2 Kings Chapter 20

Hezekiah’s Illness

¹ At that time, Hezekiah became deathly ill, and Isaiah came to tell him, “Yahveh says to set your house in order; you’re going to die.”

² He turned his face to the wall and prayed, ³ “Remember how I’ve lived in your presence honestly with all my heart. I’ve done what you considered good.” He cried bitterly. ⁴ Before Isaiah had left the middle court, a message came to him,

⁵ “Go back and tell Hezekiah, the leader of my people, that Yahveh God of his ancestor David, says, ‘I’ve heard your prayer and seen your tears. I’ll heal you. In three days, you’ll go up to my^Y Temple. ⁶ I’ll add 15 years to your life and deliver you and this city from the king of Assyria. I’ll defend it for my own honor and David’s sake.’”

⁷ Then Isaiah told them to prepare a cake of figs and apply it to the boil. He recovered.

⁸ Hezekiah said, “What’s the sign that Yahveh will heal me, and that I’ll go up to Yahveh’s Temple the third day?”

⁹ “Choose the sign: the shadow going forward ten steps or back ten steps?”

¹⁰ “It’s easy for it to lengthen ten steps. Let it go back ten steps.”

¹¹ Isaiah cried out to Yahveh and brought the shadow on Ahaz’s stairway back ten steps from where it had gone down.   2 Kg 20:1-11

Envoys from Babylon

¹² At that time, Merodach-baladan Ben-Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a gift to Hezekiah because he’d heard he was sick. ¹³ He received the ambassadors and showed them his treasure house, the silver, gold, spices, precious oil, his armor house, and everything in his treasuries. There wasn’t anything in his palace or dominion that he didn’t show them. ¹⁴ Then Isaiah came, “What did those men say? Where did they come from?”

“From a distant Babylon.”

¹⁵ “What have they seen in your palace?”

“I showed them everything in my treasures.”

¹⁶ Isaiah said,

“Listen to a message from Yahveh. ¹⁷ The time’s coming when everything in your palace that your ancestors have stored up will be carried off to Babylon. ¹⁸ Some of your own sons will be taken away to become officials in the king’s palace there.”

¹⁹ Hezekiah said, “Yahveh’s message is good.” He thought to himself, “At least there’ll be peace and truth while I’m alive.” ²⁰ The rest of the acts of Hezekiah and the strength of his rule—how he made the pool and conduit to bring water into the city—are recorded in The Chronicles of the Kings of Judah. ²¹ He died and his son Manasseh became king.                             2 Kg 20:12-21