2 Kings 21:1 Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hephzibah.
2 Kings 21:2 He did what was evil in Yahveh’s sight, imitating the detestable practices of the nations that Yahveh had dispossessed before the Israelites.
2 Kings 21:3 He rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had destroyed and reestablished the altars for Baal. He made an Asherah, as King Ahab of Israel had done; he also bowed in worship to all the stars in the sky and slaved for them.
2 Kings 21:4 He built altars in Yahveh’s temple, where Yahveh had said, “Jerusalem is where I will put my name.”
2 Kings 21:5 He built altars to all the stars in the sky in both courtyards of Yahveh’s temple.
2 Kings 21:6 He sacrificed his son in the fire, practiced witchcraft and divination and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in Yahveh’s sight, angering him.
2 Kings 21:7 Manasseh set up the carved image of Asherah, which he made, in the temple that Yahveh had spoken about to David and his son Solomon: “I will establish my name forever in this temple and Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel.
2 Kings 21:8 I will never again cause the feet of the Israelites to wander from the land I gave to their ancestors if only they will be careful to do all I have commanded them — the whole law that my slave Moses commanded them.”
2 Kings 21:9 But they did not listen; Manasseh caused them to stray so that they did worse evil than the nations Yahveh had destroyed before the Israelites.
2 Kings 21:10 Yahveh said through his slaves the prophets,
2 Kings 21:11 “Since King Manasseh of Judah has committed all these detestable acts — worse evil than the Amorites who preceded him had done — and by means of his idols has also caused Judah to sin,
2 Kings 21:12 this is what Yahveh God of Israel says: ‘I am about to bring such disaster on Jerusalem and Judah that everyone who hears about it will shudder.
2 Kings 21:13 I will stretch over Jerusalem the measuring line used on Samaria and the mason’s level used on the house of Ahab, and I will wipe Jerusalem clean as one wipes a bowl—wiping it and turning it upside down.
2 Kings 21:14 I will abandon the remnant of my inheritance and hand them over to their enemies. They will become plunder and spoil to all their enemies,
2 Kings 21:15 because they have done what is evil in my sight and have angered me from the day their ancestors came out of Egypt until today.'”
2 Kings 21:16 Manasseh also shed so much innocent blood that he filled Jerusalem with it from one end to another. This was in addition to his sin that he caused Judah to commit, so that they did what was evil in Yahveh’s sight.
2 Kings 21:17 The rest of Manasseh’s reign, including all his accomplishments and sins, is written in the Historical Record of Judah’s Kings.
2 Kings 21:18 Manasseh rested with his fathers and was buried in the garden of his own house, the garden of Uzza. His son Amon became king in his place.
2 Kings 21:19 Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Meshullemeth, daughter of Haruz; she was from Jotbah.
2 Kings 21:20 He did what was evil in Yahveh’s sight, just as his father Manasseh had done.
2 Kings 21:21 He walked in all the ways his father had walked; he slaved for the idols his father had slaved for, and he bowed in worship to them.
2 Kings 21:22 He abandoned Yahveh, God of his ancestors, and did not walk in the ways of Yahveh.
2 Kings 21:23 Amon’s slaves conspired against him and put the king to death in his own house.
2 Kings 21:24 The common people killed all who had conspired against King Amon, and they made his son Josiah king in his place.
2 Kings 21:25 The rest of the events of Amon’s reign, along with his accomplishments, are written in the Historical Record of Judah’s Kings.
2 Kings 21:26 He was buried in his tomb in the garden of Uzza, and his son Josiah became king in his place.
2 Kings 20:1 In those days, Hezekiah became terminally ill. The prophet Isaiah, son of Amoz, came and said to him, “This is what Yahveh says: ‘Set your house in order, for you are about to die; you will not recover.'”
2 Kings 20:2 Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to Yahveh,
2 Kings 20:3 “Please, Lord, remember how I have walked before you faithfully and wholeheartedly and have done what pleases you.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.
