Old/New Testament
Hezekiah Seeks Isaiah’s Counsel
19 When King Hezekiah heard their report, he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth,(A) and went into the Lord’s temple.(B) 2 He sent Eliakim, who was in charge of the palace, Shebna the court secretary,(C) and the leading priests, who were covered with sackcloth,(D) to the prophet Isaiah(E) son of Amoz. 3 They said to him, “This is what Hezekiah says: ‘Today is a day of distress, rebuke, and disgrace, for children have come to the point of birth,(F) but there is no strength to deliver them. 4 Perhaps the Lord your God(G) will hear(H) all the words of the royal spokesman, whom his master the king of Assyria sent to mock the living God, and will rebuke(I) him for the words that the Lord your God has heard. Therefore, offer a prayer for the surviving remnant.’”(J)
5 So the servants of King Hezekiah went to Isaiah, 6 who said to them, “Tell your master, ‘The Lord says this: Don’t be afraid(K) because of the words you have heard, with which the king of Assyria’s attendants(L) have blasphemed(M) me. 7 I am about to put a spirit in him, and he will hear a rumor and return to his own land,(N) where I will cause him to fall by the sword.’”(O)
Sennacherib’s Departing Threat
8 When(P) the royal spokesman heard that the king of Assyria had pulled out of Lachish,(Q) he left and found him fighting against Libnah.(R) 9 The king had heard concerning King Tirhakah of Cush, “Look, he has set out to fight against you.” So he again sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, 10 “Say this to King Hezekiah of Judah: ‘Don’t let your God, on whom you rely,(S) deceive you by promising that Jerusalem will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.(T) 11 Look, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the countries: They completely destroyed them. Will you be rescued? 12 Did the gods of the nations(U) that my predecessors destroyed rescue them—nations such as Gozan,(V) Haran,(W) Rezeph, and the Edenites(X) in Telassar? 13 Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of[a] Sepharvaim, Hena, or Ivvah?’” (Y)
Hezekiah’s Prayer
14 Hezekiah took(Z) the letter(AA) from the messengers’ hands, read it, then went up to the Lord’s temple, and spread it out before the Lord.(AB) 15 Then Hezekiah prayed before the Lord:
Lord God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim,(AC) you are God—you alone—of all the kingdoms of the earth. You made the heavens and the earth.(AD) 16 Listen closely, Lord, and hear; open your eyes, Lord, and see.(AE) Hear the words that Sennacherib has sent to mock the living God.(AF) 17 Lord, it is true that the kings of Assyria have devastated the nations and their lands.(AG) 18 They have thrown their gods into the fire, for they were not gods but made by human hands—wood and stone.(AH) So they have destroyed them. 19 Now, Lord our God, please save us from his power so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, Lord, are God—you alone.(AI)
God’s Answer through Isaiah
20 Then(AJ) Isaiah son of Amoz sent a message to Hezekiah: “The Lord, the God of Israel says, ‘I have heard your prayer(AK) to me about King Sennacherib of Assyria.’(AL) 21 This is the word the Lord has spoken against him:
Virgin Daughter Zion(AM)
despises you and scorns you;
Daughter Jerusalem
shakes her head behind your back.(AN)
22 Who is it you mocked and blasphemed?(AO)
Against whom have you raised your voice
and lifted your eyes in pride?
Against the Holy One of Israel!(AP)
23 You have mocked the Lord[b] through[c] your messengers.(AQ)
You have said, ‘With my many chariots(AR)
I have gone up to the heights of the mountains,
to the far recesses of Lebanon.
I cut down its tallest cedars,
its choice cypress trees.
I came to its farthest outpost,
its densest forest.
24 I dug wells
and drank water in foreign lands.
I dried up all the streams of Egypt(AS)
with the soles of my feet.’
25 Have you not heard?(AT)
I designed it long ago;
I planned it in days gone by.
I have now brought it to pass,(AU)
and you have crushed fortified cities
into piles of rubble.
26 Their inhabitants have become powerless,
dismayed, and ashamed.
They are plants of the field,
tender grass,
grass on the rooftops,(AV)
blasted by the east wind.[d]
27 But I know your sitting down,(AW)
your going out and your coming in,
and your raging against me.
28 Because your raging against me
and your arrogance have reached my ears,
I will put my hook in your nose(AX)
and my bit in your mouth;
I will make you go back
the way you came.
29 “This will be the sign(AY) for you: This year you will eat what grows on its own, and in the second year what grows from that. But in the third year sow and reap, plant vineyards and eat their fruit. 30 The surviving remnant(AZ) of the house of Judah will again take root downward and bear fruit upward. 31 For a remnant will go out from Jerusalem, and survivors, from Mount Zion.(BA) The zeal of the Lord of Armies will accomplish this.(BB)
32 Therefore, this is what the Lord says about the king of Assyria:
He will not enter this city,
shoot an arrow here,
come before it with a shield,
or build up a siege ramp against it.(BC)
33 He will go back
the way he came,
and he will not enter this city.
