God the Righteous Judge

A Psalm of Asaph.

Isaiah Assures Deliverance^(A)

19 And ^(B)so it was, when King Hezekiah heard it, that he tore his clothes, covered himself with ^(C)sackcloth, and went into the house of the Lord. ² Then he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz. ³ And they said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah: ‘This day is a day of trouble, and rebuke, and blasphemy; for the children have come to birth, but there is no strength to ^[a]bring them forth. ^4 (D)It may be that the Lord your God will hear all the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to ^(E)reproach the living God, and will ^(F)rebuke the words which the Lord your God has heard. Therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.’ ”

⁵ So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah. ^6 (G)And Isaiah said to them, “Thus you shall say to your master, ‘Thus says the Lord: “Do not be ^(H)afraid of the words which you have heard, with which the ^(I)servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed Me. ⁷ Surely I will send ^(J)a spirit upon him, and he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.” ’ ”

Sennacherib’s Threat and Hezekiah’s Prayer^(K)

⁸ Then the Rabshakeh returned and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah, for he heard that he had departed ^(L)from Lachish. ⁹ And ^(M)the king heard concerning Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, “Look, he has come out to make war with you.” So he again sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, ¹⁰ “Thus you shall speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying: ‘Do not let your God ^(N)in whom you trust deceive you, saying, “Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.” ¹¹ Look! You have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands by utterly destroying them; and shall you be delivered? ^12 (O)Have the gods of the nations delivered those whom my fathers have destroyed, Gozan and Haran and Rezeph, and the people of ^(P)Eden who were in Telassar? ^13 (Q)Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah?’ ”

^14 (R)And 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 Then Hezekiah prayed before the Lord, and said: “O Lord God of Israel, the One ^(S)who dwells between the cherubim, ^(T)You are God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. ^16 (U)Incline Your ear, O Lord, and hear; ^(V)open Your eyes, O Lord, and see; and hear the words of Sennacherib, ^(W)which he has sent to reproach the living God. ¹⁷ Truly, Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands, ¹⁸ and have cast their gods into the fire; for they were ^(X)not gods, but ^(Y)the work of men’s hands—wood and stone. Therefore they destroyed them. ¹⁹ Now therefore, O Lord our God, I pray, save us from his hand, ^(Z)that all the kingdoms of the earth may ^(AA)know that You are the Lord God, You alone.”

The Word of the Lord Concerning Sennacherib^(AB)

²⁰ Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ^(AC)‘Because you have prayed to Me against Sennacherib king of Assyria, ^(AD)I have heard.’ ²¹ This is the word which the Lord has spoken concerning him:

²⁹ ‘This shall be a ^(AQ)sign to you:

³² “Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the king of Assyria:

Sennacherib’s Defeat and Death^(AX)

³⁵ And ^(AY)it came to pass on a certain night that the ^[d]angel of the Lord went out, and killed in the camp of the Assyrians one hundred and eighty-five thousand; and when people arose early in the morning, there were the corpses—all dead. ³⁶ So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and went away, returned home, and remained at ^(AZ)Nineveh. ³⁷ Now it came to pass, as he was worshiping in the temple of Nisroch his god, that his sons ^(BA)Adrammelech and Sharezer ^(BB)struck him down with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat. Then ^(BC)Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place.

Hezekiah’s Life Extended^(BD)

20 In ^(BE)those days Hezekiah was sick and near death. And Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, went to him and said to him, “Thus says the Lord: ‘Set your house in order, for you shall die, and not live.’ ”

² Then he turned his face toward the wall, and prayed to the Lord, saying, ^3 (BF)“Remember now, O Lord, I pray, how I have walked before You in truth and with a loyal heart, and have done what was good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

⁴ And it happened, before Isaiah had gone out into the middle court, that the word of the Lord came to him, saying, ⁵ “Return and tell Hezekiah ^(BG)the leader of My people, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of David your father: ^(BH)“I have heard your prayer, I have seen ^(BI)your tears; surely I will heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of the Lord. ⁶ And I will add to your days fifteen years. I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria; and ^(BJ)I will defend this city for My own sake, and for the sake of My servant David.” ’ ”

⁷ Then ^(BK)Isaiah said, “Take a lump of figs.” So they took and laid it on the boil, and he recovered.

⁸ And Hezekiah said to Isaiah, ^(BL)“What is the sign that the Lord will heal me, and that I shall go up to the house of the Lord the third day?”

