Hoshea Reigns in Israel
1 In the twelfth year of pAhaz king of Judah, qHoshea the son of Elah began to reign in Samaria over Israel, and he reigned nine years. 2 And he rdid what was evil in the sight of the Lord, yet not as the kings of Israel who were before him. 3 Against him came up sShalmaneser king of Assyria. tAnd Hoshea became his vassal and paid him tribute. 4 But the king of Assyria found treachery in Hoshea, for he had sent messengers to So, king of uEgypt, and offered no tribute to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year. Therefore the king of Assyria shut him up and bound him in prison. 5 Then the king of Assyria invaded all the land and came to Samaria, and for three years he vbesieged it.
The Fall of Israel
6 In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria, and he wcarried the Israelites away to Assyria and placed them in Halah, and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.
Exile Because of Idolatry
7 And this occurred because the people of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, xwho had brought them up out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods 8 and ywalked in the customs of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel, zand in the customs that the kings of Israel had practiced. 9 And the people of Israel did secretly against the Lord their God things that were not right. They built for themselves high places in all their towns, afrom watchtower to fortified city. 10 bThey set up for themselves cpillars and dAsherim eon every high hill and under every green tree, 11 and there they fmade offerings on all the high places, gas the nations did whom the Lord carried away before them. And they did wicked things, provoking the Lord to anger, 12 and they served idols, hof which the Lord had said to them, “You shall not do this.” 13 Yet the Lord warned Israel and Judah by every prophet and every iseer, saying, j“Turn from your evil ways and keep my commandments and my statutes, in accordance with all the Law that I commanded your fathers, and that I sent to you by my servants the prophets.”
14 But they would not listen, but were kstubborn, as their fathers had been, lwho did not believe in the Lord their God. 15 They despised his statutes and his covenant that he made with their fathers and the warnings that he gave them. They mwent after false idols and became false, and they followed the nations that were around them, nconcerning whom the Lord had commanded them that they should not do like them. 16 And they abandoned all the commandments of the Lord their God, and omade for themselves metal images of two calves; and they pmade an Asherah and qworshiped all the host of heaven and rserved Baal. 17 And they sburned their sons and their daughters as offerings1 and used tdivination and uomens and vsold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger. 18 Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel and wremoved them out of his sight. None was left xbut the tribe of Judah only.
19 Judah also did not keep the commandments of the Lord their God, but ywalked in the customs that Israel had introduced. 20 And the Lord rejected all the descendants of Israel and afflicted them and gave them into the hand of zplunderers, until he had acast them out of his sight.
21 When he had btorn Israel from the house of David, cthey made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king. And Jeroboam drove Israel from following the Lord and dmade them commit great sin. 22 The people of Israel walked in all the sins that Jeroboam did. eThey did not depart from them, 23 until the Lord removed Israel out of his sight, as he had spoken by all his servants the prophets. So Israel was exiled from their own land to Assyria funtil this day.
Assyria Resettles Samaria
24 And the king of Assyria gbrought people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the people of Israel. And they took possession of Samaria and lived in its cities. 25 And at the beginning of their dwelling there, they did not fear the Lord. Therefore the Lord sent lions among them, which killed some of them. 26 So the king of Assyria was told, “The nations that you have carried away and placed in the cities of Samaria do not know the law of the god of the land. Therefore he has sent lions among them, and behold, they are killing them, because they do not know the law of the god of the land.” 27 Then the king of Assyria commanded, “Send there one of the priests whom you carried away from there, and let him2 go and dwell there and hteach them the law of the god of the land.” 28 So one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and lived in Bethel and taught them how they should fear the Lord.
29 But every nation still made gods of its own and put them in the ishrines of the high places that the Samaritans had made, every nation in the cities in which they lived. 30 The men of Babylon made Succoth-benoth, the men of Cuth made Nergal, the men of Hamath made Ashima, 31 and the Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak; and the Sepharvites jburned their children in the fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim. 32 They also feared the Lord and kappointed from among themselves all sorts of people as priests of the high places, who sacrificed for them in the shrines of the high places. 33 So they feared the Lord but lalso served their own gods, after the manner of the nations from among whom they had been carried away.
34 mTo this day they do according to the former manner. They do not fear the Lord, and they do not follow the statutes or the rules or the law or the commandment that the Lord commanded the children of Jacob, nwhom he named Israel. 35 The Lord made a covenant with them and commanded them, “You shall not fear other gods or obow yourselves to them or serve them or sacrifice to them, 36 but you shall fear the Lord, who pbrought you out of the land of Egypt with qgreat power and with an outstretched arm. You shall bow yourselves to him, and to him you shall sacrifice. 37 And the rstatutes and the rules and the law and the commandment that he wrote for you, you shall always be careful to do. You shall not fear other gods, 38 and you shall not sforget the covenant that I have made with you. You shall not fear other gods, 39 but you shall fear the Lord your God, and he will deliver you out of the hand of all your enemies.” 40 However, they would not listen, but they did according to their former manner.
41 So these nations feared the Lord and also served their carved images. Their children did likewise, and their children’s children—as their fathers did, so they do to this day.
