The Daily Audio Bible

Sennacherib’s invasion

32 After these things and these faithful acts, Assyria’s King Sennacherib invaded Judah and attacked its fortified cities, intending to capture them. ² When Hezekiah realized that Sennacherib also planned on fighting Jerusalem, ³ he consulted with his officials and soldiers about stopping up the springs outside the city, and they supported him. ⁴ A large force gathered to stop up all the springs and the streams that flowed through the land. “Why should the kings of Assyria come and find plenty of water?” they asked. ⁵ Hezekiah vigorously rebuilt all the broken sections of the wall, erected towers, constructed another wall outside the first, reinforced the terrace of David’s City, and made a large supply of weapons and shields. ⁶ He appointed military officers over the troops, assembled them in the square of the city gate, and spoke these words of encouragement: ⁷ “Be brave and be strong! Don’t let the king of Assyria and all those warriors he brings with him scare you or cause you dismay, because our forces are greater than his.^{[a] 8} All he has is human strength, but we have the Lord our God, who will help us fight our battles!”

The troops trusted Judah’s King Hezekiah.

⁹ After this Assyria’s King Sennacherib, who was attacking Lachish with all his forces, sent his servants to Jerusalem with the following message for Judah’s King Hezekiah and all the people of Judah who were in Jerusalem:

¹⁶ The Assyrian king’s servants continued to make fun of the Lord God and his servant Hezekiah. ¹⁷ He wrote other letters insulting the Lord God of Israel, defying him by saying, “Just as the gods of the nations in other countries couldn’t rescue their people from my power, Hezekiah’s god won’t be able to rescue his people from my power.” ¹⁸ Then they shouted loudly in Hebrew^[b] at the people of Jerusalem gathered on the wall, in an attempt to frighten and demoralize them, in order to capture the city. ¹⁹ They spoke about the God of Jerusalem as though he were the work of human hands, like the gods of the other peoples of the earth. ²⁰ King Hezekiah and the prophet Isaiah, Amoz’s son, prayed about this, crying out to heaven. ²¹ Then the Lord sent a messenger who destroyed every warrior, leader, and officer in the camp of the Assyrian king. When Sennacherib went home in disgrace, he entered the temple of his god, and his own sons killed him with a sword. ²² This is how the Lord rescued Hezekiah and the citizens of Jerusalem from the power of Assyria’s King Sennacherib, and all others, giving them rest^[c] on all sides. ²³ Many people brought offerings to the Lord in Jerusalem and costly gifts to Judah’s King Hezekiah, who was highly regarded by all the nations from then on.

Hezekiah’s illness

²⁴ Around that same time, Hezekiah became deathly ill and prayed to the Lord, who answered him with a miraculous sign. ²⁵ But Hezekiah was too proud to respond appropriately to the kindness he had received, and he, along with Judah and Jerusalem, experienced anger. ²⁶ However, Hezekiah and the citizens of Jerusalem humbled themselves in their pride, and so they didn’t experience the Lord’s anger for the rest of Hezekiah’s reign.

²⁷ Hezekiah became very wealthy and greatly respected. He made storehouses for his silver, gold, precious stones, spices, shields, and other valuables. ²⁸ He made barns to store the harvest of grain, wine, and olive oil; stalls for all kinds of cattle; and pens for flocks. ²⁹ He acquired towns for himself and many flocks and herds because God had given him great wealth. ³⁰ Hezekiah was the one who blocked the upper outlet of the waters of the Gihon Spring, channeling them down to the west side of David’s City. Hezekiah succeeded in all that he did, ³¹ even in the matter of the ambassadors sent from Babylonian officials to find out about the miraculous sign that occurred in the land, when God had abandoned him in order to test him and to discover what was in his heart.

³² The rest of Hezekiah’s deeds, including his faithfulness, are written in the vision of the prophet Isaiah, Amoz’s son, in the records of Israel’s and Judah’s kings. ³³ Hezekiah lay down with his ancestors and was buried in the upper area of the tombs of David’s sons. All Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem honored him at his death. His son Manasseh succeeded him as king.

