32 In the second year of Remalyah’s son Pekah’s reign over Israel, Azaryah’s son Yotam began to reign over Yehudah. 33 He was twenty-five when he became king, and he reigned from Yerushalem for sixteen years. (His mother’s name was Yerusha, the daughter of Tsadok.) 34 He did what Yahweh had said was correct behaviour like his father Azaryah/Uzziyyah had done, 35 although the hilltop shrines weren’t removed—the people continued to sacrifice at them and burn incense. Yotam built the upper gate to Yahweh’s temple.

36 Everything else that Yotam said and did is written in the book of the events of the kings of Yehudah. 37 In those days, Yahweh began to send Aram’s King Retsin and Remalyah’s son Pekah against Yehudah. 38 Then Yotam died and was buried in their ancestral tomb in the city of his ancestor David, and his son Ahaz replaced him as king.

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16 In the seventeenth year of Remaliah’s son Pekah’s reign over Israel, Yotam’s son Ahaz began to reign over Yehudah. 2 Ahaz was twenty when he became king and he reigned from Yerushalem for sixteen years, but he didn’t follow what his God Yahweh had said was correct behaviour like his ancestor David had done. 3 Actually he followed the behaviour of the kings of Israel, and he even sacrificed his son as a burnt offering like they do in the nations that Yahweh hated and which Yahweh had driven out of the land as the Israelis had entered.[ref] 4 Also he sacrificed on the hilltop shrines and burnt incense on them, and on the hills and under every large tree.

5 Then Aram’s King Retsin and Israel’s King Pekah (Remalyah’s son) came uphill to attack Yerushalem, and they layed siege against King Ahaz but they weren’t able to conquer the city.[ref] 6 At that time, Aram’s King Retsin recaptured Elat City for Aram, then he drove the Judeans out of Elat and Arameans moved in instead and they have lived there to this day. 7 So Ahaz sent messengers to Assyria’s King Tiglat-Pileser, “I’m your servant and your son. Come up and rescue me from the kings of Aram and Israel who’re here attacking me.” 8 Ahaz took the gold and silver from Yahweh’s temple and from the palace treasuries, and sent it as a gift to the Assyrian king. 9 The king of Assyria listened to him and went in and attacked Damascus, and he captured it and exiled its people to Kir, and he executed King Retsin.

10 King Ahaz went to meet the Assyrian King Tiglat-Pileser in Damascus, and he saw the altar that was there. So he sent a drawing and the detailed measurements of the altar to the priest Uriyyah. 11 So Uriyyah built the altar according to the plans that King Ahaz had sent from Damascus and had it finished before King Ahaz returned from Damascus. 12 When the king got back to Yerushalem and saw the altar, he went up onto it 13 and made his burnt offering and his grain offering, and he poured out his drink offering, and he sprinkled the blood of his peace offerings onto the altar. 14 He got the bronze altar that had been dedicated to Yahweh moved back away from the temple and placed beside the newer, bigger altar.[ref] 15 Then King Ahaz ordered Urriyah, “Use the large altar for the morning burnt offerings and the evening grain offerings, and for the king’s burnt offerings and grain offerings, and for the people’s burnt offerings and grain offerings and drink offerings. Use it for sprinkling all the blood of the burnt offerings and of the sacrifices on. But I will use the bronze altar for seeking guidance.” 16 So Uriyyah the priest put everything into effect that King Ahaz had commanded.

17 Then King Ahaz cut the frames off the stands outside the temple, and he removed the basins off them. He took down ‘The Sea’ that had been sitting on top of bronze bulls and put it on the stone floor.[ref] 18 He also removed the canopy that had been built at the temple for use on the Rest Days, and blocked up the king’s outer entrance to the temple so that the Assyrian king couldn’t use it.

19 Everything else that Ahaz said and did is written in the book of the events of the kings of Yehudah. 20 Then Ahaz died and was buried in their ancestral tomb in the city of David, and his son Hizkiyyah (Hezekiah) replaced him as king.[ref]

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18 In the third year of Elah’s son King Hoshea’s reign over Israel, Ahaz’s son Hizkiyyah (Hezekiah) became king of Yehudah. 2 He was twenty-five when he became king and he reigned from Yerushalem for twenty-nine years. (His mother was Zekaryah’s daughter Abi.) 3 He did what Yahweh had said was correct behaviour like his ancestor King David had done. 4 He demolished the hilltop shrines and shattered their pillars, and he cut down the Asherah poles. He crushed the bronze serpent that Mosheh had made, because the Israelis had named it ‘Nehushtan’ and had been offering incense to it until then.[ref] 5 Hizkiyyah fully trusted in Israel’s God Yahweh, and no other king was like him among all the kings of Yehudah that either preceded or followed him. 6 He relied completely on Yahweh—not turning away from folowing him, and he obeyed the instructions that Yahweh had commanded Mosheh. 7 So Yahweh helped him and he was successful in everything he did. He rebelled against the Assyrian king and refused to submit to his demands. 8 He attacked and defeated the Philistines as far as Gaza and its borders—both the smaller towns and the fortified city.

