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13 During the fourteenth year of the reign of[a] King Hezekiah, King Sennacherib of Assyria approached all of the walled cities of Judah and seized them. 14 So Hezekiah sent this message to the king of Assyria at Lachish: “I have offended you. Withdraw from me, and I’ll accept whatever tribute you impose.” So the king of Assyria required Hezekiah to pay him 300 talents[b] of silver and 30 talents[c] of gold. 15 Hezekiah gave him all the silver that could be removed from the Lord’s Temple and from the treasuries in the king’s palace. 16 At that time, Hezekiah removed the doors to the Lord’s Temple and the doorposts that he had overlaid with gold,[d] and gave the gold[e] to the king of Assyria.
Assyria’s King Taunts Hezekiah(A)
17 Sometime later, the king of Assyria sent Tartan, Rab-saris, and Rab-shakeh from Lachish to King Hezekiah in Jerusalem, accompanied with a large army. 18 When they called for the king, Hilkiah’s son Eliakim, who managed the household, Shebnah the scribe, and Asaph’s son Joah the recorder went out to them. 19 Rab-shakeh told them, “Tell Hezekiah right now, ‘This is what the great king, the king of Assyria says:
‘“Why are you so confident? 20 You’re saying—but they’re only empty words—‘I have enough[f] advice and resources to conduct warfare!’
‘“Now who are you relying on, that you have rebelled against me? 21 Look, you’re trusting on Egypt to lean on like a staff, but it’s a crushed reed, and if you lean on it, it will collapse and pierce your hand. Pharaoh, king of Egypt, is just like that to everyone who relies on him!
22 ‘“Of course, you might tell me, “We rely on the Lord our God!” But isn’t it he whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has demolished, all the while telling Jerusalem, “You’re to worship in front of this altar in Jerusalem?”’
23 ‘“Come now, and make a deal with my master, the king of Assyria, and I’ll give you 2,000 horses, if you can furnish them with riders. 24 How can you refuse even one official from the least of my master’s servants and rely on Egypt for chariots and horsemen? 25 “Now then, haven’t I come up—apart from the Lord—to attack and destroy this place? The Lord told me, ‘Go up against this land and destroy it!’”’”
26 At this, Hilkiah’s son Eliakim, Shebnah, and Joah asked Rab-shakeh, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, because we understand it, but don’t speak the language of Judah to us within the hearing of the people who are on the wall.”
27 But Rab-shakeh spoke to them, “Has my master sent me to talk about this just to your master and to you, and not also to the men who are sitting on the wall, who will soon be eating their own feces and drinking their own urine[g]—along with you?” 28 Then Rab-shakeh stood up and cried out loud, “Listen to what the great king, the king of Assyria has to say. 29 This is what the king says:
‘Don’t let Hezekiah deceive you, because he will prove to be unable to deliver you from my control.[h] 30 And don’t let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord by telling you, “The Lord will certainly deliver us and this city will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.” 31 Don’t listen to Hezekiah, because this is what the king of Assyria says: “Make peace with me and come out to me! Each of you will eat from his own vine. Each will eat from his own fig tree. And each of you will drink water from his own cistern 32 until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, one overflowing with grain and new wine, a land filled with bread and vineyards, with olive trees and honey, so you may live and not die.”
‘But don’t listen to Hezekiah when he misleads you by saying, “The Lord will deliver us!” 33 Has any of the gods of the nations delivered his land from control by[i] the king of Assyria? 34 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sephar-vaim, of Hena, and Ivvah? Have they delivered Samaria from my control?[j] 35 Who among all the gods of these lands has delivered their land from my control[k], so that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem from me?’”[l]
36 But the people remained silent and did not answer with even so much as a word, because the king’s order was, “Don’t answer him.”
37 But Hilkiah’s son Eliakim, who managed the household, Shebna the scribe, and Asaph’s son Joah the recorder came back to Hezekiah with their clothes torn[m] and told him what Rab-shakeh had said.
