2 Chronicles 32

• 1. After Hezekiah had faithfully carried out this work, King Sennacherib of Assyria invaded Judah. He laid siege to the fortified cities, giving orders for his army to break through their walls.
• 2. When Hezekiah realized that Sennacherib also intended to attack Jerusalem,
• 3. he consulted with his officials and military advisers, and they decided to stop the flow of the springs outside the city.
• 4. They organized a huge work crew to stop the flow of the springs, cutting off the brook that ran through the fields. For they said, "Why should the kings of Assyria come here and find plenty of water?"
• 5. Then Hezekiah further strengthened his defenses by repairing the wall wherever it was broken down and by adding to the fortifications and constructing a second wall outside the first. He also reinforced the Millo in the City of David and manufactured large numbers of weapons and shields.
• 6. He appointed military officers over the people and asked them to assemble before him in the square at the city gate. Then Hezekiah encouraged them with this address:
• 7. "Be strong and courageous! Don't be afraid of the king of Assyria or his mighty army, for there is a power far greater on our side!
• 8. He may have a great army, but they are just men. We have the LORD our God to help us and to fight our battles for us!" These words greatly encouraged the people.
• 9. Then King Sennacherib of Assyria, while still besieging the town of Lachish, sent officials to Jerusalem with this message for Hezekiah and all the people in the city:
• 10. "This is what King Sennacherib of Assyria says: What are you trusting in that makes you think you can survive my siege of Jerusalem?
• 11. Hezekiah has said, `The LORD our God will rescue us from the king of Assyria.' Surely Hezekiah is misleading you, sentencing you to death by famine and thirst!
• 12. Surely you must realize that Hezekiah is the very person who destroyed all the LORD's shrines and altars. He commanded Judah and Jerusalem to worship at only the one altar at the Temple and to make sacrifices on it alone.
• 13. "Surely you must realize what I and the other kings of Assyria before me have done to all the people of the earth! Were any of the gods of those nations able to rescue their people from my power?
• 14. Name just one time when any god, anywhere, was able to rescue his people from me! What makes you think your God can do any better?
• 15. Don't let Hezekiah fool you! Don't let him deceive you like this! I say it again--no god of any nation has ever yet been able to rescue his people from me or my ancestors. How much less will your God rescue you from my power!"
• 16. And Sennacherib's officials further mocked the LORD God and his servant Hezekiah, heaping insult upon insult.
• 17. The king also sent letters scorning the LORD, the God of Israel. He wrote, "Just as the gods of all the other nations failed to rescue their people from my power, so the God of Hezekiah will also fail."
• 18. The Assyrian officials who brought the letters shouted this in the Hebrew language to the people gathered on the walls of the city, trying to terrify them so it would be easier to capture the city.
• 19. These officials talked about the God of Jerusalem as though he were one of the pagan gods, made by human hands.
• 20. Then King Hezekiah and the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz cried out in prayer to God in heaven.
• 21. And the LORD sent an angel who destroyed the Assyrian army with all its commanders and officers. So Sennacherib returned home in disgrace to his own land. And when he entered the temple of his god, some of his own sons killed him there with a sword.
• 22. That is how the LORD rescued Hezekiah and the people of Jerusalem from King Sennacherib of Assyria and from all the others who threatened them. So there was peace at last throughout the land.
• 23. From then on King Hezekiah became highly respected among the surrounding nations, and many gifts for the LORD arrived at Jerusalem, with valuable presents for King Hezekiah, too.
• 24. About that time, Hezekiah became deathly ill. He prayed to the LORD, who healed him and gave him a miraculous sign.
• 25. But Hezekiah did not respond appropriately to the kindness shown him, and he became proud. So the LORD's anger came against him and against Judah and Jerusalem.
• 26. Then Hezekiah repented of his pride, and the people of Jerusalem humbled themselves. So the LORD's anger did not come against them during Hezekiah's lifetime.
• 27. Hezekiah was very wealthy and held in high esteem. He had to build special treasury buildings for his silver, gold, precious stones, and spices, and for his shields and other valuable items.
• 28. He also constructed many storehouses for his grain, new wine, and olive oil; and he made many stalls for his cattle and folds for his flocks of sheep and goats.
• 29. He built many towns and acquired vast flocks and herds, for God had given him great wealth.
• 30. He blocked up the upper spring of Gihon and brought the water down through a tunnel to the west side of the City of David. And so he succeeded in everything he did.
• 31. However, when ambassadors arrived from Babylon to ask about the remarkable events that had taken place in the land, God withdrew from Hezekiah in order to test him and to see what was really in his heart.
• 32. The rest of the events of Hezekiah's reign and his acts of devotion are recorded in The Vision of the Prophet Isaiah Son of Amoz, which is included in The Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel.
• 33. When Hezekiah died, he was buried in the upper area of the royal cemetery, and all Judah and Jerusalem honored him at his death. Then his son Manasseh became the next king.

