Old/New Testament
The Lord saves Jerusalem
19 When King Hezekiah heard the report of his officers, he tore his clothes. Then he put on rough sackcloth and he went into the Lord's temple. 2 He sent Eliakim, Shebna and the leaders of the priests to Amoz's son, Isaiah the prophet. Eliakim was the most important officer in the king's palace. Shebna was a government officer. They were all wearing sackcloth. 3 They told Hezekiah's message to Isaiah: ‘This is a time of great trouble. Assyria has insulted us to make us ashamed. Our nation is like a woman who is ready to give birth, but she is too weak to push the child out. 4 The Assyrian officer has brought a message from his king to insult the God who lives for ever. Maybe the Lord your God has heard that message. He should punish the officer for his wicked message. So please pray for the people who remain in Jerusalem.’ 5 When King Hezekiah's officers told their message to Isaiah, 6 Isaiah said to them, ‘Tell your master that the Lord says this: “Do not let the words that you have heard make you afraid. The servants of the king of Assyria have insulted me, the Lord. 7 Listen to me! I will put a spirit into the king of Assyria's mind. He will hear a report which will cause him to return to his own country. There, in his own land, I will cause someone to kill him with a sword.” ’
8 At that time, the king of Assyria had left Lachish city. When the Assyrian officer heard that news, he left Jerusalem. He went to meet the king at Libnah, where the king was now fighting a battle. 9 Then the king of Assyria heard a report about Tirhakah, the king of Ethiopia. People told him, ‘He has brought his army from Ethiopia to fight against you.’
When the king of Assyria heard that news, he sent another message to Hezekiah in Jerusalem. 10 This was his message to King Hezekiah of Judah: ‘You are hoping that your God will help you. Your God may say that the king of Assyria will not destroy Jerusalem. But do not let him deceive you. 11 You have heard how the kings of Assyria have completely destroyed all other countries. So do not think that your God will rescue you. 12 The gods of those other countries did not save them. Our kings destroyed the nations of Gozan, Haran and Rezeph. They killed the people of Eden who lived in Tel Assar. 13 The kings of Hamath and Arpad have gone. The king of Sepharvaim city has gone. The kings of Hena and Ivvah have also gone.’
14 When Hezekiah received the letter with this message, he read it. Then he went up to the Lord's temple. He put the letter there, in front of the Lord. 15 Hezekiah prayed to the Lord. He said, ‘Lord, you are Israel's God. You sit on your throne between the cherubs. Only you are the God who rules all the kingdoms in the world. You have made the heavens and the earth. 16 Lord, please listen carefully to me. Lord, look carefully at this letter. Listen to Sennacherib's message. He is insulting you, the God who lives for ever. 17 It is true, Lord, that the kings of Assyria have destroyed these nations and their lands. 18 They have thrown the gods of these nations into the fire. Those idols are not really gods. People used wood and stone to make them. So the Assyrians could destroy them. 19 So now, our Lord and our God, please save us from the power of Sennacherib! Then all the kingdoms in the world will know that you Lord are the only God.’
20 Then Amoz's son Isaiah sent this message to Hezekiah: ‘The Lord, Israel's God, says, “I heard your prayer to me about Sennacherib, the king of Assyria.” 21 This is the Lord's reply. The Lord says this about King Sennacherib:
“The holy people of Zion laugh at you!
They think that you are useless.
Yes, the people of Jerusalem shake their heads
as you run away.
22 Who do you think it is that you have insulted?
Who have you shouted at?
Who have you looked at so proudly?
The answer is the Holy God of Israel!
23 You have sent your servants
to insult the Lord God.
You have said, ‘I have taken all my chariots
and I have gone up high mountains,
the highest mountains in Lebanon.
I have cut down its tall cedar trees,
and I have cut down its best pine trees.
I went up to its highest places,
and I went far into its forests.
24 I dug wells in other countries,
and they gave me water to drink.
My army marched through all the rivers in Egypt,
and the rivers became dry.’
25 You said that, but now listen to this![a]
You must surely have heard it already.
I decided what to do a long time ago!
Now I am causing it to happen.
I decided that you would destroy strong cities
so that they became heaps of stones.
26 The people of those cities have no power.
They are afraid and they are confused.
