&#8220;Tell King Hezekiah of Judah this: &#8216;Don&#8217;t let your God in whom you trust mislead you when he says, &#8220;Jerusalem will not be handed over<n id="1" /> to the king of Assyria.&#8221;

<p class="bodytext">Isaiah son of Amoz sent this message to Hezekiah: &#8220;This is what the <sc>Lordsc> God of Israel says: &#8216;I have heard your prayer concerning King Sennacherib of Assyria.<n id="1" />

<p class="poetry">Their residents are powerless,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">they are terrified and ashamed.p> <p class="poetry">They are as short-lived as plants in the field,p> <p class="poetry">or green vegetation.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">They are as short-lived as grass on the rooftops<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">when it is scorched by the east wind.<n id="4" />p>

Pharaoh Necho made Josiah&#8217;s son Eliakim king in Josiah&#8217;s place, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. He took Jehoahaz to Egypt, where he died.<n id="1" />

He deported all the residents of Jerusalem, including all the officials and all the soldiers (10,000 people in all). This included all the craftsmen and those who worked with metal. No one was left except for the poorest among the people of the land.

<p class="bodytext">But the <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s angelic messenger told Elijah the Tishbite, &#8220;Get up, go to meet the messengers from the king of Samaria. Say this to them: &#8216;You must think there is no God in Israel! That explains why you are on your way to seek an oracle from Baal Zebub the god of Ekron.<n id="1" />

<p class="bodytext">Elijah<n id="1" /> said to the king,<n id="2" /> &#8220;This is what the <sc>Lordsc> says, &#8216;You sent messengers to seek an oracle from Baal Zebub, the god of Ekron. You must think there is no God in Israel from whom you can seek an oracle!<n id="3" /> Therefore you will not leave the bed you lie on, for you will certainly die.&#8217;&#8221;<n id="4" />p>

Elisha<n id="1" /> told Gehazi, &#8220;Tuck your robes into your belt, take my staff,<n id="2" /> and go! Don&#8217;t stop to exchange greetings with anyone!<n id="3" /> Place my staff on the child&#8217;s face.&#8221;

Naaman went away angry. He said, &#8220;Look, I thought for sure he would come out, stand there, invoke the name of the <sc>Lordsc> his God, wave his hand over the area, and cure the skin disease.

His servants approached and said to him, &#8220;O master,<n id="1" /> if the prophet had told you to do some difficult task,<n id="2" /> you would have been willing to do it.<n id="3" /> It seems you should be happy that he simply said, &#8220;Wash and you will be healed.&#8221;<n id="4" />

One of his advisers replied, &#8220;Pick some men and have them take five of the horses that are left in the city. (Even if they are killed, their fate will be no different than that of all the Israelite people &#8211; we&#8217;re all going to die!)<n id="1" /> Let&#8217;s send them out so we can know for sure what&#8217;s going on.&#8221;<n id="2" />

<p class="bodytext">When King Ahaziah of Judah saw what happened, he took off<n id="1" /> up the road to Beth Haggan. Jehu chased him and ordered, &#8220;Shoot him too.&#8221; They shot him while he was driving his chariot up the ascent of Gur near Ibleam.<n id="2" /> He fled to Megiddo<n id="3" /> and died there.

Jehoiada the priest ordered the officers of the units of hundreds, who were in charge of the army,<n id="1" /> &#8220;Bring her outside the temple to the guards.<n id="2" /> Put the sword to anyone who follows her.&#8221; The priest gave this order because he had decided she should not be executed in the <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s temple.<n id="3" />

The king of Assyria was told,<n id="1" /> &#8220;The nations whom you deported and settled in the cities of Samaria do not know the requirements of the God of the land, so he has sent lions among them. They are killing the people<n id="2" /> because they do not know the requirements of the God of the land.&#8221;

King Hezekiah of Judah sent this message to the king of Assyria, who was at Lachish, &#8220;I have violated our treaty.<n id="1" /> If you leave, I will do whatever you demand.&#8221;<n id="2" /> So the king of Assyria demanded that King Hezekiah of Judah pay three hundred talents<n id="3" /> of silver and thirty talents of gold.

Perhaps the <sc>Lordsc> your God will hear all these things the chief adviser has spoken on behalf of his master, the king of Assyria, who sent him to taunt the living God.<n id="1" /> When the <sc>Lordsc> your God hears, perhaps he will punish him for the things he has said.<n id="2" /> So pray for this remnant that remains.&#8217;&#8221;<n id="3" />p>

Jehoiakim paid Pharaoh the required amount of silver and gold, but to meet Pharaoh&#8217;s demands Jehoiakim had to tax the land. He collected an assessed amount from each man among the people of the land in order to pay Pharaoh Necho.<n id="1" />p>

<p class="bodytext">He brought all the priests from the cities of Judah and ruined<n id="1" /> the high places where the priests had offered sacrifices, from Geba to Beer Sheba.<n id="2" /> He tore down the high place of the goat idols<n id="3" /> situated at the entrance of the gate of Joshua, the city official, on the left side of the city gate.