2 Kings 20–21

Hezekiah’s Illness and Recovery

20In those days ^rHezekiah became terminally ill. ^sThe prophet Isaiah ^tson of Amoz came and said to him, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Put your affairs in order, ^ufor you are about to die; you will not recover.’ ” ^v

²Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall ^wand prayed to the Lord, ³“Please Lord, remember ^xhow I have walked before You faithfully and wholeheartedly and have done what pleases You.” ^yzAnd Hezekiah wept bitterly. ^a

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 ^bof My people, ‘This is what the Lord God of your ancestor David says: I have heard your prayer; ^cI 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 15 years to your life. I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city for My sake and for the sake of My servant David.’ ” ^d

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

⁸Hezekiah had asked Isaiah, “What is the sign ^fthat 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 ^gto you from the Lord that He will do what He has promised: Should the shadow go ahead 10 steps or go back 10 steps?”

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

Hezekiah’s Folly

¹²At that time ^kMerodach-baladan ^lson of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a gift to Hezekiah since he heard that he had been sick. ¹³Hezekiah gave them a hearing and showed them 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. ^m

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‘The time will certainly come when everything in your palace and all that your fathers have stored up until this day will be carried off to Babylon; nothing will be left,’ ⁿsays the Lord. ¹⁸‘Some of your descendants who come from you will be taken away, ^oand they will become eunuchs ^pin the palace of the king of Babylon.’ ” ^q

¹⁹Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of the Lord that you have spoken is good,” ^rfor 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 ^sand the tunnel and brought water into the city, ^tare written in the Historical Record of Judah’s Kings. ^u21Hezekiah rested with his fathers, and his son Manasseh became king in his place. ^v

Judah’s King Manasseh

21Manasseh ^wwas 12 years old when he became king and reigned 55 years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hephzibah. ^x2He did what was evil in the Lord’s sight, ^yimitating the detestable practices of the nations that the Lord had dispossessed before the Israelites. ^z3He rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had destroyed ^aand reestablished the altars for Baal. He made an Asherah, ^bas King Ahab of Israel had done; ^che also worshiped the whole heavenly host ^dand served them. ⁴He built altars in the Lord’s temple, ^ewhere the Lord had said, “Jerusalem is where I will put My name.” ^f5He built altars to the whole heavenly host ^gin both courtyards of the Lord’s temple. ^h6He made his son pass through the fire, ⁱpracticed witchcraft and divination, and consulted mediums and spiritists. ^jHe did a great amount of evil in the Lord’s sight, provoking Him. ^k

⁷Manasseh set up the carved image of Asherah, which he made, in the temple that the Lord had spoken about to David and his son Solomon, “I will establish My name forever in this temple and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel. ^l8I will never again cause the feet of the Israelites to wander from the land I gave to their ancestors if only they will be careful to do all I have commanded them—the whole law that My servant Moses commanded them.” ^m9But they did not listen; Manasseh caused them to stray so that they did greater evil than the nations the Lord had destroyed before the Israelites. ⁿ

¹⁰The Lord spoke through His servants the prophets, saying, ¹¹“Since Manasseh king of Judah has committed all these detestable things ^o—greater evil than the Amorites ^pwho preceded him had done—and by means of his idols has also caused Judah to sin, ¹²this is what the Lord God of Israel says: ‘I am about to bring such disaster on Jerusalem and Judah that everyone who hears about it will shudder. ^q13I will stretch over Jerusalem the measuring line used on Samaria and the mason’s level used on the house of Ahab, ^rand I will wipe ^sJerusalem clean as one wipes a bowl—wiping it and turning it upside down. ¹⁴I will abandon the remnant ^tof My inheritance and hand them over to their enemies. They will become plunder and spoil to all their enemies, ¹⁵because they have done what is evil in My sight and have provoked Me from the day their ancestors came out of Egypt until today.’ ” ^u

¹⁶Manasseh also shed so much innocent blood that he filled Jerusalem with it from one end to another. ^vThis was in addition to his sin that he caused Judah to commit. Consequently, they did what was evil in the Lord’s sight.

Manasseh’s Death

¹⁷The rest ^wof the events of Manasseh’s reign, along with all his accomplishments and the sin that he committed, are written in the Historical Record of Judah’s Kings. ^x18Manasseh rested with his fathers and was buried in the garden of his own house, the garden of Uzza. His son Amon became king in his place.

Judah’s King Amon

¹⁹Amon was 22 years old when he became king ^yand reigned two years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Meshullemeth daughter of Haruz; she was from Jotbah. ²⁰He did what was evil in the Lord’s sight as his father Manasseh had done. ^z21He walked in all the ways his father had walked; he served the idols his father had served, and he worshiped them. ^a22He abandoned the Lord God of his ancestors ^band did not walk in the way of the Lord. ^c

²³Amon’s servants conspired against the king and killed him in his own house. ^d24Then the common people ^eexecuted ^fall those who had conspired against King Amon and made his son Josiah ^gking in his place.

²⁵The rest of the events of Amon’s reign, along with his accomplishments, are written in the Historical Record of Judah’s Kings. ²⁶He was buried in his tomb in the garden of Uzza, and his son Josiah became king in his place.