Forever Forward in Hope

Prayer: Chatting With God Like a Best Friend by Wycliffe Bible Translators

Film + Faith - Superheroes and the Bible

More Than a Feeling

Contending for the Faith in a Compromised World

Launching a Business God's Way

RETURN to ME: Reading With the People of God #16

Stop Living in Your Head: Capturing Those Dreams and Making Them a Reality

How to Become a Real Disciple

Living Large in a Small World: A Look Into Philippians 1

The Listener’s Bible®: NIV Edition

New International Version™  (Anglicised), Audio Edition

Holy Bible, New International Version™ (Anglicised), South Asian Audio Edition

<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
 <div class="book bkPRO">
 <div class="chapter ch9" data-usfm="PRO.9">
 <div class="label">9</div><div class="s1">Invitations of Wisdom and Folly</div><div class="q1"> 1Wisdom has built her house;</div><div class="q2">she has set up#9:1 Septuagint, Syriac and Targum; Hebrew has hewn out its seven pillars.</div><div class="q1"> 2She has prepared her meat and mixed her wine;</div><div class="q2">she has also set her table.</div><div class="q1"> 3She has sent out her servants, and she calls</div><div class="q2">from the highest point of the city,</div><div class="q2"> 4&#8220;Let all who are simple come to my house!&#8221;</div><div class="q1">To those who have no sense she says,</div><div class="q2"> 5&#8220;Come, eat my food</div><div class="q2">and drink the wine I have mixed.</div><div class="q1"> 6Leave your simple ways and you will live;</div><div class="q2">walk in the way of insight.&#8221;</div><div class="b"></div><div class="q1"> 7Whoever corrects a mocker invites insults;</div><div class="q2">whoever rebukes the wicked incurs abuse.</div><div class="q1"> 8Do not rebuke mockers or they will hate you;</div><div class="q2">rebuke the wise and they will love you.</div><div class="q1"> 9Instruct the wise and they will be wiser still;</div><div class="q2">teach the righteous and they will add to their learning.</div><div class="b"></div><div class="q1"> 10The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,</div><div class="q2">and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.</div><div class="q1"> 11For through wisdom#9:11 Septuagint, Syriac and Targum; Hebrew me your days will be many,</div><div class="q2">and years will be added to your life.</div><div class="q1"> 12If you are wise, your wisdom will reward you;</div><div class="q2">if you are a mocker, you alone will suffer.</div><div class="b"></div><div class="q1"> 13Folly is an unruly woman;</div><div class="q2">she is simple and knows nothing.</div><div class="q1"> 14She sits at the door of her house,</div><div class="q2">on a seat at the highest point of the city,</div><div class="q1"> 15calling out to those who pass by,</div><div class="q2">who go straight on their way,</div><div class="q2"> 16&#8220;Let all who are simple come to my house!&#8221;</div><div class="q1">To those who have no sense she says,</div><div class="q2"> 17&#8220;Stolen water is sweet;</div><div class="q2">food eaten in secret is delicious!&#8221;</div><div class="q1"> 18But little do they know that the dead are there,</div><div class="q2">that her guests are deep in the realm of the dead.</div>
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<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
 <div class="book bkPSA">
 <div class="chapter ch91" data-usfm="PSA.91">
 <div class="label">91</div><div class="cl">Psalm 91</div><div class="q1"> 1Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High</div><div class="q2">will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.#91:1 Hebrew Shaddai</div><div class="q1"> 2I will say of the Lord, &#8220;He is my refuge and my fortress,</div><div class="q2">my God, in whom I trust.&#8221;</div><div class="b"></div><div class="q1"> 3Surely he will save you</div><div class="q2">from the fowler&#8217;s snare</div><div class="q2">and from the deadly pestilence.</div><div class="q1"> 4He will cover you with his feathers,</div><div class="q2">and under his wings you will find refuge;</div><div class="q2">his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.</div><div class="q1"> 5You will not fear the terror of night,</div><div class="q2">nor the arrow that flies by day,</div><div class="q1"> 6nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness,</div><div class="q2">nor the plague that destroys at midday.</div><div class="q1"> 7A thousand may fall at your side,</div><div class="q2">ten thousand at your right hand,</div><div class="q2">but it will not come near you.</div><div class="q1"> 8You will only observe with your eyes</div><div class="q2">and see the punishment of the wicked.</div><div class="b"></div><div class="q1"> 9If you say, &#8220;The Lord is my refuge,&#8221;</div><div class="q2">and you make the Most High your dwelling,</div><div class="q1"> 10no harm will overtake you,</div><div class="q2">no disaster will come near your tent.</div><div class="q1"> 11For he will command his angels concerning you</div><div class="q2">to guard you in all your ways;</div><div class="q1"> 12they will lift you up in their hands,</div><div class="q2">so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.</div><div class="q1"> 13You will tread on the lion and the cobra;</div><div class="q2">you will trample the great lion and the serpent.</div><div class="b"></div><div class="q1"> 14&#8220;Because he#91:14 That is, probably the king loves me,&#8221; says the Lord, &#8220;I will rescue him;</div><div class="q2">I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.</div><div class="q1"> 15He will call on me, and I will answer him;</div><div class="q2">I will be with him in trouble,</div><div class="q2">I will deliver him and honor him.</div><div class="q1"> 16With long life I will satisfy him</div><div class="q2">and show him my salvation.&#8221;</div>
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<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
 <div class="book bkREV">
 <div class="chapter ch6" data-usfm="REV.6">
