ISV(i)
1 Hezekiah Becomes King of Judah
Now it happened that during the third year of the reign of Elah’s son Hoshea, king of Israel, that Ahaz’ son Hezekiah became king.
2 He was 25 years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem for 29 years. His mother was Zechariah’s daughter Abi.
3 He did what the LORD considered to be right, according to everything that his ancestor David had done.
4Hezekiah’s Reforms
He removed the high places, demolished the sacred pillars, and tore down the Asherah poles. He also demolished the bronze serpent that Moses had crafted, because the Israelis had been burning incense to it right up until that time. Hezekiah called it a piece of brass.
5 He trusted the LORD God of Israel, and after him there were none like him among all the kings of Judah,
6 because he depended on the LORD, not abandoning pursuit of him, and keeping the LORD’s commands that he had commanded Moses.
7 So the LORD was with him, and Hezekiah prospered wherever he went, even when he rebelled against the king of Assyria, refusing to serve him.
8 He attacked the Philistines, invading Gaza and its borders from watchtower to fortified garrison.
9Shalmaneser Attacks SamariaIn the fourth year of King Hezekiah’s reign (that is, during the seventh year of Elah’s son Hoshea’s reign as king of Israel), King Shalmaneser from Assyria invaded Samaria and besieged it.
10 Three years later, they captured Samaria during the sixth year of Hezekiah’s reign, which was the ninth year of Hoshea’s reign as king of Israel.
11 After this, the king of Assyria carried Israel off into exile in Assyria, settling them in Halah, on the Habor River in Gozan, and in cities controlled by the Medes,
12 because they would not obey the voice of the LORD their God. Instead, they transgressed his covenant, including everything that Moses, the servant of the LORD, had commanded, by neither listening nor putting what he had commanded into practice.
13 During the fourteenth year of the reign of King Hezekiah, King Sennacherib of Assyria approached all of the walled cities of Judah and seized them. 14 So Hezekiah sent this message to the king of Assyria at Lachish: “I have offended you. Withdraw from me, and I’ll accept whatever tribute you impose.” So the king of Assyria required Hezekiah to pay him 300 talents of silver and 30 talents of gold. 15 Hezekiah gave him all the silver that could be removed from the LORD’s Temple and from the treasuries in the king’s palace. 16 At that time, Hezekiah removed the doors to the LORD’s Temple and the doorposts that he had overlaid with gold, and gave the gold to the king of Assyria.
17Assyria’s King Taunts Hezekiah
Sometime later, the king of Assyria sent Tartan, Rab-saris, and Rab-shakeh from Lachish to King Hezekiah in Jerusalem, accompanied with a large army.
18 When they called for the king, Hilkiah’s son Eliakim, who managed the household, Shebnah the scribe, and Asaph’s son Joah the recorder went out to them.
19 Rab-shakeh told them, “Tell Hezekiah right now, ‘This is what the great king, the king of Assyria says: ‘“Why are you so confident?
20 You’re saying—but they’re only empty words—‘I have enough advice and resources to conduct warfare!’‘“Now who are you relying on, that you have rebelled against me?
21 Look, you’re trusting on Egypt to lean on like a staff, but it’s a crushed reed, and if you lean on it, it will collapse and pierce your hand. Pharaoh, king of Egypt, is just like that to everyone who relies on him!
22 ‘“Of course, you might tell me, “We rely on the LORD our God!” But isn’t it he whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has demolished, all the while telling Jerusalem, “You’re to worship in front of this altar in Jerusalem?”’
23 ‘“Come now, and make a deal with my master, the king of Assyria, and I’ll give you 2,000 horses, if you can furnish them with riders.
24 How can you refuse even one official from the least of my master’s servants and rely on Egypt for chariots and horsemen?
25 “Now then, haven’t I come up—apart from the LORD—to attack and destroy this place? The LORD told me, ‘Go up against this land and destroy it!’”’”
