The Daily Audio Bible

17 During the 12th year of Ahaz (Judah’s king), Hoshea (Elah’s son) inherited Israel’s throne in Samaria. His reign lasted nine years. ² He committed evil in the Eternal’s eyes, but not in the same way some of Israel’s kings had.

³ Shalmaneser, Assyria’s king, waged war against Hoshea, but Hoshea humbled himself before Shalmaneser by paying tribute. ⁴ But Shalmaneser sensed a secret plot in Hoshea who, instead of paying the expected tribute to Shalmaneser as he had done yearly, had sent messengers to So, the king of Egypt. Because of this, Assyria’s king bound and locked Hoshea in prison.

⁵ Assyria’s king then invaded Israel and besieged Samaria for three years. ⁶ During Hoshea’s ninth year, Assyria’s king captured Samaria and carried off the Israelites to exile in Assyria. The exiles were forced to stay in Halah and Habor on the Gozan River and also in the cities of the Medes.

⁷ This all happened because the Israelites had committed countless wicked deeds against their God, the Eternal One, who brought them out of Egypt and freed them from the oppression fueled by Pharaoh, Egypt’s king. They revered gods other than the Lord ⁸ and lived by the wicked traditions of the people whom the Eternal had forced out of the land before the Israelites arrived. They lived by the religious and cultural practices that Israel’s kings had introduced. ⁹ The Israelites committed unrighteous acts and tried to hide them from the Eternal their God; but of course, the Lord witnessed them all. They constructed high places everywhere, small or large—from lookout towers to fortified cities. ¹⁰ They decorated every hill and the shade of every tree with holy pillars and sacred poles. ¹¹ They burned incense at all the high places just as the people whom the Eternal One had forced out of the land before them had done. They repeated the very same sins. They did many wicked deeds, provoking the anger of the Eternal. ¹² They placed themselves in the service of idols—the same ones He had given them instructions about, commanding, “Do not do this. They are evil!”^[a]

¹³ The Eternal One gave fair warning to Israel and Judah. He gave His warning through the mouths of prophets and seers throughout the land: “Abandon your wickedness, and obey My commands and laws which I gave to your ancestors through the mouths of My servants, the prophets.”

¹⁴ But the Israelites were fools and did not heed the warning. They were stubborn just like their ancestors who did not trust in the Eternal One their God. ¹⁵ They spurned His laws and even the covenant He had entered into with their ancestors. They rejected the fair warnings He gave to them. They were devoted to their own vanity and followed the same wicked path as the neighboring nations—the ones He had instructed them not to imitate. ¹⁶ They abandoned all the laws the Eternal One their God had given to them. They crafted two golden calves, put up a sacred pole, and also praised the sun, the moon, the stars, and Baal as their master. ¹⁷ They made their children pass through the fire, they performed witchcraft and divining, and they committed evil in the eyes of the Eternal and provoked Him to burn with anger. ¹⁸ Therefore, He was furious with Israel, so He banished them from His sight. The only tribe that remained was Judah. ¹⁹ But Judah also abandoned the laws of their God, the Eternal One, and they walked the same wicked path the Israelites had walked. ²⁰ He rejected all the sons and daughters of Israel and banished them from His sight. He made them suffer and handed them over to pillagers until they were finally cast out of His presence.

²¹ After the Eternal had cut Israel out of the house of David, the people made Jeroboam (Nebat’s son) their first king. But he caused the people to turn away from the Eternal One and caused Israel to sin in every way. ²² The Israelites walked the wicked path of Jeroboam ²³ until the Eternal removed Israel from His presence, just as He had said through the mouths of His servants the prophets. The Israelites were forced to leave their own land and go live in Assyria, where they still dwell today.

²⁴ Assyria’s king transported men from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sephar-vaim, and he made them live in the Samaritan towns and cities where the Israelites had lived. Samaria now belonged to these new inhabitants of the towns and cities. ²⁵ When they first began living in Samaria, the foreigners lacked any fear of the Eternal One. So He caused lions to invade their ignorant community and kill some of the people. ²⁶ One of them contacted Assyria’s king.

²⁸ Ironically a priest who was exiled by God for not following His ways was brought back to Samaria and became responsible for teaching the new inhabitants how to revere the Eternal. He stayed at Bethel.

²⁹ Even after all of this, all the nations were still crafting their own gods and placing them in the high places built by the Samaritans, each nation in the cities where it settled. ³⁰ The Babylonian men crafted Succoth-benoth, the Cuth men crafted Nergal, the Hamath men crafted Ashima, ³¹ the Avvites crafted Nibhaz and Tartak, and the Sepharvites gave their own children as burnt sacrifices to their gods Adrammelech and Anammelech. ³² They also greatly feared the Eternal One and nominated some of their own men to act as priests at the high places, interceding for them at the high places’ temples. ³³ They feared Him while at the same time honoring the gods of the nations from where they had been exiled.

³⁴ Still today, they honor the earlier traditions of the wicked people before them, and they fail to revere the Eternal properly. They do not honor the sacred laws and judgments that He gave to the descendants of Jacob (whom He called Israel). ³⁵ He entered into a sacred covenant with the new Samaritans and gave them the same sacred commands to follow.