2 Kings 20:4 Isaiah had not yet gone out of the inner courtyard when the word of Yahveh came to him:
2 Kings 20:5 “Go back and tell Hezekiah, the leader of my people, ‘This is what Yahveh God of your ancestor David says: I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Look, I will heal you. On the third day from now, you will go up to Yahveh’s temple.
2 Kings 20:6 I will add fifteen years to your life. I will rescue you and this city from the grasp of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city for my sake and the sake of my slave David.'”
2 Kings 20:7 Then Isaiah said, “Bring a lump of pressed figs.” So, they brought it and applied it to his infected skin, and he recovered.
2 Kings 20:8 Hezekiah asked Isaiah, “What is the sign that Yahveh will heal me and that I will go up to Yahveh’s temple on the third day?”
2 Kings 20:9 Isaiah said, “This is the sign to you from Yahveh that he will do what he has promised: Should the shadow go ahead ten steps or go back ten steps?”
2 Kings 20:10 Then Hezekiah answered, “It’s easy for the shadow to lengthen ten steps. No, let the shadow go back ten steps.”
2 Kings 20:11 So the prophet Isaiah called out to Yahveh, and he brought the shadow back the ten steps it had descended on the stairway of Ahaz.
2 Kings 20:12 At that time, Merodach-baladan, son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a gift to Hezekiah since he heard that he had been sick.
2 Kings 20:13 Hezekiah listened to the letters and showed the envoys his whole treasure house—the silver, gold, spices, and precious oil—his armory, and everything that was found in his treasuries. There was nothing in his palace and in all his realm that Hezekiah did not show them.
2 Kings 20:14 Then the prophet Isaiah came to King Hezekiah and asked him, “Where did these men come from, and what did they say to you?” Hezekiah replied, “They came from a distant country, from Babylon.”
2 Kings 20:15 Isaiah asked, “What have they seen in your palace?” Hezekiah answered, “They have seen everything in my palace. There isn’t anything in my treasuries that I didn’t show them.”
2 Kings 20:16 Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of Yahveh:
2 Kings 20:17 ‘Look, the days are coming when everything in your palace and all that your fathers have stored up until today will be carried off to Babylon; nothing will be left,’ says Yahveh.
2 Kings 20:18 ‘Some of your descendants — who come from you, whom you father — will be taken away, and they will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.'”
2 Kings 20:19 Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of Yahveh that you have spoken is good,” for he thought: Why not if there will be peace and security during my lifetime?
2 Kings 20:20 The rest of the events of Hezekiah’s reign, along with all his might and how he made the pool and the tunnel and brought water into the city, are written in the Historical Record of Judah’s Kings.
2 Kings 20:21 Hezekiah rested with his fathers, and his son Manasseh became king in his place.
2 Kings 19:1 When King Hezekiah heard their report, he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and went into Yahveh’s temple.
2 Kings 19:2 He sent Eliakim, who oversaw the palace, Shebna, the court secretary, and the leading priests, who were wearing sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah, son of Amoz.
2 Kings 19:3 They said to him, “This is what Hezekiah says: ‘Today is a day of distress, rebuke, and disgrace, for children have come to the point of birth, but there is no strength to deliver them.
2 Kings 19:4 Perhaps Yahveh your God will hear all the words of the royal spokesman, whom his lord king of Assyria sent to mock the living God and will rebuke him for the words that Yahveh your God has heard. Therefore, offer a prayer for the surviving remnant.'”
2 Kings 19:5 So the slaves of King Hezekiah went to Isaiah,
2 Kings 19:6 who said to them, “Tell your lord, ‘Yahveh says this: Don’t be afraid because of the words you have heard, with which the king of Assyria’s boys have blasphemed me.
2 Kings 19:7 I am about to put a breath in him, and he will hear a rumor and return to his land, where I will cause him to fall by the sword.'”
2 Kings 19:8 When the royal spokesman heard that the king of Assyria had pulled out of Lachish, he left and found him fighting against Libnah.
