Formation Journal Reading Plan

18:1 Now it happened in the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, that Hezekiah the son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign.

18:2 He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign; and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem: and his mother’s name was Abi the daughter of Zechariah.

18:3 He did that which was right in the eyes of Yahweh, according to all that David his father had done.

18:4 He removed the high places, and broke the pillars, and cut down the Asherah: and he broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made; for in those days the children of Israel burned incense to it; and he called it Nehushtan.

18:5 He trusted in Yahweh, the God of Israel; so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor among them that were before him.

18:6 For he joined with Yahweh; he didn’t depart from following him, but kept his commandments, which Yahweh commanded Moses.

18:7 Yahweh was with him; wherever he went forth he prospered: and he rebelled against the king of Assyria, and didn’t serve him.

18:8 He struck the Philistines to Gaza and its borders, from the tower of the watchmen to the fortified city.

18:9 It happened in the fourth year of king Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, that Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against Samaria, and besieged it.

18:10 At the end of three years they took it: in the sixth year of Hezekiah, which was the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel, Samaria was taken.

18:11 The king of Assyria carried Israel away to Assyria, and put them in Halah, and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes,

18:12 because they didn’t obey the voice of Yahweh their God, but transgressed his covenant, even all that Moses the servant of Yahweh commanded, and would not hear it, nor do it.

18:13 Now in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah, and took them.

18:14 Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria to Lachish, saying, “I have offended; return from me. That which you put on me, I will bear.” The king of Assyria appointed to Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.

18:15 Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the house of Yahweh, and in the treasures of the king’s house.

18:16 At that time, Hezekiah cut off the gold from the doors of the temple of Yahweh, and from the pillars which Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid, and gave it to the king of Assyria.

18:17 The king of Assyria sent Tartan and Rabsaris and Rabshakeh from Lachish to king Hezekiah with a great army to Jerusalem. They went up and came to Jerusalem. When they had come up, they came and stood by the conduit of the upper pool, which is in the highway of the fuller’s field.

18:18 When they had called to the king, there came out to them Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebnah the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder.

18:19 Rabshakeh said to them, “Say now to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria, “What confidence is this in which you trust?

18:20 You say (but they are but vain words), ‘There is counsel and strength for war.’ Now on whom do you trust, that you have rebelled against me?

18:21 Now, behold, you trust in the staff of this bruised reed, even in Egypt. If a man leans on it, it will go into his hand, and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust on him.

18:22 But if you tell me, ‘We trust in Yahweh our God;’ isn’t that he whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away, and has said to Judah and to Jerusalem, ‘You shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem?’

18:23 Now therefore, please give pledges to my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to set riders on them.

18:24 How then can you turn away the face of one captain of the least of my master’s servants, and put your trust on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen?

18:25 Have I now come up without Yahweh against this place to destroy it? Yahweh said to me, ‘Go up against this land, and destroy it.’”’”

18:26 Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, and Shebnah, and Joah, said to Rabshakeh, “Please speak to your servants in the Syrian language; for we understand it. Don’t speak with us in the Jews’ language, in the hearing of the people who are on the wall.”

18:27 But Rabshakeh said to them, “Has my master sent me to your master, and to you, to speak these words? Hasn’t he sent me to the men who sit on the wall, to eat their own dung, and to drink their own water with you?”

18:28 Then Rabshakeh stood, and cried with a loud voice in the Jews’ language, and spoke, saying, “Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria.

18:29 Thus says the king, ‘Don’t let Hezekiah deceive you; for he will not be able to deliver you out of his hand.

18:30 Neither let Hezekiah make you trust in Yahweh, saying, “Yahweh will surely deliver us, and this city shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.”

18:31 Don’t listen to Hezekiah.’ For thus says the king of Assyria, ‘Make your peace with me, and come out to me; and everyone of you eat of his vine, and everyone of his fig tree, and everyone drink the waters of his own cistern;

18:32 until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees and of honey, that you may live, and not die. Don’t listen to Hezekiah, when he persuades you, saying, “Yahweh will deliver us.”

18:33 Has any of the gods of the nations ever delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria?

18:34 Where are the gods of Hamath, and of Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivvah? Have they delivered Samaria out of my hand?

18:35 Who are they among all the gods of the countries, that have delivered their country out of my hand, that Yahweh should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?’”

18:36 But the people held their peace, and answered him not a word; for the king’s commandment was, “Don’t answer him.”

18:37 Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, came with Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder, to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and told him the words of Rabshakeh.

24:17 Don’t rejoice when your enemy falls. Don’t let your heart be glad when he is overthrown;

24:18 lest Yahweh see it, and it displease him, and he turn away his wrath from him.

24:19 Don’t fret yourself because of evildoers; neither be envious of the wicked:

24:20 for there will be no reward to the evil man; and the lamp of the wicked shall be snuffed out.

24:21 My son, fear Yahweh and the king. Don’t join those who are rebellious:

24:22 for their calamity will rise suddenly; the destruction from them both—who knows?

24:23 These also are sayings of the wise. To show partiality in judgment is not good.

24:24 He who says to the wicked, “You are righteous;” peoples shall curse him, and nations shall abhor him—

24:25 but it will go well with those who convict the guilty, and a rich blessing will come on them.

24:26 An honest answer is like a kiss on the lips.

24:27 Prepare your work outside, and get your fields ready. Afterwards, build your house.

24:28 Don’t be a witness against your neighbor without cause. Don’t deceive with your lips.

24:29 Don’t say, “I will do to him as he has done to me; I will render to the man according to his work.”

24:30 I went by the field of the sluggard, by the vineyard of the man void of understanding;

24:31 Behold, it was all grown over with thorns. Its surface was covered with nettles, and its stone wall was broken down.

24:32 Then I saw, and considered well. I saw, and received instruction:

24:33 a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep;

24:34 so your poverty will come as a robber, and your want as an armed man.

3:11 As the lame man who was healed held on to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them in the porch that is called Solomon’s, greatly wondering.

3:12 When Peter saw it, he responded to the people, “You men of Israel, why do you marvel at this man? Why do you fasten your eyes on us, as though by our own power or godliness we had made him walk?

3:13 The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his Servant Jesus, whom you delivered up, and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had determined to release him.

3:14 But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you,

3:15 and killed the Prince of life, whom God raised from the dead, to which we are witnesses.

3:16 By faith in his name, his name has made this man strong, whom you see and know. Yes, the faith which is through him has given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all.

3:17 “Now, brothers, I know that you did this in ignorance, as did also your rulers.

3:18 But the things which God announced by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he thus fulfilled.

3:19 “Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, so that there may come times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord,

3:20 and that he may send Christ Jesus, who was ordained for you before,

3:21 whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God spoke long ago by the mouth of his holy prophets.

3:22 For Moses indeed said to the fathers, ‘The Lord God will raise up a prophet for you from among your brothers, like me. You shall listen to him in all things whatever he says to you.

3:23 It will be, that every soul that will not listen to that prophet will be utterly destroyed from among the people.’

3:24 Yes, and all the prophets from Samuel and those who followed after, as many as have spoken, they also told of these days.

3:25 You are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘In your seed will all the families of the earth be blessed.’

3:26 God, having raised up his servant, Jesus, sent him to you first, to bless you, in turning away everyone of you from your wickedness.”