^20:1In those days Hezekiah was stricken with a terminal illness.¹ The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz visited him and told him, “This is what the Lord says, ‘Give your household instructions, for you are about to die; you will not get well.’ ”²^20:2He turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, ^20:3“Please, Lord. Remember how I have served you³ faithfully and with wholehearted devotion,⁴ and how I have carried out your will.”⁵ Then Hezekiah wept bitterly.⁶

^20:4Isaiah was still in the middle courtyard when the Lord told him,⁷^20:5“Go back and tell Hezekiah, the leader of my people: ‘This is what the Lord God of your ancestor David says: “I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Look, I will heal you. The day after tomorrow⁸ you will go up to the Lord’s temple. ^20:6I will add fifteen years to your life and rescue you and this city from the king of Assyria. I will shield this city for the sake of my reputation and because of my promise to David my servant.” ’ ”⁹^20:7Isaiah ordered, “Get a fig cake.” So they did as he ordered¹⁰ and placed it on the ulcerated sore, and he recovered.¹¹

^20:8Hezekiah had said to Isaiah, “What is the confirming sign that the Lord will heal me and that I will go up to the Lord’s temple the day after tomorrow?” ^20:9Isaiah replied, “This is your sign from the Lord confirming that the Lord will do what he has said. Do you want the shadow to move ahead ten steps or to go back ten steps?”¹²^20:10Hezekiah answered, “It is easy for the shadow to lengthen ten steps, but not for it¹³ to go back ten steps.” ^20:11Isaiah the prophet called out to the Lord, and the Lord¹⁴ made the shadow go back ten steps on the stairs of Ahaz.¹⁵

Messengers from Babylon Visit Hezekiah

^20:12At that time Merodach-Baladan¹⁶ son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a gift to Hezekiah, for he had heard that Hezekiah was ill. ^20:13Hezekiah welcomed¹⁷ them and showed them his whole storehouse, with its silver, gold, spices, and high quality olive oil, as well as his armory and everything in his treasuries. Hezekiah showed them everything in his palace and in his whole kingdom.¹⁸^20:14Isaiah the prophet visited King Hezekiah and asked him, “What did these men say? Where do they come from?” Hezekiah replied, “They come from the distant land of Babylon.” ^20:15Isaiah¹⁹ asked, “What have they seen in your palace?” Hezekiah replied, “They have seen everything in my palace. I showed them everything²⁰ in my treasuries.” ^20:16Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Listen to the word of the Lord, ^20:17‘Look, a time is²¹ coming when everything in your palace and the things your ancestors have accumulated to this day will be carried away to Babylon; nothing will be left,’ says the Lord. ^20:18‘Some of your very own descendants whom you father²² will be taken away and will be made eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.’ ” ^20:19Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The Lord’s word which you have announced is appropriate.”²³ Then he added,²⁴ “At least there will be peace and stability during my lifetime.”²⁵

^20:20The rest of the events of Hezekiah’s reign and all his accomplishments, including how he built a pool and conduit to bring²⁶ water into the city, are recorded in the scroll called the Annals of the Kings of Judah.²⁷^20:21Hezekiah passed away²⁸ and his son Manasseh replaced him as king.

Manasseh’s Reign over Judah

^21:1Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned for fifty-five years in Jerusalem.¹ His mother² was Hephzibah. ^21:2He did evil in the sight of³ the Lord and committed the same horrible sins practiced by the nations⁴ whom the Lord drove out from before the Israelites. ^21:3He rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had destroyed; he set up altars for Baal and made an Asherah pole just like King Ahab of Israel had done. He bowed down to all the stars in the sky⁵ and worshiped⁶ them. ^21:4He built altars in the Lord’s temple, about which the Lord had said, “Jerusalem will be my home.”⁷^21:5In the two courtyards of the Lord’s temple he built altars for all the stars in the sky. ^21:6He passed his son⁸ through the fire⁹ and practiced divination and omen reading. He set up a ritual pit to conjure up underworld spirits, and appointed magicians to supervise it.¹⁰ He did a great amount of evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger.¹¹^21:7He put an idol of Asherah he had made in the temple, about which the Lord had said to David and to his son Solomon, “This temple in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, will be my permanent home.¹²^21:8I will not make Israel again leave the land I gave to their ancestors,¹³ provided that they carefully obey all I commanded them, the whole law my servant Moses ordered them to obey.” ^21:9But they did not obey,¹⁴ and Manasseh misled them so that they sinned more than the nations whom the Lord had destroyed from before the Israelites.

