1 “Hear, Israel! You are crossing the Jordan today, to go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than you, cities that are great and fortified to heaven, 2 a people who are great and tall, the sons of the Anakim, whom you know and of whom you have heard it said, ‘Who can stand against the sons of Anak?’ 3 So be aware today that it is the Lord your God who is crossing over ahead of you as a consuming fire. He will destroy them and He will subdue them before you, so that you may drive them out and eliminate them quickly, just as the Lord has spoken to you.
4 “Do not say in your heart when the Lord your God has driven them away from you, ‘Because of my righteousness the Lord has brought me in to take possession of this land.’ Rather, it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is dispossessing them before you. 5 It is not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you are going in to take possession of their land, but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord your God is driving them out from before you, and in order to confirm the oath which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
6 “Know, then, that it is not because of your righteousness that the Lord your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stubborn people. 7 Remember, do not forget how you provoked the Lord your God to anger in the wilderness; from the day that you left the land of Egypt until you arrived at this place, you have been rebellious against the Lord. 8 Even at Horeb you provoked the Lord to anger, and the Lord was so angry with you that He would have destroyed you. 9 When I went up to the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant which the Lord made with you, then I remained on the mountain for forty days and nights; I neither ate bread nor drank water. 10 The Lord gave me the two tablets of stone written by the finger of God; and on them were all the words which the Lord had spoken with you at the mountain from the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly. 11 It came about at the end of forty days and nights that the Lord gave me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant. 12 Then the Lord said to me, ‘Arise, go down from here quickly, because your people, whom you brought out of Egypt, have behaved corruptly. They have quickly turned aside from the way that I commanded them; they have made a cast metal image for themselves.’ 13 The Lord also said to me, ‘I have seen this people, and indeed, it is a stubborn people. 14 Leave Me alone, that I may destroy them and wipe out their name from under heaven; and I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.’
15 “So I turned and came down from the mountain while the mountain was burning with fire, and the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands. 16 And I saw that you had indeed sinned against the Lord your God. You had made for yourselves a cast metal image of a calf; you had quickly turned aside from the way that the Lord had commanded you. 17 So I took hold of the two tablets and threw them from my two hands, and smashed them to pieces before your eyes! 18 Then I fell down before the Lord like the first time, for forty days and nights; I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all your sin which you had committed by doing what was evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger. 19 For I was afraid of the anger and the rage with which the Lord was angry with you so as to destroy you; but the Lord listened to me that time as well. 20 The Lord was also angry enough with Aaron to destroy him; so I also prayed for Aaron at the same time. 21 And I took your sinful thing which you had made, the calf, and burned it in the fire and crushed it, grinding it thoroughly until it was as fine as dust; and I threw its dust into the stream that came down from the mountain.
22 “Then at Taberah, at Massah, and at Kibroth-hattaavah you kept provoking the Lord to anger. 23 And when the Lord sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying, ‘Go up and take possession of the land which I have given you,’ you rebelled against the command of the Lord your God; you neither trusted Him nor listened to His voice. 24 You have been rebellious toward the Lord since the day I knew you.
25 “So I fell down before the Lord for the forty days and nights, which I did because the Lord said He would destroy you. 26 And I prayed to the Lord and said, ‘Lord God, do not destroy Your people, Your inheritance, whom You have redeemed through Your greatness, whom You have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand! 27 Remember Your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; do not turn Your attention to the stubbornness of this people, or to their wickedness, or their sin. 28 Otherwise, the people of the land from which You brought us will say, “Since the Lord was not able to bring them into the land which He had promised them, and since He hated them, He has brought them out to kill them in the wilderness!” 29 Yet they are Your people, and Your inheritance, whom You brought out by Your great power and Your outstretched arm.’
1 It is good to give thanks to the Lord
And to sing praises to Your name, Most High;
2 To declare Your goodness in the morning
And Your faithfulness by night,
3 With the ten-stringed lute and with the harp,
With resounding music on the lyre.
4 For You, Lord, have made me joyful by what You have done,
I will sing for joy over the works of Your hands.
5 How great are Your works, Lord!
Your thoughts are very deep.
6 A stupid person has no knowledge,
Nor does a foolish person understand this:
7 When the wicked sprouted up like grass
And all who did injustice flourished,
It was only that they might be destroyed forevermore.
8 But You, Lord, are on high forever.
9 For, behold, Your enemies, Lord,
For, behold, Your enemies will perish;
All who do injustice will be scattered.
10 But You have exalted my horn like that of the wild ox;
I have been anointed with fresh oil.
11 And my eye has looked at my enemies,
My ears hear of the evildoers who rise up against me.
12 The righteous person will flourish like the palm tree,
He will grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
13 Planted in the house of the Lord,
They will flourish in the courtyards of our God.
14 They will still yield fruit in advanced age;
They will be full of sap and very green,
15 To declare that the Lord is just;
He is my rock, and there is no malice in Him.
1 The Lord reigns, He is clothed with majesty;
The Lord has clothed and encircled Himself with strength.
Indeed, the world is firmly established; it will not be moved.
2 Your throne is established from of old;
You are from eternity.
3 The floods have lifted up, Lord,
The floods have lifted up their voice,
The floods lift up their pounding waves.
4 More than the sounds of many waters,
Than the mighty breakers of the sea,
The Lord on high is mighty.
5 Your testimonies are fully confirmed;
Holiness is pleasing to Your house,
Lord, forevermore.