 <div class="label">6</div><div class="s1">The Seals</div><div class="p"> 1I watched as the Lamb opened the first of the seven seals. Then I heard one of the four living creatures say in a voice like thunder, &#8220;Come!&#8221; 2I looked, and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a bow, and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest.</div><div class="p"> 3When the Lamb opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, &#8220;Come!&#8221; 4Then another horse came out, a fiery red one. Its rider was given power to take peace from the earth and to make people kill each other. To him was given a large sword.</div><div class="p"> 5When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, &#8220;Come!&#8221; I looked, and there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. 6Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, &#8220;Two pounds#6:6 Or about 1 kilogram of wheat for a day&#8217;s wages,#6:6 Greek a denarius and six pounds#6:6 Or about 3 kilograms of barley for a day&#8217;s wages,#6:6 Greek a denarius and do not damage the oil and the wine!&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 7When the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, &#8220;Come!&#8221; 8I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.</div><div class="p"> 9When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained. 10They called out in a loud voice, &#8220;How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?&#8221; 11Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer, until the full number of their fellow servants, their brothers and sisters,#6:11 The Greek word for brothers and sisters (adelphoi) refers here to believers, both men and women, as part of God&#8217;s family; also in 12:10; 19:10. were killed just as they had been.</div><div class="p"> 12I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red, 13and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind. 14The heavens receded like a scroll being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.</div><div class="p"> 15Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and everyone else, both slave and free, hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. 16They called to the mountains and the rocks, &#8220;Fall on us and hide us#6:16 See Hosea 10:8. from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! 17For the great day of their#6:17 Some manuscripts his wrath has come, and who can withstand it?&#8221;</div>
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<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
 <div class="book bk2KI">
 <div class="chapter ch17" data-usfm="2KI.17">
 <div class="label">17</div><div class="s1">Hoshea Last King of Israel</div><div class="p"> 1In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah, Hoshea son of Elah became king of Israel in Samaria, and he reigned nine years. 2He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, but not like the kings of Israel who preceded him.</div><div class="p"> 3Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up to attack Hoshea, who had been Shalmaneser&#8217;s vassal and had paid him tribute. 4But the king of Assyria discovered that Hoshea was a traitor, for he had sent envoys to So#17:4 So is probably an abbreviation for Osorkon. king of Egypt, and he no longer paid tribute to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year. Therefore Shalmaneser seized him and put him in prison. 5The king of Assyria invaded the entire land, marched against Samaria and laid siege to it for three years. 6In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and deported the Israelites to Assyria. He settled them in Halah, in Gozan on the Habor River and in the towns of the Medes.</div><div class="s1">Israel Exiled Because of Sin</div><div class="p"> 7All this took place because the Israelites had sinned against the Lord their God, who had brought them up out of Egypt from under the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. They worshiped other gods 8and followed the practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before them, as well as the practices that the kings of Israel had introduced. 9The Israelites secretly did things against the Lord their God that were not right. From watchtower to fortified city they built themselves high places in all their towns. 10They set up sacred stones and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every spreading tree. 11At every high place they burned incense, as the nations whom the Lord had driven out before them had done. They did wicked things that aroused the Lord&#8217;s anger. 12They worshiped idols, though the Lord had said, &#8220;You shall not do this.&#8221;#17:12 Exodus 20:4,5 13The Lord warned Israel and Judah through all his prophets and seers: &#8220;Turn from your evil ways. Observe my commands and decrees, in accordance with the entire Law that I commanded your ancestors to obey and that I delivered to you through my servants the prophets.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 14But they would not listen and were as stiff-necked as their ancestors, who did not trust in the Lord their God. 15They rejected his decrees and the covenant he had made with their ancestors and the statutes he had warned them to keep. They followed worthless idols and themselves became worthless. They imitated the nations around them although the Lord had ordered them, &#8220;Do not do as they do.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 16They forsook all the commands of the Lord their God and made for themselves two idols cast in the shape of calves, and an Asherah pole. They bowed down to all the starry hosts, and they worshiped Baal. 17They sacrificed their sons and daughters in the fire. They practiced divination and sought omens and sold themselves to do evil in the eyes of the Lord, arousing his anger.</div><div class="p"> 18So the Lord was very angry with Israel and removed them from his presence. Only the tribe of Judah was left, 19and even Judah did not keep the commands of the Lord their God. They followed the practices Israel had introduced. 20Therefore the Lord rejected all the people of Israel; he afflicted them and gave them into the hands of plunderers, until he thrust them from his presence.</div><div class="p"> 21When he tore Israel away from the house of David, they made Jeroboam son of Nebat their king. Jeroboam enticed Israel away from following the Lord and caused them to commit a great sin. 22The Israelites persisted in all the sins of Jeroboam and did not turn away from them 23until the Lord removed them from his presence, as he had warned through all his servants the prophets. So the people of Israel were taken from their homeland into exile in Assyria, and they are still there.