M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
32 Some time later after this good work of King Hezekiah, King Sennacherib of Assyria invaded Judah and laid siege to the fortified cities, planning to place them under tribute. 2 When it was clear that Sennacherib was intending to attack Jerusalem, 3 Hezekiah summoned his princes and officers for a council of war, and it was decided to plug the springs outside the city. 4 They organized a huge work crew to block them and to cut off the brook running through the fields.
“Why should the king of Assyria come and find water?” they asked.
5 Then Hezekiah further strengthened his defenses by repairing the wall wherever it was broken down, and by adding to the fortifications, and constructing a second wall outside it. He also reinforced Fort Millo in the City of David and manufactured large numbers of weapons and shields. 6 He recruited an army and appointed officers, and summoned them to the plains before the city, and encouraged them with this address:
7 “Be strong, be brave, and do not be afraid of the king of Assyria or his mighty army, for there is someone with us who is far greater than he is! 8 He has a great army, but they are all mere men, while we have the Lord our God to fight our battles for us!” This greatly encouraged them.
9 Then King Sennacherib of Assyria, while still besieging the city of Lachish, sent ambassadors with this message to King Hezekiah and the citizens of Jerusalem:
10 “King Sennacherib of Assyria asks, ‘Do you think you can survive my siege of Jerusalem? 11 King Hezekiah is trying to persuade you to commit suicide by staying there—to die by famine and thirst—while he promises that “the Lord our God will deliver us from the king of Assyria”! 12 Don’t you realize that Hezekiah is the very person who destroyed all the idols, and commanded Judah and Jerusalem to use only the one altar at the Temple, and to burn incense upon it alone? 13 Don’t you realize that I and the other kings of Assyria before me have never yet failed to conquer a nation we attacked? The gods of those nations weren’t able to do a thing to save their lands! 14 Name just one time when anyone, anywhere, was able to resist us successfully. What makes you think your God can do any better? 15 Don’t let Hezekiah fool you! Don’t believe him. I say it again—no god of any nation has ever yet been able to rescue his people from me or my ancestors; how much less your God!’” 16 Thus the ambassador mocked the Lord God and God’s servant Hezekiah, heaping up insults.
17 King Sennacherib also sent letters scorning the Lord God of Israel.
“The gods of all the other nations failed to save their people from my hand, and the God of Hezekiah will fail too,” he wrote.
18 The messengers who brought the letters shouted threats in the Jewish language to the people gathered on the walls of the city, trying to frighten and dishearten them. 19 These messengers talked about the God of Jerusalem just as though he were one of the heathen gods—a handmade idol!
20 Then King Hezekiah and Isaiah the prophet (son of Amoz) cried out in prayer to God in heaven, 21 and the Lord sent an angel who destroyed the Assyrian army with all its officers and generals! So Sennacherib returned home in deep shame to his own land. And when he arrived at the temple of his god, some of his own sons killed him there. 22 That is how the Lord saved Hezekiah and the people of Jerusalem. And now there was peace at last throughout his realm.
23 From then on King Hezekiah became immensely respected among the surrounding nations, and many gifts for the Lord arrived at Jerusalem, with valuable presents for King Hezekiah too.
24 But about that time Hezekiah became deathly sick, and he prayed to the Lord, and the Lord replied with a miracle. 25 However, Hezekiah didn’t respond with true thanksgiving and praise for he had become proud, and so the anger of God was upon him and upon Judah and Jerusalem. 26 But finally Hezekiah and the residents of Jerusalem humbled themselves, so the wrath of the Lord did not fall upon them during Hezekiah’s lifetime.
27 So Hezekiah became very wealthy and was highly honored. He had to construct special treasury buildings for his silver, gold, precious stones, and spices, and for his shields and gold bowls. 28-29 He also built many storehouses for his grain, new wine, and olive oil, with many stalls for his animals and folds for the great flocks of sheep and goats he purchased; and he acquired many towns, for God had given him great wealth. 30 He dammed up Gihon’s Upper Spring and brought the water down through an aqueduct to the west side of the City of David sector in Jerusalem. He prospered in everything he did.
31 However, when ambassadors arrived from Babylon to find out about the miracle of his being healed, God left him to himself in order to test him and to see what he was really like.