1 Now when King Hezekiah heard the report, he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and entered the house of the Lord. 2 Then he sent Eliakim, who was in charge of the household, with Shebna the scribe and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz. 3 And they said to him, “This is what Hezekiah says: ‘This day is a day of distress, rebuke, and humiliation; for children have come to the point of birth, and there is no strength to deliver them. 4 Perhaps the Lord your God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to taunt the living God, and will avenge 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 And Isaiah said to them, “This is what you shall say to your master: ‘This is what the Lord says: “Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed Me. 7 Behold, I am going to put a spirit in him so that he will hear news 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 Now he heard them say regarding Tirhakah king of Cush, “He has come out to fight against you,” and when he heard it he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, 10 “This is what you shall say to Hezekiah king of Judah: ‘Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you by saying, “Jerusalem will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.” 11 Behold, you yourself have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands, destroying them completely. So will you be saved? 12 Did the gods of the nations which my fathers destroyed save them: Gozan, Haran, 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 to the Lord, saying, 16 “Lord of armies, God of Israel, who is enthroned above the cherubim, You are the God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You made heaven and earth. 17 Incline Your ear, Lord, and hear; open Your eyes, Lord, and see; and listen to all the words of Sennacherib, who sent them to taunt the living God. 18 Truly, Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the countries and their lands, 19 and have thrown their gods into the fire, for they were not gods but only the work of human hands, wood and stone. So they have destroyed them. 20 But now Lord, our God, save us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, Lord, are God.”
21 Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent word to Hezekiah, saying, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel says: ‘Because you have prayed to Me about Sennacherib king of Assyria, 22 this is the word that the Lord has spoken against him:
“She has shown contempt for you and derided you,
The virgin daughter of Zion;
The daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her head behind you!
23 Whom have you taunted and blasphemed?
And against whom have you raised your voice
And haughtily raised your eyes?
Against the Holy One of Israel!
24 Through your servants you have taunted 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 junipers.
And I will come to its highest peak, its thickest forest.
25 I dug wells and drank waters,
And with the sole of my feet I dried up
All the canals of Egypt.’
26 Have you not heard?
Long ago I did it,
From ancient times I planned it.
Now I have brought it about
That you would turn fortified cities into ruined heaps.
27 Therefore their inhabitants were powerless,
They were shattered and put to shame;
They were like the vegetation of the field and the green grass,
Like grass on the housetops that is scorched before it has grown.
28 But I know your sitting down,
Your going out, your coming in,
And your raging against Me.
29 Because of your raging against Me
And because your complacency has come up to My ears,
I will put My hook in your nose
And My bridle in your lips,
And I will turn you back by the way that you came.
30 “Then this shall be the sign for you: you will eat this year what grows of itself, in the second year what grows from the same, and in the third year sow, harvest, plant vineyards, and eat their fruit. 31 The survivors that are left of the house of Judah will again take root downward and bear fruit upward. 32 For out of Jerusalem a remnant will go, and out of Mount Zion survivors. The zeal of the Lord of armies will perform this.”’
33 “Therefore, this is what the Lord says about the king of Assyria: ‘He will not come to this city nor shoot an arrow there; and he will not come before it with a shield, nor heap up an assault ramp against it. 34 By the way that he came, by the same he will return, and he will not come to this city,’ declares the Lord. 35 ‘For I will protect this city to save it for My own sake, and for My servant David’s sake.’”
36 Then the angel of the Lord went out and struck 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians; and when the rest got up early in the morning, behold, all of the 185,000 were dead. 37 So Sennacherib the king of Assyria departed and returned home and lived in Nineveh. 38 Then it came about, as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, that his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer killed him with the sword; and they escaped to the land of Ararat. And his son Esarhaddon became king in his place.
1 After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth so that no wind would blow on the earth, or on the sea, or on any tree. 2 And I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, holding the seal of the living God; and he called out with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was granted to harm the earth and the sea, 3 saying, “Do not harm the earth, or the sea, or the trees until we have sealed the bond-servants of our God on their foreheads.”
4 And I heard the number of those who were sealed: 144,000, sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel:
5 from the tribe of Judah, twelve thousand were sealed, from the tribe of Reuben twelve thousand, from the tribe of Gad twelve thousand, 6 from the tribe of Asher twelve thousand, from the tribe of Naphtali twelve thousand, from the tribe of Manasseh twelve thousand, 7 from the tribe of Simeon twelve thousand, from the tribe of Levi twelve thousand, from the tribe of Issachar twelve thousand, 8 from the tribe of Zebulun twelve thousand, from the tribe of Joseph twelve thousand, and from the tribe of Benjamin, twelve thousand were sealed.
9 After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all the tribes, peoples, and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands; 10 and they *cried out with a loud voice, saying,
“Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.”
11 And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures; and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 saying,
“Amen, blessing, glory, wisdom, thanksgiving, honor, power, and might belong to our God forever and ever. Amen.”
13 Then one of the elders responded, saying to me, “These who are clothed in the white robes, who are they, and where have they come from?” 14 I said to him, “My lord, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 15 For this reason they are before the throne of God, and they serve Him day and night in His temple; and He who sits on the throne will spread His tabernacle over them. 16 They will no longer hunger nor thirst, nor will the sun beat down on them, nor any scorching heat; 17 for the Lamb in the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and will guide them to springs of the water of life; and God will wipe every tear from their eyes.”