</div><div class="s1">Samaria Resettled</div><div class="p"> 24The king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Kuthah, Avva, Hamath and Sepharvaim and settled them in the towns of Samaria to replace the Israelites. They took over Samaria and lived in its towns. 25When they first lived there, they did not worship the Lord; so he sent lions among them and they killed some of the people. 26It was reported to the king of Assyria: &#8220;The people you deported and resettled in the towns of Samaria do not know what the god of that country requires. He has sent lions among them, which are killing them off, because the people do not know what he requires.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 27Then the king of Assyria gave this order: &#8220;Have one of the priests you took captive from Samaria go back to live there and teach the people what the god of the land requires.&#8221; 28So one of the priests who had been exiled from Samaria came to live in Bethel and taught them how to worship the Lord.</div><div class="p"> 29Nevertheless, each national group made its own gods in the several towns where they settled, and set them up in the shrines the people of Samaria had made at the high places. 30The people from Babylon made Sukkoth Benoth, those from Kuthah made Nergal, and those from Hamath made Ashima; 31the Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak, and the Sepharvites burned their children in the fire as sacrifices to Adrammelek and Anammelek, the gods of Sepharvaim. 32They worshiped the Lord, but they also appointed all sorts of their own people to officiate for them as priests in the shrines at the high places. 33They worshiped the Lord, but they also served their own gods in accordance with the customs of the nations from which they had been brought.</div><div class="p"> 34To this day they persist in their former practices. They neither worship the Lord nor adhere to the decrees and regulations, the laws and commands that the Lord gave the descendants of Jacob, whom he named Israel. 35When the Lord made a covenant with the Israelites, he commanded them: &#8220;Do not worship any other gods or bow down to them, serve them or sacrifice to them. 36But the Lord, who brought you up out of Egypt with mighty power and outstretched arm, is the one you must worship. To him you shall bow down and to him offer sacrifices. 37You must always be careful to keep the decrees and regulations, the laws and commands he wrote for you. Do not worship other gods. 38Do not forget the covenant I have made with you, and do not worship other gods. 39Rather, worship the Lord your God; it is he who will deliver you from the hand of all your enemies.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 40They would not listen, however, but persisted in their former practices. 41Even while these people were worshiping the Lord, they were serving their idols. To this day their children and grandchildren continue to do as their ancestors did.</div>
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<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
 <div class="book bk2KI">
 <div class="chapter ch18" data-usfm="2KI.18">
 <div class="label">18</div><div class="s1">Hezekiah King of Judah</div><div class="p"> 1In the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, Hezekiah son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign. 2He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-nine years. His mother&#8217;s name was Abijah#18:2 Hebrew Abi, a variant of Abijah daughter of Zechariah. 3He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father David had done. 4He removed the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it. (It was called Nehushtan.#18:4 Nehushtan sounds like the Hebrew for both bronze and snake.)</div><div class="p"> 5Hezekiah trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel. There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before him or after him. 6He held fast to the Lord and did not stop following him; he kept the commands the Lord had given Moses. 7And the Lord was with him; he was successful in whatever he undertook. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and did not serve him. 8From watchtower to fortified city, he defeated the Philistines, as far as Gaza and its territory.</div><div class="p"> 9In King Hezekiah&#8217;s fourth year, which was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, Shalmaneser king of Assyria marched against Samaria and laid siege to it. 10At the end of three years the Assyrians took it. So Samaria was captured in Hezekiah&#8217;s sixth year, which was the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel. 11The king of Assyria deported Israel to Assyria and settled them in Halah, in Gozan on the Habor River and in towns of the Medes. 12This happened because they had not obeyed the Lord their God, but had violated his covenant&#8212;all that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded. They neither listened to the commands nor carried them out.</div><div class="p"> 13In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah&#8217;s reign, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them. 14So Hezekiah king of Judah sent this message to the king of Assyria at Lachish: &#8220;I have done wrong. Withdraw from me, and I will pay whatever you demand of me.&#8221; The king of Assyria exacted from Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents#18:14 That is, about 11 tons or about 10 metric tons of silver and thirty talents#18:14 That is, about 1 ton or about 1 metric ton of gold. 15So Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the temple of the Lord and in the treasuries of the royal palace.</div><div class="p"> 16At this time Hezekiah king of Judah stripped off the gold with which he had covered the doors and doorposts of the temple of the Lord, and gave it to the king of Assyria.</div><div class="s1">Sennacherib Threatens Jerusalem</div><div class="p"> 17The king of Assyria sent his supreme commander, his chief officer and his field commander with a large army, from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. They came up to Jerusalem and stopped at the aqueduct of the Upper Pool, on the road to the Washerman&#8217;s Field. 18They called for the king; and Eliakim son of Hilkiah the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph the recorder went out to them.