Category: 2 Kings

[19:20] Then Isaiah sent a message telling King Hezekiah that in answer to the king's prayer

[19:21] the Lord had said, “The city of Jerusalem laughs at you, Sennacherib, and makes fun of you.

[19:22] Whom do you think you have been insulting and ridiculing? You have been disrespectful to me, the holy God of Israel.

[19:23] You sent your messengers to boast to me that with all your chariots you had conquered the highest mountains of Lebanon. You boasted that there you cut down the tallest cedars and the finest cypress trees and that you reached the deepest parts of the forests.

[19:24] You boasted that you dug wells and drank water in foreign lands and that the feet of your soldiers tramped the Nile River dry.

[19:25] “Have you never heard that I planned all this long ago? And now I have carried it out. I gave you the power to turn fortified cities into piles of rubble.

[19:26] The people who lived there were powerless; they were frightened and stunned. They were like grass in a field or weeds growing on a roof when the hot east wind blasts them.

[19:27] “But I know everything about you, what you do and where you go. I know how you rage against me.

[19:28] I have received the report of that rage and that pride of yours, and now I will put a hook through your nose and a bit in your mouth, and take you back by the same road you came.”

[19:29] Then Isaiah said to King Hezekiah, “Here is a sign of what will happen. This year and next you will have only wild grain to eat, but the following year you will be able to plant your grain and harvest it, and plant vines and eat grapes.

[19:30] Those in Judah who survive will flourish like plants that send roots deep into the ground and produce fruit.

[19:31] There will be people in Jerusalem and on Mount Zion who will survive, because the Lord is determined to make this happen.

[19:32] “And this is what the Lord has said about the Assyrian emperor: ‘He will not enter this city or shoot a single arrow against it. No soldiers with shields will come near the city, and no siege mounds will be built around it.

[19:33] He will go back by the same road he came, without entering this city. I, the Lord, have spoken.

[19:34] I will defend this city and protect it, for the sake of my own honor and because of the promise I made to my servant David.’”

[19:35] That night an angel of the Lord went to the Assyrian camp and killed 185,000 soldiers. At dawn the next day there they lay, all dead!

[19:36] Then the Assyrian emperor Sennacherib withdrew and returned to Nineveh.

[19:37] One day, when he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, two of his sons, Adrammelech and Sharezer, killed him with their swords and then escaped to the land of Ararat. Another of his sons, Esarhaddon, succeeded him as emperor.

[20:1] About this time King Hezekiah became sick and almost died. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz went to see him and said to him, “The Lord tells you that you are to put everything in order, because you will not recover. Get ready to die.”

[20:2] Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed:

[20:3] “Remember, Lord, that I have served you faithfully and loyally and that I have always tried to do what you wanted me to.” And he began to cry bitterly.

[20:4] Isaiah left the king, but before he had passed through the central courtyard of the palace the Lord told him

[20:5] to go back to Hezekiah, ruler of the Lord's people, and say to him, “I, the Lord, the God of your ancestor David, have heard your prayer and seen your tears. I will heal you, and in three days you will go to the Temple.

[20:6] I will let you live fifteen years longer. I will rescue you and this city Jerusalem from the emperor of Assyria. I will defend this city, for the sake of my own honor and because of the promise I made to my servant David.”

[20:7] Then Isaiah told the king's attendants to put on his boil a paste made of figs, and he would get well.

[20:8] King Hezekiah asked, “What is the sign to prove that the Lord will heal me and that three days later I will be able to go to the Temple?”

[20:9] Isaiah replied, “The Lord will give you a sign to prove that he will keep his promise. Now, would you prefer to have the shadow on the stairway go forward ten steps or go back ten steps?”

[20:10] Hezekiah answered, “It's easy to have the shadow go forward ten steps! Have it go back ten steps.”

[20:11] Isaiah prayed to the Lord, and the Lord made the shadow go back ten steps on the stairway set up by King Ahaz.

