Isaiah 37:2-39:8

English Standard Version

²And he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the secretary, and the senior priests, covered with sackcloth, to the prophet ^(A)Isaiah the son of Amoz. ³They said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah, ‘This day is a ^(B)day of distress, of rebuke, and of disgrace; ^(C)children have come to the point of birth, and there is no strength to bring them forth. ⁴^(D)It may be that the Lord your God will hear the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to mock the living God, and will rebuke the words that the Lord your God has heard; therefore lift up your prayer for ^(E)the remnant that is left.’”

⁵When the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah, ⁶Isaiah said to them, “Say to your master, ‘Thus says the Lord: Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the young men of the king of Assyria have reviled me. ⁷Behold, ^(F)I will put a spirit in him, so that ^(G)he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land, and ^(H)I will make him fall by the sword in his own land.’”

⁸The Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria fighting against ^(I)Libnah, for he had heard that the king had left ^(J)Lachish. ⁹Now the king heard concerning Tirhakah king of ^(K)Cush,^[a] “He has set out to fight against you.” And when he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, ¹⁰“Thus shall you speak to Hezekiah king of Judah: ^(L)‘Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you by promising that Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. ¹¹Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, devoting them to destruction. And shall you be delivered? ¹²^(M)Have the gods of the nations delivered them, the nations that my fathers destroyed, ^(N)Gozan, ^(O)Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden who were in Telassar? ¹³^(P)Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, the king of Hena, or the king of Ivvah?’”

Hezekiah's Prayer for Deliverance

¹⁴Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it; and Hezekiah went up to the house of the Lord, and spread it before the Lord. ¹⁵And Hezekiah prayed to the Lord: ¹⁶“O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, ^(Q)enthroned above the cherubim, you are the God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; ^(R)you have made heaven and earth. ¹⁷^(S)Incline your ear, O Lord, and hear; open your eyes, O Lord, and see; and hear ^(T)all the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to mock the living God. ¹⁸Truly, O Lord, ^(U)the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations and their lands, ¹⁹and have cast their gods into the fire. For they were no gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone. Therefore they were destroyed. ²⁰So now, O Lord our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone are the Lord.”

Sennacherib's Fall

²¹Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Because you have prayed to me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria, ²²this is the word that the Lord has spoken concerning him:

“‘She despises you, she scorns you—
^(V)the virgin daughter of Zion;
she wags her head behind you—
the daughter of Jerusalem.

²³“‘Whom have you mocked and reviled?
    Against whom have you raised your voice
and lifted your eyes to the heights?
    Against ^(W)the Holy One of Israel!
²⁴By your servants you have mocked the Lord,
    and you have said, ^(X)With my many chariots
I have gone up the heights of the mountains,
    to the far recesses of Lebanon,
^(Y)to cut down its tallest cedars,
    its choicest cypresses,
to come to its remotest height,
    its most fruitful forest.
²⁵I dug wells
    and drank waters,
to dry up with the sole of my foot
    all ^(Z)the streams ^(AA)of Egypt.

²⁶^(AB)“‘Have you not heard
    that I determined it long ago?
I planned from days of old
    what now I bring to pass,
that you should make fortified cities
    crash into heaps of ruins,
²⁷while their inhabitants, shorn of strength,
    are dismayed and confounded,
and have become like plants of the field
    and like tender grass,
like grass on the housetops,
    blighted^[b] before it is grown.

²⁸“‘I know your sitting down
    and your going out and coming in,
    and your raging against me.
²⁹^(AC)Because you have raged against me
    and your complacency has come to my ears,
I will put my hook in your nose
    and my bit in your mouth,
and ^(AD)I will turn you back on the way
    by which you came.’

³⁰“And this shall be the sign for you: this year you shall eat what grows of itself, and in the second year what springs from that. Then in the third year sow and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat their fruit. ³¹And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah ^(AE)shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward. ³²^(AF)For out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant, and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors. ^(AG)The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

³³“Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the king of Assyria: He shall not come into this city or shoot an arrow there or come before it with a shield or ^(AH)cast up a siege mound against it. ³⁴By the way that he came, by the same he shall return, and he shall not come into this city, declares the Lord. ³⁵^(AI)For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake and for ^(AJ)the sake of my servant David.”

³⁶^(AK)And the angel of the Lord went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And when people arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies. ³⁷Then Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and returned home and lived at ^(AL)Nineveh. ³⁸And as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer, his sons, struck him down with the sword. And after they escaped into the land of ^(AM)Ararat, ^(AN)Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place.

Hezekiah's Sickness and Recovery

38 ^(AO)In those days Hezekiah became ^(AP)sick and was at the point of death. And ^(AQ)Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him, and said to him, “Thus says the Lord: Set your house in order, for you shall die, you shall not recover.”^[c] ²Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, ³and said, “Please, O Lord, remember how ^(AR)I have walked before you in faithfulness and with a whole heart, and have done what is good in your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

⁴Then the word of the Lord came to Isaiah: ⁵“Go and say to Hezekiah, Thus says the Lord, the God of David your father: I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Behold, I will add ^(AS)fifteen years to your life.^[d] ⁶^(AT)I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and will defend this city.