Manasseh rules

33 Manasseh was 12 years old when he became king, and he ruled for fifty-five years in Jerusalem. ² He did what was evil in the Lord’s eyes, imitating the detestable practices of the nations that the Lord had driven out before the Israelites. ³ He rebuilt the shrines that his father Hezekiah had destroyed, set up altars for the Baals, and made sacred poles.^[d] He bowed down to all the stars in the sky and worshipped them. ⁴ He even built altars in the Lord’s temple, the very place the Lord was speaking about when he said, “My name will remain in Jerusalem forever.” ⁵ Manasseh built altars for all the stars in the sky in both courtyards of the Lord’s temple. ⁶ He burned his own sons alive in the Ben-hinnom Valley, consulted sign readers, fortune-tellers, and sorcerers, and used mediums and diviners. He did much evil in the Lord’s eyes and made him angry.

⁷ Manasseh set up the carved image he had made in God’s temple, the very temple God had spoken about to David and his son Solomon, saying: In this temple and in Jerusalem, which I have selected out of all Israel’s tribes, I will put my name forever. ⁸ I will never again remove Israel from the fertile land I gave to your ancestors, provided they carefully do everything I have commanded them—keeping all the Instruction, the regulations, and the case laws given through Moses. ⁹ In this way Manasseh led Judah and the residents of Jerusalem into doing even more evil than the nations that the Lord had wiped out before the Israelites.

¹⁰ The Lord spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they wouldn’t listen. ¹¹ So the Lord brought the army commanders of Assyria’s king against them. They captured Manasseh with hooks, bound him with bronze chains, and carried him off to Babylon. ¹² During his distress, Manasseh made peace with the Lord his God, truly submitting himself to the God of his ancestors. ¹³ He prayed, and God was moved by his request. God listened to Manasseh’s prayer and restored him to his rule in Jerusalem. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord was the true God.

²³ But now, since I don’t have any place to work in these regions anymore, and since I’ve wanted to come to see you for many years, ²⁴ I’ll visit you when I go to Spain. I hope to see you while I’m passing through. And I hope you will send me on my way there, after I have first been reenergized by some time in your company.

²⁵ But now I’m going to Jerusalem, to serve God’s people. ²⁶ Macedonia and Achaia have been happy to make a contribution for the poor among God’s people in Jerusalem. ²⁷ They were happy to do this, and they are actually in debt to God’s people in Jerusalem. If the Gentiles got a share of the Jewish people’s spiritual resources, they ought to minister to them with material resources. ²⁸ So then after I have finished this job and have safely delivered the final amount of the Gentiles’ offering to them, I will leave for Spain, visiting you on the way. ²⁹ And I know that when I come to you I will come with the fullest blessing of Christ.

³⁰ Brothers and sisters, I urge you, through our Lord Jesus Christ and through the love of the Spirit, to join me in my struggles in your prayers to God for me. ³¹ Pray that I will be rescued from the people in Judea who don’t believe. Also, pray that my service for Jerusalem will be acceptable to God’s people there ³² so that I can come to you with joy by God’s will and be reenergized with your company. ³³ May the God of peace be with you all. Amen.

Introduction to Phoebe

16 I’m introducing our sister Phoebe to you, who is a servant^[a] of the church in Cenchreae. ² Welcome her in the Lord in a way that is worthy of God’s people, and give her whatever she needs from you, because she herself has been a sponsor of many people, myself included.

Greetings to Roman Christians

³ Say hello to Prisca and Aquila, my coworkers in Christ Jesus, ⁴ who risked their own necks for my life. I’m not the only one who thanks God for them, but all the churches of the Gentiles do the same. ⁵ Also say hello to the church that meets in their house. Say hello to Epaenetus, my dear friend, who was the first convert^[b] in Asia for Christ. ⁶ Say hello to Mary, who has worked very hard for you. ⁷ Say hello to Andronicus and Junia, my relatives and my fellow prisoners. They are prominent among the apostles, and they were in Christ before me. ⁸ Say hello to Ampliatus, my dear friend in the Lord. ⁹ Say hello to Urbanus, our coworker in Christ, and my dear friend Stachys.