32 The rest of the story of Hezekiah and all of the good things he did are written in The Book of Isaiah (the prophet, the son of Amoz), and in The Annals of the Kings of Judah and Israel. 33 When Hezekiah died, he was buried in the royal hillside cemetery among the other kings, and all Judah and Jerusalem honored him at his death. Then his son Manasseh became the new king.
18 After all this I saw another angel come down from heaven with great authority, and the earth grew bright with his splendor.
2 He gave a mighty shout, “Babylon the Great is fallen, is fallen; she has become a den of demons, a haunt of devils and every kind of evil spirit.[a] 3 For all the nations have drunk the fatal wine of her intense immorality. The rulers of earth have enjoyed themselves with her,[b] and businessmen throughout the world have grown rich from all her luxurious living.”
4 Then I heard another voice calling from heaven, “Come away from her, my people; do not take part in her sins, or you will be punished with her. 5 For her sins are piled as high as heaven, and God is ready to judge her for her crimes. 6 Do to her as she has done to you, and more—give double penalty for all her evil deeds. She brewed many a cup of woe for others—give twice as much to her. 7 She has lived in luxury and pleasure—match it now with torments and with sorrows. She boasts, ‘I am queen upon my throne. I am no helpless widow. I will not experience sorrow.’ 8 Therefore the sorrows of death and mourning and famine shall overtake her in a single day, and she shall be utterly consumed by fire; for mighty is the Lord who judges her.”
9 And the world leaders who took part in her immoral acts and enjoyed her favors will mourn for her as they see the smoke rising from her charred remains. 10 They will stand far off, trembling with fear and crying out, “Alas, Babylon, that mighty city! In one moment her judgment fell.”
11 The merchants of the earth will weep and mourn for her, for there is no one left to buy their goods. 12 She was their biggest customer for gold and silver, precious stones, pearls, finest linens, purple silks, and scarlet; and every kind of perfumed wood, and ivory goods, and most expensive wooden carvings, and brass, and iron, and marble; 13 and spices, and perfumes, and incense, ointment, and frankincense, wine, olive oil, and fine flour; wheat, cattle, sheep, horses, chariots, and slaves—and even the souls of men.
14 “All the fancy things you loved so much are gone,” they cry. “The dainty luxuries and splendor that you prized so much will never be yours again. They are gone forever.”
15 And so the merchants who have become wealthy by selling her these things shall stand at a distance, fearing danger to themselves, weeping and crying, 16 “Alas, that great city, so beautiful—like a woman clothed in finest purple and scarlet linens, decked out with gold and precious stones and pearls! 17 In one moment, all the wealth of the city is gone!”
And all the shipowners and captains of the merchant ships and crews will stand a long way off, 18 crying as they watch the smoke ascend, and saying, “Where in all the world is there another city such as this?” 19 And they will throw dust on their heads in their sorrow and say, “Alas, alas, for that great city! She made us all rich from her great wealth. And now in a single hour all is gone. . . . ”
20 But you, O heaven, rejoice over her fate; and you, O children of God and the prophets and the apostles! For at last God has given judgment against her for you.
21 Then a mighty angel picked up a boulder shaped like a millstone and threw it into the ocean and shouted, “Babylon, that great city, shall be thrown away as I have thrown away this stone, and she shall disappear forever. 22 Never again will the sound of music be there—no more pianos, saxophones, and trumpets.[c] No industry of any kind will ever again exist there, and there will be no more milling of the grain. 23 Dark, dark will be her nights; not even a lamp in a window will ever be seen again. No more joyous wedding bells and happy voices of the bridegrooms and the brides. Her businessmen were known around the world, and she deceived all nations with her sorceries. 24 And she was responsible for the blood of all the martyred prophets and the saints.”
14 1-2 Watch, for the day of the Lord is coming soon! On that day the Lord will gather together the nations to fight Jerusalem; the city will be taken, the houses rifled, the loot divided, the women raped; half the population will be taken away as slaves, and half will be left in what remains of the city.
3 Then the Lord will go out fully armed for war, to fight against those nations. 4 That day his feet will stand upon the Mount of Olives, to the east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will split apart, making a very wide valley running from east to west, for half the mountain will move toward the north and half toward the south. 5 You will escape through that valley, for it will reach across to the city gate.[a] Yes, you will escape as your people did long centuries ago from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah, king of Judah, and the Lord my God shall come, and all his saints and angels with him.
