2 Kings 19–21

HEZEKIAH SEEKS ISAIAH’S COUNSEL

19When King Hezekiah heard their report, he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth,^p and went into the Lord’s temple.^{q 2}He sent Eliakim, who was in charge of the palace, Shebna the court secretary,^r and the leading priests, who were covered with sackcloth,^s to the prophet Isaiah^t son of Amoz. ³They said to him, “This is what Hezekiah says: ‘Today is a day of distress, rebuke, and disgrace, for children have come to the point of birth,^u but there is no strength to deliver them. ⁴Perhaps the Lord your God^v will hear^w all the words of the royal spokesman, whom his master the king of Assyria sent to mock the living God, and will rebuke^x him for the words that the Lord your God has heard. Therefore, offer a prayer for the surviving remnant.’ ”^y

⁵So the servants of King Hezekiah went to Isaiah, ⁶who said to them, “Tell your master, ‘The Lord says this: Don’t be afraid^z because of the words you have heard, with which the king of Assyria’s attendants^aa have blasphemed^ab me. ⁷I am about to put a spirit in him, and he will hear a rumor and return to his own land,^ac where I will cause him to fall by the sword.’ ”^ad

SENNACHERIB’S DEPARTING THREAT

⁸When^ae the royal spokesman heard that the king of Assyria had pulled out of Lachish,^af he left and found him fighting against Libnah.^{ag 9}The king had heard concerning King Tirhakah of Cush, “Look, he has set out to fight against you.” So he again sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, ¹⁰“Say this to King Hezekiah of Judah: ‘Don’t let your God, on whom you rely,^ah deceive you by promising that Jerusalem will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.^{ai 11}Look, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the countries: They completely destroyed them. Will you be rescued? ¹²Did the gods of the nations^aj that my predecessors destroyed rescue them—nations such as Gozan,^ak Haran,^a Rezeph, and the Edenites^b in Telassar? ¹³Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of^B Sepharvaim, Hena, or Ivvah?’ ”^c

HEZEKIAH’S PRAYER

¹⁴Hezekiah took^d the letter^e from the messengers’ hands, read it, then went up to the Lord’s temple, and spread it out before the Lord.^{f 15}Then Hezekiah prayed before the Lord:

Lord God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim,^g you are God—you alone—of all the kingdoms of the earth. You made the heavens and the earth.^{h 16}Listen closely, Lord, and hear; open your eyes, Lord, and see.ⁱ Hear the words that Sennacherib has sent to mock the living God.^{j 17}Lord, it is true that the kings of Assyria have devastated the nations and their lands.^{k 18}They have thrown their gods into the fire, for they were not gods but made by human hands—wood and stone.^l So they have destroyed them. ¹⁹Now, Lord our God, please save us from his power so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, Lord, are God—you alone.^m

GOD’S ANSWER THROUGH ISAIAH

²⁰Thenⁿ Isaiah son of Amoz sent a message to Hezekiah: “The Lord, the God of Israel says, ‘I have heard your prayer^o to me about King Sennacherib of Assyria.’^{p 21}This is the word the Lord has spoken against him:

Virgin Daughter Zion^q

despises you and scorns you;

Daughter Jerusalem

shakes her head behind your back.^r

²²Who is it you mocked and blasphemed?^s

Against whom have you raised your voice

and lifted your eyes in pride?

Against the Holy One of Israel!^t

²³You have mocked the Lord^A through^B your messengers.^u

You have said, ‘With my many chariots^v

I have gone up to the heights of the mountains,

to the far recesses of Lebanon.

I cut down its tallest cedars,

its choice cypress trees.

I came to its farthest outpost,

its densest forest.

²⁴I dug wells

and drank water in foreign lands.

I dried up all the streams of Egypt^w

with the soles of my feet.’

²⁵Have you not heard?^x

I designed it long ago;

I planned it in days gone by.

I have now brought it to pass,^y

and you have crushed fortified cities

into piles of rubble.

²⁶Their inhabitants have become powerless,

dismayed, and ashamed.

They are plants of the field,

tender grass,

grass on the rooftops,^z

blasted by the east wind.

²⁷But I know your sitting down,^aa

your going out and your coming in,

and your raging against me.

²⁸Because your raging against me

and your arrogance have reached my ears,

I will put my hook in your nose^ab

and my bit in your mouth;

I will make you go back

the way you came.

²⁹“This will be the sign^ac for you: This year you will eat what grows on its own, and in the second year what grows from that. But in the third year sow and reap, plant vineyards and eat their fruit. ³⁰The surviving remnant^ad of the house of Judah will again take root downward and bear fruit upward. ³¹For a remnant will go out from Jerusalem, and survivors, from Mount Zion.^ae The zeal of the Lord of Armies will accomplish this.^af

³²Therefore, this is what the Lord says about the king of Assyria:

He will not enter this city,

shoot an arrow here,

come before it with a shield,

or build up a siege ramp against it.^ag

³³He will go back

the way he came,

and he will not enter this city.

