Old/New Testament
Hoshea Son of Elah, the Last King of Israel
17 In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah, Hoshea son of Elah became king over Israel in Samaria and ruled for nine years. 2 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, but not like the kings of Israel who came before him.
3 Shalmaneser king of Assyria went up against him, and Hoshea became his vassal and paid tribute to him. 4 But the king of Assyria caught Hoshea in a conspiracy. He had sent messengers to So[a] king of Egypt, and he did not send tribute to the king of Assyria as he had done in previous years. That is why the king of Assyria arrested him and confined him in prison.
5 Then the king of Assyria invaded the whole land. He went up against Samaria and laid siege to it for three years. 6 In Hoshea’s ninth year, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and exiled Israel to Assyria. He made them live in Halah and along the Habur River, which is the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.[b]
7 This happened because the people of Israel sinned against the Lord their God, who had brought them up from the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and they feared other gods. 8 They walked in the practices of the nations, whom the Lord had driven out before the people of Israel, and the practices which the kings of Israel had introduced. 9 The people of Israel did secret things against the Lord their God, which were not right. They also built high places for themselves in all their cities, from watchtower to fortified city. 10 They set up sacred memorial stones and Asherah poles for themselves upon every high hill and under every leafy tree. 11 They offered sacrifices at all the high places, like the nations that God drove out before them. They did evil things, provoking the Lord to anger. 12 They served filthy idols even though the Lord had said to them, “You must not do this.”
13 The Lord had warned Israel and Judah through all his prophets and seers, saying, “Turn back from your evil ways and keep my commands and my regulations, according to the entire law which I commanded your fathers and which I sent to you through my servants the prophets.” 14 But they did not listen. They made their necks just as stiff as their fathers, who did not trust in the Lord their God.
15 They rejected his regulations and the covenant which he made with their fathers and the testimony with which he warned them. They followed useless idols, and they became useless themselves. They followed the other nations around them, about whom the Lord had commanded them, “Do not do as they do.” 16 They deserted all the commands of the Lord their God, and they made for themselves cast metal images, two calves. They made Asherah poles, and they bowed down to the whole army of the heavens,[c] and they served Baal. 17 They made their sons and daughters pass through the fire. They engaged in divination and sought omens and sold themselves to do evil in the eyes of the Lord, provoking him to anger. 18 So the Lord was furious with Israel, and he removed them from his presence. None was left—only the tribe of Judah.
19 Even Judah did not keep the commands of the Lord their God. They walked in the practices which Israel introduced. 20 So the Lord rejected all the seed of Israel, and he afflicted them. He gave them into the hand of plunderers until he cast them out of his presence.
21 When the Lord tore Israel away from the house of David, they made Jeroboam son of Nebat king. But Jeroboam drove Israel away from following the Lord. He caused them to commit a great sin. 22 The people of Israel walked in all the sins which Jeroboam did. They did not turn from them 23 until the Lord removed Israel from his presence, just as he had said through all his servants the prophets. So Israel went to Assyria, into exile from her homeland to this day.
New Settlers in Israel
24 The king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Kuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim, and he settled them in the cities of Samaria in the place of the people of Israel. They took possession of Samaria and lived in its cities. 25 When they began to settle there, they did not fear the Lord, so the Lord sent lions among them. The lions were killing people, 26 so they said to the king of Assyria, “The peoples whom you deported and settled in the cities of Samaria do not know the customs of the god of the land. That is why he has sent lions among them, and the lions are killing people, because there aren’t any people left who know the customs of the god of the land.”
27 So the king of Assyria commanded, “Get one of the priests who was exiled from there. He will go and live there and teach the customs of the god of the land.” 28 So one of the priests who had been exiled from Samaria came and lived in Bethel. He was teaching them how they should fear the Lord.
