So in the ninth year of Zedekiah's reign . . . Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched against Jerusalem with his whole army.  He encamped outside the city and built siege works all around it. The city was kept under siege until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah.By the ninth day of the fourth month the famine in the city had become so severe that there was no food for the people to eat. Then the c...  Read More

To the Jews who had believed Him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.   John 8:32; 36."The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because He has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery o...  Read More

"Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness and who seek the LORD: Look to the rock from which you were cut and from the quarry from which you were hewn; look to Abraham, your father and to Sarah, who gave you birth. When I called him he was only one man, and I blessed him and made him many. The LORD will surely comfort Zion and will look with compassion on all her ruins; He will make her deserts ...  Read More

Then the king called together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. He went up to the temple of the LORD with the people of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the priests and the prophets -- 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. The king stood by the pillar and renewed th...  Read More

Josiah was eight years old when he became king . . .In 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: "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. Have them entrust it to t...  Read More

Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem fifty- five years. His mother's name was Hephzibah. He did evil in the eyes of the LORD, following the detestable practices of the nations the LORD had driven out before the Israelites. He rebuilt the high places his father Hezekiah had destroyed; he also erected altars to Baal and made an Asherah pole, as Ahab king of ...  Read More

At that time Marduk-Baladan . . . king of Babylon sent Hezekiah letters and a gift, because he had heard of Hezekiah's illness. Hezekiah received the envoys and showed them all that was in his store houses -- the silver, the gold, the spices and the fine olive oil -- his armory and everything found among his treasures. There was nothing in his palace or in all his kingdom that Hezekiah did not sho...  Read More

In those days Hezekiah became ill and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz went to him and said, "This is what the LORD says: Put your house in order, because you are going to die; you will not recover."Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD, "Remember, LORD, how I have walked faithfully before you and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good ...  Read More

Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent a message to Hezekiah: "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: I have heard your prayer concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria. This is the word that the LORD has spoken against him:'Virgin Daughter of Zion despises you and mocks you.Daughter of Jerusalem tosses her head as you flee.Who is it you have ridiculed and blasphemed? Against whom have you raised your...  Read More

Now Sennacherib received a report that Tirhakah, the king of Cush, was marching out to fight against him. So he sent messengers to Hezekiah with this word: "Say to Hezekiah, king of Judah: Do not let the god you depend on deceive you when he says, ‘Jerusalem will not be given into the hands of the king of Assyria.' . . . Hezekiah received the letters from the messengers and read it. Then he went u...  Read More

"Do not listen to Hezekiah, for he is misleading you when he says, 'The LORD will deliver us.'  Has the god of any nation ever delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria?". . . Then 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.When Kin...  Read More

In the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, Hezekiah son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign.  . . . In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah's reign, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them.  . . . The king of Assyria exacted from Hezekiah . . . three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold. So Hezekiah gave him all the sil...  Read More