191 And when King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes , covered himself with sackcloth and entered the house of the Lord . 2 Then he sent Eliakim who was over the household with Shebna the scribe and the elders of the priests , covered with sackcloth , to Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz . 3 They said to him, "Thus says Hezekiah , 'This day is a day of distress , rebuke , and rejection ; for children have come to birth and there is no strength to deliver. 4 ' Perhaps the Lord your God will hear all the words of Rabshakeh , whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to reproach the living God , and will rebuke the words which the Lord your God has heard . Therefore, offer a prayer for the remnant that is left .' " 5 So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah . 6 Isaiah said to them, "Thus you shall say to your master , 'Thus says the Lord , "Do not be afraid because e of the words that you have heard , with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed Me. 7 "Behold , I will put a spirit in him so that he will hear a rumor and return to his own land . And I will make him fall by the sword in his own land .""'
8 Then Rabshakeh returned and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah , for he had heard that the king had left Lachish . 9 When he heard them say concerning Tirhakah king of Cush , "Behold , he has come out to fight against you," he sent messengers again to Hezekiah saying , 10 "Thus you shall say to Hezekiah king of Judah , 'Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you saying , " Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria ." 11 'Behold , you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands , destroying them completely . So will you be spared ? 12 ' Did the gods of those nations which my fathers destroyed deliver them, even Gozan and Haran and Rezeph and the sons of Eden who were in Telassar ? 13 ' Where is the king of Hamath , the king of Arpad , the king of the city of Sepharvaim , and of Hena and Ivvah ?' " 14 Then Hezekiah took the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it, and he went up to the house of the Lord and spread it out before the Lord . 15 Hezekiah prayed before the Lord and said , "O Lord , the God of Israel , who are enthroned above the cherubim , You are the God , You alone , of all the kingdoms of the earth . You have made heaven and earth . 16 " Incline Your ear , O Lord , and hear ; open Your eyes , O Lord , and see ; and listen to the words of Sennacherib , which he has sent to reproach the living God . 17 "Truly , O Lord , the kings of Assyria have devastated the nations and their lands 18 and have cast their gods into the fire , for they were not gods but the work of men's hands , wood and stone . So they have destroyed them. 19 "Now , O Lord our God , I pray , deliver us from his hand that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone , O Lord , are God ."
20 Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah saying , "Thus says the Lord , the God of Israel , 'Because you have prayed to Me about Sennacherib king of Assyria , I have heard you.' 21 "This is the word that the Lord has spoken against him: 'She has despised you and mocked you, The virgin daughter of Zion ; She has shaken her head behind you, The daughter of Jerusalem ! 22 'Whom have you reproached and blasphemed ? And against whom have you raised your voice , And haughtily lifted up your eyes ? Against the Holy One of Israel ! 23 ' Through your messengers you have reproached the Lord , And you have said , "With my many chariots I came up to the heights of the mountains , To the remotest parts of Lebanon ; And I cut down its tall cedars and its choice cypresses . And I entered its farthest lodging place , its thickest forest . 24 "I dug wells and drank foreign waters , And with the sole of my feet I dried up All the rivers of Egypt ." 25 ' Have you not heard ? Long ago I did it; From ancient times I planned it. Now I have brought it to pass , That you should turn e fortified cities into ruinous heaps . 26 'Therefore their inhabitants were short of strength , They were dismayed and put to shame ; They were as the vegetation of the field and as the green herb , As grass on the housetops is scorched before it is grown up. 27 'But I know your sitting down , And your going out and your coming in, And your raging against Me. 28 'Because of your raging against Me, And because your arrogance has come up to My ears , Therefore I will put My hook in your nose , And My bridle in your lips , And I will turn you back by the way which you came . 29 'Then this shall be the sign for you: you will eat this year what grows of itself, in the second year what springs from the same, and in the third year sow , reap , plant vineyards , and eat their fruit . 30 ' The surviving remnant of the house of Judah will again take root downward and bear fruit upward . 31 'For out of Jerusalem will go forth a remnant , and out of Mount Zion survivors . The zeal of the Lord will perform this . 32 'Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the king of Assyria , " He will not come to this city or shoot an arrow there ; and he will not come before it with a shield or throw up a siege ramp against it. 33 " By the way that he came , by the same he will return , and he shall not come to this city ,"' declares the Lord . 34 ' For I will defend this city to save it for My own sake and for My servant David's sake .' "
35 Then it happened that night that the angel of the Lord went out and struck 185,000 e e e in the camp of the Assyrians ; and when men rose early in the morning , behold , all of them were dead e . 36 So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and returned home, and lived at Nineveh . 37 It came about as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god , that Adrammelech and Sharezer killed him with the sword ; and they escaped into the land of Ararat . And Esarhaddon his son became king in his place .
