Now then, give me the hill country that the LORD promised me on that day when my men and I reported. We told you then that the race of giants called the Anakim were there in large walled cities. Maybe the LORD will be with me, and I will drive them out, just as the LORD said."

Jonathan said to the young man, "Let's cross over to the camp of those heathen Philistines. Maybe the LORD will help us; if he does, nothing can keep him from giving us the victory, no matter how few of us there are."

Perhaps the LORD will notice my misery and give me some blessings to take the place of his curse."

Hate what is evil, love what is right, and see that justice prevails in the courts. Perhaps the LORD will be merciful to the people of this nation who are still left alive.

Whom do you think you have been insulting and ridiculing? You have been disrespectful to me, the holy God of Israel.

You sent your servants to boast to me that with all your chariots you had conquered the highest mountains of Lebanon. You boasted that there you cut down the tallest cedars and the finest cypress trees, and that you reached the deepest parts of the forests.

When did any of the gods of all these countries ever save their country from our emperor? Then what makes you think the LORD can save Jerusalem?"

"Listen to me, you that know what is right, who have my teaching fixed in your hearts. Do not be afraid when people taunt and insult you;

they will vanish like moth-eaten clothing! But the deliverance I bring will last forever; my victory will endure for all time."

David asked the men who were near him, "What will the man get who kills this Philistine and frees Israel from this disgrace? After all, who is this heathen Philistine to defy the army of the living God?"

I have killed lions and bears, and I will do the same to this heathen Philistine, who has defied the army of the living God.

The Assyrian emperor has sent his chief official to insult the living God. May the LORD your God hear these insults and punish those who spoke them. So pray to God for those of our people who survive."

Whom do you think you have been insulting and ridiculing? You have been disrespectful to me, the holy God of Israel.

You sent your messengers to boast to me that with all your chariots you had conquered the highest mountains of Lebanon. You boasted that there you cut down the tallest cedars and the finest cypress trees and that you reached the deepest parts of the forests.

Now don't let Hezekiah deceive you or mislead you like that. Don't believe him! No god of any nation has ever been able to save his people from any Assyrian emperor. So certainly this god of yours can't save you!"

The letter that the emperor wrote defied the LORD, the God of Israel. It said, "The gods of the nations have not saved their people from my power, and neither will Hezekiah's god save his people from me."

They talked about the God of Jerusalem in the same way that they talked about the gods of the other peoples, idols made by human hands.

Whom do you think you have been insulting and ridiculing? You have been disrespectful to me, the holy God of Israel.

You have done all this, and I have said nothing, so you thought that I am like you. But now I reprimand you and make the matter plain to you.

and said to Samuel, "Keep praying to the LORD our God to save us from the Philistines."

and they said to Samuel, "Please, sir, pray to the LORD your God for us, so that we won't die. We now realize that, besides all our other sins, we have sinned by asking for a king."

As for me, the LORD forbid that I should sin against him by no longer praying for you. Instead, I will teach you what is good and right for you to do.

Then King Hezekiah and the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz prayed to God and cried out to him for help.

When God said that he would destroy his people, his chosen servant, Moses, stood up against God and kept his anger from destroying them.

The priests, serving the LORD between the altar and the entrance of the Temple, must weep and pray: "Have pity on your people, LORD. Do not let other nations despise us and mock us by saying, 'Where is your God?' "

So then, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, so that you will be healed. The prayer of a good person has a powerful effect.

If the LORD Almighty had not let some of the people survive, Jerusalem would have been totally destroyed, just as Sodom and Gomorrah were.

I, the Lord, will bring the emperor of Assyria and all his forces to attack Judah. They will advance like the flood waters of the Euphrates River, overflowing all its banks.

They will sweep through Judah in a flood, rising shoulder high and covering everything." God is with us! His outspread wings protect the land.

The LORD said, "Assyria! I use Assyria like a club to punish those with whom I am angry.

I sent Assyria to attack a godless nation, people who have made me angry. I sent them to loot and steal and trample the people like dirt in the streets."

Even though now there are as many people of Israel as there are grains of sand by the sea, only a few will come back. Destruction is in store for the people, and it is fully deserved.

The LORD was angry with the Israelites and banished them from his sight, leaving only the kingdom of Judah.

In the fourth year of Hezekiah's reign---which was the seventh year of King Hoshea's reign over Israel---Emperor Shalmaneser of Assyria invaded Israel and besieged Samaria.

The Assyrian emperor took the Israelites to Assyria as prisoners and settled some of them in the city of Halah, some near the Habor River in the district of Gozan, and some in the cities of Media.

In the fourteenth year of the reign of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib, the emperor of Assyria, attacked the fortified cities of Judah and conquered them.

Hezekiah sent him all the silver in the Temple and in the palace treasury;

Because King Ahaz of Judah had violated the rights of his people and had defied the LORD, the LORD brought troubles on Judah.

And Isaiah exclaims about Israel: "Even if the people of Israel are as many as the grains of sand by the sea, yet only a few of them will be saved;