Not Because of Righteousness

9 “Hear, O Israel: you are ^(A)to cross over the Jordan today, to go in to dispossess nations ^(B)greater and mightier than you, cities great and fortified up to heaven, ² a people great and tall, ^(C)the sons of the Anakim, ^(D)whom you know, and of whom you have heard it said, ‘Who can stand before the sons of Anak?’ ³ Know therefore today that he who ^(E)goes over before you ^(F)as a consuming fire is the Lord your God. He will destroy them and subdue them before you. ^(G)So you shall drive them out and make them perish quickly, as the Lord has promised you.

^4 (H)“Do not say in your heart, after the Lord your God has thrust them out before you, ‘It is because of my righteousness that the Lord has brought me in to possess this land,’ whereas it is ^(I)because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is driving them out before you. ^5 (J)Not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart are you going in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations the Lord your God is driving them out from before you, and that he may confirm ^(K)the word that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

⁶ “Know, therefore, that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are ^(L)a stubborn people. ⁷ Remember and do not forget how you provoked the Lord your God to wrath in the wilderness. ^(M)From the day you came out of the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against the Lord. ⁸ Even ^(N)at Horeb you provoked the Lord to wrath, and the Lord was so angry with you that he was ready to destroy you. ^9 (O)When I went up the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant that the Lord made with you, I remained on the mountain ^(P)forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water. ¹⁰ And ^(Q)the Lord gave me the two tablets of stone written with the finger of God, and on them were all the words that the Lord had spoken with you on the mountain out of the midst of the fire ^(R)on the day of the assembly. ¹¹ And at the end of forty days and forty nights the Lord gave me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant. ¹² Then the Lord said to me, ^(S)‘Arise, go down quickly from here, for your people whom you have brought from Egypt have acted corruptly. They have ^(T)turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them; they have made themselves a metal image.’

The Golden Calf

^13 (U)“Furthermore, the Lord said to me, ‘I have seen this people, and behold, it is ^(V)a stubborn people. ^14 (W)Let me alone, that I may destroy them and ^(X)blot out their name from under heaven. And ^(Y)I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.’ ^15 (Z)So I turned and came down from the mountain, and ^(AA)the mountain was burning with fire. And the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands. ¹⁶ And ^(AB)I looked, and behold, you had sinned against the Lord your God. You had made yourselves a golden^[a] calf. ^(AC)You had turned aside quickly from the way that the Lord had commanded you. ¹⁷ So I took hold of the two tablets and threw them out of my two hands and broke them before your eyes. ¹⁸ Then I ^(AD)lay prostrate before the Lord ^(AE)as before, forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all the sin that you had committed, ^(AF)in doing what was evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger. ¹⁹ For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure that the Lord bore against you, so that he was ready to destroy you. ^(AG)But the Lord listened to me that time also. ²⁰ And the Lord was so angry with Aaron that he was ready to destroy him. And I prayed for Aaron also at the same time. ²¹ Then ^(AH)I took the sinful thing, the calf that you had made, and burned it with fire and crushed it, grinding it very small, until it was as fine as dust. And I threw the dust of it into the brook that ran down from the mountain.

²² “At ^(AI)Taberah also, and at ^(AJ)Massah and at ^(AK)Kibroth-hattaavah you provoked the Lord to wrath. ²³ And ^(AL)when the Lord sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying, ‘Go up and take possession of the land that I have given you,’ then you rebelled against the commandment of the Lord your God and ^(AM)did not believe him or obey his voice. ^24 (AN)You have been rebellious against the Lord from the day that I knew you.

^25 (AO)“So I lay prostrate before the Lord for these forty days and forty nights, because the Lord had said he would destroy you. ^26 (AP)And I prayed to the Lord, ‘O Lord God, do not destroy your people and your heritage, whom you have redeemed through your greatness, whom you have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand. ²⁷ Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Do not regard the stubbornness of this people, or their wickedness or their sin, ²⁸ lest the land from which you brought us say, ^(AQ)“Because the Lord was not able to bring them into the land that he promised them, and because he hated them, he has brought them out to put them to death in the wilderness.” ^29 (AR)For they are your people and your heritage, whom you brought out by your great power and by your outstretched arm.’

How Great Are Your Works

A Psalm. A Song for the Sabbath.

