One Year Bible.

Jacob’s Journey to Egypt

¹So Israel set out with all that he had, and when he came to Beersheba, he offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac. ²And that night God spoke to Israel in a vision: “Jacob, Jacob!” He said.

“Here I am,” replied Jacob.

³“I am God,” He said, “the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there. ⁴I will go down with you to Egypt, and I will surely bring you back. And Joseph’s own hands will close your eyes.”

⁵Then Jacob departed from Beersheba, and the sons of Israel took their father Jacob in the wagons Pharaoh had sent to carry him, along with their children and wives. ⁶They also took the livestock and possessions they had acquired in the land of Canaan, and Jacob and all his offspring went to Egypt.

Those Who Went to Egypt

⁷Jacob took with him to Egypt his sons and grandsons, and his daughters and granddaughters — all his offspring.

The Children of Leah

⁸Now these are the names of the sons of Israel (Jacob and his descendants) who went to Egypt: Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn.

⁹The sons of Reuben: Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi.

¹⁰The sons of Simeon: Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jachin, Zohar, and Shaul the son of a Canaanite woman.

¹¹The sons of Levi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.

¹²The sons of Judah: Er, Onan, Shelah, Perez, and Zerah; but Er and Onan died in the land of Canaan.

The sons of Perez: Hezron and Hamul.

¹³The sons of Issachar: Tola, Puvah, Job, and Shimron.

¹⁴The sons of Zebulun: Sered, Elon, and Jahleel.

¹⁵These are the sons of Leah born to Jacob in Paddan-aram, in addition to his daughter Dinah. The total number of sons and daughters was thirty-three.

The Children of Zilpah

¹⁶The sons of Gad: Ziphion, Haggi, Shuni, Ezbon, Eri, Arodi, and Areli.

¹⁷The children of Asher: Imnah, Ishvah, Ishvi, Beriah, and their sister Serah.

The sons of Beriah: Heber and Malchiel.

¹⁸These are the sons of Jacob born to Zilpah — whom Laban gave to his daughter Leah — sixteen in all.

The Children of Rachel

¹⁹The sons of Jacob’s wife Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin.

²⁰Manasseh and Ephraim were born to Joseph in the land of Egypt by Asenath daughter of Potiphera, priest of On.

²¹The sons of Benjamin: Bela, Becher, Ashbel, Gera, Naaman, Ehi, Rosh, Muppim, Huppim, and Ard.

²²These are the sons of Rachel born to Jacob — fourteen in all.

The Children of Bilhah

²³The son of Dan: Hushim.

²⁴The sons of Naphtali: Jahzeel, Guni, Jezer, and Shillem.

²⁵These are the sons of Jacob born to Bilhah, whom Laban gave to his daughter Rachel — seven in all.

²⁶All those belonging to Jacob who came to Egypt— his direct descendants, besides the wives of Jacob’s sons— numbered sixty-six persons. ²⁷And with the two sons who had been born to Joseph in Egypt, the members of Jacob’s family who went to Egypt were seventy in all.

Jacob Arrives in Egypt

²⁸Now Jacob had sent Judah ahead of him to Joseph to get directions to Goshen. When Jacob’s family arrived in the land of Goshen, ²⁹Joseph prepared his chariot and went there to meet his father Israel. Joseph presented himself to him, embraced him, and wept profusely.

³⁰Then Israel said to Joseph, “Finally I can die, now that I have seen your face and know that you are still alive!”

³¹Joseph said to his brothers and to his father’s household, “I will go up and inform Pharaoh: ‘My brothers and my father’s household from the land of Canaan have come to me. ³²The men are shepherds; they raise livestock, and they have brought their flocks and herds and all that they own.’

³³When Pharaoh summons you and asks, ‘What is your occupation?’ ³⁴you are to say, ‘Your servants have raised livestock ever since our youth — both we and our fathers.’ Then you will be allowed to settle in the land of Goshen, since all shepherds are detestable to the Egyptians.”

The Parable of the Persistent Widow

¹Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray at all times and not lose heart: ²“In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected men. ³And there was a widow in that town who kept appealing to him, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’

⁴For a while he refused, but later he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect men, ⁵yet because this widow keeps pestering me, I will give her justice. Otherwise, she will wear me out with her perpetual requests.’”

⁶And the Lord said, “Listen to the words of the unjust judge. ⁷Will not God bring about justice for His elect who cry out to Him day and night? Will He delay in helping them? ⁸I tell you, He will promptly carry out justice on their behalf. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on earth?”

The Pharisee and the Tax Collector

⁹To some who trusted in their own righteousness and viewed others with contempt, He also told this parable: ¹⁰“Two men went up to the temple to pray. One was a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. ¹¹The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men — swindlers, evildoers, adulterers — or even like this tax collector. ¹²I fast twice a week and pay tithes of all that I acquire.’

