Through My Bible Yr 01 – November 20

Isaiah Heals Hezekiah

2 Kings 20

¹ In those days Hezekiah became sick and was dying. Then the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz came to him and said, “This is what the Lord says. Give instructions to your house because you are going to die. You will not recover.”

² Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, saying, ³ “Please, O Lord, remember how I have walked before you in truth and with a whole heart and have done what is good in your eyes.” Hezekiah wept bitterly.

⁴ Isaiah had not yet gone out from the middle courtyard when the word of the Lord came to him:

⁷ Then Isaiah said, “Get a cake of figs.” So they got it and put it on the infected sore, and Hezekiah recovered.

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

⁹ Isaiah said, “This will be a sign for you from the Lord that the Lord will do the thing which he said. Shall the shadow extend forward over ten more steps, or shall it move backwards ten steps?”

¹⁰ Hezekiah said, “It’s easy for the shadow to get longer and cover ten more steps. Instead, have it go back ten steps.”

¹¹ Then the prophet Isaiah called out to the Lord, and he caused the shadow, which had gone down on the steps of Ahaz, to go backwards ten steps.

Envoys From Babylon

¹² At that time, Merodak Baladan ^[1] son of Baladan, the king of Babylon, sent letters and a gift to Hezekiah because he heard that Hezekiah had been sick. ¹³ Hezekiah heard the envoys and showed them all his palace treasuries, the silver, the gold, the spices, the fine oil, the armory, and all that was found in his treasuries. There was nothing which Hezekiah did not show them in his palace or in his whole kingdom.

¹⁴ Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah and said, “What did these men say, and where did they come from?”

Hezekiah said, “From a distant land—they came from Babylon.”

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

Hezekiah said, “They saw everything in my palace. There is nothing in my treasuries which they did not see.”

¹⁶ Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the Lord. ¹⁷ Listen carefully! The days are coming when whatever is in your palace, everything which your fathers have stored up to this day, will be taken to Babylon. Not a thing will be left behind, says the Lord. ¹⁸ And some of your sons, your own descendants, whom you fathered, will be taken away and will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.”

¹⁹ Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of the Lord which you have spoken is good.” He said, “Won’t there be peace and security in my days?”

(2 Chronicles 32:32-33)

²⁰ As for the rest of Hezekiah’s acts and all his mighty deeds, how he made the pool and the channel and brought water into the city, are they not written in the annals of the kings of Judah? ²¹ Hezekiah rested with his fathers. Then his son Manasseh became king in his place.

Manasseh Son of Hezekiah, King of Judah

2 Kings 21

¹ Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned for fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hephzibah.

² He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, following the disgusting practices of the nations which the Lord had driven out before the people of Israel. ³ He rebuilt the high places which his father Hezekiah had destroyed. He erected altars to Baal and made an Asherah pole, just as Ahab king of Israel had done. He bowed down to the whole army of the heavens, ^[2] and he served them. ⁴ He built altars in the House of the Lord, about which the Lord had said, “In Jerusalem I will put my name.” ⁵ He built altars to all the army of the heavens in the two courtyards of the House of the Lord.

⁶ He made his son pass through the fire. He practiced fortune telling and sought omens and dealt with mediums and spiritists. He greatly increased the evil he did in the eyes of the Lord and provoked him to anger.

⁷ He put an image of Asherah, which he had made, into the house about which the Lord said to David and to his son Solomon, “In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen from all the tribes of Israel, I will put my Name forever. ⁸ I will not make the feet of Israel wander again from the land which I gave to their fathers, if they will just be careful to do whatever I commanded them and to observe the whole law which my servant Moses commanded them.” ⁹ But they did not listen. Manasseh led them astray so that they did more evil than the nations whom the Lord exterminated before the people of Israel.

God’s Judgment on Manasseh

¹⁰ Then the Lord said through his prophets:

¹⁶ Manasseh also shed so much innocent blood that he filled Jerusalem from end to end. This was in addition to the sin which he caused Judah to commit, so that they did what is evil in the eyes of the Lord.

¹⁷ As for the rest of Manasseh’s acts, everything he did and the sin he committed, are they not written in the annals of the kings of Judah? ¹⁸ Manasseh rested with his fathers, and he was buried in the garden of his palace, in the garden of Uzza. Then his son Amon became king in his place.

Amon Son of Manasseh, King of Judah

¹⁹ Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king and he ruled for two years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Meshullemeth daughter of Haruz from Jotbah.

²⁰ He did what was evil in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father Manasseh had done. ²¹ He walked in all the ways in which his father had walked, and he served the filthy idols which his father had served, and he worshipped them. ²² He abandoned the Lord, the God of his fathers, and he did not walk in the way of the Lord.

²³ Amon’s servants conspired against him, and they killed the king in his palace. ²⁴ Then the people of the land struck down all those who had conspired against King Amon, and they made his son Josiah king in his place.

²⁵ As for the rest of Amon’s acts, the things he did, are they not written in the annals of the kings of Judah? ²⁶ They buried him in his own tomb in the garden of Uzza. Then his son Josiah became king in his place.