6 The sun and moon and stars will no longer shine,[b] 7 yet there will be continuous day! Only the Lord knows how! There will be no normal day and night—at evening time it will still be light. 8 Life-giving waters will flow out from Jerusalem, half toward the Dead Sea and half toward the Mediterranean, flowing continuously both in winter and in summer.
9 And the Lord shall be King over all the earth. In that day there shall be one Lord—his name alone will be worshiped. 10 All the land from Geba (the northern border of Judah) to Rimmon (the southern border) will become one vast plain, but Jerusalem will be on an elevated site, covering the area all the way from the Gate of Benjamin over to the site of the old gate, then to the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to the king’s winepresses. 11 And Jerusalem shall be inhabited, safe at last, never again to be cursed and destroyed.
12 And the Lord will send a plague on all the people who fought Jerusalem. They will become like walking corpses, their flesh rotting away; their eyes will shrivel in their sockets, and their tongues will decay in their mouths.
13 They will be seized with terror, panic-stricken from the Lord, and will fight against each other in hand-to-hand combat. 14 All Judah will be fighting at Jerusalem.[c] The wealth of all the neighboring nations will be confiscated—great quantities of gold and silver and fine clothing. 15 (This same plague will strike the horses, mules, camels, donkeys, and all the other animals in the enemy camp.)
16 In the end, those who survive the plague will go up to Jerusalem each year to worship the King, the Lord Almighty, to celebrate a time of thanksgiving.[d] 17 And any nation anywhere in all the world that refuses to come to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord Almighty, will have no rain. 18 But if Egypt refuses to come, God will punish her with some other plague. 19 And so Egypt and the other nations will all be punished if they refuse to come.
20 In that day the bells on the horses will have written on them, “These Are Holy Property”;[e] and the trash cans in the Temple of the Lord will be as sacred as the bowls beside the altar. 21 In fact, every container in Jerusalem and Judah shall be sacred to the Lord Almighty; all who come to worship may use any of them free of charge to boil their sacrifices in; there will be no more grasping traders in the Temple of the Lord Almighty!
17 When Jesus had finished saying all these things he looked up to heaven and said, “Father, the time has come. Reveal the glory of your Son so that he can give the glory back to you. 2 For you have given him authority over every man and woman in all the earth. He gives eternal life to each one you have given him. 3 And this is the way to have eternal life—by knowing you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, the one you sent to earth! 4 I brought glory to you here on earth by doing everything you told me to. 5 And now, Father, reveal my glory as I stand in your presence, the glory we shared before the world began.
6 “I have told these men all about you. They were in the world, but then you gave them to me. Actually, they were always yours, and you gave them to me; and they have obeyed you. 7 Now they know that everything I have is a gift from you, 8 for I have passed on to them the commands you gave me; and they accepted them and know of a certainty that I came down to earth from you, and they believe you sent me.
9 “My plea is not for the world but for those you have given me because they belong to you. 10
13 “And now I am coming to you. I have told them many things while I was with them so that they would be filled with my joy. 14 I have given them your commands. And the world hates them because they don’t fit in with it, just as I don’t. 15 I’m not asking you to take them out of the world, but to keep them safe from Satan’s power. 16 They are not part of this world any more than I am. 17 Make them pure and holy through teaching them your words of truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, I am sending them into the world, 19 and I consecrate myself to meet their need for growth in truth and holiness.
20 “I am not praying for these alone but also for the future believers who will come to me because of the testimony of these. 21 My prayer for all of them is that they will be of one heart and mind, just as you and I are, Father—that just as you are in me and I am in you, so they will be in us, and the world will believe you sent me.
22 “I have given them the glory you gave me—the glorious unity of being one, as we are— 23 I in them and you in me, all being perfected into one—so that the world will know you sent me and will understand that you love them as much as you love me. 24 Father, I want them with me—these you’ve given me—so that they can see my glory. You gave me the glory because you loved me before the world began!
25 “O righteous Father, the world doesn’t know you, but I do; and these disciples know you sent me. 26 And I have revealed you to them and will keep on revealing you so that the mighty love you have for me may be in them, and I in them.”
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.