Isaiah Encourages Hezekiah
19 When King Hezekiah heard Eliakim’s report,[n] he tore his clothes, put on a sackcloth covering, entered the Lord’s Temple, 2 and sent Eliakim the household supervisor, Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests—all of them covered in sackcloth—to Amoz’s son, the prophet Isaiah. 3 They announced to him:
“This is what Hezekiah says: ‘Today is a day of trouble, rebuke, and blasphemy,[o] because children are about to be born, but there is no strength to bring them to birth. 4 Perhaps the Lord your God will take note of everything that Rab-shakeh has said, whom his master the king of Assyria sent to taunt the living God, and then he will rebuke the words that the Lord your God has heard. Therefore offer a prayer for the survivors who remain.’”
5 That is how the King Hezekiah’s servants approached Isaiah.
6 In reply, Isaiah responded to them, “Here’s how you’re to report to your master:
‘This is what the Lord says: “Never be afraid of the words that you have heard by which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me. 7 Look! I’m going to cause an attitude[p] to grow within him so that he’ll hear a rumor and return to his own territory, where I’ll make him die by the sword in his own land!”’”
Sennacherib Defies God(B)
8 So Rab-shakeh returned and found the king of Assyria at war with Libnah, because Rab-shakeh had heard that the king had left Lachish. 9 When he heard that it was being said about King Tirhakah of Ethiopia,[q] “Look! He has come out to attack you!” he again sent messengers to Hezekiah.
The messengers were told, 10 “This is what you are to say to King Hezekiah of Judah: ‘Don’t let your God in whom you trust deceive you by telling you[r] “Jerusalem won’t be turned over to the control[s] of Assyria’s king.” 11 ‘Look! you’ve heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands—they completely destroyed them! Will you be spared? 12 Did the gods of those nations whom my ancestors destroyed deliver them, including Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and Eden’s descendants in Telassar? 13 Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sephar-vaim, the king of Hena, or the king of Ivvah?’”
Hezekiah’s Prayer for Help
14 Hezekiah took the messages from the couriers, read them, went up to the Lord’s Temple, and laid them out in the presence of the Lord. 15 Then Hezekiah prayed in the presence of the Lord, “Lord God of Israel! You live between the cherubim! You alone are the God of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have fashioned the heavens and the earth. 16 Turn[t] your ear, Lord, and listen! Open your eyes, Lord, and observe! Listen to the message sent by Sennacherib to insult the living God! 17 Truly, Lord, the kings of Assyria have devastated nations and their territories, 18 throwing their gods into the fire, since they weren’t gods but rather were the product of men’s handiwork—wood and stone. And so they destroyed them. 19 Now, Lord our God, I’m praying that you will deliver us from his control, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone, Lord, are God!”
God’s Answer through Isaiah the Prophet
20 Then Amoz’s son Isaiah sent word to Hezekiah, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel says: ‘Because you have prayed to me about King Sennacherib of Assyria, I have listened.’”
21 “This is what the Lord has spoken against him:
‘She despises and mocks you,
this virgin daughter of Zion!
Behind your back she shakes her head,
this daughter of Jerusalem!
22 Who are you reproaching and blaspheming?
Against whom have you raised your voice?
And against whom[u] have you lifted up your eyes in arrogance?
Against the Holy One of Israel!
23 By your messengers you have insulted the Lord.
You have claimed,
“With my many chariots
I ascended the heights of the mountains,
including the remotest regions of Lebanon;
I cut down its tall cedars
and the best of its cypress trees.
I entered its most remote lodging place
and its most fruitful[v] forest.
24 I myself dug for and drank foreign water.
With the sole of my foot I dried up all the streams of Egypt!”
25 ‘Didn’t you hear?
I determined it years ago!
I planned this from ancient times,
and now I’ve brought it to pass,
to turn fortified cities
into piles of ruins
26 while their inhabitants, lacking strength,
stand dismayed and confused.
They were like vegetation out in the fields,
and like green herbs—
just as grass that grows on a housetop
dries out before it can grow.
27 ‘But when you sit down,
when you go out,
and when you come in,
I’m aware of it!
28 Because of your rage against me,
your complacency has reached my ears.
I’ll put my hook into your nostrils
and my bit into your mouth.
Then I’ll turn you back on the road
by which you came.’