This is the Lord’s declaration.

³⁴I will defend this city and rescue it

for my sake and for the sake of my servant David.”^a

DEFEAT AND DEATH OF SENNACHERIB

³⁵That night the angel of the Lord went out and struck down one hundred eighty-five thousand in the camp of the Assyrians. When the people got up the next morning—there were all the dead bodies!^{b 36}So King Sennacherib of Assyria broke camp and left. He returned home and lived in Nineveh.^c

³⁷One day, while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech^d and Sharezer struck him down with the sword and escaped to the land of Ararat.^e Then his son Esar-haddon^f became king in his place.

HEZEKIAH’S ILLNESS AND RECOVERY

20In those days^g Hezekiah became terminally ill.^h The prophet Isaiahⁱ son of Amoz came and said to him, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Set your house in order, for you are about to die; you will not recover.’ ”^j

²Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall^k and prayed to the Lord, ³“Please, Lord, remember^l how I have walked before you faithfully and wholeheartedly and have done what pleases you.”^Am And Hezekiah wept bitterly.ⁿ

⁴Isaiah had not yet gone out of the inner courtyard when the word of the Lord came to him: ⁵“Go back and tell Hezekiah, the leader^o of my people, ‘This is what the Lord God of your ancestor David says: I have heard your prayer;^p I have seen your tears. Look, I will heal you. On the third day from now you will go up to the Lord’s temple. ⁶I will add fifteen years to your life. I will rescue you and this city from the grasp of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city for my sake and for the sake of my servant David.’ ”^q

⁷Then Isaiah said, “Bring a lump of pressed figs.” So they brought it and applied it to his infected skin, and he recovered.^r

⁸Hezekiah had asked Isaiah, “What is the sign^s that the Lord will heal me and that I will go up to the Lord’s temple on the third day?”

⁹Isaiah said, “This is the sign^t to you from the Lord that he will do what he has promised: Should the shadow go ahead ten steps or go back ten steps?”

¹⁰Then Hezekiah answered, “It’s easy for the shadow to lengthen ten steps. No, let the shadow go back ten steps.” ¹¹So the prophet Isaiah called out to the Lord, and he brought the shadow^A back the ten steps it had descended on the stairway of Ahaz.^u

HEZEKIAH’S FOLLY

¹²At that time^v Merodach-baladan son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a gift to Hezekiah since he heard that he had been sick. ¹³Hezekiah listened to the letters and showed the envoys his whole treasure house—the silver, the gold, the spices, and the precious oil—and his armory, and everything that was found in his treasuries. There was nothing in his palace and in all his realm that Hezekiah did not show them.^w

¹⁴Then the prophet Isaiah came to King Hezekiah and asked him, “Where did these men come from and what did they say to you?”

Hezekiah replied, “They came from a distant country, from Babylon.”

¹⁵Isaiah asked, “What have they seen in your palace?”

Hezekiah answered, “They have seen everything in my palace. There isn’t anything in my treasuries that I didn’t show them.”

¹⁶Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the Lord: ¹⁷‘Look, the days are coming when everything in your palace and all that your predecessors have stored up until today will be carried off to Babylon; nothing will be left,’^x says the Lord. ¹⁸‘Some of your descendants—who come from you, whom you father—will be taken away,^y and they will become eunuchs^D in the palace of the king of Babylon.’ ”^z

¹⁹Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of the Lord that you have spoken is good,”^aa for he thought, “Why not, if there will be peace and security during my lifetime?”

HEZEKIAH’S DEATH

²⁰The rest of the events of Hezekiah’s reign, along with all his might and how he made the pool^ab and the tunnel and brought water into the city,^ac are written in the Historical Record of Judah’s Kings.^{ad 21}Hezekiah rested with his ancestors, and his son Manasseh became king in his place.^ae

JUDAH’S KING MANASSEH

21Manasseh^a was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hephzibah.^{b 2}He did what was evil in the Lord’s sight,^c imitating the detestable practices of the nations that the Lord had dispossessed before the Israelites.^{d 3}He rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had destroyed^e and reestablished the altars for Baal. He made an Asherah,^f as King Ahab of Israel had done;^g he also bowed in worship to all the stars in the sky^h and served them. ⁴He built altars in the Lord’s temple,ⁱ where the Lord had said, “Jerusalem is where I will put my name.”^{j 5}He built altars to all the stars in the sky^k in both courtyards of the Lord’s temple.^{l 6}He sacrificed his son in the fire,^Am practiced witchcraft and divination, and consulted mediums and spiritists.ⁿ He did a huge amount of…