26 At this, Hilkiah’s son Eliakim, Shebnah, and Joah asked Rab-shakeh, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, because we understand it, but don’t speak the language of Judah to us within the hearing of the people who are on the wall.”
27 But Rab-shakeh spoke to them, “Has my master sent me to talk about this just to your master and to you, and not also to the men who are sitting on the wall, who will soon be eating their own feces and drinking their own urine—along with you?” 28 Then Rab-shakeh stood up and cried out loud, “Listen to what the great king, the king of Assyria has to say. 29 This is what the king says: ‘Don’t let Hezekiah deceive you, because he will prove to be unable to deliver you from my control.
30 And don’t let Hezekiah make you trust in the LORD by telling you, “The LORD will certainly deliver us and this city will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.”
31 Don’t listen to Hezekiah, because this is what the king of Assyria says: “Make peace with me and come out to me! Each of you will eat from his own vine. Each will eat from his own fig tree. And each of you will drink water from his own cistern
32 until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, one overflowing with grain and new wine, a land filled with bread and vineyards, with olive trees and honey, so you may live and not die.” ‘But don’t listen to Hezekiah when he misleads you by saying, “The LORD will deliver us!”
33 Has any of the gods of the nations delivered his land from control by the king of Assyria?
34 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sephar-vaim, of Hena, and Ivvah? Have they delivered Samaria from my control?
35 Who among all the gods of these lands has delivered their land from my control, so that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem from me?’”
36 But the people remained silent and did not answer with even so much as a word, because the king’s order was, “Don’t answer him.”
37 But Hilkiah’s son Eliakim, who managed the household, Shebna the scribe, and Asaph’s son Joah the recorder came back to Hezekiah with their clothes torn and told him what Rab-shakeh had said.
19 1Isaiah Encourages HezekiahWhen King Hezekiah heard Eliakim’s report, he tore his clothes, put on a sackcloth covering, entered the LORD’s Temple,
2 and sent Eliakim the household supervisor, Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests—all of them covered in sackcloth—to Amoz’s son, the prophet Isaiah.
3 They announced to him: “This is what Hezekiah says: ‘Today is a day of trouble, rebuke, and blasphemy, because children are about to be born, but there is no strength to bring them to birth.
4 Perhaps the LORD your God will take note of everything that Rab-shakeh has said, whom his master the king of Assyria sent to taunt the living God, and then he will rebuke the words that the LORD your God has heard. Therefore offer a prayer for the survivors who remain.’”
5 That is how the King Hezekiah’s servants approached Isaiah.
6 In reply, Isaiah responded to them, “Here’s how you’re to report to your master: ‘This is what the LORD says: “Never be afraid of the words that you have heard by which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.
7 Look! I’m going to cause an attitude to grow within him so that he’ll hear a rumor and return to his own territory, where I’ll make him die by the sword in his own land!”’”
8Sennacherib Defies God
So Rab-shakeh returned and found the king of Assyria at war with Libnah, because Rab-shakeh had heard that the king had left Lachish.
9 When he heard that it was being said about King Tirhakah of Ethiopia, “Look! He has come out to attack you!” he again sent messengers to Hezekiah.
The messengers were told, 10 “This is what you are to say to King Hezekiah of Judah: ‘Don’t let your God in whom you trust deceive you by telling you “Jerusalem won’t be turned over to the control of Assyria’s king.” 11 ‘Look! you’ve heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands—they completely destroyed them! Will you be spared? 12 Did the gods of those nations whom my ancestors destroyed deliver them, including Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and Eden’s descendants in Telassar? 13 Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sephar-vaim, the king of Hena, or the king of Ivvah?’”
14Hezekiah’s Prayer for HelpHezekiah took the messages from the couriers, read them, went up to the LORD’s Temple, and laid them out in the presence of the LORD.
15 Then Hezekiah prayed in the presence of the LORD, “LORD God of Israel! You live between the cherubim! You alone are the God of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have fashioned the heavens and the earth.
