2 Kings 19–21

Isaiah Sends Encouragement to Hezekiah

19It happened that when King Hezekiah heard, he tore his clothes and covered himself with sackcloth and went to the temple of Yahweh. ²He sent Eliakim who was over the palace, Shebna the secretary, the elders, and the priests, all clothed in sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz. ³They said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah, ‘A day of distress, rebuke, and disgrace is this day, for the children are about to be born,^a but there is no strength to bear them. ⁴Perhaps Yahweh your God will hear all of the words of the chief commander whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to insult the living God, and he will rebuke the words that Yahweh your God has heard. Therefore lift up a prayer for the remainder who are left.’ ” ⁵So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah, ⁶and Isaiah said to them, “Thus you must say to your master, ‘Thus says Yahweh, “You must not be afraid because the face of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have reviled me. ⁷Look, I am putting in him a spirit. He will hear a rumor and return to his land. Then I will cause him to fall by the sword in his land.” ’ ”

The Assyrians Defy God

⁸When the chief commander returned, he found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah, for he had heard that he had departed from Lachish. ⁹He heard about Tirhakah, the king of Cush, saying, “Look, he has set out to fight with you,” so he again sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, ¹⁰“Thus you shall say to Hezekiah the king of Judah, ‘Let not your God whom you are trusting deceive you, by his saying, “Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria!” ¹¹Look, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands, by utterly destroying them, and shall you be delivered? ¹²Did the gods of the nations that my predecessors^b destroyed deliver them? Not Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, nor the children of Eden who were in Tel Assar. ¹³Where are the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?’ ”

Hezekiah Prays to Yahweh

¹⁴Hezekiah took the letters from the hand of the messengers and read them. Then he went up to the temple of Yahweh, and Hezekiah spread them out before the presence of Yahweh. ¹⁵Then Hezekiah prayed before the face of Yahweh and said, “O Yahweh, God of Israel who lives above the cherubim. You are God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the world; you have made the heavens and the earth. ¹⁶Incline your ears and hear; open, O Yahweh, your eyes and see and hear the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to insult the living God. ¹⁷Truly, O Yahweh, the kings of Assyria have utterly destroyed the nations and their land. ¹⁸He has hurled their gods in the fire because they are not gods, but the work of the hands of a human made of wood and stone, so they destroyed them. ¹⁹So then, O Yahweh our God, rescue us, please, from his hand, that all of the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, O Yahweh, you alone are God!”

Isaiah Brings a Prophetic Response

²⁰Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says Yahweh the God of Israel, ‘What you have prayed to me about Sennacherib king of Assyria I have heard. ²¹This is the word that Yahweh has spoken concerning him:

She despises you, she scorns you,

the virgin daughter of Zion.

Behind you the daughter of Jerusalem

shakes her head.

²²Whom have you mocked and reviled?

And against whom have you have raised your voice

and have haughtily lifted your eyes?

Against the Holy One of Israel!

²³By the hand of your messengers you have mocked the Lord,

and you have said,

‘With my many chariots I have gone up

to the height of the mountains.

To the remote areas of Lebanon,

I have felled the tallest of its cedars,

the choicest of its cypresses.

I have entered the place of overnight lodging.

Even to the edge of forest of its fertile land.

²⁴I dug wells and I drank foreign water,

and I dried up with the sole of my steps

all the canals of Egypt.’

²⁵Have you not heard?

From long ago I have determined it,

from the days of old I have planned it,

and now I am bringing it to pass.

It shall be turned into a pile of rocks;

fortified cities are ruined.

²⁶Their inhabitants, short of hand, shall be dismayed;

and they shall be ashamed.

They have become green plants of the open field,

and tender grass,

green grass of the roof

and blight before the standing grain.

²⁷Your sitting, your going out, and your coming in I know,

and your raging against me.

²⁸Because you are raging against me,

and your arrogance has come up in my ears,

I will put my nose ring in your nose

and my bridle in your mouth.

And I will turn you back

on the way that you have come.

²⁹“ ‘This will be the sign for you: Eat the volunteer plants for the year, and in the second year, the volunteer plants that spring up from that. But in the third year, sow and reap, plant vineyards and eat their fruit. ³⁰The remainder of the house of Judah that survives will again take root below and bear fruit above. ³¹For from Jerusalem a remnant shall go out and survivors from Mount Zion; the zeal of Yahweh will do this.