⁹ Then Isaiah said, ^(BM)“This is the sign to you from the Lord, that the Lord will do the thing which He has spoken: shall the shadow go forward ten degrees or go backward ten degrees?”

¹⁰ And Hezekiah answered, “It is an easy thing for the shadow to go down ten ^[e]degrees; no, but let the shadow go backward ten degrees.”

¹¹ So Isaiah the prophet cried out to the Lord, and ^(BN)He brought the shadow ten ^[f]degrees backward, by which it had gone down on the sundial of Ahaz.

The Babylonian Envoys^(BO)

^12 (BP)At that time ^[g]Berodach-Baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he heard that Hezekiah had been sick. ¹³ And ^(BQ)Hezekiah was attentive to them, and showed them all the house of his treasures—the silver and gold, the spices and precious ointment, and ^[h]all ^[i]his armory—all that was found among his treasures. There was nothing in his house or in all his dominion that Hezekiah did not show them.

¹⁴ Then Isaiah the prophet went to King Hezekiah, and said to him, “What did these men say, and from where did they come to you?”

So Hezekiah said, “They came from a far country, from Babylon.”

¹⁵ And he said, “What have they seen in your house?”

So Hezekiah answered, ^(BR)“They have seen all that is in my house; there is nothing among my treasures that I have not shown them.”

¹⁶ Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the Lord: ¹⁷ ‘Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house, and what your fathers have accumulated until this day, ^(BS)shall be carried to Babylon; nothing shall be left,’ says the Lord. ¹⁸ ‘And ^(BT)they shall take away some of your sons who will ^[j]descend from you, whom you will beget; ^(BU)and they shall be ^(BV)eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.’ ”

¹⁹ So Hezekiah said to Isaiah, ^(BW)“The word of the Lord which you have spoken is good!” For he said, “Will there not be peace and truth at least in my days?”

Death of Hezekiah^(BX)

^20 (BY)Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah—all his might, and how he ^(BZ)made a ^(CA)pool and a ^[k]tunnel and ^(CB)brought water into the city—are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? ²¹ So ^(CC)Hezekiah ^[l]rested with his fathers. Then Manasseh his son reigned in his place.

Manasseh Reigns in Judah^(CD)

21 Manasseh ^(CE)was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hephzibah. ² And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, ^(CF)according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel. ³ For he rebuilt the ^[m]high places ^(CG)which Hezekiah his father had destroyed; he raised up altars for Baal, and made a ^[n]wooden image, ^(CH)as Ahab king of Israel had done; and he ^(CI)worshiped all ^[o]the host of heaven and served them. ^4 (CJ)He also built altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord had said, ^(CK)“In Jerusalem I will put My name.” ⁵ And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the ^(CL)two courts of the house of the Lord. ^6 (CM)Also he made his son pass through the fire, practiced ^(CN)soothsaying, used witchcraft, and consulted spiritists and mediums. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger. ⁷ He even set a carved image of ^[p]Asherah that he had made, in the ^[q]house of which the Lord had said to David and to Solomon his son, ^(CO)“In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put My name forever; ^8 (CP)and I will not make the feet of Israel wander anymore from the land which I gave their fathers—only if they are careful to do according to all that I have commanded them, and according to all the law that My servant Moses commanded them.” ⁹ But they paid no attention, and Manasseh ^(CQ)seduced them to do more evil than the nations whom the Lord had destroyed before the children of Israel.

¹⁰ And the Lord spoke ^(CR)by His servants the prophets, saying, ^11 (CS)“Because Manasseh king of Judah has done these abominations (^(CT)he has acted more wickedly than all the ^(CU)Amorites who were before him, and ^(CV)has also made Judah sin with his idols), ¹² therefore thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘Behold, I am bringing such calamity upon Jerusalem and Judah, that whoever hears of it, both ^(CW)his ears will tingle. ¹³ And I will stretch over Jerusalem ^(CX)the measuring line of Samaria and the plummet of the house of Ahab; ^(CY)I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down. ¹⁴ So I will forsake the ^(CZ)remnant of My inheritance and deliver them into the hand of their enemies; and they shall become victims of plunder to all their enemies, ¹⁵ because they have done evil in My sight, and have provoked Me to anger since the day their fathers came out of Egypt, even to this day.’ ”

^16 (DA)Moreover Manasseh shed very much innocent blood, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another, besides his sin by which he made Judah sin, in doing evil in the sight of the Lord.