</div><div class="p"> 19The field commander said to them, &#8220;Tell Hezekiah:</div><div class="pm">&#8220;&#8198;&#8216;This is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says: On what are you basing this confidence of yours? 20You say you have the counsel and the might for war&#8212;but you speak only empty words. On whom are you depending, that you rebel against me? 21Look, I know you are depending on Egypt, that splintered reed of a staff, which pierces the hand of anyone who leans on it! Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who depend on him. 22But if you say to me, &#8220;We are depending on the Lord our God&#8221;&#8212;isn&#8217;t he the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah removed, saying to Judah and Jerusalem, &#8220;You must worship before this altar in Jerusalem&#8221;?</div><div class="pm"> 23&#8220;&#8198;&#8216;Come now, make a bargain with my master, the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses&#8212;if you can put riders on them! 24How can you repulse one officer of the least of my master&#8217;s officials, even though you are depending on Egypt for chariots and horsemen#18:24 Or charioteers? 25Furthermore, have I come to attack and destroy this place without word from the Lord? The Lord himself told me to march against this country and destroy it.&#8217;&#8198;&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 26Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, and Shebna and Joah said to the field commander, &#8220;Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, since we understand it. Don&#8217;t speak to us in Hebrew in the hearing of the people on the wall.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 27But the commander replied, &#8220;Was it only to your master and you that my master sent me to say these things, and not to the people sitting on the wall&#8212;who, like you, will have to eat their own excrement and drink their own urine?&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 28Then the commander stood and called out in Hebrew, &#8220;Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria! 29This is what the king says: Do not let Hezekiah deceive you. He cannot deliver you from my hand. 30Do not let Hezekiah persuade you to trust in the Lord when he says, &#8216;The Lord will surely deliver us; this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.&#8217;</div><div class="p"> 31&#8220;Do not listen to Hezekiah. This is what the king of Assyria says: Make peace with me and come out to me. Then each of you will eat fruit from your own vine and fig tree and drink water from your own cistern, 32until I come and take you to a land like your own&#8212;a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees and honey. Choose life and not death!</div><div class="p">&#8220;Do not listen to Hezekiah, for he is misleading you when he says, &#8216;The Lord will deliver us.&#8217; 33Has the god of any nation ever delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria? 34Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena and Ivvah? Have they rescued Samaria from my hand? 35Who of all the gods of these countries has been able to save his land from me? How then can the Lord deliver Jerusalem from my hand?&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 36But the people remained silent and said nothing in reply, because the king had commanded, &#8220;Do not answer him.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 37Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph the recorder went to Hezekiah, with their clothes torn, and told him what the field commander had said.</div>
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<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
 <div class="book bk2KI">
 <div class="chapter ch19" data-usfm="2KI.19">
 <div class="label">19</div><div class="s1">Jerusalem&#8217;s Deliverance Foretold</div><div class="p"> 1When King Hezekiah heard this, he tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and went into the temple of the Lord. 2He sent Eliakim the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary and the leading priests, all wearing sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz. 3They told him, &#8220;This is what Hezekiah says: This day is a day of distress and rebuke and disgrace, as when children come to the moment of birth and there is no strength to deliver them. 4It may be that the Lord your God will hear all the words of the field commander, whom his master, the king of Assyria, has sent to ridicule the living God, and that he will rebuke him for the words the Lord your God has heard. Therefore pray for the remnant that still survives.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 5When King Hezekiah&#8217;s officials came to Isaiah, 6Isaiah said to them, &#8220;Tell your master, &#8216;This is what the Lord says: Do not be afraid of what you have heard&#8212;those words with which the underlings of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me. 7Listen! When he hears a certain report, I will make him want to return to his own country, and there I will have him cut down with the sword.&#8217;&#8198;&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 8When the field commander heard that the king of Assyria had left Lachish, he withdrew and found the king fighting against Libnah.</div><div class="p"> 9Now Sennacherib received a report that Tirhakah, the king of Cush,#19:9 That is, the upper Nile region was marching out to fight against him. So he again sent messengers to Hezekiah with this word: 10&#8220;Say to Hezekiah king of Judah: Do not let the god you depend on deceive you when he says, &#8216;Jerusalem will not be given into the hands of the king of Assyria.&#8217; 11Surely you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the countries, destroying them completely. And will you be delivered? 12Did the gods of the nations that were destroyed by my predecessors deliver them&#8212;the gods of Gozan, Harran, Rezeph and the people of Eden who were in Tel Assar? 13Where is the king of Hamath or the king of Arpad? Where are the kings of Lair, Sepharvaim, Hena and Ivvah?&#8221;</div><div class="s1">Hezekiah&#8217;s Prayer</div><div class="p"> 14Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers and read it. Then he went up to the temple of the Lord and spread it out before the Lord. 15And Hezekiah prayed to the Lord: &#8220;Lord, the God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. 16Give ear, Lord, and hear; open your eyes, Lord, and see; listen to the words Sennacherib has sent to ridicule the living God.