[20:12] About that same time the king of Babylonia, Merodach Baladan, the son of Baladan, heard that King Hezekiah had been sick, so he sent him a letter and a present.

[20:13] Hezekiah welcomed the messengers and showed them his wealth—his silver and gold, his spices and perfumes, and all his military equipment. There was nothing in his storerooms or anywhere in his kingdom that he did not show them.

[20:14] Then the prophet Isaiah went to King Hezekiah and asked, “Where did these men come from and what did they say to you?” Hezekiah answered, “They came from a very distant country, from Babylonia.”

[20:15] “What did they see in the palace?” “They saw everything. There is nothing in the storerooms that I didn't show them.”

[20:16] Isaiah then told the king, “The Lord Almighty says that

[20:17] a time is coming when everything in your palace, everything that your ancestors have stored up to this day, will be carried off to Babylonia. Nothing will be left.

[20:18] Some of your own direct descendants will be taken away and made eunuchs to serve in the palace of the king of Babylonia.”

[20:19] King Hezekiah understood this to mean that there would be peace and security during his lifetime, so he replied, “The message you have given me from the Lord is good.”

[20:20] Everything else that King Hezekiah did, his brave deeds, and an account of how he built a reservoir and dug a tunnel to bring water into the city, are all recorded in The History of the Kings of Judah.

[20:21] Hezekiah died, and his son Manasseh succeeded him as king.

[21:1] Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king of Judah, and he ruled in Jerusalem for fifty-five years. His mother was Hephzibah.

[21:2] Following the disgusting practices of the nations whom the Lord had driven out of the land as his people advanced, Manasseh sinned against the Lord.

[21:3] He rebuilt the pagan places of worship that his father Hezekiah had destroyed; he built altars for the worship of Baal and made an image of the goddess Asherah, as King Ahab of Israel had done. Manasseh also worshiped the stars.

[21:4] He built pagan altars in the Temple, the place that the Lord had said was where he should be worshiped.

[21:5] In the two courtyards of the Temple he built altars for the worship of the stars.

[21:6] He sacrificed his son as a burnt offering. He practiced divination and magic and consulted fortunetellers and mediums. He sinned greatly against the Lord and stirred up his anger.

[21:7] He placed the symbol of the goddess Asherah in the Temple, the place about which the Lord had said to David and his son Solomon: “Here in Jerusalem, in this Temple, is the place that I have chosen out of all the territory of the twelve tribes of Israel as the place where I am to be worshiped.

[21:8] And if the people of Israel will obey all my commands and keep the whole Law that my servant Moses gave them, then I will not allow them to be driven out of the land that I gave to their ancestors.”

[21:9] But the people of Judah did not obey the Lord, and Manasseh led them to commit even greater sins than those committed by the nations whom the Lord had driven out of the land as his people advanced.

[21:10] Through his servants the prophets the Lord said,

[21:11] “King Manasseh has done these disgusting things, things far worse than what the Canaanites did; and with his idols he has led the people of Judah into sin.

[21:12] So I, the Lord God of Israel, will bring such a disaster on Jerusalem and Judah that everyone who hears about it will be stunned.

[21:13] I will punish Jerusalem as I did Samaria, as I did King Ahab of Israel and his descendants. I will wipe Jerusalem clean of its people, as clean as a plate that has been wiped and turned upside down.

[21:14] I will abandon the people who survive, and will hand them over to their enemies, who will conquer them and plunder their land.

[21:15] I will do this to my people because they have sinned against me and have stirred up my anger from the time their ancestors came out of Egypt to this day.”

[21:16] Manasseh killed so many innocent people that the streets of Jerusalem were flowing with blood; he did this in addition to leading the people of Judah into idolatry, causing them to sin against the Lord.

[21:17] Everything else that Manasseh did, including the sins he committed, is recorded in The History of the Kings of Judah.

[21:18] Manasseh died and was buried in the palace garden, the garden of Uzza, and his son Amon succeeded him as king.