^21:10So the Lord announced through¹⁵ his servants the prophets: ^21:11“King Manasseh of Judah has committed horrible sins.¹⁶ He has sinned more than the Amorites before him and has encouraged Judah to sin by worshiping his disgusting idols.¹⁷^21:12So this is what the Lord God of Israel says, ‘I am about to bring disaster on Jerusalem and Judah. The news will reverberate in the ears of those who hear about it.¹⁸^21:13I will destroy Jerusalem the same way I did Samaria¹⁹ and the dynasty of Ahab.²⁰ I will wipe Jerusalem clean, just as one wipes a plate on both sides.²¹^21:14I will abandon this last remaining tribe among my people²² and hand them over to their enemies; they will be plundered and robbed by all their enemies,²³^21:15because they have done evil in my sight²⁴ and have angered me from the time their ancestors left Egypt right up to this very day!’ ”

^21:16Furthermore Manasseh killed so many innocent people, he stained Jerusalem with their blood from end to end,²⁵ in addition to encouraging Judah to sin by doing evil in the sight of the Lord.²⁶

^21:17The rest of the events of Manasseh’s reign and all his accomplishments, as well as the sinful acts he committed, are recorded in the scroll called the Annals of the Kings of Judah.²⁷^21:18Manasseh passed away²⁸ and was buried in his palace garden, the garden of Uzzah, and his son Amon replaced him as king.

Amon’s Reign over Judah

^21:19Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned for two years in Jerusalem.²⁹ His mother³⁰ was Meshullemeth, the daughter of Haruz, from Jotbah. ^21:20He did evil in the sight of³¹ the Lord, just like his father Manasseh had done. ^21:21He followed in the footsteps of his father³² and worshiped and bowed down to the disgusting idols³³ which his father had worshiped.³⁴^21:22He abandoned the Lord God of his ancestors and did not follow the Lord’s instructions.³⁵^21:23Amon’s servants conspired against him and killed the king in his palace. ^21:24The people of the land executed all those who had conspired against King Amon, and they³⁶ made his son Josiah king in his place.

^21:25The rest of Amon’s accomplishments are recorded in the scroll called the Annals of the Kings of Judah.³⁷^21:26He was buried³⁸ in his tomb in the garden of Uzzah, and his son Josiah replaced him as king.