</div><div class="p"> 17&#8220;It is true, Lord, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste these nations and their lands. 18They have thrown their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods but only wood and stone, fashioned by human hands. 19Now, Lord our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone, Lord, are God.&#8221;</div><div class="s1">Isaiah Prophesies Sennacherib&#8217;s Fall</div><div class="p"> 20Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent a message to Hezekiah: &#8220;This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I have heard your prayer concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria. 21This is the word that the Lord has spoken against him:</div><div class="q1">&#8220;&#8198;&#8216;Virgin Daughter Zion</div><div class="q2">despises you and mocks you.</div><div class="q1">Daughter Jerusalem</div><div class="q2">tosses her head as you flee.</div><div class="q1"> 22Who is it you have ridiculed and blasphemed?</div><div class="q2">Against whom have you raised your voice</div><div class="q1">and lifted your eyes in pride?</div><div class="q2">Against the Holy One of Israel!</div><div class="q1"> 23By your messengers</div><div class="q2">you have ridiculed the Lord.</div><div class="q1">And you have said,</div><div class="q2">&#8220;With my many chariots</div><div class="q1">I have ascended the heights of the mountains,</div><div class="q2">the utmost heights of Lebanon.</div><div class="q1">I have cut down its tallest cedars,</div><div class="q2">the choicest of its junipers.</div><div class="q1">I have reached its remotest parts,</div><div class="q2">the finest of its forests.</div><div class="q1"> 24I have dug wells in foreign lands</div><div class="q2">and drunk the water there.</div><div class="q1">With the soles of my feet</div><div class="q2">I have dried up all the streams of Egypt.&#8221;</div><div class="b"></div><div class="q1"> 25&#8220;&#8198;&#8216;Have you not heard?</div><div class="q2">Long ago I ordained it.</div><div class="q1">In days of old I planned it;</div><div class="q2">now I have brought it to pass,</div><div class="q1">that you have turned fortified cities</div><div class="q2">into piles of stone.</div><div class="q1"> 26Their people, drained of power,</div><div class="q2">are dismayed and put to shame.</div><div class="q1">They are like plants in the field,</div><div class="q2">like tender green shoots,</div><div class="q1">like grass sprouting on the roof,</div><div class="q2">scorched before it grows up.</div><div class="b"></div><div class="q1"> 27&#8220;&#8198;&#8216;But I know where you are</div><div class="q2">and when you come and go</div><div class="q2">and how you rage against me.</div><div class="q1"> 28Because you rage against me</div><div class="q2">and because your insolence has reached my ears,</div><div class="q1">I will put my hook in your nose</div><div class="q2">and my bit in your mouth,</div><div class="q1">and I will make you return</div><div class="q2">by the way you came.&#8217;</div><div class="p"> 29&#8220;This will be the sign for you, Hezekiah:</div><div class="q1">&#8220;This year you will eat what grows by itself,</div><div class="q2">and the second year what springs from that.</div><div class="q1">But in the third year sow and reap,</div><div class="q2">plant vineyards and eat their fruit.</div><div class="q1"> 30Once more a remnant of the kingdom of Judah</div><div class="q2">will take root below and bear fruit above.</div><div class="q1"> 31For out of Jerusalem will come a remnant,</div><div class="q2">and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors.</div><div class="m">&#8220;The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.</div><div class="b"></div><div class="p"> 32&#8220;Therefore this is what the Lord says concerning the king of Assyria:</div><div class="q1">&#8220;&#8198;&#8216;He will not enter this city</div><div class="q2">or shoot an arrow here.</div><div class="q1">He will not come before it with shield</div><div class="q2">or build a siege ramp against it.</div><div class="q1"> 33By the way that he came he will return;</div><div class="q2">he will not enter this city,</div><div class="q4">declares the Lord.</div><div class="q1"> 34I will defend this city and save it,</div><div class="q2">for my sake and for the sake of David my servant.&#8217;&#8198;&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 35That night the angel of the Lord went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning&#8212;there were all the dead bodies! 36So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there.</div><div class="p"> 37One day, while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisrok, his sons Adrammelek and Sharezer killed him with the sword, and they escaped to the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son succeeded him as king.</div>
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<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
 <div class="book bk2KI">
 <div class="chapter ch20" data-usfm="2KI.20">
 <div class="label">20</div><div class="s1">Hezekiah&#8217;s Illness</div><div class="p"> 1In those days Hezekiah became ill and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz went to him and said, &#8220;This is what the Lord says: Put your house in order, because you are going to die; you will not recover.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 2Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, 3&#8220;Remember, Lord, how I have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes.&#8221; And Hezekiah wept bitterly.</div><div class="p"> 4Before Isaiah had left the middle court, the word of the Lord came to him: 5&#8220;Go back and tell Hezekiah, the ruler of my people, &#8216;This is what the Lord, the God of your father David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will heal you. On the third day from now you will go up to the temple of the Lord. 6I will add fifteen years to your life. And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city for my sake and for the sake of my servant David.&#8217;&#8198;&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 7Then Isaiah said, &#8220;Prepare a poultice of figs.&#8221; They did so and applied it to the boil, and he recovered.</div><div class="p"> 8Hezekiah had asked Isaiah, &#8220;What will be the sign that the Lord will heal me and that I will go up to the temple of the Lord on the third day from now?