Sanitary, Ritual, and Humanitarian Precepts

⁹ “When you are encamped against your enemies, you shall guard against every evil thing.

¹⁸ As for you, keep away from the things devoted to destruction, so as not to covet^[a] and take any of the devoted things and make the camp of Israel an object for destruction, bringing trouble upon it.^(A)

The Rider on the White Horse

¹¹ Then I saw heaven opened, and there was a white horse! Its rider is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and wages war.^{(A) 12} His eyes are like^[a] a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name inscribed that no one knows but himself.^{(B) 13} He is clothed in a robe dipped in^[b] blood, and his name is called The Word of God.^{(C) 14} And the armies of heaven, wearing fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses.

The Reforms of Jehoshaphat

⁴ Jehoshaphat resided at Jerusalem; then he went out again among the people, from Beer-sheba to the hill country of Ephraim, and brought them back to the Lord, the God of their ancestors.^(A)

²⁶ Then all the Israelites, the whole army, went back to Bethel and wept, sitting there before the Lord; they fasted that day until evening. Then they offered burnt offerings and sacrifices of well-being before the Lord.^(A)

¹⁴ Soldiers also asked him, “And we, what should we do?” He said to them, “Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages.”^(A)

²⁰ Hezekiah did this throughout all Judah; he did what was good and right and faithful before the Lord his God.^{(A) 21} And every work that he undertook in the service of the house of God and in accordance with the law and the commandments, to seek his God, he did with all his heart, and he prospered.

Sennacherib’s Invasion

32 After these things and these acts of faithfulness, King Sennacherib of Assyria came and invaded Judah and encamped against the fortified cities, thinking to win them for himself.^{(B) 2} When Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib had come and intended to fight against Jerusalem, ³ he planned with his officers and his warriors to stop the flow of the springs that were outside the city, and they helped him. ⁴ A great many people were gathered, and they stopped all the springs and the wadi that flowed through the land, saying, “Why should the Assyrian kings come and find water in abundance?”^{(C) 5} Hezekiah^[a] strengthened himself and built up the entire wall that was broken down and raised towers on it,^[b] and outside it he built another wall; he also strengthened the Millo in the city of David and made weapons and shields in abundance.^{(D) 6} He appointed combat commanders over the people and gathered them together to him in the square at the gate of the city and spoke encouragingly to them, saying,^{(E) 7} “Be strong and of good courage. Do not be afraid or dismayed before the king of Assyria and all the horde that is with him, for there is one greater with us than with him.^{(F) 8} With him is an arm of flesh, but with us is the Lord our God, to help us and to fight our battles.” The people were encouraged by the words of King Hezekiah of Judah.^(G)

⁹ After this, while King Sennacherib of Assyria was at Lachish with all his forces, he sent his servants to Jerusalem to King Hezekiah of Judah and to all the people of Judah who were in Jerusalem, saying, ¹⁰ “Thus says King Sennacherib of Assyria: On what are you relying, that you undergo the siege of Jerusalem? ¹¹ Is not Hezekiah misleading you, handing you over to die by famine and by thirst, when he tells you, ‘The Lord our God will save us from the hand of the king of Assyria’?^{(H) 12} Was it not this same Hezekiah who took away his high places and his altars and commanded Judah and Jerusalem, saying, ‘Before one altar you shall worship, and upon it you shall make your offerings’?^{(I) 13} Do you not know what I and my ancestors have done to all the peoples of other lands? Were the gods of the nations of those lands at all able to save their lands out of my hand?^{(J) 14} Who among all the gods of those nations that my ancestors utterly destroyed was able to save his people from my hand, that your God should be able to save you from my hand?^{(K) 15} Now, therefore, do not let Hezekiah deceive you or mislead you in this fashion, and do not believe him, for no god of any nation or kingdom has been able to save his people from my hand or from the hand of my ancestors. How much less will your God save you out of my hand!”^(L)

¹⁶ His servants said still more against the Lord God and against his servant Hezekiah. ¹⁷ He also wrote letters to throw contempt on the Lord the God of Israel and to speak against him, saying, “Just as the gods of the nations in other lands did not rescue their people from my hands, so the God of Hezekiah will not rescue his people from my hand.”^{(M) 18} They shouted it with a loud voice in the language of Judah to the people of Jerusalem who were on the wall, to frighten and terrify them, in order that they might take the city.^{(N) 19} They spoke of the God of Jerusalem as if he were like the gods of the peoples of the earth, which are the work of human hands.^(O)

Sennacherib’s Defeat and Death

²⁰ Then King Hezekiah and the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz prayed because of this and cried to heaven.^{(P) 21} And the Lord sent an angel who cut off all the mighty warriors and commanders and officers in the camp of the king of Assyria. So he returned in disgrace to his own land. When he came into the house of his god, some of his own sons struck him down there with the sword.^{(Q) 22} So the Lord saved Hezekiah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem from the hand of King Sennacherib of Assyria and from the hand of all his enemies; he gave them rest^[c] on every side.

³ Jehoshaphat was afraid; he set himself to seek the Lord and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah.^{(A) 4} Judah assembled to seek help from the Lord; from all the towns of Judah they came to seek the Lord.

Jehoshaphat’s Prayer and Victory

⁵ Jehoshaphat stood in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem, in the house of the Lord, before the new court, ⁶ and said, “O Lord, God of our ancestors, are you not God in heaven? Do you not rule over all the kingdoms of the nations? In your hand are power and might, so that no one is able to withstand you.^{(B) 7} Did you not, O our God, drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel and give it forever to the descendants of your friend Abraham?^{(C) 8} They have lived in it and in it have built you a sanctuary for your name, saying, ⁹ ‘If disaster comes upon us, the sword, judgment,^[a] or pestilence, or famine, we will stand before this house and before you, for your name is in this house, and cry to you in our distress, and you will hear and save.’^{(D) 10} See now, the people of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, whom you would not let Israel invade when they came from the land of Egypt and whom they avoided and did not destroy,^{(E) 11} they reward us by coming to drive us out of your possession that you have given us to inherit.^{(F) 12} O our God, will you not execute judgment upon them? For we are powerless against this great multitude that is coming against us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.”^(G)

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

¹¹ Israel has sinned; they have transgressed my covenant that I imposed on them. They have taken some of the devoted things; they have stolen, they have acted deceitfully, and they have put them among their own belongings.^{(A) 12} Therefore the Israelites are unable to stand before their enemies; they turn their backs to their enemies because they have become a thing devoted for destruction themselves. I will be with you no more unless you destroy the devoted things from among you. ¹³ Proceed to sanctify the people and say, ‘Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow, for thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: There are devoted things among you, O Israel; you will be unable to stand before your enemies until you take away the devoted things from among you.^(B)