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God is known in Judah; his name is honored in Israel.
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He has his home in Jerusalem; he lives on Mount Zion.
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There he broke the arrows of the enemy, their shields and swords, yes, all their weapons.
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How glorious you are, O God! How majestic, as you return from the mountains where you defeated your foes.
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Their brave soldiers have been stripped of all they had and now are sleeping the sleep of death; all their strength and skill was useless.
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When you threatened them, O God of Jacob, the horses and their riders fell dead.
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But you, LORD, are feared by all. No one can stand in your presence when you are angry.
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You made your judgment known from heaven; the world was afraid and kept silent,
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when you rose up to pronounce judgment, to save all the oppressed on earth.
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Human anger only results in more praise for you; those who survive the wars will keep your festivals.
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Give the LORD your God what you promised him; bring gifts to him, all you nearby nations. God makes everyone fear him;
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he humbles proud princes and terrifies great kings.
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In the fourteenth year that Hezekiah was king of Judah, Sennacherib, the emperor of Assyria, attacked the fortified cities of Judah and captured them.
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Then he ordered his chief official to go from Lachish to Jerusalem with a large military force to demand that King Hezekiah surrender. The official occupied the road where the cloth makers work, by the ditch that brings water from the upper pool.
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Three Judeans came out to meet him: the official in charge of the palace, Eliakim son of Hilkiah; the court secretary, Shebna; and the official in charge of the records, Joah son of Asaph.
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The Assyrian official told them that the emperor wanted to know what made King Hezekiah so confident.
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He demanded, "Do you think that words can take the place of military skill and might? Who do you think will help you rebel against Assyria?
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You are expecting Egypt to help you, but that would be like using a reed as a walking stick---it would break and would jab your hand. That is what the king of Egypt is like when anyone relies on him."
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The Assyrian official went on, "Or will you tell me that you are relying on the LORD your God? It was the LORD's shrines and altars that Hezekiah destroyed when he told the people of Judah and Jerusalem to worship at one altar only.
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I will make a bargain with you in the name of the emperor. I will give you two thousand horses if you can find that many riders.
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You are no match for even the lowest ranking Assyrian official, and yet you expect the Egyptians to send you chariots and horsemen.
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Do you think I have attacked your country and destroyed it without the LORD's help? The LORD himself told me to attack it and destroy it."
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Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah told the official, "Speak Aramaic to us. We understand it. Don't speak Hebrew; all the people on the wall are listening."
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He replied, "Do you think you and the king are the only ones the emperor sent me to say all these things to? No, I am also talking to the people who are sitting on the wall, who will have to eat their excrement and drink their urine, just as you will."
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Then the official stood up and shouted in Hebrew, "Listen to what the emperor of Assyria is telling you.
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He warns you not to let Hezekiah deceive you. Hezekiah can't save you.
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And don't let him persuade you to rely on the LORD. Don't think that the LORD will save you and that he will stop our Assyrian army from capturing your city.
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Don't listen to Hezekiah! The emperor of Assyria commands you to come out of the city and surrender. You will all be allowed to eat grapes from your own vines and figs from your own trees, and to drink water from your own wells---
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until the emperor resettles you in a country much like your own, where there are vineyards to give wine and there is grain for making bread.
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Don't let Hezekiah fool you into thinking that the LORD will rescue you. Did the gods of any other nations save their countries from the emperor of Assyria?
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Where are they now, the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Did anyone save Samaria?
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When did any of the gods of all these countries ever save their country from our emperor? Then what makes you think the LORD can save Jerusalem?"
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The people kept quiet, just as King Hezekiah had told them to; they did not say a word.
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Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah tore their clothes in grief and went and reported to the king what the Assyrian official had said.
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As soon as King Hezekiah heard their report, he tore his clothes in grief, put on sackcloth, and went to the Temple of the LORD.
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He sent Eliakim, the official in charge of the palace, Shebna, the court secretary, and the senior priests to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz. They also were wearing sackcloth.
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This is the message which he told them to give to Isaiah: "Today is a day of suffering; we are being punished and are in disgrace. We are like a woman who is ready to give birth, but is too weak to do it.
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The Assyrian emperor has sent his chief official to insult the living God. May the LORD your God hear these insults and punish those who spoke them. So pray to God for those of our people who survive."
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When Isaiah received King Hezekiah's message,
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he sent back this answer: "The LORD tells you not to let the Assyrians frighten you by their claims that he cannot save you.
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The LORD will cause the emperor to hear a rumor that will make him go back to his own country, and the LORD will have him killed there."
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The Assyrian official learned that the emperor had left Lachish and was fighting against the nearby city of Libnah; so he went there to consult him.
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Word reached the Assyrians that the Egyptian army, led by King Tirhakah of Ethiopia, was coming to attack them. When the emperor heard this, he sent a letter to King Hezekiah
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of Judah to tell him: "The god you are trusting in has told you that you will not fall into my hands, but don't let that deceive you.
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You have heard what an Assyrian emperor does to any country he decides to destroy. Do you think that you can escape?
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My ancestors destroyed the cities of Gozan, Haran, and Rezeph, and killed the people of Betheden who lived in Telassar, and none of their gods could save them.
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Where are the kings of the cities of Hamath, Arpad, Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?"
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King Hezekiah took the letter from the messengers and read it. Then he went to the Temple, placed the letter there in the presence of the LORD,
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"Almighty LORD, God of Israel, seated above the winged creatures, you alone are God, ruling all the kingdoms of the world. You created the earth and the sky.