&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 9Isaiah answered, &#8220;This is the Lord&#8217;s sign to you that the Lord will do what he has promised: Shall the shadow go forward ten steps, or shall it go back ten steps?&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 10&#8220;It is a simple matter for the shadow to go forward ten steps,&#8221; said Hezekiah. &#8220;Rather, have it go back ten steps.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 11Then the prophet Isaiah called on the Lord, and the Lord made the shadow go back the ten steps it had gone down on the stairway of Ahaz.</div><div class="s1">Envoys From Babylon</div><div class="p"> 12At that time Marduk-Baladan son of Baladan king of Babylon sent Hezekiah letters and a gift, because he had heard of Hezekiah&#8217;s illness. 13Hezekiah received the envoys and showed them all that was in his storehouses&#8212;the silver, the gold, the spices and the fine olive oil&#8212;his armory and everything found among his treasures. There was nothing in his palace or in all his kingdom that Hezekiah did not show them.</div><div class="p"> 14Then Isaiah the prophet went to King Hezekiah and asked, &#8220;What did those men say, and where did they come from?&#8221;</div><div class="p">&#8220;From a distant land,&#8221; Hezekiah replied. &#8220;They came from Babylon.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 15The prophet asked, &#8220;What did they see in your palace?&#8221;</div><div class="p">&#8220;They saw everything in my palace,&#8221; Hezekiah said. &#8220;There is nothing among my treasures that I did not show them.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 16Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, &#8220;Hear the word of the Lord: 17The time will surely come when everything in your palace, and all that your predecessors have stored up until this day, will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left, says the Lord. 18And some of your descendants, your own flesh and blood who will be born to you, will be taken away, and they will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 19&#8220;The word of the Lord you have spoken is good,&#8221; Hezekiah replied. For he thought, &#8220;Will there not be peace and security in my lifetime?&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 20As for the other events of Hezekiah&#8217;s reign, all his achievements and how he made the pool and the tunnel by which he brought water into the city, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah? 21Hezekiah rested with his ancestors. And Manasseh his son succeeded him as king.</div>
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<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
 <div class="book bk2KI">
 <div class="chapter ch21" data-usfm="2KI.21">
 <div class="label">21</div><div class="s1">Manasseh King of Judah</div><div class="p"> 1Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem fifty-five years. His mother&#8217;s name was Hephzibah. 2He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, following the detestable practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before the Israelites. 3He rebuilt the high places his father Hezekiah had destroyed; he also erected altars to Baal and made an Asherah pole, as Ahab king of Israel had done. He bowed down to all the starry hosts and worshiped them. 4He built altars in the temple of the Lord, of which the Lord had said, &#8220;In Jerusalem I will put my Name.&#8221; 5In the two courts of the temple of the Lord, he built altars to all the starry hosts. 6He sacrificed his own son in the fire, practiced divination, sought omens, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the eyes of the Lord, arousing his anger.</div><div class="p"> 7He took the carved Asherah pole he had made and put it in the temple, of which the Lord had said to David and to his son Solomon, &#8220;In this temple and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put my Name forever. 8I will not again make the feet of the Israelites wander from the land I gave their ancestors, if only they will be careful to do everything I commanded them and will keep the whole Law that my servant Moses gave them.&#8221; 9But the people did not listen. Manasseh led them astray, so that they did more evil than the nations the Lord had destroyed before the Israelites.</div><div class="p"> 10The Lord said through his servants the prophets: 11&#8220;Manasseh king of Judah has committed these detestable sins. He has done more evil than the Amorites who preceded him and has led Judah into sin with his idols. 12Therefore this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I am going to bring such disaster on Jerusalem and Judah that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle. 13I will stretch out over Jerusalem the measuring line used against Samaria and the plumb line used against the house of Ahab. I will wipe out Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down. 14I will forsake the remnant of my inheritance and give them into the hands of enemies. They will be looted and plundered by all their enemies; 15they have done evil in my eyes and have aroused my anger from the day their ancestors came out of Egypt until this day.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 16Moreover, Manasseh also shed so much innocent blood that he filled Jerusalem from end to end&#8212;besides the sin that he had caused Judah to commit, so that they did evil in the eyes of the Lord.</div><div class="p"> 17As for the other events of Manasseh&#8217;s reign, and all he did, including the sin he committed, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah? 18Manasseh rested with his ancestors and was buried in his palace garden, the garden of Uzza. And Amon his son succeeded him as king.</div><div class="s1">Amon King of Judah</div><div class="p"> 19Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem two years. His mother&#8217;s name was Meshullemeth daughter of Haruz; she was from Jotbah. 20He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, as his father Manasseh had done. 21He followed completely the ways of his father, worshiping the idols his father had worshiped, and bowing down to them. 22He forsook the Lord, the God of his ancestors, and did not walk in obedience to him.</div><div class="p"> 23Amon&#8217;s officials conspired against him and assassinated the king in his palace. 24Then the people of the land killed all who had plotted against King Amon, and they made Josiah his son king in his place.</div><div class="p"> 25As for the other events of Amon&#8217;s reign, and what he did, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah? 26He was buried in his tomb in the garden of Uzza. And Josiah his son succeeded him as king.</div>