⁷“This shall be the sign to you from the Lord, that the Lord will do this thing that he has promised: ⁸^(AU)Behold, I will make the shadow cast by the declining sun on the dial of Ahaz turn back ten steps.” So the sun turned back on the dial the ten steps by which it had declined.^[e]

⁹A writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, after he had been sick and had recovered from his sickness:

¹⁰I said, ^(AV)In the middle^[f] of my days
    I must depart;
I am consigned to the gates of Sheol
    for the rest of my years.
¹¹I said, I shall not see the Lord,
    the Lord ^(AW)in the land of the living;
I shall look on man no more
    among the inhabitants of the world.
¹²My dwelling is plucked up and removed from me
    ^(AX)like a shepherd's tent;
^(AY)like a weaver ^(AZ)I have rolled up my life;
    ^(BA)he cuts me off from the loom;
^(BB)from day to night you bring me to an end;
¹³    ^(BC)I calmed myself^[g] until morning;
like a lion ^(BD)he breaks all my bones;
    from day to night you bring me to an end.

¹⁴Like ^(BE)a swallow or a crane I chirp;
    ^(BF)I moan like a dove.
^(BG)My eyes are weary with looking upward.
    O Lord, I am oppressed; ^(BH)be my pledge of safety!
¹⁵What shall I say? For he has spoken to me,
    and he himself has done it.
^(BI)I walk slowly all my years
    because of the bitterness of my soul.

¹⁶^(BJ)O Lord, by these things men live,
    and in all these is the life of my spirit.
    Oh restore me to health and make me live!
¹⁷^(BK)Behold, it was for my welfare
    that I had great bitterness;
^(BL)but in love you have delivered my life
    from the pit of destruction,
^(BM)for you have cast all my sins
    behind your back.
¹⁸^(BN)For Sheol does not thank you;
    death does not praise you;
those who go down to the pit do not hope
    for your faithfulness.
¹⁹The living, the living, he thanks you,
    as I do this day;
^(BO)the father makes known to the children
    your faithfulness.

²⁰The Lord will save me,
and we will play my music on stringed instruments
all the days of our lives,
^(BP)at the house of the Lord.

²¹^(BQ)Now Isaiah had said, “Let them take a cake of figs and apply it to the boil, that he may recover.” ²²Hezekiah also had said, “What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the Lord?”

Envoys from Babylon

39 ^(BR)At that time Merodach-baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, ^(BS)sent envoys with letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he heard that he had been sick and had recovered. ²And Hezekiah welcomed them gladly. And he showed them his treasure house, ^(BT)the silver, the gold, the spices, the precious oil, his whole armory, all that was found in his storehouses. ^(BU)There was nothing in his house or in all his realm that Hezekiah did not show them. ³Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah, and said to him, “What did these men say? And from where did they come to you?” Hezekiah said, “They have come to me from a far country, from Babylon.” ⁴He said, “What have they seen in your house?” Hezekiah answered, “They have seen all that is in my house. There is nothing in my storehouses that I did not show them.”

⁵Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the Lord of hosts: ⁶^(BV)Behold, the days are coming, when all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up till this day, shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, says the Lord. ⁷^(BW)And some of your own sons, who will come from you, whom you will father, shall be taken away, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.” ⁸Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of the Lord that you have spoken is good.” For he thought, ^(BX)“There will be peace and security in my days.”

Footnotes

Isaiah 37:9 Probably Nubia
Isaiah 37:27 Some Hebrew manuscripts and 2 Kings 19:26; most Hebrew manuscripts a field
Isaiah 38:1 Or live; also verses 9, 21
Isaiah 38:5 Hebrew to your days
Isaiah 38:8 The meaning of the Hebrew verse is uncertain
Isaiah 38:10 Or In the quiet
Isaiah 38:13 Or (with Targum) I cried for help

Isaiah 37:2-39:8

New International Version

²He sent Eliakim^(A) the palace administrator, Shebna^(B) the secretary, and the leading priests, all wearing sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz.^(C) ³They told him, “This is what Hezekiah says: This day is a day of distress^(D) and rebuke and disgrace, as when children come to the moment of birth^(E) and there is no strength to deliver them. ⁴It may be that the Lord your God will hear the words of the field commander, whom his master, the king of Assyria, has sent to ridicule^(F) the living God,^(G) and that he will rebuke him for the words the Lord your God has heard.^(H) Therefore pray^(I) for the remnant^(J) that still survives.”

⁵When King Hezekiah’s officials came to Isaiah, ⁶Isaiah said to them, “Tell your master, ‘This is what the Lord says: Do not be afraid^(K) of what you have heard—those words with which the underlings of the king of Assyria have blasphemed^(L) me. ⁷Listen! When he hears a certain report,^(M) I will make him want^(N) to return to his own country, and there I will have him cut down^(O) with the sword.’”