¹³But the tax collector stood at a distance, unwilling even to lift up his eyes to heaven. Instead, he beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner!’ ¹⁴I tell you, this man, rather than the Pharisee, went home justified. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Jesus Blesses the Children

¹⁵Now people were even bringing their babies to Jesus for Him to place His hands on them. And when the disciples saw this, they rebuked those who brought them.

¹⁶But Jesus called the children to Him and said, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not hinder them! For the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. ¹⁷Truly I tell you, anyone who does not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”

The Rich Young Ruler

¹⁸Then a certain ruler asked Him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

¹⁹“Why do you call Me good?” Jesus replied. “No one is good except God alone. ²⁰You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not bear false witness, honor your father and mother.’”

²¹“All these I have kept from my youth,” he said.

²²On hearing this, Jesus told him, “You still lack one thing: Sell everything you own and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me.”

²³But when the ruler heard this, he became very sad, because he was extremely wealthy.

²⁴Seeing the man’s sadness, Jesus said, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! ²⁵Indeed, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”

²⁶Those who heard this asked, “Who then can be saved?”

²⁷But Jesus said, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.”

²⁸“Look,” said Peter, “we have left all we had to follow You.”

²⁹“Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God ³⁰will fail to receive many times more in this age — and in the age to come, eternal life.”

The Third Prediction of the Passion

³¹Then Jesus took the Twelve aside and said to them, “Look, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything the prophets have written about the Son of Man will be fulfilled. ³²He will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and insulted and spit upon. ³³They will flog Him and kill Him, and on the third day He will rise again.”

³⁴But the disciples did not understand any of these things. The meaning was hidden from them, and they did not comprehend what He was saying.

Jesus Heals a Blind Beggar

³⁵As Jesus drew near to Jericho, a blind man was sitting beside the road, begging. ³⁶When he heard the crowd going by, he asked what was happening.

³⁷“Jesus of Nazareth is passing by,” they told him.

³⁸So he called out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”

³⁹Those who led the way admonished him to be silent, but he cried out all the louder, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”

⁴⁰Jesus stopped and directed that the man be brought to Him. When he had come near, Jesus asked him, ⁴¹“What do you want Me to do for you?”

“Lord,” he said, “let me see again.”

⁴²“Receive your sight!” Jesus replied. “Your faith has healed you.” ⁴³Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus, glorifying God. And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God.

Sennacherib Threatens Jerusalem

¹In the fourteenth year of Hezekiah’s reign, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked and captured all the fortified cities of Judah. ²And the king of Assyria sent the Rabshakeh, with a great army, from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. And he stopped by the aqueduct of the upper pool, on the road to the Launderer’s Field.

³Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah the palace administrator, Shebna the scribe, and Joah son of Asaph the recorder, went out to him.

⁴The Rabshakeh said to them, “Tell Hezekiah that this is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says: What is the basis of this confidence of yours? ⁵You claim to have a strategy and strength for war, but these are empty words. In whom are you now trusting, that you have rebelled against me?

⁶Look now, you are trusting in Egypt, that splintered reed of a staff that will pierce the hand of anyone who leans on it. Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him. ⁷But if you say to me, ‘We trust in the LORD our God,’ is He not the One whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You must worship before this altar’?

⁸Now, therefore, make a bargain with my master, the king of Assyria. I will give you two thousand horses — if you can put riders on them! ⁹For how can you repel a single officer among the least of my master’s servants when you depend on Egypt for chariots and horsemen? ¹⁰So now, was it apart from the LORD that I have come up against this land to destroy it? The LORD Himself said to me, ‘Go up against this land and destroy it.’”

¹¹Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the Rabshakeh, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, since we understand it. Do not speak to us in Hebrew in the hearing of the people on the wall.”

¹²But the Rabshakeh replied, “Has my master sent me to speak these words only to you and your master, and not to the men sitting on the wall, who are destined with you to eat their own dung and drink their own urine?”

¹³Then the Rabshakeh stood and called out loudly in Hebrew: “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria! ¹⁴This is what the king says: Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he cannot deliver you. ¹⁵Do not let Hezekiah persuade you to trust in the LORD when he says, ‘The LORD will surely deliver us; this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.’

¹⁶Do not listen to Hezekiah, for this is what the king of Assyria says: Make peace with me and come out to me. Then every one of you will eat from his own vine and his own fig tree, and drink water from his own cistern, ¹⁷until I come and take you away to a land like your own— a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards.

¹⁸Do not let Hezekiah mislead you when he says, ‘The LORD will deliver us.’ Has the god of any nation ever delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria? ¹⁹Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they delivered Samaria from my hand? ²⁰Who among all the gods of these lands has delivered his land from my hand? How then can the LORD deliver Jerusalem from my hand?”

²¹But the people remained silent and did not answer a word, for Hezekiah had commanded, “Do not answer him.”

