13 People were bringing little children to Jesus for him to place his
hands on them, but the disciples rebuked them.14 When Jesus saw this, he was
indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children
come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as
these.15 Truly
I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child
will never enter it.”16 And he took the children in his arms, placed his
hands on them and blessed them.
Jesus then left that place
and went into the region of Judea and across the Jordan. Again crowds of people
came to him, and as was his custom, he taught them.
2 Some Pharisees came and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful for a
man to divorce his wife?”
3 “What did Moses command you?” he replied.
4 They said, “Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce
and send her away.”
5 “It was because your hearts were hard that Moses wrote you this
law,” Jesus replied.6 “But at the
beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.’[a]7 ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and
mother and be united to his wife,[b]8 and the two will become one flesh.’[c] So they are no longer two, but one flesh.9 Therefore what God has
joined together, let no one separate.”
10 When they were in the house again, the disciples asked Jesus about
this.11 He answered, “Anyone who
divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her.12 And if she divorces
her husband and marries another man, she commits adultery.”
17 The
king of Assyria sent his supreme commander, his chief officer and his field
commander with a large army, from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. They
came up to Jerusalem and stopped at the aqueduct of the Upper Pool, on the road
to the Washerman’s Field. 18 They called for the king; and
Eliakim son of Hilkiah the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and Joah
son of Asaph the recorder went out to them.
19 The
field commander said to them, “Tell Hezekiah:
“‘This
is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says: On what are you basing this confidence
of yours? 20 You say you have the counsel and the might for
war—but you speak only empty words. On whom are you depending, that you rebel
against me? 21 Look, I know you are depending on Egypt, that
splintered reed of a staff, which pierces the hand of anyone who leans on it!
Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who depend on him. 22 But
if you say to me, “We are depending on the Lord
our God”—isn’t he the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah removed, saying
to Judah and Jerusalem, “You must worship before this altar in Jerusalem”?
23 “‘Come
now, make a bargain with my master, the king of Assyria: I will give you two
thousand horses—if you can put riders on them! 24 How can you
repulse one officer of the least of my master’s officials, even though you are
depending on Egypt for chariots and horsemen[e]? 25 Furthermore,
have I come to attack and destroy this place without word from the Lord? The Lord himself told me to march against this country and
destroy it.’”
26 Then
Eliakim son of Hilkiah, and Shebna and Joah said to the field commander,
“Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, since we understand it. Don’t speak
to us in Hebrew in the hearing of the people on the wall.”
27 But
the commander replied, “Was it only to your master and you that my master sent
me to say these things, and not to the people sitting on the wall—who, like
you, will have to eat their own excrement and drink their own urine?”
28 Then
the commander stood and called out in Hebrew, “Hear the word of the great king,
the king of Assyria! 29 This is what the king says: Do not let
Hezekiah deceive you. He cannot deliver you from my hand. 30 Do
not let Hezekiah persuade you to trust in the Lord
when he says, ‘The Lord will
surely deliver us; this city will not be given into the hand of the king of
Assyria.’
31 “Do
not listen to Hezekiah. This is what the king of Assyria says: Make peace with
me and come out to me. Then each of you will eat fruit from your own vine and
fig tree and drink water from your own cistern, 32 until I come
and take you to a land like your own—a land of grain and new wine, a land of
bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees and honey. Choose life and not
death!
“Do
not listen to Hezekiah, for he is misleading you when he says, ‘The Lord will deliver us.’ 33 Has
the god of any nation ever delivered his land from 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? Have they rescued Samaria from my hand?
35 Who of all the gods of these countries has been able to save
his land from me? How then can the Lord
deliver Jerusalem from my hand?”
36 But
the people remained silent and said nothing in reply, because the king had
commanded, “Do not answer him.”
37 Then
Eliakim son of Hilkiah the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and Joah
son of Asaph the recorder went to Hezekiah, with their clothes torn, and told
him what the field commander had said.
In
the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, Hezekiah son of Ahaz king
of Judah began to reign. 2 He was twenty-five years old when he
became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-nine years. His mother’s name
was Abijah[a] daughter of
Zechariah. 3 He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father David had done.
4 He removed the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut
down the Asherah poles. He broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made,
for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it. (It was
called Nehushtan.[b])
5 Hezekiah
trusted in the Lord, the God of
Israel. There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before
him or after him. 6 He held fast to the Lord and did not stop following him; he kept the commands
the Lord had given Moses. 7 And
the Lord was with him; he was
successful in whatever he undertook. He rebelled against the king of Assyria
and did not serve him. 8 From watchtower to fortified city, he
defeated the Philistines, as far as Gaza and its territory.
9 In
King Hezekiah’s fourth year, which was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah
king of Israel, Shalmaneser king of Assyria marched against Samaria and laid
siege to it. 10 At the end of three years the Assyrians took
it. So Samaria was captured in Hezekiah’s sixth year, which was the ninth year
of Hoshea king of Israel. 11 The king of Assyria deported
Israel to Assyria and settled them in Halah, in Gozan on the Habor River and in
towns of the Medes. 12 This happened because they had not
obeyed the Lord their God, but had
violated his covenant—all that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded. They neither listened to the commands nor
carried them out.
13 In
the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah’s reign, Sennacherib king of Assyria
attacked all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them. 14 So
Hezekiah king of Judah sent this message to the king of Assyria at Lachish: “I
have done wrong. Withdraw from me, and I will pay whatever you demand of me.”
The king of Assyria exacted from Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents[c] of silver
and thirty talents[d] of gold. 15 So
Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the temple of the Lord and in the treasuries of the royal
palace.
16 At
this time Hezekiah king of Judah stripped off the gold with which he had
covered the doors and doorposts of the temple of the Lord, and gave it to the king of Assyria.
