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Hezekiah sends a message to Isaiah
37 When King Hezekiah heard the report of his officers, he tore his clothes. Then he put on rough sackcloth and he went into the Lord's temple. 2 He sent Eliakim, Shebna and the leaders of the priests to Amoz's son, Isaiah the prophet. Eliakim was the most important officer in the king's palace. Shebna was a government officer. They were all wearing sackcloth. 3 They told Hezekiah's message to Isaiah:
‘This is a time of great trouble. Assyria has insulted us to make us ashamed. Our nation is like a woman who is ready to give birth, but she is too weak to push the child out. 4 The Assyrian officer has brought a message from his king to insult the God who lives for ever. Maybe the Lord your God has heard that message. He should punish the officer for his wicked message. So please pray for the people who remain in Jerusalem.’
5 When King Hezekiah's officers told their message to Isaiah, 6 Isaiah said to them, ‘Tell your master that the Lord says this: “Do not let the words that you have heard make you afraid. The servants of the king of Assyria have insulted me, the Lord. 7 Listen to me! I will put a spirit into the king of Assyria's mind. He will hear a report which will cause him to return to his own country. There, in his own land, I will cause someone to kill him with a sword.” ’
8 At that time, the king of Assyria had left Lachish city. When the Assyrian officer heard that news, he left Jerusalem. He went to meet the king at Libnah, where the king was now fighting a battle. 9 Then the king of Assyria heard a report about Tirhakah, the king of Ethiopia. People told him, ‘He has brought his army from Ethiopia to fight against you.’
When the king of Assyria heard that news, he sent another message to Hezekiah in Jerusalem. 10 This was his message to King Hezekiah of Judah: ‘You are hoping that your God will help you. Your God may say that the king of Assyria will not destroy Jerusalem. But do not let him deceive you. 11 You have heard how the kings of Assyria have completely destroyed all other countries. So do not think that your God will rescue you. 12 The gods of those other countries did not save them. Our kings destroyed the nations of Gozan, Haran and Rezeph. They killed the people of Eden who lived in Tel Assar. 13 The kings of Hamath and Arpad have gone. The king of Sepharvaim city has gone. The kings of Hena and Ivvah have also gone.’
14 When Hezekiah received the letter with this message, he read it. Then he went up to the Lord's temple. He put the letter there, in front of the Lord. 15 Hezekiah prayed to the Lord. He said:
16 ‘Lord Almighty, you are Israel's God. You sit on your throne between the cherubs.[a] Only you are the God who rules all the kingdoms in the world. You have made the heavens and the earth. 17 Lord, please listen carefully to me. Lord, look carefully at this letter. Listen to Sennacherib's message. He is insulting you, the God who lives for ever. 18 It is true, Lord, that the kings of Assyria have destroyed all these people and their lands. 19 They threw the gods of these nations into the fire. Those idols are not really gods. People used wood and stone to make them. So the Assyrians could destroy them. 20 So now, Lord, you are our God! Save us from the power of Sennacherib! Then all the kingdoms in the world will know that you alone are the Lord.’
God answers Hezekiah
21 Then Amoz's son, Isaiah, sent this message to Hezekiah: ‘The Lord, Israel's God, says, “You have prayed to me about Sennacherib, the king of Assyria.” 22 This is the Lord's reply. The Lord says this about King Sennacherib:
“The holy people of Zion laugh at you!
They think that you are useless.
Yes, the people of Jerusalem shake their heads
as you run away.
23 Who do you think it is that you have insulted?
Who have you shouted at?
Who have you looked at so proudly?
The answer is the Holy God of Israel!
24 You have sent your servants
to insult the Lord God.
You have said, ‘I have taken all my chariots
and I have gone up high mountains,
the highest mountains in Lebanon.
I have cut down its tall cedar trees,
and I have cut down its best pine trees.
I went up to its highest places,
and I went far into its forests.
25 I dug wells and they gave me water to drink.
My army marched through all the rivers in Egypt,
and the rivers became dry.’
26 You said that, but now listen to this![b]
You must surely have heard it already.
I decided what to do a long time ago!
Now I am causing it to happen.
I decided that you would destroy strong cities
so that they became heaps of stones.
27 The people of those cities have no power.
They are afraid and they are confused.
They are like plants in a field,
that cannot live for a long time.
They are like fresh green grass,
or grass that grows on the roof of a house.
When a hot wind blows on them,
it burns them and they die.
28 I know everything about you.
I know where you live.
I know when you go out.
And I know when you return home.
