2 Kings 19–21

Jerusalem Will Be Saved

19When King Hezekiah heard the message, he tore his clothes and put on rough cloth to show how sad he was. Then he went into the Temple of the Lord. ²Hezekiah sent Eliakim, the palace manager, and Shebna, the royal secretary, and the older priests to Isaiah. They were all wearing rough cloth when they came to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz. ³They told Isaiah, “This is what Hezekiah says: Today is a day of sorrow and punishment and disgrace, as when a child should be born, but the mother is not strong enough to give birth to it. ⁴The king of Assyria sent his field commander to make fun of the living God. Maybe the Lord your God will hear what the commander said and will punish him for it. So pray for the few of us who are left alive.”

⁵When Hezekiah’s officers came to Isaiah, ⁶he said to them, “Tell your master this: The Lord says, ‘Don’t be afraid of what you have heard. Don’t be frightened by the words the servants of the king of Assyria have spoken against me. ⁷Listen! I am going to put a spirit in the king of Assyria. He will hear a report that will make him return to his own country, and I will cause him to die by the sword there.’ ”

⁸The field commander heard that the king of Assyria had left Lachish. When he went back, he found the king fighting against the city of Libnah.

⁹The king received a report that Tirhakah, the Cushite king of Egypt, was coming to attack him. When the king of Assyria heard this, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, ¹⁰“Tell Hezekiah king of Judah: Don’t be fooled by the god you trust. Don’t believe him when he says Jerusalem will not be handed over to the king of Assyria. ¹¹You have heard what the kings of Assyria have done. They have completely defeated every country, so do not think you will be saved. ¹²Did the gods of those people save them? My ancestors destroyed them, defeating the cities of Gozan, Haran, and Rezeph, and the people of Eden living in Tel Assar. ¹³Where are the kings of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the kings of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?”

Hezekiah Prays to the Lord

¹⁴When Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers and read it, he went up to the Temple of the Lord. He spread the letter out before the Lord ¹⁵and prayed to the Lord: “Lord, God of Israel, whose throne is between the gold creatures with wings, only you are God of all the kingdoms of the earth. You made the heavens and the earth. ¹⁶Hear, Lord, and listen. Open your eyes, Lord, and see. Listen to the words Sennacherib has said to insult the living God. ¹⁷It is true, Lord, that the kings of Assyria have destroyed these countries and their lands. ¹⁸They have thrown the gods of these nations into the fire, but they were only wood and rock statues that people made. So the kings have destroyed them. ¹⁹Now, Lord our God, save us from the king’s power so that all the kingdoms of the earth will know that you, Lord, are the only God.”

God Answers Hezekiah

²⁰Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent a message to Hezekiah that said, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I have heard your prayer to me about Sennacherib king of Assyria. ²¹This is what the Lord has said against Sennacherib:

‘The people of Jerusalem

hate you and make fun of you.

The people of Jerusalem

laugh at you as you run away.

²²You have insulted me and spoken against me;

you have raised your voice against me.

You have a proud look on your face,

which is against me, the Holy One of Israel.

²³You have sent your messengers to insult the Lord.

You have said, “With my many chariots

I have gone to the tops of the mountains,

to the highest mountains of Lebanon.

I have cut down its tallest cedars

and its best pine trees.

I have gone to its farthest places

and to its best forests.

²⁴I have dug wells in foreign countries

and drunk water there.

By the soles of my feet,

I have dried up all the rivers of Egypt.”

²⁵“ ‘King of Assyria, surely you have heard.

Long ago I, the Lord, planned these things.

Long ago I designed them,

and now I have made them happen.

I allowed you to turn those strong, walled cities

into piles of rocks.

²⁶The people in those cities were weak;

they were frightened and put to shame.

They were like grass in the field,

like tender, young grass,

like grass on the housetop

that is burned by the wind before it can grow.

²⁷“ ‘I know when you rest,

when you come and go,

and how you rage against me.

²⁸Because you rage against me,

and because I have heard your proud words,

I will put my hook in your nose

and my bit in your mouth.

Then I will force you to leave my country

the same way you came.’

²⁹“Then the Lord said, ‘Hezekiah, I will give you this sign:

This year you will eat the grain that grows wild,

and the second year you will eat what grows wild from that.

But in the third year, plant grain and harvest it.

Plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

³⁰Some of the people in the family of Judah

will escape.

Like plants that take root,

they will grow strong and have many children.

