2 Chronicles 32:1-33:13

21st Century King James Version

32 After these things and the establishment thereof, Sennacherib king of Assyria came and entered into Judah, and encamped against the fortified cities, and thought to win them for himself.

² And when Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib had come, and that he was purposed to fight against Jerusalem,

³ he took counsel with his princes and his mighty men to stop the waters of the fountains which were outside the city; and they helped him.

⁴ So there were gathered many people together, who stopped all the fountains and the brook that ran through the midst of the land, saying, “Why should the kings of Assyria come and find much water?”

⁵ Also he strengthened himself, and built up all the wall that was broken, and raised it up to the towers, and another wall outside, and repaired Millo in the City of David, and made darts and shields in abundance.

⁶ And he set captains of war over the people, and gathered them together to him in the street of the gate of the city, and spoke comfortingly to them, saying,

⁷ “Be strong and courageous. Be not afraid nor dismayed by the king of Assyria and all the multitude that is with him, for there are more with us than with him.

⁸ With him is an arm of flesh, but with us is the Lord our God to help us and to fight our battles.” And the people rested themselves upon the words of Hezekiah king of Judah.

⁹ After this Sennacherib king of Assyria sent his servants to Jerusalem (but he himself laid siege against Lachish, and all his power with him) unto Hezekiah king of Judah, and unto all Judah who were at Jerusalem, saying,

¹⁰ “Thus saith Sennacherib king of Assyria: ‘Whereon do ye trust, that ye abide in the siege in Jerusalem?

¹¹ Doth not Hezekiah persuade you to give yourselves over to die by famine and by thirst, saying, “The Lord our God shall deliver us out of the hand of the king of Assyria”?

¹² Hath not the same Hezekiah taken away his high places and his altars, and commanded Judah and Jerusalem, saying, “Ye shall worship before one altar and burn incense upon it”?

¹³ Know ye not what I and my fathers have done unto all the people of other lands? Were the gods of the nations of those lands any way able to deliver their lands out of mine hand?

¹⁴ Who was there among all the gods of those nations that my fathers utterly destroyed that could deliver his people out of mine hand, that your God should be able to deliver you out of mine hand?

¹⁵ Now therefore let not Hezekiah deceive you nor persuade you on this manner, neither yet believe him; for no god of any nation or kingdom was able to deliver his people out of mine hand and out of the hand of my fathers. How much less shall your God deliver you out of mine hand?’”

¹⁶ And his servants spoke yet more against the Lord God and against his servant Hezekiah.

¹⁷ He wrote also letters to rail at the Lord God of Israel and to speak against Him, saying, “As the gods of the nations of other lands have not delivered their people out of mine hand, so shall not the God of Hezekiah deliver his people out of mine hand.”

¹⁸ Then they cried with a loud voice in the Jews’ speech unto the people of Jerusalem who were on the wall to frighten them and to trouble them, that they might take the city.

¹⁹ And they spoke against the God of Jerusalem as against the gods of the people of the earth, which were the work of the hands of man.

²⁰ And for this cause Hezekiah the king and the prophet Isaiah, the son of Amoz, prayed and cried to heaven.

²¹ And the Lord sent an angel who cut off all the mighty men of valor, and the leaders and captains in the camp of the king of Assyria. So he returned with shame of face to his own land. And when he had come into the house of his god, those who came forth from his own loins slew him there with the sword.

²² Thus the Lord saved Hezekiah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem from the hand of Sennacherib the king of Assyria and from the hand of all others, and guided them on every side.

²³ And many brought gifts unto the Lord to Jerusalem, and presents to Hezekiah king of Judah, so that he was magnified in the sight of all nations from thenceforth.

²⁴ In those days Hezekiah was sick and near death, and prayed unto the Lord; and He spoke unto him, and He gave him a sign.

²⁵ But Hezekiah rendered not again according to the benefit done unto him, for his heart was lifted up. Therefore there was wrath upon him, and upon Judah and Jerusalem.

²⁶ Notwithstanding, Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart, both he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the rath of the Lord came not upon them in the days of Hezekiah.

²⁷ And Hezekiah had exceeding much riches and honor; and he made himself treasuries for silver, and for gold, and for recious stones, and for spices, and for shields, and for all manner of pleasant jewels;

²⁸ storehouses also for the increase of corn and wine and oil, and stalls for all manner of beasts, and cotes for flocks.

²⁹ Moreover he provided for himself cities, and possessions of flocks and herds in abundance; for God had given him very much substance.

³⁰ This same Hezekiah also stopped the upper watercourse of Gihon, and brought it straight down to the west side of the City of David. And Hezekiah prospered in all his works.

³¹ Howbeit, in the business of the ambassadors of the princes of Babylon, who sent unto him to inquire of the wonder that was done in the land, God left him to try him, that He might know all that was in his heart.

³² Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah and his goodness, behold, they are written in the vision of Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, and in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel.

³³ And Hezekiah slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the chiefest of the sepulchers of the sons of David; and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem did him honor at his death. And Manasseh his son reigned in his stead.

33 Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty and five years in Jerusalem.

² But he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, like the abominations of the heathen whom the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel.

³ For he built again the high places which Hezekiah his father had broken down, and he reared up altars for the Baalim, and made Asherah poles, and worshiped all the host of heaven and served them.

⁴ Also he built altars in the house of the Lord, whereof the Lord had said, “In Jerusalem shall My name be for ever.”

⁵ And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord.

⁶ And he caused his children to pass through the fire in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom; also he observed omens, and used enchantments, and used witchcraft, and dealt with mediums and with wizards. He wrought much evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke Him to anger.

⁷ And he set a carved image, the idol which he had made, in the house of God, of which God had said to David and to Solomon his son, “In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen before all the tribes of Israel, will I put My name for ever;

⁸ neither will I any more remove the foot of Israel from out of the land which I have appointed for your fathers, so that they will take heed to do all that I have commanded them, according to the whole law and the statutes and the ordinances by the hand of Moses.”

⁹ So Manasseh made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to err and to do worse than the heathen whom the Lord had destroyed before the children of Israel.

¹⁰ And the Lord spoke to Manasseh and to his people, but they would not hearken.

¹¹ Therefore the Lord brought upon them the captains of the host of the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh among the thorns, and bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon.

¹² And when he was in affliction, he besought the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers,

¹³ and prayed unto Him; and He was entreated by him and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord, He was God.