2 Kings 20, Hebrews 2, Hosea 13, Psalm 137, 138

2 Kings 20,

1 In those days Hezekiah became ill and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz went to him and said, "This is what the LORD says: Put your house in order, because you are going to die; you will not recover."
 
2 Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD,
 
3 "Remember, O LORD, how I have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes." And Hezekiah wept bitterly.
 
4 Before Isaiah had left the middle court, the word of the LORD came to him:
 
5 "Go back and tell Hezekiah, the leader of my people, 'This is what the LORD, the God of your father David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will heal you. On the third day from now you will go up to the temple of the LORD.
 
6 I will add fifteen years to your life. And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city for my sake and for the sake of my servant David.' "
 
7 Then Isaiah said, "Prepare a poultice of figs." They did so and applied it to the boil, and he recovered.
 
8 Hezekiah had asked Isaiah, "What will be the sign that the LORD will heal me and that I will go up to the temple of the LORD on the third day from now?"
 
9 Isaiah answered, "This is the LORD's sign to you that the LORD will do what he has promised: Shall the shadow go forward ten steps, or shall it go back ten steps?"
 
10 "It is a simple matter for the shadow to go forward ten steps," said Hezekiah. "Rather, have it go back ten steps."
 
11 Then the prophet Isaiah called upon the LORD, and the LORD made the shadow go back the ten steps it had gone down on the stairway of Ahaz.
 
12 At that time Merodach-Baladan son of Baladan king of Babylon sent Hezekiah letters and a gift, because he had heard of Hezekiah's illness.
 
13 Hezekiah received the messengers and showed them all that was in his storehouses-the silver, the gold, the spices and the fine oil-his armory and everything found among his treasures. There was nothing in his palace or in all his kingdom that Hezekiah did not show them.
 
14 Then Isaiah the prophet went to King Hezekiah and asked, "What did those men say, and where did they come from?" "From a distant land," Hezekiah replied. "They came from Babylon."
 
15 The prophet asked, "What did they see in your palace?" "They saw everything in my palace," Hezekiah said. "There is nothing among my treasures that I did not show them."
 
16 Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, "Hear the word of the LORD:
 
17 The time will surely come when everything in your palace, and all that your fathers have stored up until this day, will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left, says the LORD.
 
18 And some of your descendants, your own flesh and blood, that will be born to you, will be taken away, and they will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon."
 
19 "The word of the LORD you have spoken is good," Hezekiah replied. For he thought, "Will there not be peace and security in my lifetime?"
 
20 As for the other events of Hezekiah's reign, all his achievements and how he made the pool and the tunnel by which he brought water into the city, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah?
 
21 Hezekiah rested with his fathers. And Manasseh his son succeeded him as king.
 

Hebrews 2,

1 We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.
 
2 For if the message spoken by angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment,
 
3 how shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation? This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him.
 
4 God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.
 
5 It is not to angels that he has subjected the world to come, about which we are speaking.
 
6 But there is a place where someone has testified: "What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?
 
7 You made him a little lower than the angels; you crowned him with glory and honor
 
8 and put everything under his feet? In putting everything under him, God left nothing that is not subject to him. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to him.
 
9 But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
 
10 In bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering.
 
11 Both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers.
 
12 He says, "I will declare your name to my brothers; in the presence of the congregation I will sing your praises."
 
13 And again, "I will put my trust in him." And again he says, "Here am I, and the children God has given me."
 
14 Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death-that is, the devil-
 
15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.
 
16 For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham's descendants.
 
17 For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people.
 
18 Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.
 

Hosea 13,

1 When Ephraim spoke, men trembled; he was exalted in Israel. But he became guilty of Baal worship and died.
 
2 Now they sin more and more; they make idols for themselves from their silver, cleverly fashioned images, all of them the work of craftsmen. It is said of these people, "They offer human sacrifice and kiss the calf-idols."
 
3 Therefore they will be like the morning mist, like the early dew that disappears, like chaff swirling from a threshing floor, like smoke escaping through a window.
 
4 "But I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt. You shall acknowledge no God but me, no Savior except me.
 
5 I cared for you in the desert, in the land of burning heat.
 
6 When I fed them, they were satisfied; when they were satisfied, they became proud; then they forgot me.
 
7 So I will come upon them like a lion, like a leopard I will lurk by the path.
 
8 Like a bear robbed of her cubs, I will attack them and rip them open. Like a lion I will devour them; a wild animal will tear them apart.
 
9 "You are destroyed, O Israel, because you are against me, against your helper.
 
10 Where is your king, that he may save you? Where are your rulers in all your towns, of whom you said, 'Give me a king and princes'?
 
11 So in my anger I gave you a king, and in my wrath I took him away.
 
12 The guilt of Ephraim is stored up, his sins are kept on record.
 
13 Pains as of a woman in childbirth come to him, but he is a child without wisdom; when the time arrives, he does not come to the opening of the womb.
 
14 "I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death. Where, O death, are your plagues? Where, O grave, is your destruction? "I will have no compassion,
 
15 even though he thrives among his brothers. An east wind from the LORD will come, blowing in from the desert; his spring will fail and his well dry up. His storehouse will be plundered of all its treasures.
 
16 The people of Samaria must bear their guilt, because they have rebelled against their God. They will fall by the sword; their little ones will be dashed to the ground, their pregnant women ripped open."
 

Psalm 137, 138

1 By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion.
 
2 There on the poplars we hung our harps,
 
3 for there our captors asked us for songs, our tormentors demanded songs of joy; they said, "Sing us one of the songs of Zion!"
 
4 How can we sing the songs of the LORD while in a foreign land?
 
5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its skill.
 
6 May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not consider Jerusalem my highest joy.
 
7 Remember, O LORD, what the Edomites did on the day Jerusalem fell. "Tear it down," they cried, "tear it down to its foundations!"
 
8 O Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction, happy is he who repays you for what you have done to us-
 
9 he who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks.
 

    
1 I will praise you, O LORD, with all my heart; before the "gods" I will sing your praise.
 
2 I will bow down toward your holy temple and will praise your name for your love and your faithfulness, for you have exalted above all things your name and your word.
 
3 When I called, you answered me; you made me bold and stouthearted.
 
4 May all the kings of the earth praise you, O LORD, when they hear the words of your mouth.
 
5 May they sing of the ways of the LORD, for the glory of the LORD is great.
 
6 Though the LORD is on high, he looks upon the lowly, but the proud he knows from afar.
 
7 Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve my life; you stretch out your hand against the anger of my foes, with your right hand you save me.
 
8 The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me; your love, O LORD, endures forever-do not abandon the works of your hands.