Old/New Testament

Hezekiah’s Cry of Desperation

19 When King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the House of Adonai. ² Then he sent Eliakim, who was in charge of the palace, Shebna the scribe and the senior kohanim, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet son of Amoz.

³ Then they said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah: This day is a day of distress, rebuke and contempt. For children have come to the point of birth, and there is no strength for giving birth. ⁴ Perhaps Adonai your God, hearing all the words of the Rab-shakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master has sent to mock the living God, will rebuke the words which Adonai your God has heard. So offer prayer for the remnant that is left.”

⁵ When the officials of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah, ⁶ Isaiah said to them: “Thus you will say to your master, ‘Thus says Adonai: Do not be afraid of the words you have heard, with which the boys of the king of Assyria have blasphemed Me. ⁷ Behold, I am putting a spirit in him, and he will hear a rumor, and will return to his own country; then I will make him fall by the sword in his own land.’”

⁸ Then the Rab-shakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah, for he had heard that he had withdrawn from Lachish. ⁹ Now he heard a report of Tirhakah, king of Ethiopia saying, “Behold, he has come out to fight against you.” When he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah saying: ¹⁰ “Thus will you speak to King Hezekiah of Judah saying: ‘Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying: Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. ¹¹ Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands—utterly destroying them—so will you be delivered? ¹² Have the gods of the nations delivered those my fathers destroyed—Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the children of Eden who were in Tel Assar? ¹³ Where is the king of Hamath, or the king of Arpad, or the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena, or Ivvah?’”

¹⁴ Then Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it. Then Hezekiah went up to the House of Adonai and spread it before Adonai. ¹⁵ Hezekiah prayed before Adonai, saying, “Adonai, God of Israel, who is enthroned upon the cheruvim. You alone are God of all the kingdoms of the earth. You made heaven and earth. ¹⁶ Incline Your ear, Adonai, and hear! Open Your eyes, Adonai, and see! Listen to the words of Sennacherib that he has sent to mock the living God. ¹⁷ It is true, Adonai, the kings of Assyria have devastated the nations and their lands, ¹⁸ and have cast their gods into the fire—for they were not gods, but the work of human hands—wood and stone. So they have destroyed them. ¹⁹ Now, Adonai our God, save us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, Adonai, are God.”

²⁰ Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent word to Hezekiah saying, “Thus says Adonai, God of Israel: ‘Because you prayed to Me about King Sennacherib of Assyria, I have heard you. ²¹ This is the word that Adonai has spoken about him:

²⁹ ‘ “So this shall be the sign to you: This year you will eat what grows by itself, in the second year what springs from that. But in the third year, you will sow, reap, plant vineyards, and eat their fruit.

³⁰ “‘The surviving remnant of the house of Judah will take root downward and bear fruit upward. ³¹ For from Jerusalem a remnant will go out, and survivors from Mount Zion. The zeal of Adonai-Tzva’ot will accomplish this.’”

³² Therefore thus says Adonai concerning the king of Assyria:

³⁵ Then it came about that night that the angel of Adonai went out and struck down 185,000 men in the Assyrian camp. When the men arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses. ³⁶ So King Sennacherib of Assyria withdrew, went away, and returned home, and stayed in Nineveh. ³⁷ One day, as he was worshipping in the house of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sarezer struck him down with the sword, and escaped to the land of Ararat. Then his son Esarhaddon became king in his place.

Put Your House In Order

20 In those days Hezekiah became mortally ill. So Isaiah the prophet son of Amoz came to him and said to him, “Thus says Adonai: Put your house in order. For you are dying, and will not live.”

² Then he turned his face to the wall and prayed to Adonai saying: ³ “Please, Adonai, remember how I have walked before You in truth and with a whole heart, and have done what is good in Your eyes.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

⁴ Then it came to pass, before Isaiah was gone out of the middle court, that the word of Adonai came to him, saying: ⁵ “Return, and say to Hezekiah the leader of My people, thus says Adonai, the God of your father David: ‘I have heard your prayer and I have seen your tears. Behold, I am going to heal you. On the third day you will go up to the House of Adonai. ⁶ Then I will add 15 years to your life. I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria; I will defend this city for My own sake, and for My servant David’s sake.’”

