September 14

Luke 23:1-12

[1] Then the whole company of them arose and brought him before Pilate. [2] And they began to accuse him, saying, “We found this man misleading our nation and forbidding us to give tribute to Caesar, and saying that he himself is Christ, a king.” [3] And Pilate asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” And he answered him, “You have said so.” [4] Then Pilate said to the chief priests and the crowds, “I find no guilt in this man.” [5] But they were urgent, saying, “He stirs up the people, teaching throughout all Judea, from Galilee even to this place.”

[6] When Pilate heard this, he asked whether the man was a Galilean. [7] And when he learned that he belonged to Herod’s jurisdiction, he sent him over to Herod, who was himself in Jerusalem at that time. [8] When Herod saw Jesus, he was very glad, for he had long desired to see him, because he had heard about him, and he was hoping to see some sign done by him. [9] So he questioned him at some length, but he made no answer. [10] The chief priests and the scribes stood by, vehemently accusing him. [11] And Herod with his soldiers treated him with contempt and mocked him. Then, arraying him in splendid clothing, he sent him back to Pilate. [12] And Herod and Pilate became friends with each other that very day, for before this they had been at enmity with each other.

Hebrews 8:7-13

[7] For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second.

[8] For he finds fault with them when he says: 

    “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord,

        when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel

        and with the house of Judah, 

    [9] not like the covenant that I made with their fathers

        on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt.

    For they did not continue in my covenant,

        and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord. 

    [10] For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel

        after those days, declares the Lord:

    I will put my laws into their minds,

        and write them on their hearts,

    and I will be their God,

        and they shall be my people. 

    [11] And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor

        and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’

    for they shall all know me,

        from the least of them to the greatest. 

    [12] For I will be merciful toward their iniquities,

        and I will remember their sins no more.”

    [13] In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.

Proverbs 25:1-14

[1] These also are proverbs of Solomon which the men of Hezekiah king of Judah copied.

    [2] It is the glory of God to conceal things,

        but the glory of kings is to search things out. 

    [3] As the heavens for height, and the earth for depth,

        so the heart of kings is unsearchable. 

    [4] Take away the dross from the silver,

        and the smith has material for a vessel; 

    [5] take away the wicked from the presence of the king,

        and his throne will be established in righteousness. 

    [6] Do not put yourself forward in the king’s presence

        or stand in the place of the great, 

    [7] for it is better to be told, “Come up here,”

        than to be put lower in the presence of a noble.

    What your eyes have seen 

    [8]     do not hastily bring into court,

    for what will you do in the end,

        when your neighbor puts you to shame? 

    [9] Argue your case with your neighbor himself,

        and do not reveal another’s secret, 

    [10] lest he who hears you bring shame upon you,

        and your ill repute have no end.

    [11] A word fitly spoken

        is like apples of gold in a setting of silver. 

    [12] Like a gold ring or an ornament of gold

        is a wise reprover to a listening ear. 

    [13] Like the cold of snow in the time of harvest

        is a faithful messenger to those who send him;

        he refreshes the soul of his masters. 

    [14] Like clouds and wind without rain

        is a man who boasts of a gift he does not give.

Isaiah 37

[1] As soon as King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes and covered himself with sackcloth and went into the house of the LORD. [2] And he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the secretary, and the senior priests, covered with sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz. [3] They said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah, ‘This day is a day of distress, of rebuke, and of disgrace; children have come to the point of birth, and there is no strength to bring them forth. [4] It may be that the LORD your God will hear the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to mock the living God, and will rebuke the words that the LORD your God has heard; therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.’”

[5] When the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah, [6] Isaiah said to them, “Say to your master, ‘Thus says the LORD: Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the young men of the king of Assyria have reviled me. [7] Behold, I will put a spirit in him, so that he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land, and I will make him fall by the sword in his own land.’”

[8] The Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah, for he had heard that the king had left Lachish. [9] Now the king heard concerning Tirhakah king of Cush, “He has set out to fight against you.” And when he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, [10] “Thus shall you speak to Hezekiah king of Judah: ‘Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you by promising that Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. [11] Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, devoting them to destruction. And shall you be delivered? [12] Have the gods of the nations delivered them, the nations that my fathers destroyed, Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden who were in Telassar? [13] Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, the king of Hena, or the king of Ivvah?’”

[14] Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it; and Hezekiah went up to the house of the LORD, and spread it before the LORD. [15] And Hezekiah prayed to the LORD: [16] “O LORD of hosts, God of Israel, enthroned above the cherubim, you are the God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made heaven and earth. [17] Incline your ear, O LORD, and hear; open your eyes, O LORD, and see; and hear all the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to mock the living God. [18] Truly, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations and their lands, [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 were destroyed. [20] So now, O LORD our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone are the LORD.”

[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 concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria, [22] this is the word that the LORD has spoken concerning him: 

    “‘She despises you, she scorns you—

        the virgin daughter of Zion;

    she wags her head behind you—

        the daughter of Jerusalem.

    [23] “‘Whom have you mocked and reviled?

