Through the Bible – Day 136

₁Hoshea son of Elah became king of Israel in the twelfth year of Ahaz's rule in Judah, and he ruled nine years from Samaria. ₂Hoshea disobeyed the LORD and sinned, but not as much as the earlier Israelite kings had done.

₃During Hoshea's rule, King Shalmaneser of Assyria invaded Israel; he took control of the country and made Hoshea pay taxes. ₄But later, Hoshea refused to pay the taxes and asked King So of Egypt to help him rebel. When Shalmaneser found out, he arrested Hoshea and put him in prison.

₅Shalmaneser invaded Israel and attacked the city of Samaria for three years, ₆before capturing it in the ninth year of Hoshea's rule. The Assyrian king took the Israelites away to Assyria as prisoners. He forced some of them to live in the town of Halah, others to live near the River Habor in the territory of Gozan, and still others to live in towns where the Median people lived.

₇All of this happened because the people of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, who had rescued them from Egypt, where they had been slaves. They worshipped foreign gods, ₈followed the customs of the nations that the LORD had forced out of Israel, and were just as sinful as the Israelite kings. ₉Even worse, the Israelites tried to hide their sins from the LORD their God. They built their own local shrines everywhere in Israel—from small towns to large, walled cities. ₁₀They also built stone images of foreign gods and set up sacred poles for the worship of Asherah on every hill and under every shady tree. ₁₁They offered sacrifices at the shrines, just as the foreign nations had done before the LORD forced them out of Israel. They did sinful things that made the LORD very angry.

₁₂Even though the LORD had commanded the Israelites not to worship idols, they did it anyway. ₁₃So the LORD made sure that every prophet warned Israel and Judah with these words: “I, the LORD, command you to stop doing sinful things and start obeying my laws and teachings! I gave them to your ancestors, and I told my servants the prophets to repeat them to you.”

₁₄But the Israelites would not listen; they were as stubborn as their ancestors who had refused to worship the LORD their God. ₁₅They ignored the LORD's warnings and commands, and they rejected the solemn agreement he had made with their ancestors. They worshipped worthless idols and became worthless themselves. The LORD had told the Israelites not to do the things that the foreign nations around them were doing, but Israel became just like them.

₁₆The people of Israel disobeyed all the commands of the LORD their God. They made two gold statues of calves and set up a sacred pole for Asherah; they also worshipped the stars and the god Baal. ₁₇They used magic and witchcraft and even sacrificed their own children. The Israelites were determined to do whatever the LORD hated. ₁₈The LORD became so furious with the people of Israel that he allowed them to be carried away as prisoners.

Only the people living in Judah were left, ₁₉but they also disobeyed the LORD's commands and acted like the Israelites. ₂₀So the LORD turned his back on everyone in Israel and Judah and let them be punished and defeated until no one was left.

₂₁Earlier, when the LORD took the northern tribes away from David's family, the people living in northern Israel chose Jeroboam son of Nebat as their king. Jeroboam caused the Israelites to sin and to stop worshipping the LORD. ₂₂The people kept on sinning like Jeroboam, ₂₃until the LORD got rid of them, just as he had warned his servants the prophets.

That's why the people of Israel were taken away as prisoners to Assyria, and that's where they remained.

₂₄The king of Assyria took people who were living in the cities of Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim, and forced them to move to Israel. They took over the towns where the Israelites had lived, including the capital city of Samaria.

₂₅At first these people did not worship the LORD, so he sent lions to attack them, and the lions killed some of them. ₂₆A messenger told the king of Assyria, “The people you moved to Israel don't know how to worship the god of that country. So he sent lions that have attacked and killed some of them.”

₂₇The king replied, “Get one of the Israelite priests we brought here and send him back to Israel. He can live there and teach them about the god of that country.” ₂₈One of the Israelite priests was chosen to go back to Israel. He lived in Bethel and taught the people how to worship the LORD.

₂₉But in towns all over Israel, the different groups of people made statues of their own gods, then they placed these idols in local Israelite shrines. ₃₀The people from Babylonia made the god Succoth-Benoth; those from Cuthah made the god Nergal; those from Hamath made Ashima; ₃₁those from Avva made Nibhaz and Tartak; and the people from Sepharvaim sacrificed their children to their own gods Adrammelech and Anammelech. _32-33They worshipped their own gods, just as they had before they were taken away to Israel. They also worshipped the LORD, but they chose their own people to be priests at the shrines. ₃₄Everyone followed their old customs. None of them worshipped only the LORD, and they refused to obey the laws and commands that the LORD had given to the descendants of Jacob, the man he named Israel. ₃₅At the time when the LORD had made his solemn agreement with the people of Israel, he told them:

₄₀But the people living in Israel ignored that command and kept on following their old customs. ₄₁They did worship the LORD, but they also worshipped their own idols. Their descendants did the same thing.

₁Hezekiah son of Ahaz became king of Judah in the third year of Hoshea's rule in Israel. ₂Hezekiah was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he ruled twenty-nine years from Jerusalem. His mother Abi was the daughter of Zechariah.

₃Hezekiah obeyed the LORD, just as his ancestor David had done. ₄He destroyed the local shrines, then tore down the images of foreign gods and cut down the sacred pole for worshipping the goddess Asherah. He also smashed the bronze snake Moses had made. The people had named it Nehushtan and had been offering sacrifices to it.

