Hello, this is Father Paul, and I'm glad we're
taking this journey together to read the Bible
in a year. Today's reading is from 2 Kings chapter
19, as well as Isaiah chapters 36 and 37. 2 Kings
chapter 19 And so it was, when King Hezekiah
heard it, that he tore his cloth, covered himself
with sackcloth, and went into the house of the
Lord. Then he sent Eliakim. who was over the
household, Shebna the scribe, and the elders
of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah
the prophet, the son of Amoz. And they said to
him, Thus says Hezekiah, This day is a day of
trouble, and rebuke, and blasphemy. For the children
have come to birth, but there is no strength
to bring them forth. It may be that the Lord
your God will hear all the words of the Rabshakeh,
whom his master, the king of Assyria, has sent
to reproach the living God, and will rebuke the
words which the Lord your God has heard. Therefore
lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.
So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah,
and Isaiah said to them, Thus you shall say to
your master, Thus says the Lord, Do not be afraid
of the words which you have heard, with which
the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed
me. Surely I will send the Spirit upon him, and
he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land,
and I will cause him to fall by the sword in
his own land. Then the Rabshakeh returned and
found the king of Assyria warring against Libna,
for he heard that he had departed from Lashish.
And the king heard concerning Terhaka, king of
Ethiopia, Look, he has come out to make war with
you. So he again sent messengers to Hezekiah,
saying, Thus you shall speak to Hezekiah, king
of Judah, saying, Do not let your God, in whom
you trust, deceive you, saying, Jerusalem shall
not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.
Look, you have heard what the kings of Assyria
have done to all lands by utterly destroying
them, and shall you be delivered? Have the gods
of the nations delivered those whom my fathers
have destroyed, Gozan and Haran and Rezef and
the people of Eden who were in Telassar? Where
is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, and
the king of the city of Sepharvaim, Hena and
Eva? And Hezekiah received the letter from the
hand of the messengers and read it. And Hezekiah
went up to the house of the Lord and spread it
before the Lord. Then Hezekiah prayed before
the Lord and said, O Lord God of Israel, the
one who dwells between the cherubim, you are
God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth.
You have made heaven and earth. Incline your
ear, O Lord, and hear. Open your eyes, O Lord,
and see, and hear the words of Sennacherib, which
he has sent to reproach the living God. Truly,
Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the
nations and their lands, and have cast their
gods into the fire. For they were not gods, but
the work of men's hands, wood and stone. Therefore
they destroyed them. Now therefore, O Lord our
God, I pray, save us from his hand, that all
the kingdoms of the earth may know that you are
the Lord God, you alone. Then Isaiah the son
of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, Thus says the
Lord God of Israel, Because you have prayed to
me against Sennacherib, king of Assyria, I have
heard. This is the word which the Lord has spoken
concerning him. The virgin, the daughter of Zion,
has despised you, laughed you to scorn. The daughter
of Jerusalem has shaken her head behind your
back. Whom have you reproached and blasphemed?
Against whom have you raised your voice and lifted
up your eyes on high? Against the Holy One of
Israel. By your messengers you have reproached
the Lord and said, By the multitude of my chariots
I have come up to the height of the mountains,
to the limits of Lebanon. I will cut down its
tall cedars and its choice cypress trees. I will
enter the extremity of its borders to its fruitful
forest. I have dug and drunk strange water, and
with the soles of my feet I have dried up all
the brooks of defense. Did you not hear long
ago how I made it, from ancient times that I
formed it? Now I have brought it to pass that
you should be for crushing fortified cities into
heaps of ruins. Therefore their inhabitants had
little power. They were dismayed and confounded.