16 Turn your ear, LORD, and listen! Open your eyes, LORD, and observe! Listen to the message sent by Sennacherib to insult the living God!
17 Truly, LORD, the kings of Assyria have devastated nations and their territories,
18 throwing their gods into the fire, since they weren’t gods but rather were the product of men’s handiwork—wood and stone. And so they destroyed them.
19 Now, LORD our God, I’m praying that you will deliver us from his control, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone, LORD, are God!”
20God’s Answer through Isaiah the ProphetThen Amoz’s son Isaiah sent word to Hezekiah, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel says: ‘Because you have prayed to me about King Sennacherib of Assyria, I have listened.’”
21 “This is what the LORD has spoken against him: ‘She despises and mocks you, this virgin daughter of Zion! Behind your back she shakes her head, this daughter of Jerusalem!
22 Who are you reproaching and blaspheming? Against whom have you raised your voice? And against whom have you lifted up your eyes in arrogance? Against the Holy One of Israel!
23 By your messengers you have insulted the LORD. You have claimed, “With my many chariots I ascended the heights of the mountains, including the remotest regions of Lebanon; I cut down its tall cedars and the best of its cypress trees. I entered its most remote lodging place and its most fruitful forest.
24 I myself dug for and drank foreign water. With the sole of my foot I dried up all the streams of Egypt!”
25 ‘Didn’t you hear? I determined it years ago! I planned this from ancient times, and now I’ve brought it to pass, to turn fortified cities into piles of ruins
26 while their inhabitants, lacking strength, stand dismayed and confused. They were like vegetation out in the fields, and like green herbs— just as grass that grows on a housetop dries out before it can grow.
27 ‘But when you sit down, when you go out, and when you come in, I’m aware of it!
28 Because of your rage against me, your complacency has reached my ears. I’ll put my hook into your nostrils and my bit into your mouth. Then I’ll turn you back on the road by which you came.’
29 “This will serve as a sign for you: you’ll eat this year from what grows by itself, in the second year what grows from that, and in the third year you’ll sow, reap, plant vineyards, and enjoy their fruit. 30 Those who survive from Judah’s household will again put down deep roots and bear fruit extensively, 31 because a remnant will go out from Jerusalem, and survivors from Mount Zion. The zeal of the LORD will bring this about.”
32 “Therefore this is what the LORD says concerning the king of Assyria: ‘Not only will he not approach this city or shoot an arrow in its direction, he won’t approach it with so much as a shield, nor will he throw up a siege ramp against it. 33 He’ll return on the same route by which he came—he won’t come to this city,’ declares the LORD. 34 ‘I will defend this city and preserve it for my own reasons, and because of my servant David.’”
35God Destroys the Assyrian Army
That very night, the angel of the LORD went out to the camp of the Assyrian army and killed 185,000 men. Early the next morning, when the army of Israel arose, all 185,000 soldiers were dead.
36 As a result, King Sennacherib of Assyria left and returned to Nineveh where he lived.
37 Later on, as he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, Adrammelech and Sharezer killed him with a sword and fled into the territory of Ararat. Then Sennacherib’s son Esarhaddon became king in his place.
20 1Hezekiah’s Sickness and Recovery
During this time, Hezekiah became sick with a fatal illness, so Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, approached him and told him, “This is what the LORD says: ‘Put your household in order, because you are dying. You will not survive.’”
2 So Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD. 3 “Remember me, LORD,” he said, “how I have walked in your presence with integrity, with an undivided heart, and I have accomplished what is good in your sight.” And Hezekiah wept deeply.
4 Before Isaiah had left the middle court, this message from the LORD came to him. 5 “Return to Hezekiah,” he said, “and tell the Commander-in-Chief of my people: ‘This is what the LORD, the God of your ancestor David, says: “I’ve heard your prayer and I’ve observed your tears. Look! I’m healing you. Three days from now, you’ll go visit the LORD’s Temple. 6 Furthermore, I’ll add fifteen years to your life. I’ll deliver you and this city from domination by the king of Assyria, and I’ll defend this city for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David.”’”