They are like plants in a field,
that cannot live for a long time.
They are like fresh green grass,
or grass that grows on the roof of a house.
When a hot wind blows on them,
it burns them and they die.
27 I know everything about you.
I know where you live.
I know when you go out.
And I know when you return home.
I know how much you shout against me,
when you are angry.
28 Yes, you do shout at me!
And I have heard all your proud noise.
So I will put my hook in your nose.
I will tie a rope to your mouth.
Then I will pull you back home
by the same way that you came.”
29 King Hezekiah, this is how you will know that I have spoken a true message from the Lord.[b] This year, you will eat crops that grow by themselves. And next year you will eat what grows from the same seeds. But in the third year you will plant seeds for yourselves, and they will give you a harvest of crops. You will plant vines again and you will eat grapes from them.
30 The people who remain in Judah will be like strong plants that put their roots down into the ground. Their branches will give lots of fruit.
31 A small number of people will still be alive in Jerusalem. They will leave Mount Zion and they will go to other places. The great love that the Lord Almighty has for his people will cause that to happen!
32 This is what the Lord says about the king of Assyria:
“His army will not come into this city.
His soldiers will not shoot any arrows here.
They will not attack the city as they hold their shields.
They will not build heaps of earth against the city's walls.
33 No! The king will return home by the way that he came.
He will not come into this city.”
That is what the Lord says.
34 “I will make this city safe and I will rescue it.
I will do that to show that I am great.
I promised my servant David that I would do it. So I will do it.” ’
35 That night, the Lord's angel went to the camp of the Assyrian army. He killed 185,000 of their soldiers. When people got up in the morning, they saw all those dead bodies! 36 So King Sennacherib of Assyria took his army away. He returned to Assyria and he lived in Nineveh.
37 One day, Sennacherib was worshipping his god Nisrok in Nisrok's temple. Two of Sennacherib's sons, Adrammelech and Sharezer, went in and they killed him with their swords. Then they ran away to the region of Ararat. Sennacherib's son Esarhaddon now ruled Assyria as king.[c]
Hezekiah's illness and his mistake
20 At that time, Hezekiah became very ill. He nearly died. Then Amoz's son, Isaiah the prophet, went to Hezekiah. He said to Hezekiah, ‘This is what the Lord says: “You will soon die. You will not get better. So you must tell your family what to do after your death.” ’ 2 Then Hezekiah turned his face towards the wall and he prayed to the Lord. 3 He said, ‘Lord, please remember that I have served you well. I have always obeyed you. You could trust me to do the things that you told me to do.’ Hezekiah wept very much.
4 While Isaiah was still in the middle yard of the palace, the Lord gave him this message: 5 ‘Go back! Say to Hezekiah, the leader of my people, “This is what the Lord says, the God that your ancestor David worshipped. I have heard your prayer and I have seen your tears. I will make you well again. On the third day from now you will go to the Lord's temple. 6 I will let you live for 15 more years. I will rescue you and this city from the power of the king of Assyria. I will keep Jerusalem safe, because I do what is right and I made a promise to my servant David.” ’
7 Then Isaiah said, ‘Take some figs to make a medicine.’ So the king's servants did what Isaiah had said. They put the medicine on Hezekiah's boil. He became well again.
8 Hezekiah had asked Isaiah, ‘What will show me that the Lord will make me well again? How will I know that I will go up to the Lord's temple on the third day from now?’ 9 Isaiah answered, ‘The Lord will do a miracle to show you that he will do what he has promised. Do you want the shadow on these stairs to move down ten steps? Or do you want the shadow to go back up ten steps?’ 10 Hezekiah said, ‘It is easy to cause the shadow to move down ten steps. So I want it to go back up ten steps.’[d] 11 Then Isaiah the prophet asked the Lord to do this. The Lord caused the shadow to go back up ten steps on the stairs that King Ahaz had made.
12 At that time, Baladan's son, Merodach-Baladan, was the king of Babylon. Merodach-Baladan sent letters and a gift to Hezekiah. He had heard the news that Hezekiah had been ill. 13 Hezekiah was happy to meet the officers who came from the king of Babylon. Hezekiah showed them the places where he stored his valuable things. He showed them his silver and gold things, his spices and very valuable olive oil. He also showed them all his weapons. Hezekiah showed them all his valuable things. There was nothing in his palace or in his whole kingdom that he did not show to the king of Babylon's officers.