9 Then in the fourth year of King Hizkiyyah’s reign (it was the seventh year of Elah’s son Hoshea’s reign over Israel), the Assyrian King Shalmaneser had attacked Shomron (Samaria) and besieged it. 10 They had finally captured the city after three years. That was the sixth year of Hizkiyyah’s reign over Yehudah and the ninth year of Hoshea’s reign over Israel. 11 So that was when the Assyrian king had exiled the people of the northern kingdom of Israel to Halah and to Havor along the Gozan River, and to the cities of the Medes. 12 That happened because they didn’t obey their God Yahweh, but instead they broke the agreement with him—everything that Yahweh’s servant Mosheh had commanded. They didn’t take notice of it and they didn’t obey it.

13 In the fourteenth year of King Hizkiyyah’s reign, Assyrian King Sanheriv attacked all the fortified cities in Yehudah and captured them. 14 So King Hizkiyyah of Yehudah sent messengers to the Assyrian king at Lakish, saying, “I apologise for my mistake. Stop attacking me and I’ll give you whatever you demand of us.” Then the Assyrian king demanded a tribute of ten tonnes of gold and ten tonnes of silver. 15 So Hizkiyyah gave him all the silver out of the temple and from the palace treasuries. 16 He cut the doors off Yahweh’s temple and the pillars that he’d overlaid gold onto, and gave them to the Assyrian king.

17 However, the Assyrian king still sent his general and some of his top officials from Lakish to King Hezekiah in Yerushalem. They arrived at Yerushalem with a large army and camped by the aquifer supplying the upper pool that was near the field where the people washed their clothes. 18 They called out to the king, and Hilkiyyah’s son Elyakim who was the palace manager, and the scribe Shebna, and Asaf’s son Yoah the secretary, went out to them.

19 Then the top Assyrian commander said to them, “Now, tell Hizkiyyah that the great Assyrian king asks him who he think’s he’s trusting in. 20 He claims to be powerful enough to fight us. Who is he trusting to help you all that gives you confidence to rebel against us? 21 Listen, your king’s trusting in a broken stick to lean on which will just splinter and pierce his hand. That’s what King Far-oh of Egypt is like to everyone who puts their trust in him. 22 Ah, but he might tell me that he’s trusting in your god Yahweh to help you all. If so, I’d ask him if he isn’t the one whose hilltop shrines King Hizkiyyah demolished when he told you people in Yerushalem and all Yehudah that you have to worship at the altar there?

23 “So now ask your king if he’ll make a deal with my master, the king of Assyria: He’ll give you two thousand horses, on the condition that you can supply two thousand horsemen who can ride them. 24 If you can’t do that, how could you all possibly repel even one of our army units? Haha, but of course you trust in Egypt to supply chariots and horsemen. 25 Do you think that we have come here to destroy this place without Yahweh’s permission? No, no, it was Yahweh himself who told us to attack and destroy you.”

26 But Elyakim and Shebna and Yoah asked the Assyrian commander, “Please speak Aramaic to your servants because we understand it. Don’t speak our language because our people on the nearby city wall will be able to understand it.”

27 “Ha ha, do you think my master sent this message just to you three and your king?” he replied. “No, don’t you think that this message is also for the hungry people sitting on the wall who’ll soon have to eat their own dung and drink their own urine along with you?”

28 Then he stood up and called out loudly in Hebrew, “Everyone listen to what the great king from Assyria says: 29 He’s warning you all not to let Hizkiyyah deceive you, because he unable to save you all from our army. 30 And don’t let him force you all to trust in Yahweh thinking that we won’t capture your city and that Yahweh will somehow rescue you all. 31 Don’t listen to Hizkiyyah because the Assyrian king is offering you all a chance to come out of the city and surrender. In exchange for saving me some trouble, you’ll be able to drink fresh water again and enjoy the fruit off your own trees out here 32 until he comes here. Then he’ll take you to another country like your own—with grain and wine, and bread and vineyards, olive oil and honey. That way you’ll live and not die of starvation. So don’t listen to Hizkiyyah when he misleads you saying that Yahweh will rescue you all.” 33 Did the gods of any of the other countries rescue their people from the power of the Assyrian king? 34 Where were the gods of Hamat and Arpad? Where were the gods of Sefarvayim, Hena, and Ivvah? Were they able to save Shomron from the king’s power? 35 From all the other countries, which of their gods was able to save their people, that might give confidence that Yahweh might be able to rescue Yerushalem from the king’s power?”

