UST 2 KI Chapter 20

◄ 2 KI 20 ► ║ ═ ©

20 Around that time, Hezekiah became so sick that he was in danger of dying. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz came to him and told him, “Yahweh says that you should tell the people in your palace what you want them to do after you die. You should do that because you are not going to recover from this illness. Instead, you are going to die.” 2 Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall so that he could have privacy and prayed to Yahweh. He said, 3 “Yahweh, please do not forget that I have served you loyally and I have devoted myself entirely to you. I have done things that pleased you.” Then Hezekiah started to cry loudly. 4 Isaiah left the king, but before he had crossed the middle courtyard of the palace, Yahweh gave him a message. He said, 5 “Go back to Hezekiah, the king of Judah, and tell him that I, Yahweh, the God whom his ancestor King David worshiped, have heard what he prayed. I have seen how he has been crying. Tell him that I will heal him. Two days from now, he will be able to go to my temple. 6 Tell him that I will enable him to live for 15 more years. Promise him that I will prevent the king of Assyria from defeating him and conquering this city. I will defend this city to show that I am the one true God and because of what I promised to my servant David.” 7 Isaiah came back and told Hezekiah what Yahweh had said, then he told Hezekiah’s servants, “Make a paste from figs.” The servants made the fig paste and put it on the sore place on Hezekiah’s body. Then he recovered.

8 Hezekiah had asked Isaiah when he told him that Yahweh would heal him, “Will Yahweh please give me a sign to show that he is going to heal me and that two days from now I will be able to go to his temple?” 9 Isaiah had replied, “Yahweh will do something that will prove to you that he will do what he promised. The shadow has gone ten steps down the stairway that serves as a sundial. Do you want him to make it go back up those ten steps?” 10 Hezekiah replied, “It would be easy to move the shadow farther down the steps because that is how it always moves. So do not ask Yahweh to do that. Instead, ask him to make it go back up those ten steps.” 11 So Isaiah prayed earnestly to Yahweh, and Yahweh caused the shadow to go ten steps back up the stairs that King Ahaz had his workers build as a sundial.

12 Berodach Baladan had become the king of Babylon after his father Baladan died. Around this time, he learned that King Hezekiah had been very sick. So he sent messengers to him. They brought a gift to Hezekiah, along with a letter that said how glad Berodach Baladan was that Hezekiah had recovered. 13 When the messengers arrived, Hezekiah listened when they read the letter to him from Berodach Baladan. Then he showed them all the valuable possessions he was keeping in his palace. He showed them the silver and the gold, the spices, the special olive oil, and the weapons for his soldiers. He showed them all the valuable things that were in his storerooms and in other places in his kingdom. 14 Then the prophet Isaiah went to Hezekiah and asked him, “Where did those men come from, and what did they say to you?” Hezekiah replied, “They came from a country that is far from here. They came from Babylon.” 15 Isaiah asked, “What did they see in your palace?” Hezekiah replied, “I showed them everything in my palace. I showed them all the valuable things that are in my storerooms.”

16 Then Isaiah told him, “Yahweh is telling you 17 that there will be a time when the Babylonian army will take away all the valuable things in your palace. That includes the things that your ancestors have put there over the years. They will leave nothing valuable here. This is what Yahweh is telling you. 18 He is also telling you that the Babylonian army will force some of your own descendants to go to Babylon. There they will be eunuchs in the royal palace.” 19 Then Hezekiah replied to Isaiah, “I accept what Yahweh has said in the message you have delivered.” He said that because he was thinking, “Even if that happens, the people of my kingdom will live peacefully and safely for as long as I am alive.” 20 The book in which the kings of Judah recorded what happened during their reigns describes further things that Hezekiah did, including the victories that his armies won. That book also describes how he had his workers build a reservoir in the city and a tunnel to bring water into that reservoir. 21 When Hezekiah died, his son Manasseh became the next king of Judah.

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UST 2 KI Chapter 20

UST 2 KI Chapter 20