Revelation 18

• 1. After all this I saw another angel come down from heaven with great authority, and the earth grew bright with his splendor.
• 2. He gave a mighty shout, "Babylon is fallen--that great city is fallen! She has become the hideout of demons and evil spirits, a nest for filthy buzzards, and a den for dreadful beasts.
• 3. For all the nations have drunk the wine of her passionate immorality. The rulers of the world have committed adultery with her, and merchants throughout the world have grown rich as a result of her luxurious living."
• 4. Then I heard another voice calling from heaven, "Come away from her, my people. Do not take part in her sins, or you will be punished with her.
• 5. For her sins are piled as high as heaven, and God is ready to judge her for her evil deeds.
• 6. Do to her as she has done to your people. Give her a double penalty for all her evil deeds. She brewed a cup of terror for others, so give her twice as much as she gave out.
• 7. She has lived in luxury and pleasure, so match it now with torments and sorrows. She boasts, 'I am queen on my throne. I am no helpless widow. I will not experience sorrow.'
• 8. Therefore, the sorrows of death and mourning and famine will overtake her in a single day. She will be utterly consumed by fire, for the Lord God who judges her is mighty."
• 9. And the rulers of the world who took part in her immoral acts and enjoyed her great luxury will mourn for her as they see the smoke rising from her charred remains.
• 10. They will stand at a distance, terrified by her great torment. They will cry out, "How terrible, how terrible for Babylon, that great city! In one single moment God's judgment came on her."
• 11. The merchants of the world will weep and mourn for her, for there is no one left to buy their goods.
• 12. She bought great quantities of gold, silver, jewels, pearls, fine linen, purple dye, silk, scarlet cloth, every kind of perfumed wood, ivory goods, objects made of expensive wood, bronze, iron, and marble.
• 13. She also bought cinnamon, spice, incense, myrrh, frankincense, wine, olive oil, fine flour, wheat, cattle, sheep, horses, chariots, and slaves--yes, she even traded in human lives.
• 14. "All the fancy things you loved so much are gone," they cry. "The luxuries and splendor that you prized so much will never be yours again. They are gone forever."
• 15. The merchants who became wealthy by selling her these things will stand at a distance, terrified by her great torment. They will weep and cry.
• 16. "How terrible, how terrible for that great city! She was so beautiful--like a woman clothed in finest purple and scarlet linens, decked out with gold and precious stones and pearls!
• 17. And in one single moment all the wealth of the city is gone!" And all the shipowners and captains of the merchant ships and their crews will stand at a distance.
• 18. They will weep as they watch the smoke ascend, and they will say, "Where in all the world is there another city like this?"
• 19. And they will throw dust on their heads to show their great sorrow. And they will say, "How terrible, how terrible for the great city! She made us all rich from her great wealth. And now in a single hour it is all gone."
• 20. But you, O heaven, rejoice over her fate. And you also rejoice, O holy people of God and apostles and prophets! For at last God has judged her on your behalf.
• 21. Then a mighty angel picked up a boulder as large as a great millstone. He threw it into the ocean and shouted, "Babylon, the great city, will be thrown down as violently as I have thrown away this stone, and she will disappear forever.
• 22. Never again will the sound of music be heard there--no more harps, songs, flutes, or trumpets. There will be no industry of any kind, and no more milling of grain.
• 23. Her nights will be dark, without a single lamp. There will be no happy voices of brides and grooms. This will happen because her merchants, who were the greatest in the world, deceived the nations with her sorceries.
• 24. In her streets the blood of the prophets was spilled. She was the one who slaughtered God's people all over the world."

Zechariah 14

• 1. Watch, for the day of the LORD is coming when your possessions will be plundered right in front of you!
• 2. On that day I will gather all the nations to fight against Jerusalem. The city will be taken, the houses plundered, and the women raped. Half the population will be taken away into captivity, and half will be left among the ruins of the city.
• 3. Then the LORD will go out to fight against those nations, as he has fought in times past.
• 4. On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which faces Jerusalem on the east. And the Mount of Olives will split apart, making a wide valley running from east to west, for half the mountain will move toward the north and half toward the south.
• 5. You will flee through this valley, for it will reach across to Azal. Yes, you will flee as you did from the earthquake in the days of King Uzziah of Judah. Then the LORD my God will come, and all his holy ones with him.
• 6. On that day the sources of light will no longer shine,
• 7. yet there will be continuous day! Only the LORD knows how this could happen! There will be no normal day and night, for at evening time it will still be light.
• 8. On that day life-giving waters will flow out from Jerusalem, half toward the Dead Sea and half toward the Mediterranean, flowing continuously both in summer and in winter.
• 9. And the LORD will be king over all the earth. On that day there will be one LORD--his name alone will be worshiped.
• 10. All the land from Geba, north of Judah, to Rimmon, south of Jerusalem, will become one vast plain. But Jerusalem will be raised up in its original place and will be inhabited all the way from the Benjamin Gate over to the site of the old gate, then to the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to the king's winepresses.
• 11. And Jerusalem will be filled, safe at last, never again to be cursed and destroyed.
• 12. And the LORD will send a plague on all the nations that fought against Jerusalem. Their people will become like walking corpses, their flesh rotting away. Their eyes will shrivel in their sockets, and their tongues will decay in their mouths.
• 13. On that day they will be terrified, stricken by the LORD with great panic. They will fight against each other in hand-to-hand combat;
• 14. Judah, too, will be fighting at Jerusalem. The wealth of all the neighboring nations will be captured--great quantities of gold and silver and fine clothing.
• 15. This same plague will strike the horses, mules, camels, donkeys, and all the other animals in the enemy camps.
• 16. In the end, the enemies of Jerusalem who survive the plague will go up to Jerusalem each year to worship the King, the LORD Almighty, and to celebrate the Festival of Shelters.
• 17. And any nation anywhere in the world that refuses to come to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD Almighty, will have no rain.
• 18. And if the people of Egypt refuse to attend the festival, the LORD will punish them with the same plague that he sends on the other nations who refuse to go.
• 19. Egypt and the other nations will all be punished if they don't go to celebrate the festival.
• 20. On that day even the harness bells of the horses will be inscribed with these words: SET APART AS HOLY TO THE LORD. And the cooking pots in the Temple of the LORD will be as sacred as the basins used beside the altar.
• 21. In fact, every cooking pot in Jerusalem and Judah will be set apart as holy to the LORD Almighty. All who come to worship will be free to use any of these pots to boil their sacrifices. And on that day there will no longer be traders in the Temple of the LORD Almighty.

New Living Translation: 361 of 365 days.