They were as the grass of the field, and the
green herb as the grass on the housetops, and
grain blighted before it is grown. But I know
your dwelling place. You're going out and you're
coming in, and you rage against me. because your
rage against me and your tumult have come up
to my ears. Therefore I will put my hook in your
nose, and my brittle in your lips, and I will
turn you back by the way which you came. This
shall be a sign to you. You shall eat this year
such as grows of itself, and in the second year
what springs from the same. Also in the third
year sow and reap, plant vineyards, and eat the
fruit of them. And the remnant who have escaped
of the house of Judah, shall again take root
downward, and bear fruit upward. For out of Jerusalem
shall go a remnant, and those who escape from
Mount Zion, the zeal of the Lord of hosts, will
do this. Therefore thus says the Lord concerning
the king of Assyria, He shall not come into this
city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before
it with shield, nor build a siege mound against
it. By the way that he came, by the same shall
he return. And he shall not come into this city,
says the Lord, for I will defend this city. to
save it for my own sake and for my servant David's
sake. And it came to pass on a certain night
that the angel of the Lord went out and killed
in the camp of the Assyrians one hundred and
eighty -five thousand. And when people arose
early in the morning, there were the corpses
all dead. So Sennacherib, king of Assyria, departed
and went away, returned home, and remained at
Nineveh. Now it came to pass, as he was worshipping
in the temple of Nishrak, his god, Adram -Melech
and Sherezer struck him down with the sword,
and they escaped into the land of Ararat. Then
Isar -Hadon, his son, reigned in his place. Now
it came to pass, in the fourteenth year of King
Hezekiah, that Sennacherib, king of Assyria,
came up against all the fortified cities of Judah
and took them. Then the king of Assyria sent
the Rabshakeh, with a great army from Lashish
to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. And he stood by
the aqueduct from the upper pool on the highway
to the fuller's field. And Ilya came, the son
of Hilkiah, who was over the household, Shebna
the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder,
came out to meet him. Then the Rabshakeh said
to them, Say now to Hezekiah, Thus says the great
king, the king of Assyria, What confidence is
this in which you trust? I say you speak of having
plans and power for war, but they are mere words.
now in whom do you trust that you rebel against
me look you are trusting in the staff of this
broken reed egypt on which if a man leans it
will go into his hand and pierce it so is pharaoh
king of egypt to all who trust in him but if
you say to me we trust in the lord our god Is
it not he whose high places and whose altars
Hezekiah has taken away, and said to Judah and
Jerusalem, You shall worship before this altar?
Now therefore I urge you, give a pledge to my
master the king of Assyria, and I will give you
two thousand horses, if you are able on your
part to put riders on them. How then will you
repel one captain of the least of my master's
servants, and put your trust in Egypt for chariots
and horsemen? Have I now come up without the
Lord against this land to destroy it? The Lord
said to me, Go up against this land and destroy
it. Then Eliakim, Shebna and Joah said to the
Rabshakeh, Please speak to your servants in Aramaic,
for we understand it, and do not speak to us
in Hebrew in the hearing of the people who are
on the wall. But the Rabshakeh said, Has my master
sent me to your master and to you to speak these
words, and not to the men who sit on the wall,
who will eat and drink their own waste with you?
Then the Rabshakeh stood and called out with
a loud voice in Hebrew and said, Hear the words
of the great king, the king of Assyria. Thus
says the king, Do not let Hezekiah deceive you,
for he will not be able to deliver you. Nor let
Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord, saying,
The Lord will surely deliver us. This city will
not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.
Do not listen to Hezekiah, for thus says the
king of Assyria. Make peace with me by a present,
and come out to me. And every one of you eat
from his own vine, and every one from his own
fig tree. And every one of you drink the waters
of his own cistern, until I come and take you
away to a land like your own land, a land of
grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards.
Beware, lest Hezekiah persuade you, saying, The
Lord will deliver us. Has any one of the gods
of the nations delivered its land from the hand
of the king of Assyria? Where are the gods of
Hamad and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvim?
Indeed, have they delivered Samaria from my hand?
Who among all the gods of these lands have delivered
their countries from my hand, that the Lord should
deliver Jerusalem from my hand? But they held
their peace and answered him not a word. For
the king's commandment was, Do not answer him.
Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over
the household, Shebna the scribe, and Joah the
son of Asaph the recorder, came to Hezekiah with
their clothes torn, and told him the words of
the Rabshakeh. Chapter 37 And so it was, when
King Hezekiah heard it, that he tore his clothes,
covered himself with sackcloth, and went into
the house of the Lord. Then he sent Eliakim,
who was over the household, Shebna the scribe,
and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth,
to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz. And they
said to him, Thus says Hezekiah, This day is
a day of trouble and rebuke and blasphemy, for
the children have come to birth, but there is
no strength to bring them forth. It may be that
the Lord your God will hear the words of the
Rabshakeh, whom his master, the king of Assyria,
has sent to reproach the living God, and will
rebuke the words which the Lord your God has
heard. Therefore lift up your prayer for the
remnant that is left. So the servants of king
Hezekiah came to Isaiah, and Isaiah said to them,
Thus you shall say to your master, Thus says
the Lord, Do not be afraid of the words which
you have heard, with which the servants of the
king of Assyria have blasphemed me. Surely I
will send a spirit upon him, and he shall hear
a rumor and return to his own land, and I will
cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.
