Then God met Balaam, who said to him, “I have prepared seven altars, and I have offered on each altar a bull and a ram.”

But your wives, children, and livestock (of which I know you have many) may remain in the cities I have given you.

Isaiah asked, “What have they seen in your palace?” Hezekiah replied, “They have seen everything in my palace. I showed them everything in my treasuries.”

because they have done evil in my sight and have angered me from the time their ancestors left Egypt right up to this very day!’”

They have prepared a net to trap me; I am discouraged. They have dug a pit for me. They will fall into it! (Selah)

Then you spoke through a vision to your faithful followers and said: “I have energized a warrior; I have raised up a young man from the people.

Certainly you have heard how the kings of Assyria have annihilated all lands. Do you really think you will be rescued?

Isaiah asked, “What have they seen in your palace?” Hezekiah replied, “They have seen everything in my palace. I showed them everything in my treasuries.”

The Lord answered, “This has happened because these people have rejected my laws which I gave them. They have not obeyed me or followed those laws.

You have not kept charge of my holy things, but you have assigned foreigners to keep charge of my sanctuary for you.

Then you should have deposited my money with the bankers, and on my return I would have received my money back with interest!

You have been rebelling against him from the very first day I knew you!

I am deprived of peace; I have forgotten what happiness is.

Now they understand that everything you have given me comes from you,

Have you not made a hedge around him and his household and all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his livestock have increased in the land.

But I have not pestered you to bring disaster. I have not desired the time of irreparable devastation. You know that. You are fully aware of every word that I have spoken.

For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than, having known it, to turn back from the holy commandment that had been delivered to them.

And so all of them who have not believed the truth but have delighted in evil will be condemned.

Instead they have followed the stubborn inclinations of their own hearts. They have paid allegiance to the gods called Baal, as their fathers taught them to do.

“No longer will your name be Jacob,” the man told him, “but Israel, because you have fought with God and with men and have prevailed.”