2 Kings 19:9 The king had heard concerning King Tirhakah of Cush, “Look, he has set out to fight against you.” So, he again sent agents to Hezekiah, saying,
2 Kings 19:10 “Say this to King Hezekiah of Judah: ‘Don’t let your God, on whom you rely, deceive you by promising that Jerusalem will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.
2 Kings 19:11 Look, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the countries: They destroyed them. Will you be rescued?
2 Kings 19:12 Did the gods of the nations that my predecessors destroyed rescue them– nations such as Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the Edenites in Telassar?
2 Kings 19:13 Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, Hena, or Ivvah? ‘”
2 Kings 19:14 Hezekiah took the letter from the agents’ hands, read it, then went up to Yahveh’s temple and spread it out before Yahveh.
2 Kings 19:15 Then Hezekiah prayed before Yahveh: Yahveh, God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you are God—you alone—of all the kingdoms of the land. You made the heavens and the land.
2 Kings 19:16 Listen closely, Yahveh, and hear; open your eyes, Yahveh, and see. Hear the words that Sennacherib has sent to mock the living God.
2 Kings 19:17 Yahveh, it is true that the kings of Assyria have devastated the nations and their lands.
2 Kings 19:18 They have thrown their gods into the fire, for they were not gods but made by human hands—wood and stone. So, they have destroyed them.
2 Kings 19:19 Now, Yahveh our God, please save us from his power so that all the kingdoms of the land may know that you, Lord, are God– you alone.
2 Kings 19:20 Then Isaiah, son of Amoz, sent a message to Hezekiah: ” Yahveh, the God of Israel says, ‘I have heard your prayer to me about King Sennacherib of Assyria.’
2 Kings 19:21 This is the word Yahveh has spoken against him: Virgin Daughter Zion despises you and scorns you; Daughter Jerusalem shakes her head behind your back.
2 Kings 19:22 Who is it you mocked and blasphemed? Against whom have you raised your voice and lifted your eyes in pride? Against the Holy One of Israel!
2 Kings 19:23 You have mocked Yahveh through your agents. You have said, ‘With my many chariots, I have gone up to the heights of the mountains, to the far recesses of Lebanon. I cut down its tallest cedars, its choice cypress trees. I came to its farthest outpost, its densest forest.
2 Kings 19:24 I dug wells and drank water in foreign lands. I dried up all the streams of Egypt with the soles of my feet.’
2 Kings 19:25 Have you not heard? I designed it long ago; I planned it in days gone by. I have now brought it to pass, and you have crushed fortified cities into piles of rubble.
2 Kings 19:26 Their inhabitants have become powerless, dismayed, and ashamed. They are wild plants, tender grass, and grass on the rooftops, blasted by the east wind.
2 Kings 19:27 But I know your sitting down, your going out and your coming in, and your raging against me.
2 Kings 19:28 Because your raging against me and your arrogance have reached my ears, I will put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth; I will make you go back the way you came.
2 Kings 19:29 “This will be the sign for you: This year you will eat what grows on its own, and in the second year what grows from that. But in the third year, sow and reap, plant vineyards, and eat their fruit.
2 Kings 19:30 The surviving remnant of the house of Judah will again take root downward and bear fruit upward.
2 Kings 19:31 Because a remnant will go out from Jerusalem, and survivors, from Mount Zion. The zeal of Yahveh of Armies will accomplish this.
2 Kings 19:32 Therefore, Yahveh says about the king of Assyria: He will not enter this city, shoot an arrow here, come before it with a shield, or build a siege ramp against it.
2 Kings 19:33 He will go back the way he came, and he will not enter this city. This is Yahveh’s declaration.
2 Kings 19:34 I will defend this city and rescue it for my sake and the sake of my slave David.”
2 Kings 19:35 That night, the agent of Yahveh went out and struck down one hundred eighty-five thousand in the camp of the Assyrians. When the people got up the following day — there were all the dead bodies!
