your ^(H)name is in this temple), and cry out to You in our affliction, and You will hear and save.’ ¹⁰ And now, here are the people of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir—whom You ^(I)would not let Israel invade when they came out of the land of Egypt, but ^(J)they turned from them and did not destroy them— ¹¹ here they are, rewarding us ^(K)by coming to throw us out of Your possession which You have given us to inherit. ¹² O our God, will You not ^(L)judge them? For we have no power against this great multitude that is coming against us; nor do we know what to do, but ^(M)our eyes are upon You.”

¹³ Now all Judah, with their little ones, their wives, and their children, stood before the Lord.

Daniel in the Lions’ Den

¹⁰ Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went home. And in his upper room, with his windows open ^(A)toward Jerusalem, he knelt down on his knees ^(B)three times that day, and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as was his custom since early days.

Sennacherib’s Defeat and Death^(A)

^20 (B)Now because of this King Hezekiah and ^(C)the prophet Isaiah, the son of Amoz, prayed and cried out to heaven. ^21 (D)Then the Lord sent an angel who cut down every mighty man of valor, leader, and captain in the camp of the king of Assyria. So he returned ^(E)shamefaced to his own land. And when he had gone into the temple of his god, some of his own offspring struck him down with the sword there.

⁴ So Judah gathered together to ask ^(A)help from the Lord; and from all the cities of Judah they came to seek the Lord.

³¹ So it was, when the captains of the chariots saw Jehoshaphat, that they said, “It is the king of Israel!” Therefore they surrounded him to attack; but Jehoshaphat ^(A)cried out, and the Lord helped him, and God diverted them from him.

^9 (A)Then Zerah the Ethiopian came out against them with an army of a million men and three hundred chariots, and he came to ^(B)Mareshah. ¹⁰ So Asa went out against him, and they set the troops in battle array in the Valley of Zephathah at Mareshah. ¹¹ And Asa ^(C)cried out to the Lord his God, and said, “Lord, it is ^(D)nothing for You to help, whether with many or with those who have no power; help us, O Lord our God, for we rest on You, and ^(E)in Your name we go against this multitude. O Lord, You are our God; do not let man prevail against You!”

¹² So the Lord ^(F)struck the Ethiopians before Asa and Judah, and the Ethiopians fled.

^6 (A)Yet I have chosen Jerusalem, that My name may be there, and I ^(B)have chosen David to be over My people Israel.’