<p class="bodytext">The chief adviser said to them, &#8220;Tell Hezekiah: &#8216;This is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says: &#8220;What is your source of confidence?<n id="1" />

Isaiah the prophet visited King Hezekiah and asked him, &#8220;What did these men say? Where do they come from?&#8221; Hezekiah replied, &#8220;They come from the distant land of Babylon.&#8221;

When the chariot commanders saw Jehoshaphat, they said, &#8220;He must be the king of Israel!&#8221; So they turned and attacked him, but Jehoshaphat cried out. The <sc>Lordsc> helped him; God lured them away from him.

He looked for Ahaziah, who was captured while hiding in Samaria.<n id="1" /> They brought him to Jehu and then executed him. They did give him a burial, for they reasoned,<n id="2" /> &#8220;He is the son of Jehoshaphat, who sought the <sc>Lordsc> with his whole heart.&#8221; There was no one in Ahaziah&#8217;s family strong enough to rule in his place.<n id="3" />p>

Uzziah passed away<n id="1" /> and was buried near his ancestors<n id="2" /> in a cemetery<n id="3" /> belonging to the kings. (This was because he had a skin disease.)<n id="4" /> His son Jotham replaced him as king.p>

<p class="bodytext">The chief adviser said to them, &#8220;Tell Hezekiah: &#8216;This is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says: &#8220;What is your source of confidence?<n id="1" />

Isaiah the prophet visited King Hezekiah and asked him, &#8220;What did these men say? Where do they come from?&#8221; Hezekiah replied, &#8220;They come from the distant land of Babylon.&#8221;

<p class="poetry">They did not ask:p> <p class="poetry">&#8216;Where is the <sc>Lordsc> who delivered us out of Egypt,p> <p class="poetry">who brought us through the wilderness,p> <p class="poetry">through a land of desert sands and rift valleys,p> <p class="poetry">through a land of drought and deep darkness,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">through a land in which no one travels,p> <p class="poetry">and where no one lives?&#8217;<n id="2" />p>

<p class="poetry">Your priests<n id="1" /> did not ask, &#8216;Where is the <sc>Lordsc>?&#8217;<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">Those responsible for teaching my law<n id="3" /> did not really know me.<n id="4" />p> <p class="poetry">Your rulers rebelled against me.p> <p class="poetry">Your prophets prophesied in the name of the god Baal.<n id="5" />p> <p class="poetry">They all worshiped idols that could not help them.<n id="6" />p>

<p class="poetry">You people of this generation,p> <p class="poetry">listen to what the <sc>Lordsc> says.p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;Have I been like a wilderness to you, Israel?p> <p class="poetry">Have I been like a dark and dangerous land to you?<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">Why then do you<n id="2" /> say, &#8216;We are free to wander.<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">We will not come to you any more?&#8217;p>

<p class="poetry">How long must the land be parched<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">and the grass in every field be withered?p> <p class="poetry">How long<n id="2" /> must the animals and the birds diep> <p class="poetry">because of the wickedness of the people who live in this land?<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">For these people boast,p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;God<n id="4" /> will not see what happens to us.&#8221;<n id="5" />p>

They answered Jeremiah, &#8220;May the <sc>Lordsc> be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not do just as<n id="1" /> the <sc>Lordsc> sends you to tell us to do.

<p class="poetry">&#8220;Announce<n id="1" /> the news among the nations! Proclaim it!p> <p class="poetry">Signal for people to pay attention!<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">Declare the news! Do not hide it! Say:p> <p class="poetry">&#8216;Babylon will be captured.p> <p class="poetry">Bel<n id="3" /> will be put to shame.p> <p class="poetry">Marduk will be dismayed.p> <p class="poetry">Babylon&#8217;s idols will be put to shame.p> <p class="poetry">Her disgusting images<n id="4" /> will be dismayed.<n id="5" />p>

<p class="bodytext">He said to me, &#8220;The sin of the house of Israel and Judah is extremely great; the land is full of murder, and the city is full of corruption,<n id="1" /> for they say, &#8216;The <sc>Lordsc> has abandoned the land, and the <sc>Lordsc> does not see!&#8217;<n id="2" />

&#8220;Son of man, your brothers,<n id="1" /> your relatives,<n id="2" /> and the whole house of Israel, all of them are those to whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem<n id="3" /> have said, &#8216;They have gone<n id="4" /> far away from the <sc>Lordsc>; to us this land has been given as a possession.&#8217;p>

If you don&#8217;t inform me of the dream, there is only one thing that is going to happen to you.<n id="1" /> For you have agreed among yourselves to report to me something false and deceitful<n id="2" /> until such time as things might change. So tell me the dream, and I will have confidence<n id="3" /> that you can disclose its interpretation.&#8221;p>

<p class="bodytext">On the seventh day the child died. But the servants of David were afraid to inform him that the child had died, for they said, &#8220;While the child was still alive he would not listen to us<n id="1" /> when we spoke to him. How can we tell him that the child is dead? He will do himself harm!&#8221;<n id="2" />p>

The prophet<n id="1" /> visited the king of Israel and said, &#8220;This is what the <sc>Lordsc> says: &#8216;Because the Syrians said, &#8220;The <sc>Lordsc> is a god of the mountains and not a god of the valleys,&#8221; I will hand over to you this entire huge army.<n id="2" /> Then you will know that I am the <sc>Lordsc>.&#8217;&#8221;p>