₅Hezekiah trusted the LORD God of Israel. No other king of Judah was like Hezekiah, either before or after him. ₆He was completely faithful to the LORD and obeyed the laws the LORD had given to Moses for the people. ₇The LORD helped Hezekiah, so he was successful in everything he did. He even rebelled against the king of Assyria, refusing to be his servant. ₈Hezekiah defeated the Philistine towns as far away as Gaza—from the smallest towns to the large, walled cities.

₉During the fourth year of Hezekiah's rule, which was the seventh year of Hoshea's rule in Israel, King Shalmaneser of Assyria led his troops to Samaria, the capital city of Israel. They attacked ₁₀and captured it three years later, in the sixth year of Hezekiah's rule and the ninth year of Hoshea's rule. ₁₁The king of Assyria took the Israelites away as prisoners; he forced some of them to live in the town of Halah, others to live near the River Habor in the territory of Gozan, and still others to live in towns where the Median people lived. ₁₂All of that happened because the people of Israel had not obeyed the LORD their God. They rejected the solemn agreement he had made with them, and they ignored everything that the LORD's servant Moses had told them.

₁₃In the fourteenth year of Hezekiah's rule in Judah, King Sennacherib of Assyria invaded the country and captured every walled city, except Jerusalem. ₁₄Hezekiah sent this message to Sennacherib, who was in the town of Lachish: “I know I am guilty of rebellion. But I will pay you whatever you want, if you stop your attack.”

Sennacherib told Hezekiah to pay ten thousand kilogrammes of silver and a thousand kilogrammes of gold. ₁₅So Hezekiah collected all the silver from the LORD's temple and the royal treasury. ₁₆He even stripped the gold that he had used to cover the doors and doorposts in the temple. He gave it all to Sennacherib.

₁₇The king of Assyria ordered his three highest military officers to leave Lachish and take a large army to Jerusalem. When they arrived, the officers stood on the road near the cloth makers' shops along the canal from the upper pool. ₁₈They called out to Hezekiah, and three of his highest officials came out to meet them. One of them was Hilkiah's son Eliakim, who was the prime minister. The other two were Shebna, assistant to the prime minister, and Joah son of Asaph, keeper of the government records.

₁₉One of the Assyrian commanders told them:

₂₆Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said, “Sir, we don't want the people listening from the city wall to understand what you are saying. So please speak to us in Aramaic instead of Hebrew.”

₂₇The Assyrian army commander answered, “My king sent me to speak to everyone, not just to you leaders. These people will soon have to eat their own body waste and drink their own urine! And so will the three of you.”

₂₈Then, in a voice loud enough for everyone to hear, he shouted in Hebrew:

_36-37Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah had been warned by King Hezekiah not to answer the Assyrian commander. So they tore their clothes in sorrow and reported to Hezekiah everything the commander had said.

₃Jesus left Judea and started for Galilee again. ₄This time he had to go through Samaria, ₅and on his way he came to the town of Sychar. It was near the field that Jacob had long ago given to his son Joseph. _6-8The well that Jacob had dug was still there, and Jesus sat down beside it because he was tired from travelling. It was midday, and after Jesus' disciples had gone into town to buy some food, a Samaritan woman came to draw water from the well.

Jesus asked her, “Would you please give me a drink of water?”

₉“You are a Jew,” she replied, “and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink of water when Jews and Samaritans won't have anything to do with each other?”

₁₀Jesus answered, “You don't know what God wants to give you, and you don't know who is asking you for a drink. If you did, you would ask me for the water that gives life.”

₁₁“Sir,” the woman said, “you don't even have a bucket, and the well is deep. Where are you going to get this life-giving water? ₁₂Our ancestor Jacob dug this well for us, and his family and animals got water from it. Are you greater than Jacob?”

₁₃Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will get thirsty again. ₁₄But no one who drinks the water I give will ever be thirsty again. The water I give is like a flowing fountain that gives eternal life.”

₁₅The woman replied, “Sir, please give me a drink of that water! Then I won't get thirsty and have to come to this well again.”

₁₆Jesus told her, “Go and bring your husband.”

_17-18The woman answered, “I don't have a husband.”

“That's right,” Jesus replied, “you're telling the truth. You don't have a husband. You have already been married five times, and the man you are now living with isn't your husband.”

₁₉The woman said, “Sir, I can see that you are a prophet. ₂₀My ancestors worshipped on this mountain, but you Jews say Jerusalem is the only place to worship.”

₂₁Jesus said to her:

₂₅The woman said, “I know that the Messiah will come. He is the one we call Christ. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”

₂₆“I am that one,” Jesus told her, “and I am speaking to you now.”

₂₇The disciples returned about this time and were surprised to find Jesus talking with a woman. But none of them asked him what he wanted or why he was talking with her.

₂₈The woman left her water jar and ran back into town. She said to the people, ₂₉“Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! Could he be the Messiah?” ₃₀Everyone in town went out to see Jesus.

₃₁While this was happening, Jesus' disciples were saying to him, “Teacher, please eat something.”

₃₂But Jesus told them, “I have food that you don't know anything about.”

₃₃His disciples started asking each other, “Has someone brought him something to eat?”

₃₄Jesus said:

₃₉A lot of Samaritans in that town put their faith in Jesus because the woman had said, “This man told me everything I have ever done.” ₄₀They came and asked him to stay in their town, and he stayed on for two days.

₄₁Many more Samaritans put their faith in Jesus because of what they heard him say. ₄₂They told the woman, “We no longer have faith in Jesus just because of what you told us. We have heard him ourselves, and we are certain that he is the Saviour of the world!”