201 In those days Hezekiah became mortally ill . And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him and said to him, "Thus says the Lord , ' Set your house in order , for you shall die and not live .' " 2 Then he turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord , saying , 3 " Remember now , O Lord , I beseech You, how I have walked before You in truth and with a whole heart and have done what is good in Your sight ." And Hezekiah wept bitterly e . 4 Before Isaiah had gone out of the middle court , the word of the Lord came to him, saying , 5 "Return and say to Hezekiah the leader of My people , 'Thus says the Lord , the God of your father David , " I have heard your prayer , I have seen your tears ; behold , I will heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of the Lord . 6 "I will add fifteen e years to your life , and I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria ; and I will defend this city for My own sake and for My servant David's sake .""' 7 Then Isaiah said , "Take a cake of figs ." And they took and laid it on the boil , and he recovered . 8 Now Hezekiah said to Isaiah , "What will be the sign that the Lord will heal me, and that I shall go up to the house of the Lord the third day ?" 9 Isaiah said , " This shall be the sign to you from the Lord , that the Lord will do the thing that He has spoken : shall the shadow go forward ten steps or go back ten steps ?" 10 So Hezekiah answered , "It is easy for the shadow to decline ten steps ; no , but let the shadow turn backward ten steps ." 11 Isaiah the prophet cried to the Lord , and He brought the shadow on the stairway back ten steps by which it had gone down on the stairway of Ahaz .
12 At that time Berodach-baladan a son of Baladan , king of Babylon , sent letters and a present to Hezekiah , for he heard that Hezekiah had been sick . 13 Hezekiah listened to them, and showed them all his treasure house , the silver and the gold and the spices and the precious oil and the house of his armor and all that was found in his treasuries . There was nothing e in his house nor in all his dominion that Hezekiah did not show them. 14 Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah and said to him, "What did these men say , and from where have they come to you?" And Hezekiah said , "They have come from a far country , from Babylon ." 15 He said , "What have they seen in your house ?" So Hezekiah answered , "They have seen all that is in my house ; there is nothing e among my treasuries that I have not shown them." 16 Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah , "Hear the word of the Lord . 17 'Behold , the days are coming when all that is in your house , and all that your fathers have laid up in store to this day will be carried to Babylon ; nothing e shall be left ,' says the Lord . 18 'Some of your sons who shall issue from you, whom you will beget , will be taken away; and they will become officials in the palace of the king of Babylon .' " 19 Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah , "The word of the Lord which you have spoken is good ." For he thought , "Is it not so, if there will be peace and truth in my days ?"
20 Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah and all his might , and how he made the pool and the conduit and brought water into the city , are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles e of the Kings of Judah ? 21 So Hezekiah slept with his fathers , and Manasseh his son became king in his place .
211 Manasseh was twelve e years old when he became king , and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem ; and his mother's name was Hephzibah . 2 He did evil in the sight of the Lord , according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord dispossessed before e the sons of Israel . 3 For he rebuilt e the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed ; and he erected altars for Baal and made an Asherah , as Ahab king of Israel had done , and worshiped all the host of heaven and served them. 4 He built altars in the house of the Lord , of which the Lord had said , " In Jerusalem I will put My name ." 5 For he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord . 6 He made his son pass through the fire , practiced witchcraft and used divination , and dealt with mediums and spiritists . He did much evil in the sight of the Lord provoking Him to anger. 7 Then he set the carved image of Asherah that he had made , in the house of which the Lord said to David and to his son Solomon , " In this house and in Jerusalem , which I have chosen from all the tribes of Israel , I will put My name forever . 8 "And I will not make the feet of Israel wander anymore from the land which I gave their fathers , if only they will observe to do according to all that I have commanded them, and according to all the law that My servant Moses commanded them." 9 But they did not listen , and Manasseh seduced them to do evil more than the nations whom the Lord destroyed before e the sons of Israel .