14 Then Isaiah the prophet went to King Hezekiah. Isaiah asked the king, ‘What did those men say? Where did they come from?’ Hezekiah replied, ‘They came from Babylon, far away.’ 15 Isaiah asked, ‘What did they see in your palace?’ Hezekiah said, ‘They saw everything that is in my palace. I showed all my valuable things to them.’
16 Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, ‘Listen to this message from the Lord: 17 “Understand this! One day, soldiers from Babylon will carry away all your valuable things. Everything that you and your ancestors have stored here until now will go to Babylon. They will leave nothing here. 18 Some of your own descendants will also go to Babylon. Soldiers from Babylon will take them away from here. Your descendants will become eunuchs in the king of Babylon's palace.” That is what the Lord says. ’
19 Hezekiah said to Isaiah, ‘The Lord's message that you have spoken to me is good.’ But he was thinking, ‘While I am still alive, people will live safely without any trouble.’
20 The other things that happened while Hezekiah was king are written in a book. The book is called ‘The history of Judah's kings’. It tells about the things that Hezekiah did. It includes a report about the pool and the stream that he built to bring water into the city of Jerusalem. 21 So Hezekiah died and they buried him beside his ancestors. His son Manasseh became king after him.
Manasseh becomes the king of Judah
21 Manasseh was 12 years old when he became king. He ruled as king in Jerusalem for 55 years. His mother's name was Hephzibah. 2 Manasseh did things that the Lord said were evil. He did the same terrible sins that the other nations in Canaan had done. Those were the nations that the Lord had chased out so that the Israelites could live there. 3 Manasseh built again the altars on the hills that his father Hezekiah had destroyed. He built altars for people to worship Baal. He also made an Asherah pole, as King Ahab of Israel had done. He bent down low to worship all the stars in the sky. 4 He built altars in the Lord's temple.[e] The Lord had said about his temple, ‘That is my home in Jerusalem where people will worship me.’
5 Manasseh built altars to give honour to the stars, in both yards of the Lord's temple. 6 He burnt his own son with fire as a sacrifice. He used magic and false gods to find out what would happen in the future. He took advice from magicians and people who talked to the spirits of dead people. He did many things that the Lord said were very evil. This made the Lord very angry.
7 Manasseh used wood to make an image of the false god, Asherah. He put this idol in the Lord's temple. The Lord had said this about his temple to King David and to his son King Solomon: ‘My people will worship me in my temple here in Jerusalem. That is the place that I have chosen to be my home for ever. I have chosen it from among all the tribes of Israel. 8 I will never cause the Israelite people to leave this land that I gave to their ancestors. But they must be careful to obey all my commands and all my Law that my servant Moses gave to them.’
9 But the people did not obey the Lord. Manasseh caused them to turn away from God. The Israelites did more evil things than the people who lived in Canaan before them. The Lord had destroyed those nations so that the Israelites could live there.
10 So the Lord used his servants, the prophets, to say this: 11 ‘Manasseh, the king of Judah, has done terrible sins. He has done more evil things than the Amorites did, who lived in Canaan before him. He has caused the people of Judah to do wrong things as they worship his idols. 12 So the Lord, Israel's God, says this: “I will cause great trouble to happen in Jerusalem and in all the kingdom of Judah. Everyone who hears the news about it will be very surprised. 13 I will judge Jerusalem and I will punish the people, as I punished Samaria and the family of King Ahab.[f] I will remove the people from Jerusalem, like someone who washes the dirt from both sides of a plate.
14 I will no longer help those of my own people who still remain. I will put them under the power of their enemies. All their enemies will rob them. They will take all their valuable things for themselves. 15 My people have done things that I say are evil. They have made me very angry. They have continued to do that since their ancestors came out from Egypt, until today.” ’
16 Also, Manasseh murdered many people who had not done anything wrong. Their blood was in all the streets of Jerusalem! He caused the people in Judah to do bad things too. He caused them to do things that the Lord said were evil.
17 The other things that happened while Manasseh was king are written in a book. The book is called ‘The history of Judah's kings’. It tells about the things that Manasseh did, including all his terrible sins. 18 Manasseh died and they buried him in the garden of his palace. It is called Uzza's garden. His son Amon became king after him.