29 “This will serve as a sign for you: you’ll eat this year from what grows by itself, in the second year what grows from that, and in the third year you’ll sow, reap, plant vineyards, and enjoy[w] their fruit. 30 Those who survive from Judah’s household will again put down deep roots and bear fruit extensively,[x] 31 because a remnant will go out from Jerusalem, and survivors from Mount Zion. The zeal of the Lord[y] will bring this about.”
32 “Therefore this is what the Lord says concerning the king of Assyria: ‘Not only will he not approach this city or shoot an arrow in its direction, he won’t approach it with so much as a shield, nor will he throw up a siege ramp against it. 33 He’ll return on the same route by which he came—he won’t come to this city,’ declares the Lord. 34 ‘I will defend this city and preserve it for my own reasons, and because of my servant David.’”
God Destroys the Assyrian Army(C)
35 That very night, the angel of the Lord went out to the camp of the Assyrian army and killed 185,000 men. Early the next morning, when the army of Israel[z] arose, all 185,000 soldiers[aa] were dead. 36 As a result, King Sennacherib of Assyria left and returned to Nineveh where he lived. 37 Later on, as he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, Adrammelech[ab] and Sharezer killed him with a sword and fled into the territory of Ararat. Then Sennacherib’s[ac] son Esarhaddon became king in his place.
Paul in Tyre
21 When we had torn ourselves away from those brothers,[a] we sailed straight to Cos, and the next day to Rhodes, and from there to Patara.[b] 2 There we found a ship going across to Phoenicia, so we went aboard and sailed on. 3 We came in sight of Cyprus, and leaving it on our left, we sailed on to Syria and landed at Tyre because the ship was to unload its cargo there. 4 So we located some disciples and stayed there for seven days. Through the Spirit, they kept telling Paul not to go to Jerusalem, 5 but when our time there came to an end, we left and proceeded on our journey. All of them accompanied us with their wives and children out of the city. We knelt on the beach, prayed, 6 and said goodbye to each other. Then we reboarded the ship, and they went back home.
Paul in Caesarea
7 When we completed our voyage from Tyre, we arrived at Ptolemais, greeted the brothers there, and stayed with them for one day. 8 The next day, we left and came to Caesarea. We went to the home of Philip the evangelist, one of the Seven, and stayed with him. 9 He had four unmarried daughters who could prophesy. 10 After we had been there for a number of days, a prophet named Agabus arrived from Judea. 11 He came to us, took Paul’s belt, and tied his own feet and hands with it. Then he said, “The Holy Spirit says, ‘This is how the Jewish leaders[c] in Jerusalem will tie up the man who owns this belt. Then they will hand him over to the gentiles.’” 12 When we heard this, we and the people who lived there begged Paul[d] not to go up to Jerusalem.
13 At this Paul replied, “What do you mean by crying and breaking my heart? I’m ready not only to be tied up in Jerusalem but even to die for the name of the Lord Jesus!”
14 When he could not be persuaded otherwise, we remained silent except to say, “May the Lord’s will be done.”
Paul in Jerusalem
15 When our time there ended,[e] we got ready to go up to Jerusalem. 16 Some of the disciples from Caesarea went with us. They took us to the home of Mnason to be his guests. He was from Cyprus and had been[f] an early disciple. 17 When we arrived in Jerusalem, the brothers there welcomed us warmly.
A Song About Rejoicing in God
149 Hallelujah!
Sing a new song to the Lord,
praising him where the godly gather together.
2 May Israel rejoice in its Maker,
and Zion’s descendants in their King!
3 May they praise his name with dancing,
chanting songs to him with tambourines and lyres.
4 For the Lord is pleased with his people;
he beautifies the afflicted with salvation.
5 May those he loves be exalted,
singing for joy on their couches.
6 Let high praises to God be heard[a] in their throats,
while they wield two-edged swords in their hands
7 as they bring retribution to nations
and punishment to peoples,
8 binding their kings with chains,
their officials with iron bands,
9 and executing the judgment written against them.
This is honor for all the ones he loves.
Hallelujah!
8 The words of a gossip are like choice morsels
as they descend to the innermost parts of the body.
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