This is the Lord’s declaration.
34 I will defend this city and rescue it
for my sake and for the sake of my servant David.”(BD)
Defeat and Death of Sennacherib
35 That night the angel of the Lord went out and struck down one hundred eighty-five thousand in the camp of the Assyrians. When the people got up the next morning—there were all the dead bodies!(BE) 36 So King Sennacherib of Assyria broke camp and left. He returned home and lived in Nineveh.(BF)
37 One day, while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech(BG) and Sharezer struck him down with the sword and escaped to the land of Ararat.(BH) Then his son Esar-haddon(BI) became king in his place.
Hezekiah’s Illness and Recovery
20 In those days(BJ) Hezekiah became terminally ill.(BK) The prophet Isaiah(BL) son of Amoz came and said to him, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Set your house in order, for you are about to die; you will not recover.’”(BM)
2 Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall(BN) and prayed to the Lord, 3 “Please, Lord, remember(BO) how I have walked before you faithfully and wholeheartedly and have done what pleases you.”[e](BP) And Hezekiah wept bitterly.(BQ)
4 Isaiah had not yet gone out of the inner courtyard when the word of the Lord came to him: 5 “Go back and tell Hezekiah, the leader(BR) of my people, ‘This is what the Lord God of your ancestor David says: I have heard your prayer;(BS) I have seen your tears. Look, I will heal you. On the third day from now you will go up to the Lord’s temple. 6 I will add fifteen years to your life. I will rescue you and this city from the grasp of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city for my sake and for the sake of my servant David.’”(BT)
7 Then Isaiah said, “Bring a lump of pressed figs.” So they brought it and applied it to his infected skin, and he recovered.(BU)
8 Hezekiah had asked Isaiah, “What is the sign(BV) that the Lord will heal me and that I will go up to the Lord’s temple on the third day?”
9 Isaiah said, “This is the sign(BW) to you from the Lord that he will do what he has promised: Should the shadow go ahead ten steps or go back ten steps?”
10 Then Hezekiah answered, “It’s easy for the shadow to lengthen ten steps. No, let the shadow go back ten steps.” 11 So the prophet Isaiah called out to the Lord, and he brought the shadow[f] back the ten steps it had descended on the stairway of Ahaz.[g](BX)
Hezekiah’s Folly
12 At that time(BY) Merodach-baladan[h] son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a gift to Hezekiah since he heard that he had been sick. 13 Hezekiah listened to the letters and showed the envoys his whole treasure house—the silver, the gold, the spices, and the precious oil—and his armory, and everything that was found in his treasuries. There was nothing in his palace and in all his realm that Hezekiah did not show them.(BZ)
14 Then the prophet Isaiah came to King Hezekiah and asked him, “Where did these men come from and what did they say to you?”
Hezekiah replied, “They came from a distant country, from Babylon.”
15 Isaiah asked, “What have they seen in your palace?”
Hezekiah answered, “They have seen everything in my palace. There isn’t anything in my treasuries that I didn’t show them.”
16 Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the Lord: 17 ‘Look, the days are coming when everything in your palace and all that your predecessors have stored up until today will be carried off to Babylon; nothing will be left,’(CA) says the Lord. 18 ‘Some of your descendants—who come from you, whom you father—will be taken away,(CB) and they will become eunuchs[i] in the palace of the king of Babylon.’”(CC)
19 Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of the Lord that you have spoken is good,”(CD) for he thought, “Why not, if there will be peace and security during my lifetime?”