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Footnotes

1 Heb “was sick to the point of dying.”
2 Heb “will not live.”
3 Heb “walked before you.” For a helpful discussion of the background and meaning of this Hebrew idiom, see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (), .
4 Heb “and with a complete heart.”
5 Heb “and that which is good in your eyes I have done.”
6 Heb “wept with great weeping.”
7 Heb “and Isaiah had not gone out of the middle courtyard, and the word of the Lord came to him, saying.” Instead of “courtyard” (חָצֵר, khatser), the marginal reading, (Qere), the Hebrew consonantal text (Kethib) has הָעִיר (ha’ir), “the city.”
8 Heb “on the third day.”
9 Heb “for my sake and for the sake of David my servant.”
10 Heb “and they got [a fig cake].”
11 Heb “and he lived.”
12 The Hebrew הָלַךְ (halakh, a perfect), “it has moved ahead,” should be emended to הֲיֵלֵךְ (hayelekh, an imperfect with interrogative he [ה] prefixed), “shall it move ahead.”
13 Heb “the shadow.” The noun has been replaced by the pronoun (“it”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.
14 Heb “he”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
15 Heb “on the steps which [the sun] had gone down, on the steps of Ahaz, back ten steps.” These steps probably functioned as a type of sundial. See מַעֲלָה and M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (), .
16 The has “Berodach-Baladan,” but several Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic, and Latin witnesses agree with the parallel passage in Isa 39:1 and read “Merodach-Baladan.”
17 Heb “listened to.” Some Hebrew , as well as the , , and versions agree with the parallel passage in Isa 39:2 and read, “was happy with.”
18 Heb “there was nothing which Hezekiah did not show them in his house and in all his kingdom.”
19 Heb “he”; the referent (Isaiah) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
20 Heb “there was nothing I did not show them.”
21 Heb “days are.”
22 Heb “Some of your sons, who go out from you, whom you father.”
23 Heb “good.”
24 Heb “and he said.” Many English versions translate, “for he thought.” The verb אָמַר (’amar), “say,” is sometimes used of what one thinks (that is, says to oneself). Cf. , , , , .
25 Heb “Is it not [true] there will be peace and stability in my days?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Yes, there will be peace and stability.”
26 Heb “and he brought.”
27 Heb “As for the rest of the events of Hezekiah, and all his strength, and how he made a pool and a conduit and brought water to the city, are they not written on the scroll of the events of the days of the kings of Judah?”
28 Heb “lay down with his fathers.”
1 For location see ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; .
2 Heb “the name of his mother.”
3 Heb “in the eyes of.”
4 Heb “like the abominable practices of the nations.”
5 See the note at .
6 Or “served.”
7 Heb “In Jerusalem I will place my name.”
8 The has the plural “his sons” here.
9 See the note at .
10 Heb “and he set up a ritual pit, along with conjurers.” The Hebrew אוֹב (’ov), “ritual pit,” refers to a pit used by a magician to conjure up underworld spirits. In 1 Sam 28:7 the witch of Endor is called a בַעֲלַת אוֹב (ba’alat ’ov), “owner of a ritual pit.” See H. Hoffner, “Second millennium Antecedents to the Hebrew ’ÔB̲,” 86 (1967), 385–401.
11 Heb “and he multiplied doing what is evil in the eyes of the Lord, angering.” The third masculine singular pronominal suffix (“him”) has been accidentally omitted in the by haplography (note the vav that immediately follows).
12 Heb “In this house and in Jerusalem, which I chose from all the tribes of Israel, I will place my name perpetually (or perhaps “forever”).”
13 Heb “I will not again make the feet of Israel wander from the land which I gave to their fathers.”
14 Heb “listen.”
15 Heb “spoke by the hand of.”
16 Heb “these horrible sins.”
17 See the note at .
18 Heb “so that everyone who hears it, his two ears will quiver.”
19 For location see ; ; ; ; .
20 Heb “I will stretch out over Jerusalem the measuring line of Samaria, and the plumb line of the house of Ahab.” The measuring line and plumb line are normally used in building a structure, not tearing it down. But here they are used ironically as metaphors of judgment, emphasizing that he will give careful attention to the task of judgment.
21 Heb “just as one wipes a plate, wiping and turning [it] on its face.” The word picture emphasizes how thoroughly the Lord will judge the city.
22 Heb “the remnant of my inheritance.” In this context the Lord’s remnant is the tribe of Judah, which had been preserved when the Assyrians conquered and deported the northern tribes. See 17:18 and M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (), .
23 Heb “they will become plunder and spoils of war for all their enemies.”
24 Heb “in my eyes.”
25 Heb “and also Manasseh shed very much innocent blood, until he filled Jerusalem from mouth to mouth.”
26 Heb “apart from his sin which he caused Judah to commit, by doing what is evil in the eyes of the Lord.”
27 Heb “As for the rest of the events of Manasseh, and all which he did, and his sin which he committed, are they not written on the scroll of the events of the days of the kings of Judah?”
28 Heb “lay down with his fathers.”
29 For location see ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; .
30 Heb “the name of his mother.”
31 Heb “in the eyes of.”
32 Heb “walked in all the way which his father walked.”
33 See the note at .
34 Heb “and he served the disgusting idols which his father served and he bowed down to them.”
35 Heb “and did not walk in the way of the Lord.”
36 Heb “the people of the land.” The pronoun “they” has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons, to avoid the repetition of the phrase “the people of the land” from the beginning of the verse.
37 Heb “As for the rest of the things of Amon which he did, are they not written on the scroll of the events of the days of the kings of Judah?” Many Hebrew have וְכָל (vécol), “and all,” before אֲשֶׁר (’asher). In this case we can translate, “As for the rest of the events of Amon’s reign, and all his accomplishments,.…”
38 Heb “he buried him.” Here “he” probably refers to Amon’s son Josiah.