2 Kings 19:36 So King Sennacherib of Assyria broke camp and left. He returned home and lived in Nineveh.
2 Kings 19:37 One day, while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him down with the sword and escaped to the land of Ararat. Then, his son Esar-haddon became king in his place.
24“I tell you the solemn truth, the one who hears my message and believes the one who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned but has crossed over from death to life. 25 I tell you the solemn truth, a time is coming — and is now here — when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. 26 For just as the Father has life in himself, thus he has granted the Son to have life in himself, 27 and he has granted the Son authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man. 28 “Do not be amazed at this, because a time is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice 29 and will come out — the ones who have done what is good to the resurrection resulting in life, and the ones who have done what is evil to the resurrection resulting in condemnation.
One of the important responsibilities of preaching is to slow us down long enough to really hear Scripture. We live in a world where familiar verses come preloaded with assumptions, ideas that almost everyone repeats, but few have traced back to the text itself. When those assumptions go unchallenged, they can blur what God is saying. Preaching becomes an act of love when it clears away that fog and lets the Word speak with its own weight and clarity.
There is something deeply real about this work. It invites us to come before God with open hands, willing to let Him correct us, surprise us, and reshape our understanding. It reminds us that Scripture is not a collection of slogans to confirm what we already think, but a living voice that calls us into truth. When a preacher helps us see what the text truly says—no more, no less—we experience that gentle moment when God realigns our hearts. And in those moments, we remember why we listen at all: because His Word still brings light, and His truth still sets us free.
Today’s passage is one of those places where we need to slow down and listen carefully. Most of us have heard John 5:24 explained the same way: it’s about a spiritual resurrection, a person getting saved, moving from spiritual death to spiritual life. And on the surface, that sounds right. I mean, what else could “crossed over from death to life” mean, if not conversion and new birth?
But you know what? Sometimes a verse we think we already understand is exactly the one that invites us to look again. That’s what I want to do with you this morning. My aim is not to be clever or to dismiss the many faithful teachers and theologians who see spiritual resurrection here. Many of them love Jesus deeply and handle Scripture with great care. I believe, after sitting with this text, that Jesus is talking about something different than what we usually assume.
So together, we’re going to walk slowly through John 5:24-29 and let the passage itself guide us. I hope that, by the end, you’ll see that what Jesus is saying is even richer and more grounded than the familiar explanation—and that your trust in His word will grow deeper, not thinner.
There are Two Life-Givers
Verse 26 says the Father has life in himself, and he has granted the Son to have life in himself. Those are the two sources where life can come from. Now, what kind of life do we get from the Father? Is it spiritual life or is it what we call physical life?
The Bible says that the LORD God formed Adam from dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.[1] He formed a non-living creature from the clay and breathed life into it, and Adam became alive. This is the kind of life we received from our Father. It was a dependent life. We owed our existence and continued functioning to the one who gave us this life. He is the first life-giver, and that life is (for want of a better description) physical animal life.
We have life, but the life we have is not self-contained. The theologians talk about humans having immortal souls, but the Bible never mentions anything about our souls being immortal. The Old Testament says that the soul who sins shall die.[2] Jesus said that sinful souls will be destroyed in Gehenna hell.[3] So, both Testaments testify that the idea of our having immortal souls by nature is unbiblical.
The life we receive from the Father is mortal, conditional life, temporary life. It can be a wonderful life, or it can be a miserable life, but there is one thing that life from the Father cannot be. It cannot be eternal life. The Father made that decision in Eden. He said that if our ancestors ate of the forbidden tree, we would become mortal and we would all eventually die.
Now, is this life from the Father spiritual life? Paul said that before salvation, all of us are “dead in our trespasses.”[4] We cannot even seek God because our sins have made us dead, not functioning in our relationship to him. So, if we are going to have a relationship with God, we are going to need a new life, another life, other than the natural life we were born into.