Then the Rabshakeh returned and found the king
of Assyria warring against Libna, for he heard
that he had departed from Lashish. And the king
heard concerning Terhaka king of Ethiopia, He
has come out to make war with you. So when he
heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying,
Thus you shall speak to Hezekiah king of Judah,
saying, Do not let your God, in whom you trust,
deceive you, saying, Jerusalem shall not be given
into the hand of the king of Assyria. Look, you
have heard what the kings of Assyria have done
to all lands by utterly destroying them. And
shall you be delivered? Have the gods of the
nations delivered those whom my fathers have
destroyed, Gozan and Haran and Rezeph? and the
people of Eden who were in Telassar. Where is
the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, and the
king of the city of Sepharvaim, Hinnah, and Eva?
And Hezekiah received the letter from the hand
of the messengers and read it. And Hezekiah went
up to the house of the Lord and spread it before
the Lord. Then Hezekiah prayed to the Lord, saying,
O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, the one who dwells
between the cherubim, you are God, you alone
of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made
heaven and earth. Incline your ear, O Lord, and
hear. Open your eyes, O Lord, and see, and hear
the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to
reproach the living God. Truly, Lord, the kings
of Assyria have laid waste all the nations and
their lands, and have cast their gods into the
fire. For they were not gods, but the work of
man's hands, wood and stone. Therefore they destroyed
them. Now therefore, O Lord our God, save us
from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth
may know that you are the Lord, you alone. Then
Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying,
Thus says the Lord God of Israel, Because you
have prayed to me against Sinatrib king of Assyria.
This is the word which the Lord has spoken concerning
him. The virgin, the daughter of Zion, has despised
you, laughed you to scorn. The daughter of Jerusalem
has shaken her head behind your back. Whom have
you reproached and blasphemed? Against whom have
you raised your voice and lifted up your eyes
on high? Against the Holy One of Israel. By your
servants you have reproached the Lord and said,
By the multitude of my chariots I have come up
to the height of the mountains, to the limits
of Lebanon. I will cut down its tall cedars and
its choice cypress trees. I will enter its farthest
height to its fruitful forest. I have dug and
drunk water, and with the soles of my feet I
have dried up all the brooks of defense. Did
you not hear long ago how I made it, from ancient
times that I formed it? Now I have brought it
to pass that you should be for crushing fortified
cities into heaps of ruins. Therefore their inhabitants
had little power. They were dismayed and confounded.
They were as the grass of the field and the green
herb, as the grass on the housetops, and grain
blighted before it is grown. But I know your
dwelling place. You're going out, and you're
coming in, and you rage against me. Because your
rage against me and your tumult have come up
to my ears, therefore I will put my hook in your
nose and my bridle in your lips, and I will turn
you back by the way which you came. This shall
be a sign to you. You shall eat this year such
as grows of itself, and the second year what
springs from the same. Also in the third year
sow and reap, plant vineyards and eat the fruit
of them, and the remnant who have escaped of
the house of Judah shall again take root downward.
and bear fruit upward. For out of Jerusalem shall
go a remnant, and those who escape from Mount
Zion. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.
Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the king
of Assyria, He shall not come into this city,
nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it
with shield, nor build a siege mound against
it. By the way that he came, by the same shall
he return. And he shall not come into this city,
says the Lord, for I will defend this city to
save it for my own sake and for my servant David's
sake. Then the angel of the Lord went out and
killed in the camp of the Assyrians one hundred
and eighty -five thousand. And when the people
arose early in the morning, there were the corpses
all dead. So Sennacherib, king of Assyria, departed
and went away, returned home, and remained at
Nineveh. Now it came to pass, as he was worshipping
in the house of Nishrak, his god, that his sons
Adram -Melech, And Sharazar struck him down with
the sword, and they escaped into the land of
Ararat. Then Isarhaddon, his son, reigned in
his place. I hope you enjoyed today's reading
as much as I did, and I look forward to seeing
you again tomorrow to continue on our journey.
God bless you and have a great day.