I know how much you shout against me,
when you are angry.
29 Yes, you do shout at me!
And I have heard all your proud noise.
So I will put my hook in your nose.
I will tie a rope to your mouth.
Then I will pull you back home
by the same way that you came.”
30 King Hezekiah, this is how you will know that I have spoken a true message from the Lord.[c] This year, you will eat crops that grow by themselves. And next year you will eat what grows from the same seeds. But in the third year you will plant seeds for yourselves, and they will give you a harvest of crops. You will plant vines again and you will eat grapes from them. 31 The people who remain in Judah will be like strong plants that put their roots down into the ground. Their branches will give lots of fruit.
32 A small number of people will still be alive in Jerusalem. They will leave Mount Zion and they will go to other places. The great love that the Lord Almighty has for his people will cause that to happen!
33 This is what the Lord says about the king of Assyria:
“His army will not come into this city.
His soldiers will not shoot any arrows here.
They will not attack the city as they hold their shields.
They will not build heaps of earth against the city's walls.
34 No! The king will return home by the way that he came.
He will not come into this city.”
That is what the Lord says.
35 “I will make this city safe and I will rescue it.
I will do that to show that I am great.
I promised my servant David that I would do it.
So I will do it.” ’
The Lord destroys Assyria's army
36 Then the Lord's angel went to the camp of the Assyrian army. He killed 185,000 of their soldiers. When people got up in the morning, they saw all those dead bodies! 37 So King Sennacherib of Assyria took his army away. He returned to Assyria and he lived in Nineveh.
38 One day, Sennacherib was worshipping his god Nisrok, in Nisrok's temple. Two of Sennacherib's sons, Adrammelech and Sharezer, went in and they killed him with their swords.[d] Then they ran away to the region of Ararat. Sennacherib's son, Esarhaddon, now ruled Assyria as king.
Hezekiah becomes ill
38 At that time, Hezekiah became very ill. He nearly died. Then Amoz's son, Isaiah the prophet, went to Hezekiah. He said to Hezekiah, ‘This is what the Lord says: “You will soon die. You will not get better. So you must tell your family what to do after your death.” ’
2 Then Hezekiah turned his face towards the wall and he prayed to the Lord. 3 He prayed, ‘Lord, please remember that I have served you well. I have always obeyed you. You could trust me to do the things that you told me to do.’ Hezekiah wept very much.
4 Then the Lord said to Isaiah, 5 ‘Go and say this to Hezekiah: “This is what the Lord says, the God that your ancestor David worshipped. I have heard your prayer and I have seen your tears. So I will let you live for 15 more years. 6 I will rescue you and this city from the power of the king of Assyria. I will keep Jerusalem safe.” ’
7 Isaiah said, ‘The Lord will do what he has promised to do for you. This is how you will know that it will really happen. 8 You can see the sun's shadow when it falls on the stairs that King Ahaz built. The Lord will cause the shadow to go back ten steps on these stairs.’ Then the shadow did go back ten steps!
Hezekiah's song
9 When Hezekiah became better from his disease, he wrote this song:
10 I thought that I might die in the middle of my life.
I thought that I would go into the deep hole of death,
before I had lived all the years of my life.
11 I thought, ‘I will not see the Lord again,
while I live in this world.
I will no longer see the people who live in the world.
I will no longer live among them.’
12 My home here has gone,
as easily as they pull down a shepherd's tent.
God has cut off my life,
like a piece of cloth that they have just made.
They cut it off and they roll it up.
As quickly as day becomes night,
God brings my life to an end.
13 I waited until morning would come.
It seemed like God was breaking all my bones,
like a lion does.
As quickly as day becomes night,
God brings my life to an end.
14 I cry like a swallow.
I make a sad noise like a dove.
My eyes are weak as I look up to heaven for help.
Lord God, save me from my trouble!
15 I do not know what I can say.
The Lord has told me what must happen.
He has done what he decided to do.
I will live quietly for the rest of my life,
because I am very sad and upset.
16 Lord God, your promises give life to people.
May they give life to my spirit.
Please make me well again and let me live.
17 Yes, it was good for me to have this trouble.
You rescued me from the deep hole of death.
You removed my sins,
and you put them behind your back.
18 Dead people in their graves cannot praise you.
They cannot sing to thank you.
People who go down into the deep hole of death
cannot trust you to help them.
19 It is those people who are alive that can thank you.
And I am doing it today.
Fathers tell their children that they can trust you.
20 The Lord will now save me from death.
We will sing to thank the Lord in his temple.