¹⁷ Now ^(DB)the rest of the acts of ^(DC)Manasseh—all that he did, and the sin that he committed—are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? ¹⁸ So ^(DD)Manasseh ^[r]rested with his fathers, and was buried in the garden of his own house, in the garden of Uzza. Then his son Amon reigned in his place.

Amon’s Reign and Death^(DE)

^19 (DF)Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Meshullemeth the daughter of Haruz of Jotbah. ²⁰ And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, ^(DG)as his father Manasseh had done. ²¹ So he walked in all the ways that his father had walked; and he served the idols that his father had served, and worshiped them. ²² He ^(DH)forsook the Lord God of his fathers, and did not walk in the way of the Lord.

^23 (DI)Then the servants of Amon ^(DJ)conspired against him, and killed the king in his own house. ²⁴ But the people of the land ^(DK)executed all those who had conspired against King Amon. Then the people of the land made his son Josiah king in his place.

²⁵ Now the rest of the acts of Amon which he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? ²⁶ And he was buried in his tomb in the garden of Uzza. Then Josiah his son reigned in his place.

Josiah Reigns in Judah^(DL)

22 Josiah ^(DM)was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jedidah the daughter of Adaiah of ^(DN)Bozkath. ² And he did what was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in all the ways of his father David; he ^(DO)did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left.

Hilkiah Finds the Book of the Law^(DP)

^3 (DQ)Now it came to pass, in the eighteenth year of King Josiah, that the king sent Shaphan the scribe, the son of Azaliah, the son of Meshullam, to the house of the Lord, saying: ⁴ “Go up to Hilkiah the high priest, that he may count the money which has been ^(DR)brought into the house of the Lord, which ^(DS)the doorkeepers have gathered from the people. ⁵ And let them ^(DT)deliver it into the hand of those doing the work, who are the overseers in the house of the Lord; let them give it to those who are in the house of the Lord doing the work, to repair the damages of the house— ⁶ to carpenters and builders and masons—and to buy timber and hewn stone to repair the house. ⁷ However ^(DU)there need be no accounting made with them of the money delivered into their hand, because they deal faithfully.”

⁸ Then Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the scribe, ^(DV)“I have found the Book of the Law in the house of the Lord.” And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it. ⁹ So Shaphan the scribe went to the king, bringing the king word, saying, “Your servants have ^[s]gathered the money that was found in the house, and have delivered it into the hand of those who do the work, who oversee the house of the Lord.” ¹⁰ Then Shaphan the scribe showed the king, saying, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.” And Shaphan read it before the king.

¹¹ Now it happened, when the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, that he tore his clothes. ¹² Then the king commanded Hilkiah the priest, ^(DW)Ahikam the son of Shaphan, ^[t]Achbor the son of Michaiah, Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah a servant of the king, saying, ¹³ “Go, inquire of the Lord for me, for the people and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that has been found; for great is ^(DX)the wrath of the Lord that is aroused against us, because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book, to do according to all that is written concerning us.”

¹⁴ So Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam, Achbor, Shaphan, and Asaiah went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of ^(DY)Tikvah, the son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe. (She dwelt in Jerusalem in the Second Quarter.) And they spoke with her. ¹⁵ Then she said to them, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel, ‘Tell the man who sent you to Me, ¹⁶ “Thus says the Lord: ‘Behold, ^(DZ)I will bring calamity on this place and on its inhabitants—all the words of the book which the king of Judah has read— ^17 (EA)because they have forsaken Me and burned incense to other gods, that they might provoke Me to anger with all the works of their hands. Therefore My wrath shall be aroused against this place and shall not be quenched.’ ” ’ ¹⁸ But as for ^(EB)the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the Lord, in this manner you shall speak to him, ‘Thus says the Lord God of Israel: “Concerning the words which you have heard— ¹⁹ because your ^(EC)heart was tender, and you ^(ED)humbled yourself before the Lord when you heard what I spoke against this place and against its inhabitants, that they would become ^(EE)a desolation and ^(EF)a curse, and you tore your clothes and wept before Me, I also have heard you,” says the Lord. ²⁰ “Surely, therefore, I will ^[u]gather you to your fathers, and you ^(EG)shall ^[v]be gathered to your grave in peace; and your eyes shall not see all the calamity which I will bring on this place.” ’ ” So they brought back word to the king.