³¹A few people will come out of Jerusalem alive;

a few from Mount Zion will live.

The strong love of the Lord All-Powerful

will make this happen.’

³²“So this is what the Lord says about the king of Assyria:

‘He will not enter this city

or even shoot an arrow here.

He will not fight against it with shields

or build a ramp to attack the city walls.

³³He will return to his country the same way he came,

and he will not enter this city,’

says the Lord.

³⁴‘I will defend and save this city

for my sake and for the sake of David, my servant.’ ”

³⁵That night the angel of the Lord went out and killed one hundred eighty-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up early the next morning, they saw all the dead bodies. ³⁶So Sennacherib king of Assyria left and went back to Nineveh and stayed there.

³⁷One day as Sennacherib was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer killed him with a sword. Then they escaped to the land of Ararat. So Sennacherib’s son Esarhaddon became king of Assyria.

Hezekiah’s Illness

20At that time Hezekiah became so sick he almost died. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz went to see him and told him, “This is what the Lord says: Make arrangements because you are not going to live, but die.”

²Hezekiah turned toward the wall and prayed to the Lord, ³“Lord, please remember that I have always obeyed you. I have given myself completely to you and have done what you said was right.” Then Hezekiah cried loudly.

⁴Before Isaiah had left the middle courtyard, the Lord spoke his word to Isaiah: ⁵“Go back and tell Hezekiah, the leader of my people: ‘This is what the Lord, the God of your ancestor David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears, so I will heal you. Three days from now you will go up to the Temple of the Lord. ⁶I will add fifteen years to your life. I will save you and this city from the king of Assyria; I will protect the city for my sake and for the sake of my servant David.’ ”

⁷Then Isaiah said, “Make a paste from figs.” So they made it and put it on Hezekiah’s boil, and he got well.

⁸Hezekiah had asked Isaiah, “What will be the sign that the Lord will heal me and that I will go up to the Temple of the Lord on the third day?”

⁹Isaiah said, “The Lord will do what he says. This is the sign from the Lord to show you: Do you want the shadow to go forward ten steps or back ten steps?”

¹⁰Hezekiah answered, “It’s easy for the shadow to go forward ten steps. Instead, let it go back ten steps.”

¹¹Then Isaiah the prophet called to the Lord, and the Lord brought the shadow ten steps back up the stairway of Ahaz that it had gone down.

Messengers from Babylon

¹²At that time Merodach-Baladan son of Baladan was king of Babylon. He sent letters and a gift to Hezekiah, because he had heard that Hezekiah was sick. ¹³Hezekiah listened to the messengers, so he showed them what was in his storehouses: the silver, gold, spices, expensive perfumes, his swords and shields, and all his wealth. He showed them everything in his palace and his kingdom.

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

Hezekiah said, “They came from a faraway country—from Babylon.”

¹⁵So Isaiah asked him, “What did they see in your palace?”

Hezekiah said, “They saw everything in my palace. I showed them all my wealth.”

¹⁶Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Listen to the words of the Lord: ¹⁷‘In the future everything in your palace and everything your ancestors have stored up until this day will be taken away to Babylon. Nothing will be left,’ says the Lord. ¹⁸‘Some of your own children, those who will be born to you, will be taken away. And they will become servants in the palace of the king of Babylon.’ ”

¹⁹Hezekiah told Isaiah, “These words from the Lord are good.” He said this because he thought, “There will be peace and security in my lifetime.”

²⁰Everything else Hezekiah did—all his victories, his work on the pool, his work on the tunnel to bring water into the city—is written in the book of the history of the kings of Judah. ²¹Then Hezekiah died, and his son Manasseh became king in his place.

Manasseh King of Judah

21Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he was king fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hephzibah. ²He did what the Lord said was wrong. He did the hateful things the other nations had done—the nations that the Lord had forced out of the land ahead of the Israelites. ³Manasseh’s father, Hezekiah, had destroyed the places where gods were worshiped, but Manasseh rebuilt them. He built altars for Baal, and he made an Asherah idol as Ahab king of Israel had done. Manasseh also worshiped all the stars of the sky and served them. ⁴The Lord had said about the Temple, “I will be worshiped in Jerusalem,” but Manasseh built altars in the Temple of the Lord. ⁵He built altars to worship the stars in the two courtyards of the Temple of the Lord. ⁶He made his own son pass through fire. He practiced magic and told the future by explaining…