We will sing with happy music every day of our lives.
21 Now Isaiah had said this: ‘Take some figs to make a medicine and put it on Hezekiah's boil. Then he will get better.’ 22 Hezekiah had asked, ‘What will show me that I will be able to go up to the Lord's temple?’[e]
Be kind and good to each other
6 My friends, if you see that someone among you is doing a wrong thing, you must warn that person. Those of you who have help from God's Spirit should tell that person how to live in a good way. But you must be patient and respect him. Be very careful yourselves, so that you do not also want to do wrong things. 2 When anyone among you has troubles, you must help each other. If you do that, you will be obeying Christ's rule.[a] 3 You must not think that you are too important to help other people. If you are not really so important, you are thinking a false thought. 4 Everyone should think carefully about the things that they themselves do. If those things are good, that is a reason to be proud. A person like that does not need to think about whether he is better than anyone else. 5 Each person must live in a way that they know is right for them.
6 Everyone who is learning about God's message from a teacher should help his teacher. The student should share all the good things that he has with his teacher.
7 Nobody can hide the things that he does from God. Do not think a false thought like that! It is like a farmer who plants seeds in his field. The same kind of crops will grow as the seeds which he plants. That will be his harvest. 8 A person may do things only to make himself happy. That person's harvest will be God's punishment and death. Or a person may do the things that God's Spirit wants. That person will receive a harvest from God's Spirit. The harvest will be life with God for ever. 9 We must continue to do things that are good and we should not get tired. If we do not feel weak and stop doing good things, then we will receive a good harvest at the proper time.
10 Because of all that, we must help everyone when we have the chance. Certainly we must do good things to help our friends who believe in Christ, as we do.
Paul finishes his letter
11 Now I am writing these last words to you myself. You can see how large the letters are, when I write them with my own hand!
12 Do not agree with those people who want to make you obey the Jewish rules. They say that you must let someone circumcise you. They want other people to think that they are important. They do not want to receive any trouble from others. They are afraid to teach that Christ's death on the cross is enough to save us. 13 Even those men that someone has circumcised do not obey all the Jewish rules. They want to circumcise you only to make themselves seem important. They want to show that they have authority over your bodies. 14 But I do not want to say any great things about myself. The only thing that makes me great is our Lord Jesus Christ's death on the cross. Because of Christ's sacrifice on the cross, it is like I have also died. The things that belong to this world have become dead to me, and I have become dead to them. 15 It does not matter whether anyone has circumcised you or not. What matters is that God has made you a new person.
16 I pray that God will bless everyone who lives by that rule. I pray that God will give them peace in their minds and that he will be kind to them. I pray this for all who belong to God's true people.
17 I want to receive no more trouble from anyone after this. The marks on my body show that I am Jesus' servant.
18 My Christian friends, I pray that our Lord Jesus Christ will continue to be very kind to you. I pray that he will help you in your spirits. Amen. This is true!
This psalm is a song that David wrote for the music leader.
We trust God to save us[a]
65 God, it is right for us to praise you in Zion.
There, we will offer to you
the gifts that we have promised.
2 You answer our prayers.
All of us must come to you,
3 because of our many sins.
Our sins are too heavy for us to carry,
but you forgive the bad things that we do against you.[b]
4 You have blessed each person that you have chosen.
You let them live near to you in your home.
The good things that are in your holy temple
will make us very happy!
5 God, you are the one who saves us!
You answer our prayers,
and you do great things to rescue us.
People from everywhere on earth trust in you,
even those who live far away across the seas.
6 You used your power to make the mountains,
and you showed how strong you are.
7 You stop the seas from being angry,
so that their waters make no noise.[c]
You do the same with the angry nations.
8 People who live far away see
the great things that you have done.
It makes them afraid.
Everywhere on earth, east and west,
people sing happy songs to praise you.
9 You take care of the land.
You send rain to make the earth good for plants.
Your rivers are full of water.
You cause the earth to give good crops
so that the people have grain to eat.
10 When people plough their fields,
you send rain to make the earth wet.
You make the ground soft with the rain,
so that crops grow there.
11 Every year at harvest time,
you bless people with lots of good things.
Everywhere that you go,
there is plenty of food.[d]
12 Fresh grass covers the fields in the wilderness.
There are plenty of good things all over the hills,
so that people are very happy.
13 The fields are full of sheep.
The valleys are covered with crops.
Everywhere seems to shout and sing for joy!
24 The father of a righteous person will be very happy. He will be proud of a wise child.
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