7 Isaiah said, “Take a fig cake.” So some attendants took it, laid it on Hezekiah’s boil, and he recovered.
8 Now Hezekiah had asked Isaiah, “What is to be the sign that the LORD is healing me and that I’ll be going up to the LORD’s Temple three days from now?”
9 So Isaiah replied, “This will be your sign from the LORD that the LORD will do what he has promised. Shall the shadow go forward ten steps or go back ten steps?”
10 Hezekiah answered, “It’s an easy thing for a shadow to lengthen ten steps. So let the shadow go backward ten steps.”
11 So Isaiah cried out to the LORD, who brought the shadow back ten steps after it had gone down the stairway of Ahaz.
12Hezekiah Shows His Treasure to the Babylonian EnvoysSome time later, Berodach-baladan, the son of King Baladan of Babylon, sent letters and a gift to Hezekiah, because he had heard that Hezekiah had been ill.
13 Hezekiah listened to the entourage and showed them his entire treasury, including the silver, gold, and spices, the precious oil, his armory, and everything that was inventoried in his treasuries. There was nothing in his household or in his holdings that Hezekiah did not show them.
14 Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah and asked him, “What did these men have to say, and where did they come from?”
Hezekiah replied, “They came from a country far away—from Babylon.”
15 He asked, “What did they see in your household?”
Hezekiah answered, “They have seen everything. In my household there is nothing in my treasuries that I haven’t shown them.”
16 Then Isaiah replied to Hezekiah, “Listen to this message from the LORD: 17 ‘Watch out! The days are coming when everything that’s in your house—everything that your ancestors have saved up right to this day—will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left,’ declares the LORD. 18 ‘Some of your descendants—your very own seed, whom you will father—will be carried away to become officials in the palace of the king of Babylon.’”
19 At this, Hezekiah replied to Isaiah, “What you’ve spoken from the LORD is good,” because he had been thinking, “Why not, as long as there’s peace and security in my lifetime…?”
20 Now the rest of Hezekiah’s actions, as well as his glorious deeds, including how he constructed the pool and the conduit to bring water into the city, are recorded in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah, are they not? 21 Hezekiah died, as did his ancestors, and his son Manasseh became king in his place.
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13 During the fourteenth year of the reign of King Hezekiah, King Sennacherib of Assyria approached all of the walled cities of Judah and seized them. 14 So Hezekiah sent this message to the king of Assyria at Lachish: “I have offended you. Withdraw from me, and I’ll accept whatever tribute you impose.” So the king of Assyria required Hezekiah to pay him 300 talents of silver and 30 talents of gold. 15 Hezekiah gave him all the silver that could be removed from the LORD’s Temple and from the treasuries in the king’s palace. 16 At that time, Hezekiah removed the doors to the LORD’s Temple and the doorposts that he had overlaid with gold, and gave the gold to the king of Assyria.
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26 At this, Hilkiah’s son Eliakim, Shebnah, and Joah asked Rab-shakeh, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, because we understand it, but don’t speak the language of Judah to us within the hearing of the people who are on the wall.”
27 But Rab-shakeh spoke to them, “Has my master sent me to talk about this just to your master and to you, and not also to the men who are sitting on the wall, who will soon be eating their own feces and drinking their own urine—along with you?” 28 Then Rab-shakeh stood up and cried out loud, “Listen to what the great king, the king of Assyria has to say. 29 This is what the king says:
36 But the people remained silent and did not answer with even so much as a word, because the king’s order was, “Don’t answer him.”
37 But Hilkiah’s son Eliakim, who managed the household, Shebna the scribe, and Asaph’s son Joah the recorder came back to Hezekiah with their clothes torn and told him what Rab-shakeh had said.