Hezekiah’s Death
20 The rest of the events of Hezekiah’s reign, along with all his might and how he made the pool(CE) and the tunnel and brought water into the city,(CF) are written in the Historical Record of Judah’s Kings.(CG) 21 Hezekiah rested with his ancestors, and his son Manasseh became king in his place.(CH)
Judah’s King Manasseh
21 Manasseh(CI) was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hephzibah.(CJ) 2 He did what was evil in the Lord’s sight,(CK) imitating the detestable practices of the nations that the Lord had dispossessed before the Israelites.(CL) 3 He rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had destroyed(CM) and reestablished the altars for Baal. He made an Asherah,(CN) as King Ahab of Israel had done;(CO) he also bowed in worship to all the stars in the sky(CP) and served them. 4 He built altars in the Lord’s temple,(CQ) where the Lord had said, “Jerusalem is where I will put my name.”(CR) 5 He built altars to all the stars in the sky(CS) in both courtyards of the Lord’s temple.(CT) 6 He sacrificed his son in the fire,[j](CU) practiced witchcraft and divination, and consulted mediums and spiritists.(CV) He did a huge amount of evil in the Lord’s sight, angering him.(CW)
7 Manasseh set up the carved image of Asherah, which he made, in the temple that the Lord had spoken about to David and his son Solomon: “I will establish my name forever in this temple and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel.(CX) 8 I will never again cause the feet of the Israelites to wander from the land I gave to their ancestors if only they will be careful to do all I have commanded them—the whole law that my servant Moses commanded them.”(CY) 9 But they did not listen; Manasseh caused them to stray so that they did worse evil than the nations the Lord had destroyed before the Israelites.(CZ)
10 The Lord said through his servants the prophets, 11 “Since King Manasseh of Judah has committed all these detestable acts(DA)—worse evil than the Amorites(DB) who preceded him had done—and by means of his idols has also caused Judah to sin, 12 this is what the Lord God of Israel says: ‘I am about to bring such a disaster on Jerusalem and Judah that everyone who hears about it will shudder.[k](DC) 13 I will stretch over Jerusalem the measuring line used on Samaria and the mason’s level used on the house of Ahab,(DD) and I will wipe(DE) Jerusalem clean as one wipes a bowl—wiping it and turning it upside down. 14 I will abandon the remnant(DF) of my inheritance and hand them over to their enemies. They will become plunder and spoil to all their enemies, 15 because they have done what is evil in my sight and have angered me from the day their ancestors came out of Egypt until today.’”(DG)
16 Manasseh also shed so much innocent blood that he filled Jerusalem with it from one end to another.(DH) This was in addition to his sin that he caused Judah to commit, so that they did what was evil in the Lord’s sight.
Manasseh’s Death
17 The rest(DI) of the events of Manasseh’s reign, along with all his accomplishments and the sin that he committed, are written in the Historical Record of Judah’s Kings.(DJ) 18 Manasseh rested with his ancestors and was buried in the garden of his own house, the garden of Uzza. His son Amon became king in his place.
Judah’s King Amon
19 Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king,(DK) and he reigned two years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Meshullemeth daughter of Haruz; she was from Jotbah. 20 He did what was evil in the Lord’s sight, just as his father Manasseh had done.(DL) 21 He walked in all the ways his father had walked; he served the idols his father had served, and he bowed in worship to them.(DM) 22 He abandoned the Lord God of his ancestors(DN) and did not walk in the ways of the Lord.(DO)
23 Amon’s servants conspired against him and put the king to death in his own house.(DP) 24 The common people[l] killed(DQ) all who had conspired against King Amon, and they made his son Josiah(DR) king in his place.
25 The rest of the events of Amon’s reign, along with his accomplishments, are written in the Historical Record of Judah’s Kings. 26 He was buried in his tomb in the garden of Uzza, and his son Josiah became king in his place.
Jesus and the Samaritan Woman
4 When Jesus[a] learned that the Pharisees(A) had heard he was making(B) and baptizing more disciples than John(C) 2 (though Jesus himself was not baptizing, but his disciples were), 3 he left Judea(D) and went again to Galilee.(E) 4 He had to travel through Samaria;(F) 5 so he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar near the property[b] that Jacob(G) had given his son Joseph.(H) 6 Jacob’s well(I) was there, and Jesus, worn out from his journey, sat down at the well. It was about noon.[c]
7 A woman of Samaria came to draw water.(J)
“Give me a drink,” Jesus said to her, 8 because his disciples had gone into town to buy food.
9 “How is it that you, a Jew,(K) ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan(L) woman?” she asked him. For Jews do not associate with[d] Samaritans.[e]
10 Jesus answered, “If you knew the gift of God,(M) and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would ask him, and he would give you living water.”(N)
11 “Sir,”(O) said the woman, “you don’t even have a bucket, and the well is deep. So where do you get this ‘living water’? 12 You aren’t greater than our father Jacob,(P) are you? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and livestock.”
13 Jesus said, “Everyone who drinks from this water will get thirsty again. 14 But whoever drinks from the water that I will give him will never get thirsty again.(Q) In fact, the water I will give him will become a well[f](R) of water springing up in him for eternal life.”(S)
15 “Sir,” the woman said to him, “give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and come here to draw water.”
16 “Go call your husband,” he told her, “and come back here.”
17 “I don’t have a husband,” she answered.
“You have correctly said, ‘I don’t have a husband,’” Jesus said. 18 “For you’ve had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.”
19 “Sir,” the woman replied, “I see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain,(T) but you Jews say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.”(U)
21 Jesus told her, “Believe me, woman, an hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know. We worship what we do know, because salvation is from the Jews.(V) 23 But an hour is coming, and is now here,(W) when the true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and in truth.[g] Yes, the Father wants such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit,(X) and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and in truth.”(Y)
25 The woman said to him, “I know that the Messiah(Z) is coming” (who is called Christ(AA)). “When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
26 Jesus told her, “I, the one speaking to you, am he.”(AB)
The Ripened Harvest
27 Just then his disciples arrived, and they were amazed that he was talking with a woman. Yet no one said, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”
28 Then the woman left her water jar, went into town, and told the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” (AC) 30 They left the town and made their way to him.(AD)
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