10 Now the Lord spoke through His servants the prophets , saying , 11 " Because e Manasseh king of Judah has done these abominations , having done wickedly more than all the Amorites did who were before him, and has also made Judah sin with his idols ; 12 therefore thus says the Lord , the God of Israel , 'Behold , I am bringing such calamity on Jerusalem and Judah , that whoever hears of it, both his ears will tingle . 13 ' I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria and the plummet of the house of Ahab , and I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish , wiping it and turning it upside e down . 14 'I will abandon the remnant of My inheritance and deliver them into the hand of their enemies , and they will become as plunder and spoil to all their enemies ; 15 because e they have done evil in My sight , and have been provoking Me to anger since the day their fathers came from Egypt , even to this day .' " 16 Moreover , Manasseh shed very much innocent blood until e he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another ; besides e his sin with which he made Judah sin , in doing evil in the sight of the Lord . 17 Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh and all that he did and his sin which he committed , are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles e of the Kings of Judah ? 18 And Manasseh slept with his fathers and was buried in the garden of his own house , in the garden of Uzza , and Amon his son became king in his place .
19 Amon was twenty-two e years old when he became king , and he reigned two years in Jerusalem ; and his mother's name was Meshullemeth the daughter of Haruz of Jotbah . 20 He did evil in the sight of the Lord , as Manasseh his father had done . 21 For he walked in all the way that his father had walked , and served the idols that his father had served and worshiped them. 22 So he forsook the Lord , the God of his fathers , and did not walk in the way of the Lord . 23 The servants of Amon conspired against him and killed the king in his own house . 24 Then the people of the land killed all those who had conspired against King Amon , and the people of the land made Josiah his son king in his place . 25 Now the rest of the acts of Amon which he did , are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles e of the Kings of Judah ? 26 He was buried in his grave in the garden of Uzza , and Josiah his son became king in his place .
41 Therefore when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John 2 (although Jesus Himself was not baptizing , but His disciples were), 3 He left Judea and went away again into Galilee .
4 And He had to pass through e Samaria . 5 So He came to a city of Samaria called Sychar , near the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph ; 6 and Jacob's well was there . So Jesus , being wearied from His journey , was sitting thus by the well . It was about the sixth hour . 7 There came a woman of Samaria to draw water . Jesus said to her, "Give Me a drink ." 8 For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food . 9 Therefore the Samaritan woman said to Him, "How is it that You, being a Jew , ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman ?" (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans .) 10 Jesus answered and said to her, "If you knew the gift of God , and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink ,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water ." 11 She said to Him, "Sir , You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep ; where then do You get that living water? 12 "You are not greater than our father Jacob , are You, who gave us the well , and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle ?" 13 Jesus answered and said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again ; 14 but whoever e drinks of the water that I will give him shall never e thirst ; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life ." 15 The woman said to Him, "Sir , give me this water , so I will not be thirsty nor come all the way here to draw ." 16 He said to her, "Go , call your husband and come here ." 17 The woman answered and said , "I have no husband ." Jesus said to her, "You have correctly said , 'I have no husband '; 18 for you have had five husbands , and the one whom you now have is not your husband ; this you have said truly ." 19 The woman said to Him, "Sir , I perceive that You are a prophet . 20 " Our fathers worshiped in this mountain , and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship ." 21 Jesus said to her, "Woman , believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father . 22 " You worship what you do not know ; we worship what we know , for salvation is from the Jews . 23 "But an hour is coming , and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth ; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers . 24 "God is spirit , and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth ." 25 The woman said to Him, "I know that Messiah is coming ( He who is called Christ ); when that One comes , He will declare all things to us." 26 Jesus said to her, " I who speak to you am He."
27 At this point His disciples came , and they were amazed that He had been speaking with a woman , yet no one said , "What do You seek ?" or , "Why do You speak with her?" 28 So the woman left her waterpot , and went into the city and said to the men , 29 "Come , see a man who told me all the things that I have done ; this is not the Christ , is it?" 30 They went out of the city , and were coming to Him.
(Read John 4:1-3)
Jesus applied himself more to preaching, which was the more excellent, 1 Corinthians 1:17, than to baptism. He would put honour upon his disciples, by employing them to baptize. He teaches us that the benefit of sacraments depends not on the hand that administers them.