⁷ Then Isaiah said, “Take a cake of figs.” So they took one and laid it on the boil, and he recovered.

⁸ Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “What will be the sign that Adonai will heal me, and that I should go up to the House of Adonai on the third day?”

⁹ Then Isaiah said, “This will be the sign to you from Adonai, that Adonai will do this word He has spoken: Should the shadow go forward ten steps or go back ten steps?”

¹⁰ Hezekiah answered, “It’s easy for a shadow to go forward ten steps; no, let the shadow turn back ten steps.”

¹¹ Then Isaiah the prophet cried to Adonai; and He brought the shadow ten steps backward, by which it had gone down on the sundial of Ahaz.

Hezekiah Shows His Treasury to Babylon

¹² At that time Berodach-baladan, son of King Baladan of Babylon, sent a letter and a present to Hezekiah, for he had heard that Hezekiah had been sick. ¹³ Now Hezekiah listened to them, and showed them his entire treasure house—the silver and the gold, the spices and the precious oil—and his armory, and everything that was found in his treasuries. There was nothing in his house or in all his dominion that Hezekiah did not show them.

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

Hezekiah replied, “They have come to me from a far country, from Babylon.”

¹⁵ Then he asked, “What have they seen in your house?”

Hezekiah said, “They have seen everything in my house. There is nothing of my treasuries that I didn’t show them.”

¹⁶ Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of Adonai: ¹⁷ ‘Behold, days are coming when everything in your house, which your fathers have stored up to this day, will be carried to Babylon—nothing will be left,’ says Adonai. ¹⁸ ‘Moreover, some of your descendants—who will issue from you, whom you will father—will be taken away and will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.’”

¹⁹ Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “Good is the word of Adonai which you have spoken.” For he thought, “Is it not so, if there will be shalom and security in my days?”

²⁰ Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah and all his might—including how he made the pool and the tunnel that brought water into the city—are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? ²¹ So Hezekiah slept with his fathers, and his son Manasseh became king in his place.

Wicked Kings Manasseh and Amon

21 Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned 55 years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hephzi-bah. ² But he did what was evil in Adonai’s eyes, following the abominations of the nations that Adonai had dispossessed before Bnei-Yisrael. ³ For he rebuilt the shrines that his father Hezekiah had destroyed and he erected altars for Baal and made an Asherah pole, as King Ahab of Israel had done, and bowed down to all the host of heaven and worshipped them. ⁴ He even built altars in Adonai’s House, where Adonai had said, “In Jerusalem I will put My Name.” ⁵ He built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the House of Adonai. ⁶ He also made his son pass through the fire, practiced soothsaying and divination, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in Adonai’s eyes to provoke Him.

⁷ Then he set up the carved image of Asherah that he made in the House about which Adonai had said to David and to his son Solomon, “In this House and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen from all the tribes of Israel, I will put My Name forever. ⁸ No longer will I cause the feet of Israel to wander from the land which I gave their fathers—if only they will keep doing all I have commanded them and the whole Torah that My servant Moses commanded them.”

⁹ But they did not listen, so Manasseh led them astray to do more evil than the nations that Adonai had destroyed before Bnei-Yisrael. ¹⁰ Then Adonai spoke through His servants the prophets, saying: ¹¹ “Since King Manasseh of Judah has done these abominations, and has outdone in wickedness all that the Amorites who were before him did, and has also made Judah sin with his idols, ¹² therefore thus says Adonai, God of Israel, behold, I am bringing such evil on Jerusalem and Judah that whoever hears of it, both his ears will tingle! ¹³ I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria and the plummet of the house of Ahab, and I will utterly wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish—wiping it and turning it upside down. ¹⁴ Then I will cast off the remnant of My inheritance and hand them over to their enemies—they will become plunder and spoil to all their enemies. ¹⁵ For they have done such evil in My eyes, and kept provoking Me to anger since the day their fathers came out of Egypt up to this day.”