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<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
 <div class="book bk2KI">
 <div class="chapter ch22" data-usfm="2KI.22">
 <div class="label">22</div><div class="s1">The Book of the Law Found</div><div class="p"> 1Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem thirty-one years. His mother&#8217;s name was Jedidah daughter of Adaiah; she was from Bozkath. 2He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and followed completely the ways of his father David, not turning aside to the right or to the left.</div><div class="p"> 3In the eighteenth year of his reign, King Josiah sent the secretary, Shaphan son of Azaliah, the son of Meshullam, to the temple of the Lord. He said: 4&#8220;Go up to Hilkiah the high priest and have him get ready the money that has been brought into the temple of the Lord, which the doorkeepers have collected from the people. 5Have them entrust it to the men appointed to supervise the work on the temple. And have these men pay the workers who repair the temple of the Lord&#8212; 6the carpenters, the builders and the masons. Also have them purchase timber and dressed stone to repair the temple. 7But they need not account for the money entrusted to them, because they are honest in their dealings.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 8Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the secretary, &#8220;I have found the Book of the Law in the temple of the Lord.&#8221; He gave it to Shaphan, who read it. 9Then Shaphan the secretary went to the king and reported to him: &#8220;Your officials have paid out the money that was in the temple of the Lord and have entrusted it to the workers and supervisors at the temple.&#8221; 10Then Shaphan the secretary informed the king, &#8220;Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.&#8221; And Shaphan read from it in the presence of the king.</div><div class="p"> 11When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, he tore his robes. 12He gave these orders to Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam son of Shaphan, Akbor son of Micaiah, Shaphan the secretary and Asaiah the king&#8217;s attendant: 13&#8220;Go and inquire of the Lord for me and for the people and for all Judah about what is written in this book that has been found. Great is the Lord&#8217;s anger that burns against us because those who have gone before us have not obeyed the words of this book; they have not acted in accordance with all that is written there concerning us.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 14Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam, Akbor, Shaphan and Asaiah went to speak to the prophet Huldah, who was the wife of Shallum son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe. She lived in Jerusalem, in the New Quarter.</div><div class="p"> 15She said to them, &#8220;This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: Tell the man who sent you to me, 16&#8216;This is what the Lord says: I am going to bring disaster on this place and its people, according to everything written in the book the king of Judah has read. 17Because they have forsaken me and burned incense to other gods and aroused my anger by all the idols their hands have made,#22:17 Or by everything they have done my anger will burn against this place and will not be quenched.&#8217; 18Tell the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the Lord, &#8216;This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says concerning the words you heard: 19Because your heart was responsive and you humbled yourself before the Lord when you heard what I have spoken against this place and its people&#8212;that they would become a curse#22:19 That is, their names would be used in cursing (see Jer. 29:22); or, others would see that they are cursed. and be laid waste&#8212;and because you tore your robes and wept in my presence, I also have heard you, declares the Lord. 20Therefore I will gather you to your ancestors, and you will be buried in peace. Your eyes will not see all the disaster I am going to bring on this place.&#8217;&#8198;&#8221;</div><div class="p">So they took her answer back to the king.</div>
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<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
 <div class="book bk2KI">
 <div class="chapter ch23" data-usfm="2KI.23">
 <div class="label">23</div><div class="s1">Josiah Renews the Covenant</div><div class="p"> 1Then the king called together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. 2He went up to the temple of the Lord with the people of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the priests and the prophets&#8212;all the people from the least to the greatest. He read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant, which had been found in the temple of the Lord. 3The king stood by the pillar and renewed the covenant in the presence of the Lord&#8212;to follow the Lord and keep his commands, statutes and decrees with all his heart and all his soul, thus confirming the words of the covenant written in this book. Then all the people pledged themselves to the covenant.</div><div class="p"> 4The king ordered Hilkiah the high priest, the priests next in rank and the doorkeepers to remove from the temple of the Lord all the articles made for Baal and Asherah and all the starry hosts. He burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron Valley and took the ashes to Bethel. 5He did away with the idolatrous priests appointed by the kings of Judah to burn incense on the high places of the towns of Judah and on those around Jerusalem&#8212;those who burned incense to Baal, to the sun and moon, to the constellations and to all the starry hosts. 6He took the Asherah pole from the temple of the Lord to the Kidron Valley outside Jerusalem and burned it there. He ground it to powder and scattered the dust over the graves of the common people. 7He also tore down the quarters of the male shrine prostitutes that were in the temple of the Lord, the quarters where women did weaving for Asherah.