Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

The Protection of the Righteous and the Destruction of the Wicked

Of David.^[a]

The Assyrians Defy God

⁸ When the chief commander returned, he found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah, for he had heard that he had departed from Lachish. ⁹ He heard about Tirhakah, the king of Cush, saying, “Look, he has set out to fight with you,” so he again sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, ¹⁰ “Thus you shall say to Hezekiah the king of Judah, ‘Let not your God whom you are trusting deceive you, by his saying, “Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria!” ¹¹ Look, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands, by utterly destroying them, and shall you be delivered? ¹² Did the gods of the nations that my predecessors^[a] destroyed deliver them? Not Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, nor the children of Eden who were in Tel Assar. ¹³ Where are the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?’”

Hezekiah Prays to Yahweh

¹⁴ Hezekiah took the letters from the hand of the messengers and read them. Then he went up to the temple of Yahweh, and Hezekiah spread them out before the presence of Yahweh. ¹⁵ Then Hezekiah prayed before the face of Yahweh and said, “O Yahweh, God of Israel who lives above the cherubim. You are God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the world; you have made the heavens and the earth. ¹⁶ Incline your ears and hear; open, O Yahweh, your eyes and see and hear the words of Sennacherib which he has sent to insult the living God. ¹⁷ Truly, O Yahweh, the kings of Assyria have utterly destroyed the nations and their land. ¹⁸ He has hurled their gods in the fire because they are not gods, but the work of the hands of a human made of wood and stone, so they destroyed them. ¹⁹ So then, O Yahweh our God, rescue us, please, from his hand, that all of the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, O Yahweh, you alone are God!”

Isaiah Brings a Prophetic Response

²⁰ Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says Yahweh the God of Israel, ‘What you have prayed to me about Sennacherib king of Assyria I have heard.

An Angel Neutralizes the Assyrian Army

³⁵ It happened in that night that an angel of Yahweh went out, and he struck down one hundred and eighty-five thousand in the camp of Assyria. When they got up early in the morning, look! All of them were dead corpses. ³⁶ Then Sennacherib king of Assyria set out and went and returned and lived in Nineveh. ³⁷ It happened that he was worshiping in the temple of Nisroch his god, and Adrammelech and Sharezer^[a] struck him with the sword. Then they escaped into the land of Ararat, and Esarhaddon his son became king in his place.

The Letter to the Church in Pergamum

¹² “And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write:

“This is what the one who has the sharp double-edged sword says: ¹³ ‘I know where you live, where the throne of Satan is. And you hold fast to my name and did not deny your^[a] faith in me, even in the days of Antipas my faithful witness, who was killed among you, where Satan lives. ¹⁴ But I have a few things against you: that you have there those who hold fast to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, to eat food sacrificed to idols and to commit sexual immorality. ¹⁵ So likewise you also have those who hold fast to the teaching of the Nicolaitans. ¹⁶ Therefore repent! But if you do not, I am coming to you quickly, and I will make war with them with the sword from my mouth. ¹⁷ The one who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers, I will give to him some of the hidden manna, and I will give to him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written, that no one knows except the one who receives it.’

The Letter to the Church in Thyatira

¹⁸ “And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write:

“This is what the Son of God says, the one who has his eyes like a fiery flame and his feet like fine bronze: ¹⁹ ‘I know your works, and your love, and faith, and service, and patient endurance—and your last works are greater than the first. ²⁰ But I have against you that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, the one who calls herself a prophetess, and teaches and deceives my slaves to commit sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols. ²¹ And I have given her time in order to repent, and she did not want to repent from her sexual immorality. ²² Behold, I am throwing her into a sickbed and those who committed adultery with her into great affliction, unless they repent from her deeds. ²³ And I will kill her children with deadly disease, and all the churches will know that I am the one who searches minds and hearts, and I will give to each one of you according to your deeds. ²⁴ But I say to you, to the rest who are in Thyatira, all those who do not hold this teaching, who have not known the deep things of Satan, as they say, I do not put upon you any other burden. ²⁵ Nevertheless, hold fast to what you have until I come. ²⁶ And the one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, I will give him authority over the nations, ²⁷ and “he will shepherd them with an iron rod; he will break them in pieces like jars made of clay,”^{[b] 28} as I also have received from my Father, and I will give him the morning star. ²⁹ The one who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’