Hezekiah Reigns in Judah
1 tIn the third year of uHoshea son of Elah, king of Israel, vHezekiah the son of Ahaz, king of Judah, began to reign. 2 He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Abi the daughter of Zechariah. 3 And he wdid what was right in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that David his father had done. 4 He removed the high places and broke the pillars and cut down the Asherah. And he broke in pieces xthe bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the people of Israel had made offerings to it (it was called Nehushtan).3 5 He ytrusted in the Lord, the God of Israel, so that zthere was none like him among all the kings of Judah after him, nor among those who were before him. 6 For he aheld fast to the Lord. He did not depart from following him, but kept the commandments that the Lord commanded Moses. 7 bAnd the Lord was with him; cwherever he went out, he prospered. dHe rebelled against the king of Assyria and would not serve him. 8 He struck down the Philistines as far as Gaza and its territory, efrom watchtower to fortified city.
9 In the fourth year of King Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah, king of Israel, fShalmaneser king of Assyria came up against Samaria and gbesieged it, 10 and at the end of three years he took it. In the sixth year of Hezekiah, which was the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel, Samaria was taken. 11 The king of Assyria hcarried the Israelites away to Assyria and put them in Halah, and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes, 12 because they did inot obey the voice of the Lord their God but transgressed his covenant, even all that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded. They neither listened nor obeyed.
Sennacherib Attacks Judah
13 jIn the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them. 14 And Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria at Lachish, saying, “I have done wrong; withdraw from me. Whatever you impose on me I will bear.” And the king of Assyria required of Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents4 of silver and thirty talents of gold. 15 And Hezekiah kgave him all the silver that was found in the house of the Lord and in the treasuries of the king’s house. 16 At that time Hezekiah stripped the gold from the doors of the temple of the Lord and from the doorposts that Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid and gave it to the king of Assyria. 17 And the king of Assyria sent the Tartan, the Rab-saris, and the Rabshakeh with a great army from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. And they went up and came to Jerusalem. When they arrived, they came and stood by the conduit of the upper pool, which is on the highway to the lWasher’s Field. 18 And when they called for the king, there came out to them mEliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and nShebnah the secretary, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder.
19 And the Rabshakeh said to them, “Say to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: On what do you rest this trust of yours? 20 Do you think that mere words are strategy and power for war? In whom do you now trust, that you have rebelled against me? 21 Behold, you are trusting now in Egypt, othat broken reed of a staff, which will pierce the hand of any man who leans on it. Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him. 22 But if you say to me, “We trust in the Lord our God,” is it not he whose high places and altars Hezekiah has premoved, saying to Judah and to Jerusalem, “You shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem”? 23 Come now, make a wager with my master the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to set riders on them. 24 How then can you repulse a single captain among the least of my master’s servants, when you trust in Egypt for chariots and for horsemen? 25 Moreover, is it without the Lord that I have come up against this place to destroy it? The Lord said to me, “Go up against this land and destroy it.”’”
26 Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, and Shebnah, and Joah, said to the Rabshakeh, “Please speak to your servants in qAramaic, for we understand it. Do not speak to us in the language of Judah within the hearing of the people who are on the wall.” 27 But the Rabshakeh said to them, “Has my master sent me to speak these words to your master and to you, and not to the men sitting on the wall, who are doomed with you to eat their own dung and to drink their own urine?”
28 Then the Rabshakeh stood and called out in a loud voice in the language of Judah: “Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria! 29 Thus says the king: r‘Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you out of my5 hand. 30 Do not let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord by saying, The Lord will surely deliver us, and this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.’ 31 Do not listen to Hezekiah, for thus says the king of Assyria: ‘Make your peace with me6 and come out to me. Then each one of you will eat of shis own vine, and each one of his own fig tree, and each one of you will drink the water of his own cistern, 32 until I come and take you away tto a land like your own land, a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees and honey, that you may live, and not die. And do not listen to Hezekiah when he misleads you by saying, “The Lord will deliver us.” 33 uHas any of the gods of the nations ever delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria? 34 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah? vHave they delivered Samaria out of my hand? 35 Who among all the gods of the lands have delivered their lands out of my hand, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?’”
36 But the people were silent and answered him not a word, for the king’s command was, “Do not answer him.” 37 Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the secretary, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn and told him the words of the Rabshakeh.
19 And this is the judgment: the elight has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the flight and does not come to the light, glest his works should be exposed. 21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”
John the Baptist Exalts Christ
22 After this Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean countryside, and he remained there with them and was hbaptizing. 23 John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because water was plentiful there, and people were coming and being baptized 24 (for iJohn had not yet been put in prison).
25 Now a discussion arose between some of John’s disciples and a Jew over purification. 26 And they came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, he who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you jbore witness—look, he is baptizing, and kall are going to him.” 27 John answered, l“A person cannot receive even one thing munless it is given him from heaven. 28 You yourselves bear me witness, nthat I said, ‘I am not the Christ, but I have been osent before him.’ 29 The one who has the bride is the pbridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore qthis joy of mine is now complete. 30 rHe must increase, but I must decrease.”1
31 He who comes sfrom above is tabove all. He who is of the earth belongs to the earth and uspeaks in an earthly way. He who comes from heaven is above all. 32 He bears witness to what he has seen and heard, yet no one receives his testimony. 33 Whoever receives his testimony sets his vseal to this, that God is wtrue. 34 For he whom God has sent xutters the words of God, for yhe gives the Spirit without measure. 35 The Father zloves the Son and has given aall things into his hand. 36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.