36 But the people on the wall listening remained silent—they didn’t say a word because the king had already ordered them not to answer the Assyrians. 37 Then Hilkiyyah’s son Elyakim the palace manager, Shebna the scribe and Asaf’s son Yoah the secretary went back in the city to Hizkiyyah, tearing their clothes as they went, and they relayed the words of the chief commander to him.

19 When King Hizkiyyah heard the threats from the Assyrian king, he tore his clothes and dressed in sackcloth, and went into Yahweh’s temple. 2 He sent his palace manager Elyakim and the scribe Shebna, along with the elders of the priests, all dressed in sackcloth, to Amots’s son Yeshayah (Isaiah) the prophet 3 to tell him, “Hizkiyyah says: ‘Today is a day of distress and rebuke and disgrace, as if the baby is right there ready to be delivered, but the mother has lost all her strength. 4 Perhaps your God Yahweh has heard everything that the chief commander said when his master the Assyrian king sent him: he defied the living God, and so maybe your God Yahweh will punish him for his words. Lift up a prayer on behalf of the people that are still left here.’ ”

5 When King Hizkiyyah’s servants got to Yeshayah, 6 he told them, “This is what you all should tell your master: Yahweh says that you needn’t be afraid of what you heard when those young men from the Assyrian king insulted him. 7 Listen, Yahweh will cause him to hear a report and he’ll place a fearful spirit in him so he’ll decide to return to his own country where he’ll be assassinated.”

8 When the chief commander returned to the Assyrian king, he discovered that they’d pulled out of Lakish and were now fighting against Livnah city. 9 Then the king heard that the Ethiopian King Tirhakah was preparing to attack, so he decided to return home but he sent messengers to Hizkiyyah to say, 10 “Tell Yehudah’s King Hizkiyyah not to let the God he trusts in deceive him by telling him that Yerushalem won’t be captured by the king of Assyria. 11 Tell him that he must have heard how the Assyrian armies have completely devastated other countries, so he shouldn’t think that he will be saved from it. 12 The gods of the countries destroyed by my ancestors never saved them—those in Gozan, Haran, Retsef, or Eden’s descendants in Telassar. 13 Where’s the king of Hamat, or the king of Arpad, or the kings of the cities of Sefarvayim, Hena, or Ivvah now?”

14 Hizkiyyah took the letter that the messengers had brought and read it, then he went up to the temple and spread it out in front of Yahweh 15 and prayed to him, “Yahweh the God of Israel, who lives above the winged creatures. You alone are God—the one over all the kingdoms of the earth. You yourself made the heavens and the earth.[ref] 16 Lean this way, Yahweh, and look, and listen to Sanheriv’s words mocking the living God. 17 Yes Yahweh, the Assyrian kings have certainly destroyed many countries and their lands. 18 The Assyrians burnt the peoples’ gods because they weren’t living gods, but rather gods of wood and stone made by people and they’ve destroyed them. 19 But now Yahweh our God, please save us, from his army, then all the kingdoms in the world will know that you, Yahweh, are God—you alone.”

20 Then Amots’s son Yeshayah (Isaiah) sent this message to Hizkiyyah: Israel’s God Yahweh says, “Because you prayed to me concerning the Assyrian King Sanheriv, I have listened. 21 This is what Yahweh says about that king:

Tsiyyon’s daughter despises you and derides you.

≈Yerushalem’s daughter shakes her head at you.

22 Who did you think you were teasing and insulting?

Who did you think you were shouting at?

Did you raise your eyebrows against Israel’s holy one.

23 You sent messengers that mocked me.

You said that you went over the highest mountains with your many chariots.

≈That you went to the highest parts of Lebanon and harvested its tallest cedars—its best trees.

That you’ve been to the end of the inhabited world with its densest forest.

24 You said that you’ve dug wells far away and drunk their water,

yet with your own feet you dried up all of Egypt’s rivers.

25 Haven’t you heard that I made plans long ago—

that what I previously planned, I’m now making it happen?

Fortified cities will collapse into heaps of rubble.