29 But each nation was still making its own gods and setting them in the shrines[d] of the high places which the Samaritans had made, each nation in their cities where they were dwelling. 30 The people from Babylon made Sukkoth Benoth. The people from Kuth made Nergal. The people from Hamath made Ashima. 31 The people from Avvah made Nibhaz and Tartak. The people from Sepharvaim were burning their sons in the fire to Adrammelek and Anammelek, the gods of Sepharvaim. 32 [e]They were fearing the Lord, but they were making priests for their high places from all kinds of people, who were serving them in the shrines on the high places. 33 They were fearing the Lord, but they were also serving their gods according to the customs of the nations from which they had been deported.
34 To this day they are acting according to their former customs. There are none of them who fear the Lord, and there is no one who acts according to the regulations, ordinances, law, and commands which the Lord had commanded the children of Jacob, to whom he gave the name Israel. 35 The Lord had made a covenant with them and commanded them, “Do not fear other gods. Do not bow down to them. Do not serve them. Do not sacrifice to them. 36 Rather fear the Lord, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt with great power and an outstretched arm. Fear him and bow down to him and offer sacrifices to him. 37 Keep the regulations, ordinances, law, and commands, which he wrote for you, and do not fear other gods. 38 Do not forget the covenant I made with you, and do not fear other gods. 39 Fear only the Lord your God. He is the one who will save you from the hand of all your enemies.”
40 But these nations did not listen. Instead, they acted according to their former customs. 41 These nations were fearing the Lord, and they were serving their idols. Their children and their grandchildren did just as their fathers had done. They are doing this up to this day.
Hezekiah Son of Ahaz, King of Judah
18 In the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, Hezekiah son of Ahaz king of Judah, became king. 2 He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he ruled for twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Abi[f] daughter of Zechariah. 3 He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, like everything that his father David had done. 4 He removed the high places, smashed the sacred memorial stones, cut down the Asherah poles, and broke into pieces the bronze serpent which Moses had made, because until those days the people of Israel had been burning incense to it. They called it Nehushtan.[g]
5 He trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel, and there was no one like him among the kings of Judah, before him or after him. 6 He held fast to the Lord. He did not turn aside from following him, but he kept the command which the Lord commanded Moses. 7 The Lord was with him. Wherever he went, the Lord gave him success. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and did not serve him. 8 He struck down the Philistines all the way to Gaza and its territory, from watchtower to fortified city.
Assyrian Invasions
9 In Hezekiah’s fourth year, which was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, Shalmaneser king of Assyria went up against Samaria and laid siege to it. 10 They captured it at the end of three years. In the sixth year, which was the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel, Samaria was captured. 11 Then the king of Assyria exiled Israel to Assyria. He settled them in Halah and on the Habur River, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes. 12 This was because they did not listen to the voice of the Lord their God, but they abandoned his covenant and all that Moses, the servant of the Lord, commanded. They did not listen to it or obey it.
13 In King Hezekiah’s fourteenth year, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and seized them. 14 Then Hezekiah king of Judah sent a message to the king of Assyria at Lachish: “I have done wrong. Withdraw from me. Whatever you impose on me I will pay.” Then the king of Assyria imposed on Hezekiah a penalty of three hundred talents[h] of silver and thirty talents[i] of gold. 15 So Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the Lord’s house and in the treasuries of the king’s house. 16 At this time, Hezekiah stripped the gold off the doors of the temple of the Lord and off the doorposts, which Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid with gold, and he gave it to the king of Assyria.
The Assyrian Commander Taunts Hezekiah
17 Then the king of Assyria sent the field commander, the chief of staff, and the herald[j] from Lachish with a large army against King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. They came up to Jerusalem and stood by the watercourse from the upper pool, which is on the way to the washerman’s field. 18 They summoned the king, so Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was the palace administrator, Shebna, who was the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph, who was the recorder, went out to meet them.
19 The herald said to him, “Tell Hezekiah what the great king, the king of Assyria, says.”
The Taunt
What are you relying on? 20 You say that you have the plan and power for war, but this is only words from your lips. So who are you trusting when you rebel against me? 21 Tell me, are you really trusting in Egypt as your staff, that splintered reed which will pierce the hand of anyone who leans on it? That’s what Pharaoh king of Egypt is for all those who trust in him.