</div><div class="p"> 8Josiah brought all the priests from the towns of Judah and desecrated the high places, from Geba to Beersheba, where the priests had burned incense. He broke down the gateway at the entrance of the Gate of Joshua, the city governor, which was on the left of the city gate. 9Although the priests of the high places did not serve at the altar of the Lord in Jerusalem, they ate unleavened bread with their fellow priests.</div><div class="p"> 10He desecrated Topheth, which was in the Valley of Ben Hinnom, so no one could use it to sacrifice their son or daughter in the fire to Molek. 11He removed from the entrance to the temple of the Lord the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun. They were in the court#23:11 The meaning of the Hebrew for this word is uncertain. near the room of an official named Nathan-Melek. Josiah then burned the chariots dedicated to the sun.</div><div class="p"> 12He pulled down the altars the kings of Judah had erected on the roof near the upper room of Ahaz, and the altars Manasseh had built in the two courts of the temple of the Lord. He removed them from there, smashed them to pieces and threw the rubble into the Kidron Valley. 13The king also desecrated the high places that were east of Jerusalem on the south of the Hill of Corruption&#8212;the ones Solomon king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the vile goddess of the Sidonians, for Chemosh the vile god of Moab, and for Molek the detestable god of the people of Ammon. 14Josiah smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles and covered the sites with human bones.</div><div class="p"> 15Even the altar at Bethel, the high place made by Jeroboam son of Nebat, who had caused Israel to sin&#8212;even that altar and high place he demolished. He burned the high place and ground it to powder, and burned the Asherah pole also. 16Then Josiah looked around, and when he saw the tombs that were there on the hillside, he had the bones removed from them and burned on the altar to defile it, in accordance with the word of the Lord proclaimed by the man of God who foretold these things.</div><div class="p"> 17The king asked, &#8220;What is that tombstone I see?&#8221;</div><div class="p">The people of the city said, &#8220;It marks the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah and pronounced against the altar of Bethel the very things you have done to it.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 18&#8220;Leave it alone,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Don&#8217;t let anyone disturb his bones.&#8221; So they spared his bones and those of the prophet who had come from Samaria.</div><div class="p"> 19Just as he had done at Bethel, Josiah removed all the shrines at the high places that the kings of Israel had built in the towns of Samaria and that had aroused the Lord&#8217;s anger. 20Josiah slaughtered all the priests of those high places on the altars and burned human bones on them. Then he went back to Jerusalem.</div><div class="p"> 21The king gave this order to all the people: &#8220;Celebrate the Passover to the Lord your God, as it is written in this Book of the Covenant.&#8221; 22Neither in the days of the judges who led Israel nor in the days of the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah had any such Passover been observed. 23But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah, this Passover was celebrated to the Lord in Jerusalem.</div><div class="p"> 24Furthermore, Josiah got rid of the mediums and spiritists, the household gods, the idols and all the other detestable things seen in Judah and Jerusalem. This he did to fulfill the requirements of the law written in the book that Hilkiah the priest had discovered in the temple of the Lord. 25Neither before nor after Josiah was there a king like him who turned to the Lord as he did&#8212;with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his strength, in accordance with all the Law of Moses.</div><div class="p"> 26Nevertheless, the Lord did not turn away from the heat of his fierce anger, which burned against Judah because of all that Manasseh had done to arouse his anger. 27So the Lord said, &#8220;I will remove Judah also from my presence as I removed Israel, and I will reject Jerusalem, the city I chose, and this temple, about which I said, &#8216;My Name shall be there.&#8217;#23:27 1 Kings 8:29&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 28As for the other events of Josiah&#8217;s reign, and all he did, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah?</div><div class="p"> 29While Josiah was king, Pharaoh Necho king of Egypt went up to the Euphrates River to help the king of Assyria. King Josiah marched out to meet him in battle, but Necho faced him and killed him at Megiddo. 30Josiah&#8217;s servants brought his body in a chariot from Megiddo to Jerusalem and buried him in his own tomb. And the people of the land took Jehoahaz son of Josiah and anointed him and made him king in place of his father.</div><div class="s1">Jehoahaz King of Judah</div><div class="p"> 31Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem three months. His mother&#8217;s name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah; she was from Libnah. 32He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, just as his predecessors had done. 33Pharaoh Necho put him in chains at Riblah in the land of Hamath so that he might not reign in Jerusalem, and he imposed on Judah a levy of a hundred talents#23:33 That is, about 3 3/4 tons or about 3.4 metric tons of silver and a talent#23:33 That is, about 75 pounds or about 34 kilograms of gold. 34Pharaoh Necho made Eliakim son of Josiah king in place of his father Josiah and changed Eliakim&#8217;s name to Jehoiakim. But he took Jehoahaz and carried him off to Egypt, and there he died. 35Jehoiakim paid Pharaoh Necho the silver and gold he demanded. In order to do so, he taxed the land and exacted the silver and gold from the people of the land according to their assessments.</div><div class="s1">Jehoiakim King of Judah</div><div class="p"> 36Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eleven years. His mother&#8217;s name was Zebidah daughter of Pedaiah; she was from Rumah. 37And he did evil in the eyes of the Lord, just as his predecessors had done.</div>
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