        Against whom have you raised your voice

    and lifted your eyes to the heights?

        Against the Holy One of Israel! 

    [24] By your servants you have mocked the Lord,

        and you have said, With my many chariots

    I have gone up the heights of the mountains,

        to the far recesses of Lebanon,

    to cut down its tallest cedars,

        its choicest cypresses,

    to come to its remotest height,

        its most fruitful forest. 

    [25] I dug wells

        and drank waters,

    to dry up with the sole of my foot

        all the streams of Egypt.

    [26] “‘Have you not heard

        that I determined it long ago?

    I planned from days of old

        what now I bring to pass,

    that you should make fortified cities

        crash into heaps of ruins, 

    [27] while their inhabitants, shorn of strength,

        are dismayed and confounded,

    and have become like plants of the field

        and like tender grass,

    like grass on the housetops,

        blighted before it is grown.

    [28] “‘I know your sitting down

        and your going out and coming in,

        and your raging against me. 

    [29] Because you have raged against me

        and your complacency has come to my ears,

    I will put my hook in your nose

        and my bit in your mouth,

    and I will turn you back on the way

        by which you came.’

    [30] “And this shall be the sign for you: this year you shall eat what grows of itself, and in the second year what springs from that. Then in the third year sow and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat their fruit. [31] And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward. [32] For out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant, and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.

[33] “Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the king of Assyria: He shall not come into this city or shoot an arrow there or come before it with a shield or cast up a siege mound against it. [34] By the way that he came, by the same he shall return, and he shall not come into this city, declares the LORD. [35] For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David.”

[36] And the angel of the LORD went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And when people arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies. [37] Then Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and returned home and lived at Nineveh. [38] And as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer, his sons, struck him down with the sword. And after they escaped into the land of Ararat, Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place.

Isaiah 38

[1] In those days Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of death. And 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 shall die, you shall not recover.” [2] Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD, [3] and said, “Please, O LORD, remember how I have walked before you in faithfulness and with a whole heart, and have done what is good in your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

[4] Then the word of the LORD came to Isaiah: [5] “Go and say to 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. [6] I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and will defend this city.

[7] “This shall be the sign to you from the LORD, that the LORD will do this thing that he has promised: [8] Behold, I will make the shadow cast by the declining sun on the dial of Ahaz turn back ten steps.” So the sun turned back on the dial the ten steps by which it had declined.

[9] A writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, after he had been sick and had recovered from his sickness:

    [10] I said, In the middle of my days

        I must depart;

    I am consigned to the gates of Sheol

        for the rest of my years. 

    [11] I said, I shall not see the LORD,

        the LORD in the land of the living;

    I shall look on man no more

        among the inhabitants of the world. 

    [12] My dwelling is plucked up and removed from me

        like a shepherd’s tent;

    like a weaver I have rolled up my life;

        he cuts me off from the loom;

    from day to night you bring me to an end; 

    [13]     I calmed myself until morning;

    like a lion he breaks all my bones;

        from day to night you bring me to an end.

    [14] Like a swallow or a crane I chirp;

        I moan like a dove.

    My eyes are weary with looking upward.

        O Lord, I am oppressed; be my pledge of safety! 

    [15] What shall I say? For he has spoken to me,

        and he himself has done it.

    I walk slowly all my years

        because of the bitterness of my soul.

    [16] O Lord, by these things men live,

        and in all these is the life of my spirit.

        Oh restore me to health and make me live! 

    [17] Behold, it was for my welfare

        that I had great bitterness;

    but in love you have delivered my life

        from the pit of destruction,

    for you have cast all my sins

        behind your back. 

    [18] For Sheol does not thank you;

        death does not praise you;

    those who go down to the pit do not hope

        for your faithfulness. 

    [19] The living, the living, he thanks you,

        as I do this day;

    the father makes known to the children

        your faithfulness.

    [20] The LORD will save me,

        and we will play my music on stringed instruments

    all the days of our lives,

        at the house of the LORD.

    [21] Now Isaiah had said, “Let them take a cake of figs and apply it to the boil, that he may recover.” [22] Hezekiah also had said, “What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the LORD?”

Isaiah 39

[1] At that time Merodach-baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent envoys with letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he heard that he had been sick and had recovered. [2] And Hezekiah welcomed them gladly. And he showed them his treasure house, the silver, the gold, the spices, the precious oil, his whole armory, all that was found in his storehouses. There was nothing in his house or in all his realm that Hezekiah did not show them. [3] Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah, and said to him, “What did these men say? And from where did they come to you?” Hezekiah said, “They have come to me from a far country, from Babylon.” [4] He said, “What have they seen in your house?” Hezekiah answered, “They have seen all that is in my house. There is nothing in my storehouses that I did not show them.”

[5] Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the LORD of hosts: [6] Behold, the days are coming, when all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up till this day, shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, says the LORD. [7] And some of your own sons, who will come from you, whom you will father, shall be taken away, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.” [8] Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of the LORD that you have spoken is good.” For he thought, “There will be peace and security in my days.”