26 Their inhabitants will be powerless—dismayed and ashamed.

They’ll be as vulnerable as plants in the countryside,

or like the grass that grows on the rooftops—

they wilt and wither before they can grow tall. DOUBLE-CHECK

27 Yes, I know when you sit down and when you go out.

When you come in and rage against me.

28 Because you’ve raged against me and your arrogance has come to my ears,

I’ll put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth,

and I’ll lead you back on the road that you came here on.

29 “So this will be a sign to you Hizkiyyah:

This year you’ll eat what grew by itself,

and next year whatever seeded by itself,

but in the third year you’ll sow crops and plant vineyards, and eat what you harvest.

30 Yehudah’s surviving descendants will send their roots downwards and will produce fruit above,

31 because a remnant will survive Yerushalem’s siege,

≈and Mt. Tsiyyon will have survivors

because Yahweh’s enthusiasm will make sure it happens.

32 “So this is what Yahweh says to the Assyrian king:

He won’t enter this city or shoot an arrow into it.

He won’t push a large shield towards it or make a ramp up into it.

33 He’ll return on the same road that he arrived on,

and Yahweh declares that he won’t enter this city,

34 because Yahweh will defend this city

to save it for his own sake

and for the sake of his servant David.”

35 That very night, Yahweh sent an angel out to kill 185,000 warriors, so when the army got up early the next morning there were dead bodies all over the place. 36 So the Assyrian King Sanheriv pulled out and went back to live in Nineveh. 37 While he was bowing in the temple of his god Nisrok, Adrammelek and Sharezer ran him through with a sword before escaping to the Ararat region, and so his son Esarhaddon replaced him as king.

20 By that time, King Hizkiyyah was terminally ill and Amots’s son the prophet Yeshayah (Isaiah) came to him and told him, “Yahweh says to get your affairs in order because you’re dying and won’t recover.”

2 But Hizkiyyah rolled over to face the wall and prayed to Yahweh, 3 “Oh Yahweh, please remember that I’ve served you faithfully, and done what you asked with total sincerity.” Then Hezekiah cried loudly.

4 As Yeshayah was leaving, Yahweh gave him this message before he’d even reached the middle courtyard, 5 “Go back and tell Hizkiyyah, the leader of my people, ‘Your ancestor David’s God Yahweh says that he’s heard your prayer and seen your tears. He’s decided to heal you and you’ll be well enough to go to the temple within three days. 6 He’s added fifteen years to your life, plus he’ll rescue you and this city from the Assyrian king. Yahweh will defend Yerushalem for his own sake and for the sake of his servant David.”

7 Then Yeshayah told them to bring some pressed figs, and they brought them and placed them on the sore, and Hizkiyyah started getting better.

8 Hezekiah asked Yeshayah, “What’s the sign that Yahweh will heal me and that I’ll be able to go to the temple on the third day?”

9 “Yes, Yahweh will give you a sign that he’ll do what he said,” Yeshayah replied. “Do you want the shadows to advance suddenly or go back?”

10 “It’s easy for the shadows go forward,” said Hizkiyyah. “So make them go backwards ten steps.”

11 So the prophet Yeshayah called to Yahweh, and he made the shadow go back on the steps made by King Ahaz—the shadow went ten steps backward.

12 At that time, Baladan’s son former King Berodak-Baladan of Babylon heard that Hizkiyyah was sick and sent him letters and a gift. 13 When the messengers arrived, Hizkiyyah listened to them, then he showed them his entire treasure house: the gold and silver, the spices and the best oil, the house of his armour, and everything that was in his treasuries. He didn’t keep anything in his palace or in his kingdom secret from them. 14 Later the prophet Yeshayah came to King Hezekiah and he asked him, “Where were those men from and what did they say?”

“They came from a distant land—from Babylon,” he replied.

15 “What did they see in your house?” Yeshayah asked.

“They saw everything that’s in my house,” he replied. “There wasn’t anything in my treasuries that I didn’t show them.”

16 Then Yeshayah told Hizkiyyah, “Listen to Yahweh’s message: 17 He says that days are coming when everything in your house, and everything that your ancestors stored carefully away until this day will be carried to Babylon. Nothing will be left behind.[ref] 18 What’s more, some of your own biological descendants will be taken and they’ll be castrated to become servants of the Babylonian king.”

19 “What you said from Yahweh is fine,” Hizkiyyah replied to Yeshayah. “At least I might have peace and stability in my time.”

20 Everything else that Hizkiyyah said and did, including his making the pool and tunnel to bring water into the city, is written in the book of the events of the kings of Yehudah. 21 In due course, Hizkiyyah died and his son Menashsheh replaced him as king.

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