²²Then Hilkiah’s son Eliakim the palace administrator, Shebna the scribe, and Asaph’s son Joah the recorder came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and they relayed to him the words of the Rabshakeh.

Isaiah’s Message of Deliverance

¹On hearing this report, King Hezekiah tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, and entered the house of the LORD. ²And he sent Eliakim the palace administrator, Shebna the scribe, and the leading priests, all wearing sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz ³to tell him, “This is what Hezekiah says: Today is a day of distress, rebuke, and disgrace; for children have come to the point of birth, but there is no strength to deliver them. ⁴Perhaps the LORD your God will hear the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to defy the living God, and He will rebuke him for the words that the LORD your God has heard. Therefore lift up a prayer for the remnant that still survives.”

⁵So the servants of King Hezekiah went to Isaiah, ⁶who replied, “Tell your master that this is what the LORD says: ‘Do not be afraid of the words you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed Me. ⁷Behold, I will put a spirit in him so that he will hear a rumor and return to his own land, where I will cause him to fall by the sword.’”

Sennacherib’s Blasphemous Letter

⁸When the Rabshakeh heard that the king of Assyria had left Lachish, he withdrew and found the king fighting against Libnah.

⁹Now Sennacherib had been warned about Tirhakah king of Cush: “He has set out to fight against you.”

On hearing this, Sennacherib sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, ¹⁰“Give this message to Hezekiah king of Judah:

‘Do not let your God, in whom you trust, deceive you by saying that Jerusalem will not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria. ¹¹Surely you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the other countries, devoting them to destruction. Will you then be spared? ¹²Did the gods of the nations destroyed by my fathers rescue those nations— the gods of Gozan, Haran, and Rezeph, and of the people of Eden in Telassar? ¹³Where are the kings of Hamath, Arpad, Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?’”

Hezekiah’s Prayer

¹⁴So Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers, read it, and went up to the house of the LORD and spread it out before the LORD. ¹⁵And Hezekiah prayed to the LORD:

¹⁶“O LORD of Hosts, God of Israel, enthroned above the cherubim, You alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You made the heavens and the earth. ¹⁷Incline Your ear, O LORD, and hear; open Your eyes, O LORD, and see. Listen to all the words that Sennacherib has sent to defy the living God.

¹⁸Truly, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all these countries and their lands. ¹⁹They have cast their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods, but only wood and stone — the work of human hands.

²⁰And now, O LORD our God, save us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, O LORD, are God.”

Sennacherib’s Fall Prophesied

²¹Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent a message to Hezekiah: “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Because you have prayed to Me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria, ²²this is the word that the LORD has spoken against him:

‘The Virgin Daughter of Zion

despises you and mocks you;

the Daughter of Jerusalem

shakes her head behind you.

²³Whom have you taunted and blasphemed?

Against whom have you raised your voice

and lifted your eyes in pride?

Against the Holy One of Israel!

²⁴Through your servants you have taunted the Lord,

and you have said:

“With my many chariots

I have ascended

to the heights of the mountains,

to the remote peaks of Lebanon.

I have cut down its tallest cedars,

the finest of its cypresses.

I have reached its farthest heights,

the densest of its forests.

²⁵I have dug wells

and drunk foreign waters.

With the soles of my feet

I have dried up all the streams of Egypt.”

²⁶Have you not heard?

Long ago I ordained it;

in days of old I planned it.

Now I have brought it to pass,

that you should crush fortified cities

into piles of rubble.

²⁷Therefore their inhabitants, devoid of power,

are dismayed and ashamed.

They are like plants in the field,

tender green shoots,

grass on the rooftops,

scorched before it is grown.

²⁸But I know your sitting down,

your going out and coming in,

and your raging against Me.

²⁹Because your rage and arrogance against Me

have reached My ears,

I will put My hook in your nose

and My bit in your mouth;

I will send you back

the way you came.’

³⁰And this will be a sign to you, O Hezekiah:

This year you will eat

what grows on its own,

and in the second year

what springs from the same.

But in the third year you will sow and reap;

you will plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

³¹And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah

will again take root below

and bear fruit above.

³²For a remnant will go forth from Jerusalem,

and survivors from Mount Zion.

The zeal of the LORD of Hosts

will accomplish this.

³³So this is what the LORD says about the king of Assyria:

‘He will not enter this city

or shoot an arrow into it.

He will not come before it with a shield

or build up a siege ramp against it.

³⁴He will go back the way he came,

and he will not enter this city,’

declares the LORD.

³⁵‘I will defend this city

and save it

for My own sake

and for the sake of My servant David.’”

Jerusalem Delivered from the Assyrians

³⁶Then the angel of the LORD went out and struck down 185,000 men in the camp of the Assyrians. When the people got up the next morning, there were all the dead bodies!

³⁷So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there. ³⁸One day, while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer put him to the sword and escaped to the land of Ararat. And his son Esar-haddon reigned in his place.