Never fear, because the Father, who has life in himself, has also granted the Son to have life in himself. There is another source of life. Now this is where the theologians are quick to explain that the kind of life Jesus offers is spiritual life, and that we need that because we are all spiritually dead. But hold your horses, because the text says something different.
The Son gave life by Physical Resurrection.
In verse 25, Jesus says a time is coming — and is now here — when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. One of the keys to understanding that statement is the fact that Jesus used the word “now.” He was referring to his earthly ministry. We know that Jesus brought the dead back to life while he walked among us. He took the corpse of Jairus’ daughter by the hand and said Little girl, I say to you, wake up!”[5] She woke up. To the widow’s son at Nain, he said, “Young man, I say to you, wake up!”[6] He woke up. In Bethany, he called Lazarus by name and told him to get out of that tomb.[7] He shuffled out of that tomb. On the night of his crucifixion, many of the saints who were buried and sleeping in their graves came out.[8] They came to life again.
Now, I want to ask you which of those four resurrections could be categorized as a spiritual resurrection? I think it is obvious that none of them were. They were all examples of Jesus literally raising people from the dead.
Jesus Establishes A Second Pattern Of Life-Giving.
In verse 25, Jesus said, “A time is coming — and is now here — when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.” If the time that is here meant that Jesus could literally raise the dead during his earthly ministry, what does he mean when he talks about that time that is coming?
We don’t have to guess about that time because Jesus goes on to explain it more fully. He says, “A time is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and will come out — the ones who have done what is good to the resurrection resulting in life, and the ones who have done what is evil to the resurrection resulting in condemnation.
So, in this time that is coming, Jesus is going to perform the same kind of resurrection as he did during his earthly ministry. He is going to wake the dead and make them alive again. This is not a spiritual resurrection. It, too, is what we might call a literal, physical resurrection. In fact, it appears that there are only three things about this coming resurrection that will be different from the resurrections mentioned in the New Testament.
First, the extent to which the dead are raised. Jairus’ daughter died again. The Widow’s son died again. The saints who were sleeping fell asleep again. Those New Testament resurrections were temporary. They were miracles designed to show who Jesus is. But none of those who were raised were raised immortal.
Second, the purpose of the coming resurrection is Judgment Day. That is why Jesus says that some will be raised to a resurrection that results in condemnation. They, too, will be brought back to life, but not to immortality. Their resurrection is not a doorway into eternal joy but the moment they must stand before the Judge at the Great White Throne and answer for their lives. Every sin, every injustice, every rejection of God’s grace must be dealt with. Scripture is painfully clear: there are only two ways sin can be addressed—either through the atoning death of Christ or through the second death in Gehenna, the lake of fire.
The penalty for sin has always been death. That is the cost. And if we refuse the death of Christ as our substitute, then the only payment left is our own. Hell is not a place for people God dislikes; it is the place where unpaid sin debts are settled. It is a sober reminder that grace is offered freely, but it is not forced. The coming resurrection will reveal who trusted in Christ’s sacrifice and who chose to bear the weight of their own.
But the good news of the gospel is that there is a third and far greater difference between the resurrections Jesus performed during His earthly ministry and the resurrection He will bring about at the end of the age. The people He raised in the Gospels were restored to the same kind of life they had before—beautiful, compassionate miracles, but still temporary. They lived again, but they eventually died again. Their stories point forward, but they are not the destination.
What Jesus promises in the future is something entirely different. He says that some will be raised to a resurrection that results in life—real, lasting, indestructible life. Just as the Father gives life, so the Son gives life. But the life He gives is not mortal life stretched a little longer. It is immortal life, the kind that cannot fade or weaken or slip away. It is not natural life patched up and restarted. It is supernatural life, breathed into us by the One who conquered death. It is not a temporary life borrowed for a season. It is eternal, everlasting, permanent life—life that shares in the very permanence of God Himself.
That is the hope set before us, and it is worth holding with both hands.