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Now, LORD, hear us and look at what is happening to us. Listen to all the things that Sennacherib is saying to insult you, the living God.
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We all know, LORD, that the emperors of Assyria have destroyed many nations, made their lands desolate,
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and burned up their gods---which were no gods at all, only images of wood and stone made by human hands.
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Now, LORD our God, rescue us from the Assyrians, so that all the nations of the world will know that you alone are God."
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Then Isaiah sent a message telling King Hezekiah that in answer to the king's prayer
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the LORD had said, "The city of Jerusalem laughs at you, Sennacherib, and makes fun of you.
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Whom do you think you have been insulting and ridiculing? You have been disrespectful to me, the holy God of Israel.
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You sent your servants to boast to me that with all your chariots you had conquered the highest mountains of Lebanon. You boasted that there you cut down the tallest cedars and the finest cypress trees, and that you reached the deepest parts of the forests.
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You boasted that you dug wells and drank water in foreign lands, and that the feet of your soldiers tramped the Nile River dry.
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"Have you never heard that I planned all this long ago? And now I have carried it out. I gave you the power to turn fortified cities into piles of rubble.
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The people who lived there were powerless; they were frightened and stunned. They were like grass in a field or weeds growing on a roof when the hot east wind blasts them.
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"But I know everything about you, what you do and where you go. I know how you rage against me.
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I have received the report of that rage and that pride of yours, and now I will put a hook through your nose and a bit in your mouth and will take you back by the same road you came."
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Then Isaiah said to King Hezekiah, "Here is a sign of what will happen. This year and next you will have only wild grain to eat, but the following year you will be able to plant grain and harvest it, and plant vines and eat grapes.
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Those in Judah who survive will flourish like plants that send roots deep into the ground and produce fruit.
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There will be people in Jerusalem and on Mount Zion who will survive, because the LORD Almighty is determined to make this happen.
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"And this is what the LORD has said about the Assyrian emperor: 'He will not enter this city or shoot a single arrow against it. No soldiers with shields will come near the city, and no siege mounds will be built around it.
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He will go back by the same road he came, without entering this city. I, the LORD, have spoken.
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I will defend this city and protect it, for the sake of my own honor and because of the promise I made to my servant David.' "
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An angel of the LORD went to the Assyrian camp and killed 185,000 soldiers. At dawn the next day there they lay, all dead!
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Then the Assyrian emperor Sennacherib withdrew and returned to Nineveh.
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One day when he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, two of his sons, Adrammelech and Sharezer, killed him with their swords and then escaped to the land of Ararat. Another of his sons, Esarhaddon, succeeded him as emperor.
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From Peter, apostle of Jesus Christ--- To God's chosen people who live as refugees scattered throughout the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.
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You were chosen according to the purpose of God the Father and were made a holy people by his Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be purified by his blood. May grace and peace be yours in full measure.
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Let us give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! Because of his great mercy he gave us new life by raising Jesus Christ from death. This fills us with a living hope,
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and so we look forward to possessing the rich blessings that God keeps for his people. He keeps them for you in heaven, where they cannot decay or spoil or fade away.
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They are for you, who through faith are kept safe by God's power for the salvation which is ready to be revealed at the end of time.
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Be glad about this, even though it may now be necessary for you to be sad for a while because of the many kinds of trials you suffer.
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Their purpose is to prove that your faith is genuine. Even gold, which can be destroyed, is tested by fire; and so your faith, which is much more precious than gold, must also be tested, so that it may endure. Then you will receive praise and glory and honor on the Day when Jesus Christ is revealed.
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You love him, although you have not seen him, and you believe in him, although you do not now see him. So you rejoice with a great and glorious joy which words cannot express,
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because you are receiving the salvation of your souls, which is the purpose of your faith in him.
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It was concerning this salvation that the prophets made careful search and investigation, and they prophesied about this gift which God would give you.
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They tried to find out when the time would be and how it would come. This was the time to which Christ's Spirit in them was pointing, in predicting the sufferings that Christ would have to endure and the glory that would follow.
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God revealed to these prophets that their work was not for their own benefit, but for yours, as they spoke about those things which you have now heard from the messengers who announced the Good News by the power of the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. These are things which even the angels would like to understand.
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So then, have your minds ready for action. Keep alert and set your hope completely on the blessing which will be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed.
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Be obedient to God, and do not allow your lives to be shaped by those desires you had when you were still ignorant.
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Instead, be holy in all that you do, just as God who called you is holy.
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The scripture says, "Be holy because I am holy."
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You call him Father, when you pray to God, who judges all people by the same standard, according to what each one has done; so then, spend the rest of your lives here on earth in reverence for him.
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For you know what was paid to set you free from the worthless manner of life handed down by your ancestors. It was not something that can be destroyed, such as silver or gold;
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it was the costly sacrifice of Christ, who was like a lamb without defect or flaw.
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He had been chosen by God before the creation of the world and was revealed in these last days for your sake.
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Through him you believe in God, who raised him from death and gave him glory; and so your faith and hope are fixed on God.
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Now that by your obedience to the truth you have purified yourselves and have come to have a sincere love for other believers, love one another earnestly with all your heart.
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For through the living and eternal word of God you have been born again as the children of a parent who is immortal, not mortal.
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As the scripture says, "All human beings are like grass, and all their glory is like wild flowers. The grass withers, and the flowers fall,
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but the word of the Lord remains forever." This word is the Good News that was proclaimed to you.