(Read John 4:4-26)
There was great hatred between the Samaritans and the Jews. Christ's road from Judea to Galilee lay through Samaria. We should not go into places of temptation but when we needs must; and then must not dwell in them, but hasten through them. We have here our Lord Jesus under the common fatigue of travellers. Thus we see that he was truly a man. Toil came in with sin; therefore Christ, having made himself a curse for us, submitted to it. Also, he was a poor man, and went all his journeys on foot. Being wearied, he sat thus on the well; he had no couch to rest upon. He sat thus, as people wearied with travelling sit. Surely, we ought readily to submit to be like the Son of God in such things as these. Christ asked a woman for water. She was surprised because he did not show the anger of his own nation against the Samaritans. Moderate men of all sides are men wondered at. Christ took the occasion to teach her Divine things: he converted this woman, by showing her ignorance and sinfulness, and her need of a Saviour. By this living water is meant the Spirit. Under this comparison the blessing of the Messiah had been promised in the Old Testament. The graces of the Spirit, and his comforts, satisfy the thirsting soul, that knows its own nature and necessity. What Jesus spake figuratively, she took literally. Christ shows that the water of Jacob's well yielded a very short satisfaction. Of whatever waters of comfort we drink, we shall thirst again. But whoever partakes of the Spirit of grace, and the comforts of the gospel, shall never want that which will abundantly satisfy his soul. Carnal hearts look no higher than carnal ends. Give it me, saith she, not that I may have everlasting life, which Christ proposed, but that I come not hither to draw. The carnal mind is very ingenious in shifting off convictions, and keeping them from fastening. But how closely our Lord Jesus brings home the conviction to her conscience! He severely reproved her present state of life. The woman acknowledged Christ to be a prophet. The power of his word in searching the heart, and convincing the conscience of secret things, is a proof of Divine authority. It should cool our contests, to think that the things we are striving about are passing away. The object of worship will continue still the same, God, as a Father; but an end shall be put to all differences about the place of worship. Reason teaches us to consult decency and convenience in the places of our worship; but religion gives no preference to one place above another, in respect of holiness and approval with God. The Jews were certainly in the right. Those who by the Scriptures have obtained some knowledge of God, know whom they worship. The word of salvation was of the Jews. It came to other nations through them. Christ justly preferred the Jewish worship before the Samaritan, yet here he speaks of the former as soon to be done away. God was about to be revealed as the Father of all believers in every nation. The spirit or the soul of man, as influenced by the Holy Spirit, must worship God, and have communion with him. Spiritual affections, as shown in fervent prayers, supplications, and thanksgivings, form the worship of an upright heart, in which God delights and is glorified. The woman was disposed to leave the matter undecided, till the coming of the Messiah. But Christ told her, I that speak to thee, am He. She was an alien and a hostile Samaritan, merely speaking to her was thought to disgrace our Lord Jesus. Yet to this woman did our Lord reveal himself more fully than as yet he had done to any of his disciples. No past sins can bar our acceptance with him, if we humble ourselves before him, believing in him as the Christ, the Saviour of the world.
(Read John 4:27-42)
The disciples wondered that Christ talked thus with a Samaritan. Yet they knew it was for some good reason, and for some good end. Thus when particular difficulties occur in the word and providence of God, it is good to satisfy ourselves that all is well that Jesus Christ says and does. Two things affected the woman. The extent of his knowledge. Christ knows all the thoughts, words, and actions, of all the children of men. And the power of his word. He told her secret sins with power. She fastened upon that part of Christ's discourse, many would think she would have been most shy of repeating; but the knowledge of Christ, into which we are led by conviction of sin, is most likely to be sound and saving. They came to him: those who would know Christ, must meet him where he records his name. Our Master has left us an example, that we may learn to do the will of God as he did; with diligence, as those that make a business of it; with delight and pleasure in it. Christ compares his work to harvest-work. The harvest is appointed and looked for before it comes; so was the gospel. Harvest-time is busy time; all must be then at work. Harvest-time is a short time, and harvest-work must be done then, or not at all; so the time of the gospel is a season, which if once past, cannot be recalled. God sometimes uses very weak and unlikely instruments for beginning and carrying on a good work. Our Saviour, by teaching one poor woman, spread knowledge to a whole town. Blessed are those who are not offended at Christ. Those taught of God, are truly desirous to learn more. It adds much to the praise of our love to Christ and his word, if it conquers prejudices. Their faith grew. In the matter of it: they believed him to be the Saviour, not only of the Jews but of the world. In the certainty of it: we know that this is indeed the Christ. And in the ground of it, for we have heard him ourselves.