This Resurrection Promise Gives us Hope.
Here are five reasons why we can draw confidence and hope from this resurrection promise:
1. The resurrection means death is not the end.
Every funeral, every diagnosis, every reminder of our mortality is not the final word. The resurrection promises that God will reverse what Adam’s fall unleashed. We do not cling to wishful thinking; we cling to a future event God has already previewed in Jesus.
2. The resurrection guarantees that our bodies matter to God.
We are not escaping creation; we are awaiting its renewal. The resurrection tells us that God will raise these very bodies—healed, restored, glorified. Nothing about our embodied life is disposable or forgotten.
3. The resurrection assures us that justice will be done.
So much in this world goes unresolved. But resurrection means God will raise every person and set all things right. No evil will remain unaddressed, and no faithfulness will go unnoticed.
4. The resurrection anchors our hope in Christ’s victory, not our performance.
Our future does not depend on our strength, consistency, or spiritual success. It rests on the risen Christ who conquered death for us. Because He lives, we will live also.
5. The resurrection promises reunion and restoration.
Every tear, every separation, every grave we’ve stood beside will be answered. God will gather His people, restore what was lost, and make all things new. Hope is not abstract. It is personal, relational, and guaranteed.
In conclusion, I am convinced Jesus is not introducing a new or hidden idea of spiritual resurrection in this passage. He is pointing us to the same promise He makes so clearly in John 6, where He says that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him has eternal life, and that He Himself will raise that person on the last day. That is the heartbeat of His message. He is not describing an invisible inner event; He is promising a future moment when He will act with resurrection power.
If you belong to Christ today, I cannot promise you a spiritual resurrection that happens quietly inside you. Scripture never speaks that way. But I can promise you something far better and far more concrete. Our Savior knows your name. He has not lost track of you. And one day, He will speak that name with the same authority that called Lazarus out of the tomb. If you are asleep in the dust, you will wake at His voice. If you are in your grave, you will rise and step out into a life that can never be taken from you again. That is the promise He gives, and it is worth holding onto with all your heart.
2 Kings 18:1 In the third year of Israel’s King Hoshea, son of Elah, Hezekiah, son of Ahaz, became king of Judah.
2 Kings 18:2 He was twenty-five years old when he became king and reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Abi, daughter of Zechariah.
2 Kings 18:3 He did what was right in Yahveh’s sight just as his ancestor David had done.
2 Kings 18:4 He removed the high places, shattered the sacred pillars, and cut down the Asherah poles. He also broke into pieces the bronze snake that Moses had made, for until then, the Israelites had been burning incense to it. It was called Nehushtan.
2 Kings 18:5 Hezekiah relied on Yahveh, God of Israel; not one of the kings of Judah was like him, either before him or after him.
2 Kings 18:6 He remained faithful to Yahveh and did not turn from following him but kept the commands Yahveh had commanded Moses.
2 Kings 18:7 Yahveh was with him, and wherever he went, he prospered. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and did not slave for him.
2 Kings 18:8 He defeated the Philistines as far as Gaza and its borders, from watchtower to fortified city.
2 Kings 18:9 In the fourth year of King Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Israel’s King Hoshea, son of Elah, Assyria’s King Shalmaneser marched against Samaria and besieged it.
2 Kings 18:10 The Assyrians captured it at the end of three years. In the sixth year of Hezekiah, which was the ninth year of Israel’s King Hoshea, Samaria was captured.
2 Kings 18:11 The king of Assyria deported the Israelites to Assyria and put them in Halah, along the Habor (Gozan’s river), and in the cities of the Medes,
2 Kings 18:12 because they did not listen to Yahveh their God but violated his covenant– all he had commanded Moses, the slave of Yahveh. They did not listen, and they did not obey.
2 Kings 18:13 In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Assyria’s King Sennacherib attacked and captured all the fortified cities of Judah.