¹⁶ Moreover, Manasseh shed so much innocent blood until he filled Jerusalem with blood from one end to another—in addition to his sin which he made Judah sin, in doing what was evil in Adonai’s eyes. ¹⁷ Now the rest of the deeds of Manasseh, all that he did and his sin that he committed, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? ¹⁸ Then Manasseh slept with his fathers, and was buried in the garden of his own palace, in the garden of Uzza.

Then his son Amon became king in his place. ¹⁹ Amon was 22 years old when he became king, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Meshullemeth daughter of Haruz of Jotbah. ²⁰ He did what was evil in Adonai’s eyes, as his father Manasseh had done. ²¹ So he walked in all the ways that his father had walked in, and worshipped the idols that his father had worshipped, and bowed down to them. ²² He abandoned Adonai, God of his fathers, and did not walk in the way of Adonai.

²³ Then Amon’s courtiers conspired against him and assassinated the king in his own palace. ²⁴ But the people of the land put to death all the conspirators against King Amon. Then the people of the land made his son Josiah king in his place.

²⁵ Now the rest of the deeds of Amon which he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? ²⁶ Then he was buried in his tomb in the garden of Uzza, and his son Josiah became king in his place.

Yeshua Offers Living Water

4 Now Yeshua knew that the Pharisees heard that He was making and immersing more disciples than John. ² (Although Yeshua Himself was not immersing, His disciples were.) ³ So He left Judea and went back again to the Galilee.

⁴ But He needed to pass through Samaria. ⁵ So He comes to a Samaritan town called Shechem, near the plot of land that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. ^{[a] 6} Now Jacob’s well was there. So Yeshua, exhausted from the journey, was sitting by the well. It was midday.^[b]

⁷ A Samaritan woman comes to draw water. “Give me a drink,” Yeshua tells her, ⁸ for His disciples had gone away to the town to buy food.

⁹ Then the Samaritan woman tells Him, “How is it that You, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?” (For Jewish people don’t deal with Samaritans.)

¹⁰ Yeshua replied to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who is saying to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”

¹¹ “Sir,” the woman tells Him, “You don’t have a bucket, and the well is deep. Then from where do You get this living water? ¹² You’re not greater than our father Jacob, are You? He gave us this well. He drank out of it himself, with his sons and his cattle.”

¹³ Yeshua replied to her, “Everyone who drinks from this water will get thirsty again. ¹⁴ But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never be thirsty. The water that I give him will become a fountain of water within him, springing up to eternal life!”

¹⁵ “Sir,” the woman tells Him, “give me this water, so I won’t get thirsty or have to come all the way here to draw water!”

¹⁶ He tells her, “Go call your husband, and then come back here.”

¹⁷ “I don’t have a husband,” the woman replied.

Yeshua tells her, “You’ve said it right, ‘I have no husband.’ ¹⁸ For you’ve had five husbands, and the man you have now isn’t your husband. This you’ve spoken truthfully!”

¹⁹ “Sir,” the woman tells Him, “I see that You are a prophet! ²⁰ Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you all say that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”

²¹ Yeshua tells her, “Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. ²² You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. ²³ But an hour is coming—it is here now—when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people as His worshipers. ²⁴ God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

²⁵ The woman tells Him, “I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called the Anointed One.)^[c] When He comes, He will explain everything to us.”

²⁶ Yeshua tells her, “I—the One speaking to you—I am.”

Ready for Harvest

²⁷ At this moment, His disciples came back. They were amazed that He was speaking with a woman. Yet no one said, “What do You want?” or “Why are You speaking with her?”

²⁸ So the woman left her water jar and went back to the town. She tells the people, ²⁹ “Come see a man who told me everything I ever did! He couldn’t be the Messiah, could He?” ³⁰ The people left the town and began coming to Him.