⁴⁰ But they did not listen to the Lord’s message. Instead they did just as they had done when they lived in their own nations. ⁴¹ They feared the Eternal One while at the same time serving their own idols. Their descendants have done the same ever since.

18 During the third year of Hoshea (Elah’s son and the last king of Israel), Hezekiah (Ahaz’s son) inherited the throne in Judah. ² Hezekiah was 25 when he inherited the throne. His reign in Jerusalem lasted 29 years. His mother was Abi (Zechariah’s daughter). ³ He did what was good in the Eternal’s eyes, and he walked the same righteous path as his ancestor, David.

⁴ He tore down all of the wicked high places and demolished all the holy pillars and the sacred pole. He shattered the bronze serpent that Moses had crafted because the Israelites burned incense to honor it.^[b] The bronze serpent was named, “the bronze thing.”^{[c] 5} Hezekiah put his trust in the Eternal One, Israel’s God. Before and after his righteous reign, no other king ever compared to him in Judah. ⁶ He embraced the Eternal, and he did not abandon the righteous path. He obeyed all the sacred laws that the Eternal had given to Moses. ⁷ The Eternal One was with Hezekiah, and His blessings covered him everywhere he went. Hezekiah defied Assyria’s king and refused to humble himself before him, unlike his father, Ahaz. ⁸ He conquered the Philistines all the way to Gaza, taking everything from imposing lookout towers to large fortified cities.

⁹ During King Hezekiah’s fourth year, which was the seventh year of Hoshea (king of Israel and Elah’s son), Shalmaneser, Assyria’s king, waged war against Samaria and attacked it with full force. ¹⁰ After three years, during Hezekiah’s sixth year in Judah and Hoshea’s ninth year as king of Israel, they took possession of Samaria. ¹¹ Assyria’s king transported the Israelites to Assyria as exiles. He forced them to live in Halah on the Habor (the river of Gozan) and in the cities of the Medes. ¹² This took place because they did not obey the warning of the Eternal their God. Instead they transgressed both the sacred covenant He had made with them and everything Moses, the servant of the Eternal, had commanded. They would not listen to the sacred laws, much less obey them.

20 As soon as the uproar ended, Paul gathered the disciples together, encouraged them once more, said farewell, and left on foot. He decided to pass through Macedonia, ² encouraging believers wherever he found them, and came to Greece. ³ He spent three months there, and then he planned to set sail once again for Syria. But he learned that a group of Jewish opponents was plotting to kill him, so he decided to travel through Macedonia.

^4-5 There was a large group of us traveling with him at this time, and we decided it was best, in light of the plot, to split up and then reunite in the city of Troas. This group included Paul, a Berean named Sopater (son of Pyrrhus), two Thessalonians named Aristarchus and Secundus, a Derbean named Gaius, two Asians named Tychicus and Trophimus, and Timothy. ⁶ Some of us waited until the Days of Unleavened Bread were over; then we went to Philippi where we boarded a ship for Troas. The other group left immediately on foot, passing through Macedonia. When my group landed in Troas five days later, Paul’s group had already arrived. We stayed in Troas another week.

^7-8 The Sunday night before our Monday departure, we gathered to celebrate the breaking of bread.

Imagine you are celebrating with them:

We are in an upstairs room, with the gentle light and shadows cast by several lamps. Paul is carrying on an extended dialogue with the believers, taking advantage of every moment since we plan to leave at first light. The conversation stretches on until midnight. ⁹ A young fellow named Eutychus, seeking some fresh air, moves to an open window. Paul keeps on talking. Eutychus perches in the open window itself. Paul keeps talking. Eutychus drifts off to sleep. Paul continues talking until Eutychus, now overcome by deep sleep, drops out of the window and falls three stories to the ground, where he is found dead. ¹⁰ Paul joins us downstairs, bends over, and takes Eutychus in his arms.

¹¹ Then Paul goes back upstairs, celebrates the breaking of bread, and—just as you might guess—keeps on conversing until first light. Then he leaves. ¹² (I should add that Eutychus had been taken home long before, his friends more than a little relieved that the boy was alive!)

¹³ Again Paul wanted us to split up. He wanted to go by land by himself while we went by ship to Assos. ¹⁴ There he came on board with us, and we sailed on to Mitylene. ¹⁵ From there we sailed near Chios, passing by it the next day, docking briefly at Samos the day after that, then arriving at Miletus the following day. ¹⁶ This route kept us safely out of Ephesus and didn’t require Paul to spend any time at all in Asia, since he wanted to arrive in Jerusalem quickly—before Pentecost, he hoped.

¹⁷ In Miletus he sent word to the church in Ephesus, asking the elders to come down to meet with him. ¹⁸ When they arrived, he talked with them.

³⁶ Once again, imagine this scene:

As Paul finishes speaking, he kneels down; and we all join him, kneeling. He prays, and we all join him, praying. ³⁷ There’s the sound of weeping, and then more weeping, and then more still. One by one, we embrace Paul and kiss him, ³⁸ our sadness multiplied because of his words about this being our last good-bye. We walk with him to the ship, and he sets sail.

Psalm 148