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5 That is how the King Hezekiah’s servants approached Isaiah.
6 In reply, Isaiah responded to them, “Here’s how you’re to report to your master:
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The messengers were told, 10 “This is what you are to say to King Hezekiah of Judah: ‘Don’t let your God in whom you trust deceive you by telling you “Jerusalem won’t be turned over to the control of Assyria’s king.” 11 ‘Look! you’ve heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands—they completely destroyed them! Will you be spared? 12 Did the gods of those nations whom my ancestors destroyed deliver them, including Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and Eden’s descendants in Telassar? 13 Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sephar-vaim, the king of Hena, or the king of Ivvah?’”
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21 “This is what the LORD has spoken against him:
29 “This will serve as a sign for you: you’ll eat this year from what grows by itself, in the second year what grows from that, and in the third year you’ll sow, reap, plant vineyards, and enjoy their fruit. 30 Those who survive from Judah’s household will again put down deep roots and bear fruit extensively, 31 because a remnant will go out from Jerusalem, and survivors from Mount Zion. The zeal of the LORD will bring this about.”
32 “Therefore this is what the LORD says concerning the king of Assyria: ‘Not only will he not approach this city or shoot an arrow in its direction, he won’t approach it with so much as a shield, nor will he throw up a siege ramp against it. 33 He’ll return on the same route by which he came—he won’t come to this city,’ declares the LORD. 34 ‘I will defend this city and preserve it for my own reasons, and because of my servant David.’”
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2 So Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD. 3 “Remember me, LORD,” he said, “how I have walked in your presence with integrity, with an undivided heart, and I have accomplished what is good in your sight.” And Hezekiah wept deeply.
4 Before Isaiah had left the middle court, this message from the LORD came to him. 5 “Return to Hezekiah,” he said, “and tell the Commander-in-Chief of my people: ‘This is what the LORD, the God of your ancestor David, says: “I’ve heard your prayer and I’ve observed your tears. Look! I’m healing you. Three days from now, you’ll go visit the LORD’s Temple. 6 Furthermore, I’ll add fifteen years to your life. I’ll deliver you and this city from domination by the king of Assyria, and I’ll defend this city for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David.”’”
7 Isaiah said, “Take a fig cake.” So some attendants took it, laid it on Hezekiah’s boil, and he recovered.
8 Now Hezekiah had asked Isaiah, “What is to be the sign that the LORD is healing me and that I’ll be going up to the LORD’s Temple three days from now?”
9 So Isaiah replied, “This will be your sign from the LORD that the LORD will do what he has promised. Shall the shadow go forward ten steps or go back ten steps?”
10 Hezekiah answered, “It’s an easy thing for a shadow to lengthen ten steps. So let the shadow go backward ten steps.”
11 So Isaiah cried out to the LORD, who brought the shadow back ten steps after it had gone down the stairway of Ahaz.
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14 Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah and asked him, “What did these men have to say, and where did they come from?”
Hezekiah replied, “They came from a country far away—from Babylon.”
15 He asked, “What did they see in your household?”
Hezekiah answered, “They have seen everything. In my household there is nothing in my treasuries that I haven’t shown them.”
16 Then Isaiah replied to Hezekiah, “Listen to this message from the LORD: 17 ‘Watch out! The days are coming when everything that’s in your house—everything that your ancestors have saved up right to this day—will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left,’ declares the LORD. 18 ‘Some of your descendants—your very own seed, whom you will father—will be carried away to become officials in the palace of the king of Babylon.’”
19 At this, Hezekiah replied to Isaiah, “What you’ve spoken from the LORD is good,” because he had been thinking, “Why not, as long as there’s peace and security in my lifetime…?”
20 Now the rest of Hezekiah’s actions, as well as his glorious deeds, including how he constructed the pool and the conduit to bring water into the city, are recorded in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah, are they not? 21 Hezekiah died, as did his ancestors, and his son Manasseh became king in his place.