[21:19] Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king of Judah, and he ruled in Jerusalem for two years. His mother was Meshullemeth, the daughter of Haruz from the town of Jotbah.

[21:20] Like his father Manasseh, he sinned against the Lord;

[21:21] he imitated his father's actions, and he worshiped the idols that his father had worshiped.

[21:22] He rejected the Lord, the God of his ancestors, and disobeyed the Lord's commands.

[21:23] Amon's officials plotted against him and assassinated him in the palace.

[21:24] The people of Judah killed Amon's assassins and made his son Josiah king.

[21:25] Everything else that Amon did is recorded in The History of the Kings of Judah.

[21:26] Amon was buried in the tomb in the garden of Uzza, and his son Josiah succeeded him as king.

[22:1] Josiah was eight years old when he became king of Judah, and he ruled in Jerusalem for thirty-one years. His mother was Jedidah, the daughter of Adaiah from the town of Bozkath.

[22:2] Josiah did what was pleasing to the Lord; he followed the example of his ancestor King David, strictly obeying all the laws of God.

[22:3] In the eighteenth year of his reign, King Josiah sent the court secretary Shaphan, the son of Azaliah and grandson of Meshullam, to the Temple with the order:

[22:4] “Go to the High Priest Hilkiah and get a report on the amount of money that the priests on duty at the entrance to the Temple have collected from the people.

[22:5] Tell him to give the money to the men who are in charge of the repairs in the Temple. They are to pay

[22:6] the carpenters, the builders, and the masons, and buy the timber and the stones used in the repairs.

[22:7] The men in charge of the work are thoroughly honest, so there is no need to require them to account for the funds.”

[22:8] Shaphan delivered the king's order to Hilkiah, and Hilkiah told him that he had found the book of the Law in the Temple. Hilkiah gave him the book, and Shaphan read it.

[22:9] Then he went back to the king and reported: “Your servants have taken the money that was in the Temple and have handed it over to the men in charge of the repairs.”

[22:10] And then he said, “I have here a book that Hilkiah gave me.” And he read it aloud to the king.

[22:11] When the king heard the book being read, he tore his clothes in dismay,

[22:12] and gave the following order to Hilkiah the priest, to Ahikam son of Shaphan, to Achbor son of Micaiah, to Shaphan, the court secretary, and to Asaiah, the king's attendant:

[22:13] “Go and consult the Lord for me and for all the people of Judah about the teachings of this book. The Lord is angry with us because our ancestors have not done what this book says must be done.”

[22:14] Hilkiah, Ahikam, Achbor, Shaphan, and Asaiah went to consult a woman named Huldah, a prophet who lived in the newer part of Jerusalem. (Her husband Shallum, the son of Tikvah and grandson of Harhas, was in charge of the Temple robes.) They described to her what had happened,

[22:15] and she told them to go back to the king and give him

[22:16] the following message from the Lord: “I am going to punish Jerusalem and all its people, as written in the book that the king has read.

[22:17] They have rejected me and have offered sacrifices to other gods, and so have stirred up my anger by all they have done. My anger is aroused against Jerusalem, and it will not die down.

[22:18] As for the king himself, this is what I, the Lord God of Israel, say: You listened to what is written in the book,

[22:19] and you repented and humbled yourself before me, tearing your clothes and weeping, when you heard how I threatened to punish Jerusalem and its people. I will make it a terrifying sight, a place whose name people will use as a curse. But I have heard your prayer,

[22:20] and the punishment which I am going to bring on Jerusalem will not come until after your death. I will let you die in peace.” The men returned to King Josiah with this message.

[23:1] King Josiah summoned all the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem,

[23:2] and together they went to the Temple, accompanied by the priests and the prophets and all the rest of the people, rich and poor alike. Before them all the king read aloud the whole book of the covenant which had been found in the Temple.