2 Kings 18:14 So King Hezekiah of Judah sent word to the king of Assyria at Lachish: “I have done wrong; withdraw from me. Whatever you demand from me, I will pay.” The king of Assyria demanded eleven tons of silver and one ton of gold from King Hezekiah of Judah.
2 Kings 18:15 So Hezekiah gave him all the silver found in Yahveh’s temple and the treasuries of the king’s palace.
2 Kings 18:16 At that time, Hezekiah stripped the gold from the doors of Yahveh’s sanctuary and from the doorposts he had overlaid and gave it to the king of Assyria.
2 Kings 18:17 Then the king of Assyria sent the field marshal, the chief of staff, and his royal spokesman, along with a massive army, from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. They advanced and came to Jerusalem, and they took their position by the aqueduct of the upper pool, by the road to the Launderer’s Field.
2 Kings 18:18 They called for the king, but Eliakim, son of Hilkiah, who oversaw the palace, Shebnah, the court secretary, and Joah, son of Asaph, the court historian, came out to them.
2 Kings 18:19 Then the royal spokesman said to them, “Tell Hezekiah this is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says: ‘What are you relying on?
2 Kings 18:20 You think mere words are strategy and strength for war. Who are you now relying on so that you have rebelled against me?
2 Kings 18:21 Now look, you are relying on Egypt, that splintered reed of a staff that will pierce the hand of anyone who grabs it and leans on it. This is what Pharaoh, king of Egypt, is to all who rely on him.
2 Kings 18:22 Suppose you say to me, “We rely on Yahveh our God.” Isn’t he the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and Jerusalem, “You must worship at this altar in Jerusalem”? ‘
2 Kings 18:23 “So now, make a bargain with my lord king of Assyria. I’ll give you two thousand horses if you’re able to supply riders for them!
2 Kings 18:24 How then can you drive back a single officer among the least of my lord’s slaves? How can you rely on Egypt for chariots and horsemen?
2 Kings 18:25 Now, have I attacked this place to destroy it without Yahveh’s approval? Yahveh said to me, ‘Attack this land and destroy it.'”
2 Kings 18:26 Then Eliakim, son of Hilkiah, Shebnah, and Joah, said to the royal spokesman, “Please speak to your slaves in Aramaic, since we understand it. Don’t speak with us in Hebrew within earshot of the people on the wall.”
2 Kings 18:27 But the royal spokesman said to them, “Has my lord sent me to speak these words only to your lord and to you? Hasn’t he also sent me to the men who sit on the wall, destined with you to eat their excrement and drink their urine?”
2 Kings 18:28 The royal spokesman stood and called out loudly in Hebrew: “Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria.
2 Kings 18:29 This is what the king says: ‘Don’t let Hezekiah deceive you; he can’t rescue you from my power.
2 Kings 18:30 Don’t let Hezekiah persuade you to rely on Yahveh by saying, “Certainly Yahveh will rescue us! This city will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.” ‘
2 Kings 18:31 “Don’t listen to Hezekiah, for this is what the king of Assyria says: ‘Make peace with me and surrender to me. Then each of you may eat from his vine, and his fig tree, and each may drink water from his cistern
2 Kings 18:32 until I come and take you away to a land like your own land– a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees and honey– so that you may live and not die. But don’t listen to Hezekiah when he misleads you, saying, ” Yahveh will rescue us.”
2 Kings 18:33 Has any of the gods of the nations ever rescued his land from the power of the king of Assyria?
2 Kings 18:34 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah? Have they rescued Samaria from my power?
2 Kings 18:35 Who among all the gods of the lands has rescued his land from my power? So, will Yahveh rescue Jerusalem from my power? ‘”
2 Kings 18:36 But the people kept silent; they did not answer him at all, for the king’s command was, “Don’t answer him.”
2 Kings 18:37 Then Eliakim, son of Hilkiah, who oversaw the palace, Shebna, the court secretary, and Joah, son of Asaph, the court historian, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn and reported to him the words of the royal spokesman.
jeffersonvann 