The Lord Reigns

Hezekiah Seeks Isaiah's Help

37 ^(A)As soon as King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes and covered himself with sackcloth and went into the house of the Lord. ² And he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the secretary, and the senior priests, covered with sackcloth, to the prophet ^(B)Isaiah the son of Amoz. ³ They said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah, ‘This day is a ^(C)day of distress, of rebuke, and of disgrace; ^(D)children have come to the point of birth, and there is no strength to bring them forth. ^4 (E)It may be that the Lord your God will hear the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to mock the living God, and will rebuke the words that the Lord your God has heard; therefore lift up your prayer for ^(F)the remnant that is left.’”

⁵ When the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah, ⁶ Isaiah said to them, “Say to your master, ‘Thus says the Lord: Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the young men of the king of Assyria have reviled me. ⁷ Behold, ^(G)I will put a spirit in him, so that ^(H)he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land, and ^(I)I will make him fall by the sword in his own land.’”

⁸ The Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria fighting against ^(J)Libnah, for he had heard that the king had left ^(K)Lachish. ⁹ Now the king heard concerning Tirhakah king of ^(L)Cush,^[a] “He has set out to fight against you.” And when he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, ¹⁰ “Thus shall you speak to Hezekiah king of Judah: ^(M)‘Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you by promising that Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. ¹¹ Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, devoting them to destruction. And shall you be delivered? ^12 (N)Have the gods of the nations delivered them, the nations that my fathers destroyed, ^(O)Gozan, ^(P)Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden who were in Telassar? ^13 (Q)Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, the king of Hena, or the king of Ivvah?’”

Hezekiah's Prayer for Deliverance

¹⁴ Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it; and Hezekiah went up to the house of the Lord, and spread it before the Lord. ¹⁵ And Hezekiah prayed to the Lord: ¹⁶ “O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, ^(R)enthroned above the cherubim, you are the God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; ^(S)you have made heaven and earth. ^17 (T)Incline your ear, O Lord, and hear; open your eyes, O Lord, and see; and hear ^(U)all the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to mock the living God. ¹⁸ Truly, O Lord, ^(V)the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations and their lands, ¹⁹ and have cast their gods into the fire. For they were no gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone. Therefore they were destroyed. ²⁰ So now, O Lord our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone are the Lord.”

Sennacherib's Fall

²¹ Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Because you have prayed to me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria, ²² this is the word that the Lord has spoken concerning him:

³⁰ “And this shall be the sign for you: this year you shall eat what grows of itself, and in the second year what springs from that. Then in the third year sow and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat their fruit. ³¹ And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah ^(AF)shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward. ^32 (AG)For out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant, and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors. ^(AH)The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

³³ “Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the king of Assyria: He shall not come into this city or shoot an arrow there or come before it with a shield or ^(AI)cast up a siege mound against it. ³⁴ By the way that he came, by the same he shall return, and he shall not come into this city, declares the Lord. ^35 (AJ)For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake and for ^(AK)the sake of my servant David.”

^36 (AL)And the angel of the Lord went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And when people arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies. ³⁷ Then Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and returned home and lived at ^(AM)Nineveh. ³⁸ And as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer, his sons, struck him down with the sword. And after they escaped into the land of ^(AN)Ararat, ^(AO)Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place.

The 144,000 of Israel Sealed

7 After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back ^(A)the four winds of the earth, ^(B)that no wind might blow on earth or sea or against any tree. ² Then I saw another angel ascending ^(C)from the rising of the sun, with ^(D)the seal of the living God, and he called with a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm earth and sea, ³ saying, ^(E)“Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees, until we have sealed the servants of our God ^(F)on their foreheads.” ⁴ And ^(G)I heard the number of the sealed, 144,000, sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel:

A Great Multitude from Every Nation

⁹ After this I looked, and behold, ^(H)a great multitude that no one could number, ^(I)from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, ^(J)clothed in white robes, with ^(K)palm branches in their hands, ¹⁰ and crying out with a loud voice, ^(L)“Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” ¹¹ And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and ^(M)the four living creatures, and they ^(N)fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, ^12 (O)saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”

¹³ Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, ^(P)clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?” ¹⁴ I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of ^(Q)the great tribulation. ^(R)They have washed their robes and ^(S)made them white ^(T)in the blood of the Lamb.