[23:3] He stood by the royal column and made a covenant with the Lord to obey him, to keep his laws and commands with all his heart and soul, and to put into practice the demands attached to the covenant, as written in the book. And all the people promised to keep the covenant.

[23:4] Then Josiah ordered the High Priest Hilkiah, his assistant priests, and the guards on duty at the entrance to the Temple to bring out of the Temple all the objects used in the worship of Baal, of the goddess Asherah, and of the stars. The king burned all these objects outside the city near Kidron Valley and then had the ashes taken to Bethel.

[23:5] He removed from office the priests that the kings of Judah had ordained to offer sacrifices on the pagan altars in the cities of Judah and in places near Jerusalem—all the priests who offered sacrifices to Baal, to the sun, the moon, the planets, and the stars.

[23:6] He removed from the Temple the symbol of the goddess Asherah, took it out of the city to Kidron Valley, burned it, pounded its ashes to dust, and scattered it over the public burying ground.

[23:7] He destroyed the living quarters in the Temple occupied by the temple prostitutes. (It was there that women wove robes used in the worship of Asherah.)

[23:8] He brought to Jerusalem the priests who were in the cities of Judah, and throughout the whole country he desecrated the altars where they had offered sacrifices. He also tore down the altars dedicated to the goat demons near the gate built by Joshua, the city governor, which was to the left of the main gate as one enters the city.

[23:9] Those priests were not allowed to serve in the Temple, but they could eat the unleavened bread provided for their fellow priests.

[23:10] King Josiah also desecrated Topheth, the pagan place of worship in Hinnom Valley, so that no one could sacrifice his son or daughter as a burnt offering to the god Molech.

[23:11] He also removed the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the worship of the sun, and he burned the chariots used in this worship. (These were kept in the temple courtyard, near the gate and not far from the living quarters of Nathan Melech, a high official.)

[23:12] The altars which the kings of Judah had built on the palace roof above King Ahaz' quarters, King Josiah tore down, along with the altars put up by King Manasseh in the two courtyards of the Temple; he smashed the altars to bits and threw them into Kidron Valley.

[23:13] Josiah desecrated the altars that King Solomon had built east of Jerusalem, south of the Mount of Olives, for the worship of disgusting idols—Astarte the goddess of Sidon, Chemosh the god of Moab, and Molech the god of Ammon.

[23:14] King Josiah broke the stone pillars to pieces, cut down the symbols of the goddess Asherah, and the ground where they had stood he covered with human bones.

[23:15] Josiah also tore down the place of worship in Bethel, which had been built by King Jeroboam son of Nebat, who led Israel into sin. Josiah pulled down the altar, broke its stones into pieces, and pounded them to dust; he also burned the image of Asherah.

[23:16] Then Josiah looked around and saw some tombs there on the hill; he had the bones taken out of them and burned on the altar. In this way he desecrated the altar, doing what the prophet had predicted long before during the festival as King Jeroboam was standing by the altar. King Josiah looked around and saw the tomb of the prophet who had made this prediction.

[23:17] “Whose tomb is that?” he asked. The people of Bethel answered, “It is the tomb of the prophet who came from Judah and predicted these things that you have done to this altar.”

[23:18] “Leave it as it is,” Josiah ordered. “His bones are not to be moved.” So his bones were not moved, neither were those of the prophet who had come from Samaria.

[23:19] In every city of Israel King Josiah tore down all the pagan places of worship which had been built by the kings of Israel, who thereby aroused the Lord's anger. He did to all those altars what he had done in Bethel.

[23:20] He killed all the pagan priests on the altars where they served, and he burned human bones on every altar. Then he returned to Jerusalem.

[23:21] King Josiah ordered the people to celebrate the Passover in honor of the Lord their God, as written in the book of the covenant.

[23:22] No Passover like this one had ever been celebrated by any of the kings of Israel or of Judah, since the time when judges ruled the nation.

[23:23] Now at last, in the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah, the Passover was celebrated in Jerusalem.