Amon becomes the king of Judah
19 Amon was 22 years old when he became king. He ruled as king in Jerusalem for two years. His mother's name was Meshullemeth. She was the daughter of Haruz, who came from Jotbah. 20 Amon did things that the Lord said were evil, as his father Manasseh had done. 21 He lived in the same bad way as his father did. He bent down low to worship the useless idols that his father had worshipped. 22 He turned away from the Lord, the God that his ancestors worshipped. He did not obey the Lord's teaching.
23 Amon's officers decided to kill him. They killed him in his palace. 24 Then the people of Judah punished all Amon's murderers with death. They chose his son Josiah to be king after him.
25 The other things that Amon did are written in a book. The book is called ‘The history of Judah's kings’ 26 People buried him in his grave in Uzza's garden. His son Josiah became king after him.
Jesus talks to a woman from Samaria
4 The Pharisees heard the news that many people were joining Jesus' group of disciples. They heard that Jesus was baptizing more disciples than John was baptizing. 2 But really Jesus himself did not baptize anyone. It was only Jesus' disciples who baptized people. 3 Jesus discovered what the Pharisees were thinking, so he left Judea. He returned to Galilee. 4 On his way, he had to go through Samaria.
5 He came to a town in Samaria called Sychar. It was near to the piece of land that Jacob had given to his son, Joseph, many years earlier. 6-8 Jacob's well was there. Jesus was tired after his journey and he sat down by the well. It was about midday. His disciples had gone to buy food in the town. A woman from Samaria came to the well to get some water. Jesus said to her, ‘Please give a drink to me.’ 9 The woman from Samaria said to him, ‘You are a Jew and I am a woman from Samaria. Why would you ask me to give you a drink?’ (The Jews usually do not talk to people who come from Samaria.)[a]
10 Jesus answered the woman, ‘You do not know what God could give to you. I asked you to give a drink to me. But you do not know who I am. If you did know, you would have asked me to give a drink to you. Then I would have given to you water that gives life.’ 11 The woman said, ‘Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where can you get this water that gives life? 12 Jacob, our ancestor, gave this well to us. He, his sons and his sheep, goats and cows all drank its water. Are you saying that you are greater than Jacob?’ 13 Jesus answered, ‘Everyone who drinks water from this well will get thirsty again. 14 But I can give people a different kind of water. Everyone who drinks that kind of water will never get thirsty again. The water that I give them will become like a well inside them. That well will continue to provide water that gives them life for ever with God.’ 15 The woman said to him, ‘Sir, give this water to me. Then I will never get thirsty again. And I will not have to continue to come here so that I can get water.’
16 Jesus said to her, ‘Go and fetch your husband. Then return here.’ 17 The woman replied, ‘I have no husband.’ Jesus said to her, ‘You are right when you say, “I have no husband.” 18 It is true that you have had five husbands. And now you live with a man who is not your husband. What you have said is completely true.’ 19 The woman said to him, ‘Sir, I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshipped God on this mountain. But you Jews say that Jerusalem is the right place to worship.’[b]
21 Jesus said to her, ‘Believe me, woman. Soon you will not worship the Father either on this mountain or at Jerusalem. 22 You people from Samaria do not know the one that you worship. But we Jews do know him, because God's salvation comes from among the Jewish people. 23 But people will soon have a new way to worship the Father. Yes, that time has already come. Those people who really want to worship the Father will worship him in their spirits, in a true way. The Father looks for people who will worship him like that. 24 God is spirit. People who worship him must worship from their spirits in a true way.’
25 The woman said to Jesus, ‘I know that the Messiah will come. He is called Christ. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.’ 26 Jesus said to her, ‘I, who am speaking to you, am he.’
The disciples return
27 At this moment, Jesus' disciples returned. They were surprised to see that Jesus was talking to a woman. But none of them asked him, ‘What do you want?’ or, ‘Why are you talking to her?’ 28 Then the woman left her water pot and she returned to the town. She said to the people there, 29 ‘Come and see a man who has told me everything about myself. He told me all the things that I have ever done! He must be the Messiah!’ 30 So they left the town and they went to find Jesus.
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