22 And if you say to me, “We are trusting in the Lord our God,” didn’t Hezekiah remove his high places and his altars and tell Judah and Jerusalem, “You must bow down before this altar in Jerusalem”?
23 But now, make a bargain with my lord, the king of Assyria. I will give you two thousand horses if you can provide riders for them. 24 How will you resist one officer from among the least significant of my lord’s servants? You are trusting in Egypt for chariots and charioteers. 25 Have I now come up against this place without the Lord? The Lord said to me, “Go up against this land and destroy it.”
26 Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, along with Shebna and Joah, said to the herald, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it. But don’t speak with us in Hebrew in the hearing of the people who are on the wall.”
27 Then the herald said to them:
Is it only to your lord and to you that my lord sent me to speak these words? Is it not also to the people who are sitting on the wall, who will have to eat their own excrement and drink their own urine with you?[k]
28 Then the herald stood up and called out in a loud voice in Hebrew and said the following:
Listen to the words of the great king, the king of Assyria. 29 This is what the king says. Don’t let Hezekiah deceive you, because he can’t save you from my hand. 30 And don’t let Hezekiah cause you to trust in the Lord by saying, “The Lord will surely save us! He will not let this city be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.”
31 Don’t listen to Hezekiah because this is what the king of Assyria says. Make a peace treaty with me and come out to me. Then each of you will eat from his own vine and drink from his own cistern, 32 until I come and take you to a land like your own land, a land with grain and sweet wine, a land with bread and vineyards, a land with olive oil and honey, so that you may live and not die. Don’t listen to Hezekiah because he is misleading you when he says, “The Lord will save us.”
33 Have the gods of any nation ever saved their land from the hand of the king of Assyria? 34 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah? Did they save Samaria from my hand? 35 Who among all the gods of the lands saved their land from my hand? Will the Lord really save Jerusalem from my hand?
36 But the people were silent. They did not answer him a word because the king had commanded them not to speak or answer. 37 Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was the palace administrator, Shebna who was the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph, who was the recorder, went to Hezekiah with their robes torn and told him the words of the herald.
19 This is the basis for the judgment: The light has come into the world, yet people loved the darkness rather than the light, because their deeds were evil. 20 In fact, everyone who practices wicked things hates the light and does not come toward the light, or else his deeds would be exposed. 21 But the one who does what is true comes toward the light, in order that his deeds may be seen as having been done in connection with God.”
Jesus and John the Baptist
22 After this, Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean countryside where he spent some time with them and was baptizing.
23 John also was baptizing in Aenon near Salim, because there was plenty of water there. People kept coming and were being baptized, 24 for John had not been thrown into prison yet.
25 Then an argument broke out between John’s disciples and a certain Jew[a] about purification. 26 His disciples came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, the one who was with you across the Jordan, about whom you testified—look, he is baptizing, and everyone is going to him!”
27 John answered, “A man cannot receive a single thing, unless it has been given to him from heaven. 28 You yourselves are witnesses that I said, ‘I am not the Christ, but I have been sent ahead of him.’ 29 The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. But the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and listens for him, is overjoyed when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. So this joy of mine is now complete. 30 He must increase, but I must decrease.”
31 The one who comes from above is superior to everyone. The one who is from the earth belongs to the earth and speaks in a way that belongs to the earth. The one who comes from heaven is superior to everyone. 32 He testifies about what he has seen and heard, yet no one receives his testimony. 33 The one who has received his testimony has certified that God is true. 34 In fact, the one whom God has sent speaks God’s words, for God[b] gives the Spirit without measure. 35 The Father loves the Son and has put everything in his hands. 36 The one who believes in the Son has eternal life, but the one who rejects the Son will not see life; instead, God’s wrath remains on him.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.