Day 267 of 365

Isa 37:1–39:8

37:1 It happened, when king Hezekiah heard it, that he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the Lord's house.

37:2 He sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz.

37:3 They said to him, "Thus says Hezekiah, 'This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of rejection; for the children have come to the birth, and there is no strength to bring forth.

37:4 It may be the Lord your God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master has sent to defy the living God, and will rebuke the words which the Lord your God has heard. Therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.'"

37:5 So the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah.

37:6 Isaiah said to them, "Tell your master, 'Thus says the Lord, "Do not be afraid of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.

37:7 Behold, I will put a spirit in him and he will hear news, and will return to his own land. I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land."'"

37:8 So Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah, for he had heard that he was departed from Lachish.

37:9 He heard news concerning Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, "He has come out to fight against you." When he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying,

37:10 "Thus you shall speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, 'Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying, "Jerusalem won't be given into the hand of the king of Assyria."

37:11 Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, by destroying them utterly. Shall you be delivered?

37:12 Have the gods of the nations delivered them, which my fathers have destroyed, Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the children of Eden who were in Telassar?

37:13 Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivvah?'"

37:14 Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it. Then Hezekiah went up to the Lord's house, and spread it before the Lord.

37:15 Hezekiah prayed to the Lord, saying,

37:16 "Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, who is enthroned among the cherubim, you are the God, even you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth.

37:17 Turn your ear, Lord, and hear. Open your eyes, Lord, and behold. Hear all of the words of Sennacherib, who has sent to defy the living God.

37:18 Truly, Lord, the kings of Assyria have destroyed all the countries and their land,

37:19 and have cast their gods into the fire; for they were no gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone; therefore they have destroyed them.

37:20 Now therefore, Lord our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you are the Lord, even you only."

37:21 Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, "Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, 'Because you have prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria,

37:22 this is the word which the Lord has spoken concerning him. The virgin daughter of Zion has despised you and ridiculed you. The daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her head at you.

37:23 Whom have you defied and blasphemed? Against whom have you exalted your voice and lifted up your eyes on high? Against the Holy One of Israel.

37:24 By your servants, have you defied the Lord, and have said, "With the multitude of my chariots I have come up to the height of the mountains, to the innermost parts of Lebanon. I will cut down its tall cedars and its choice fir trees. I will enter into its farthest height, the forest of its fruitful field.

37:25 I have dug and drunk water, and with the sole of my feet I will dry up all the rivers of Egypt."

37:26 Have you not heard how I have done it long ago, and formed it in ancient times? Now I have brought it to pass, that it should be yours to destroy fortified cities, turning them into ruinous heaps.

37:27 Therefore their inhabitants had little power. They were dismayed and confounded. They were like the grass of the field, and like the green herb, like the grass on the housetops, and like a field before its crop has grown.

37:28 But I know your sitting down, your going out, your coming in, and your raging against me.

37:29 Because of your raging against me, and because your arrogance has come up into my ears, therefore will I put my hook in your nose and my bridle in your lips, and I will turn you back by the way by which you came.

37:30 This shall be the sign to you. You will eat this year that which grows of itself, and in the second year that which springs from the same; and in the third year sow and reap and plant vineyards, and eat their fruit.

37:31 The remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah will again take root downward, and bear fruit upward.

37:32 For out of Jerusalem a remnant will go forth, and survivors will escape from Mount Zion. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.'

37:33 Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the king of Assyria, 'He will not come to this city, nor shoot an arrow there, neither will he come before it with shield, nor cast up a mound against it.

37:34 By the way that he came, by the same he shall return, and he shall not come to this city,' says the Lord.

37:35 'For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake, and for my servant David's sake.'"

37:36 The angel of the Lord went out and struck one hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the camp of the Assyrians. When men arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies.

37:37 So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, went away, returned to Nineveh, and stayed there.

37:38 It happened, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons struck him with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat. Esar Haddon his son reigned in his place.

38:1 In those days was Hezekiah sick and near death. 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 will die, and not live.'"

38:2 Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord,

38:3 and said, "Remember now, the Lord, I beg you, how I have walked before you in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in your sight." Hezekiah wept bitterly.

38:4 Then the word of the Lord came to Isaiah, saying,

38:5 "Go, and tell Hezekiah, 'Thus says the Lord, the God of David your father, "I have heard your prayer. I have seen your tears. Behold, I will add fifteen years to your life.

38:6 I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city.

38:7 This shall be the sign to you from the Lord, that the Lord will do this thing that he has spoken.

38:8 Behold, I will cause the shadow on the sundial, which has gone down on the sundial of Ahaz with the sun, to return backward ten steps. So the sun returned ten steps on the sundial on which it had gone down."'"