³²“ ‘Therefore thus says Yahweh to the king of Assyria, “He shall not come to this city, nor shall he shoot an arrow there, nor shall he bring a small shield near her, nor shall he cast a siege ramp against her. ³³By the way that he came to her he shall return; but to this city, he shall not come,” declares Yahweh. ³⁴And I will defend this city to save her for my sake and for the sake of David my servant.’ ”

An Angel Neutralizes the Assyrian Army

³⁵It happened in that night that an angel of Yahweh went out, and he struck down one hundred and eighty-five thousand in the camp of Assyria. When they got up early in the morning, look! All of them were dead corpses. ³⁶Then Sennacherib king of Assyria set out and went and returned and lived in Nineveh. ³⁷It happened that he was worshiping in the temple of Nisroch his god, and Adrammelech and Sharezer^c struck him with the sword. Then they escaped into the land of Ararat, and Esarhaddon his son became king in his place.

Hezekiah Loses Health and Regains It through Prayer

20In those days Hezekiah became deathly ill,^a and Isaiah the son of Amoz the prophet came to him and said to him, “Thus says Yahweh, ‘Command your house, for you are about to die; you will not recover.’ ” ²Then he turned his face to the wall and prayed to Yahweh, saying, ³“O Yahweh, please remember how I went about before you in faithfulness and with a whole heart, and remember the good that I have done in your eyes.” Then Hezekiah wept bitterly.^{b 4}Isaiah had not gone out from the middle of the city when the word of Yahweh came to him, saying, ⁵“Return; you must say to Hezekiah, the leader of my people, ‘Thus says Yahweh the God of David your ancestor,^c “I have heard your prayer and I have seen your tears. Look, I am about to heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the temple of Yahweh. ⁶I will add to your days fifteen years, and from the hand of the king of Assyria I will deliver you and this city. I will defend this city for my sake and for the sake of David my servant.” ’ ” ⁷Then Isaiah said, “Bring a lump of figs,” so they took and put it on the skin sores, and he lived.

⁸Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “What is the sign that Yahweh will heal me that I shall go up on the third day to the temple of Yahweh?” ⁹Isaiah said, “This is the sign for you from Yahweh that Yahweh will do the thing that he has promised: Shall the shadow advance ten steps or shall it return ten steps?” ¹⁰Hezekiah answered, “It is easy for the shadow to lengthen ten steps. No, but let the shadow return backwards ten steps.” ¹¹Isaiah the prophet called to Yahweh, and he brought back the shadow on the steps where it had gone down on the steps of Ahaz, backwards ten steps.

Hezekiah Reveals Too Much to a Babylonian Envoy

¹²At that time, Berodak-Baladan the son of Baladan king of Babylon^d sent letters and a gift to Hezekiah, for he had heard that Hezekiah had been ill. ¹³Hezekiah heard about them and showed them all of the house of his treasure, both the silver and the gold, the spices, the good olive oil, the room of his weapons, and all that could be found in his treasuries. There was nothing that he did not show them in his palace and in all of his kingdom. ¹⁴Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah and said to him, “What did these men say, and from where have they come to you?” Hezekiah said, “From a far land; they have come from Babylon.” ¹⁵Then he asked, “What did they see in your palace?” And Hezekiah said, “All that is in my palace they have seen; there is nothing that I did not show them in my treasuries.”

¹⁶Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of Yahweh! ¹⁷‘Look, days are coming when all that is in your palace will be carried off; even all that your ancestors^e have stored up until this day, to Babylon; nothing shall be left,’ says Yahweh. ¹⁸‘Your sons who went out from you, whom you brought forth, will be taken, and they shall be eunuchs in the temple of the king of Babylon.’ ” ¹⁹Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of Yahweh that you have spoken is good,” and he thought, “Is it not that peace and security shall be in my days?” ²⁰Now the remainder of the acts of Hezekiah, all of his powerful deeds, and how he made the pool and the conduit and brought the water into the city, are they not written in the scroll of the events of the days of the kings of Judah? ²¹Then Hezekiah slept with his ancestors,^f and Manasseh his son became king in his place.

Evil Manasseh Reigns after Godly Hezekiah

21Manasseh was twelve years old^a when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. The name of his mother was Hephzibah. ²He did evil in the eyes of Yahweh, according to the detestable things of the nations that Yahweh had driven out from the presence of the Israelites.^{b 3}He returned and rebuilt the high places…