38:9 The writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick, and had recovered of his sickness.

38:10 I said, "In the middle of my life I go into the gates of Sheol. I am deprived of the residue of my years."

38:11 I said, "I won't see Yah, Yah in the land of the living. I will see man no more with the inhabitants of the world.

38:12 My dwelling is removed, and is carried away from me like a shepherd's tent. I have rolled up, like a weaver, my life. He will cut me off from the loom. From day even to night you will make an end of me.

38:13 I waited patiently until morning. He breaks all my bones like a lion. From day even to night you will make an end of me.

38:14 I chattered like a swallow or a crane. I moaned like a dove. My eyes weaken looking upward. Lord, I am oppressed. Be my security."

38:15 What will I say? He has both spoken to me, and himself has done it. I will walk carefully all my years because of the anguish of my soul.

38:16 Lord, men live by these things; and my spirit finds life in all of them: you restore me, and cause me to live.

38:17 Behold, for peace I had great anguish, but you have in love for my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption; for you have cast all my sins behind your back.

38:18 For Sheol can't praise you. Death can't celebrate you. Those who go down into the pit can't hope for your truth.

38:19 The living, the living, he shall praise you, as I do this day. The father shall make known your truth to the children.

38:20 The Lord will save me. Therefore we will sing my songs with stringed instruments all the days of our life in the house of the Lord.

38:21 Now Isaiah had said, "Let them take a cake of figs, and lay it for a poultice on the boil, and he shall recover."

38:22 Hezekiah also had said, "What is the sign that I will go up to the house of the Lord?"

39:1 At that time, Merodach Baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah; for he heard that he had been sick, and had recovered.

39:2 Hezekiah was pleased with them, and showed them the house of his precious things, the silver, and the gold, the spices, and the precious oil, and all the house of his armor, and all that was found in his treasures. There was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominion, that Hezekiah did not show them.

39:3 Then Isaiah the prophet came to king Hezekiah, and asked him, "What did these men say? Where did they come from to you?" Hezekiah said, "They have come from a country far from me, even from Babylon."

39:4 Then he asked, "What have they seen in your house?" Hezekiah answered, "They have seen all that is in my house. There is nothing among my treasures that I have not shown them."

39:5 Then said Isaiah to Hezekiah, "Hear the word of the Lord of hosts:

39:6 'Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up until this day, will be carried to Babylon. Nothing will be left,' says the Lord.

39:7 'They will take away your sons who will issue from you, whom you shall father, and they will be eunuchs in the king of Babylon's palace.'"

39:8 Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, "The Lord's word which you have spoken is good." He said moreover, "For there will be peace and truth in my days."

1 Cor 10:14–33

14 Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.

15 I speak as to wise men. Judge what I say.

16 The cup of blessing which we bless, is not it a sharing of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is not it a sharing of the body of Christ?

17 Because there is one loaf of bread, we, who are many, are one body; for we all partake of the one loaf of bread.

18 Consider Israel according to the flesh. Do not those who eat the sacrifices participate in the altar?

19 What am I saying then? That a thing sacrificed to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything?

20 But I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, and not to God, and I do not desire that you would have fellowship with demons.

21 You cannot both drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot both partake of the table of the Lord, and of the table of demons.

22 Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?

23 "All things are lawful," but not all things are profitable. "All things are lawful," but not all things build up.

24 Let no one seek his own, but his neighbor's good.

25 Whatever is sold in the butcher shop, eat, asking no question for the sake of conscience,

26 for "the earth is the Lord's, and its fullness."

27 But if one of those who do not believe invites you to a meal, and you are inclined to go, eat whatever is set before you, asking no questions for the sake of conscience.

28 But if anyone says to you, "This was offered to idols," do not eat it for the sake of the one who told you, and for the sake of conscience.

29 Conscience, I say, not your own, but the other's conscience. For why is my liberty judged by another conscience?

30 If I partake with thankfulness, why am I denounced for that for which I give thanks?

31 Whether therefore you eat, or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

32 Give no occasions for stumbling, either to Jews, or to Greeks, or to the church of God;

33 even as I also please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit, but the profit of the many, that they may be saved.

Job 16:1–8

1 Then Job answered,

2 "I have heard many such things. You are all miserable comforters!

3 Shall vain words have an end? Or what provokes you that you answer?

4 I also could speak as you do. If your soul were in my soul's place, I could join words together against you, and shake my head at you,

5 but I would strengthen you with my mouth. The solace of my lips would relieve you.

6 "Though I speak, my grief is not subsided. Though I forbear, what am I eased?

7 But now, God, you have surely worn me out. You have made desolate all my company.

8 You have shriveled me up. This is a witness against me. My leanness rises up against me. It testifies to my face.