⁸When the field commander heard that the king of Assyria had left Lachish,^(P) he withdrew and found the king fighting against Libnah.^(Q)

⁹Now Sennacherib^(R) received a report^(S) that Tirhakah, the king of Cush,^[a]^(T) was marching out to fight against him. When he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah with this word: ¹⁰“Say to Hezekiah king of Judah: Do not let the god you depend on deceive^(U) you when he says, ‘Jerusalem will not be given into the hands of the king of Assyria.’^(V) ¹¹Surely you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the countries, destroying them completely. And will you be delivered?^(W) ¹²Did the gods of the nations that were destroyed by my predecessors^(X) deliver them—the gods of Gozan, Harran,^(Y) Rezeph and the people of Eden^(Z) who were in Tel Assar? ¹³Where is the king of Hamath or the king of Arpad?^(AA) Where are the kings of Lair, Sepharvaim,^(AB) Hena and Ivvah?”^(AC)

Hezekiah’s Prayer^(AD)

¹⁴Hezekiah received the letter^(AE) from the messengers and read it. Then he went up to the temple^(AF) of the Lord and spread it out before the Lord. ¹⁵And Hezekiah prayed^(AG) to the Lord: ¹⁶“Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, enthroned^(AH) between the cherubim,^(AI) you alone are God^(AJ) over all the kingdoms^(AK) of the earth. You have made heaven and earth.^(AL) ¹⁷Give ear, Lord, and hear;^(AM) open your eyes, Lord, and see;^(AN) listen to all the words Sennacherib^(AO) has sent to ridicule^(AP) the living God.^(AQ)

¹⁸“It is true, Lord, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste all these peoples and their lands.^(AR) ¹⁹They have thrown their gods into the fire^(AS) and destroyed them,^(AT) for they were not gods^(AU) but only wood and stone, fashioned by human hands.^(AV) ²⁰Now, Lord our God, deliver^(AW) us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth^(AX) may know that you, Lord, are the only God.^[b]^(AY)”

Sennacherib’s Fall^(AZ)

²¹Then Isaiah son of Amoz^(BA) sent a message to Hezekiah: “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: Because you have prayed to me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria, ²²this is the word the Lord has spoken against him:

“Virgin Daughter^(BB) Zion^(BC)
    despises and mocks you.
Daughter Jerusalem
    tosses her head^(BD) as you flee.
²³Who is it you have ridiculed and blasphemed?^(BE)
    Against whom have you raised your voice^(BF)
and lifted your eyes in pride?^(BG)
    Against the Holy One^(BH) of Israel!
²⁴By your messengers
    you have ridiculed the Lord.
And you have said,
    ‘With my many chariots^(BI)
I have ascended the heights of the mountains,
    the utmost heights^(BJ) of Lebanon.^(BK)
I have cut down its tallest cedars,
    the choicest of its junipers.^(BL)
I have reached its remotest heights,
    the finest of its forests.
²⁵I have dug wells in foreign lands^[c]
    and drunk the water there.
With the soles of my feet
    I have dried up^(BM) all the streams of Egypt.^(BN)’

²⁶“Have you not heard?
    Long ago I ordained^(BO) it.
In days of old I planned^(BP) it;
    now I have brought it to pass,
that you have turned fortified cities
    into piles of stone.^(BQ)
²⁷Their people, drained of power,
    are dismayed and put to shame.
They are like plants in the field,
    like tender green shoots,
like grass^(BR) sprouting on the roof,^(BS)
    scorched^[d] before it grows up.

²⁸“But I know where you are
    and when you come and go^(BT)
    and how you rage^(BU) against me.
²⁹Because you rage against me
    and because your insolence^(BV) has reached my ears,
I will put my hook^(BW) in your nose^(BX)
    and my bit in your mouth,
and I will make you return
    by the way you came.^(BY)

³⁰“This will be the sign^(BZ) for you, Hezekiah:

“This year^(CA) you will eat what grows by itself,
    and the second year what springs from that.
But in the third year^(CB) sow and reap,
    plant vineyards^(CC) and eat their fruit.^(CD)
³¹Once more a remnant of the kingdom of Judah
    will take root^(CE) below and bear fruit^(CF) above.
³²For out of Jerusalem will come a remnant,^(CG)
    and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors.^(CH)
The zeal^(CI) of the Lord Almighty
    will accomplish this.

³³“Therefore this is what the Lord says concerning the king of Assyria:

“He will not enter this city^(CJ)
    or shoot an arrow here.
He will not come before it with shield
    or build a siege ramp^(CK) against it.
³⁴By the way that he came he will return;^(CL)
    he will not enter this city,”
declares the Lord.
³⁵“I will defend^(CM) this city and save it,
    for my sake^(CN) and for the sake of David^(CO) my servant!”

³⁶Then the angel^(CP) of the Lord went out and put to death^(CQ) a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the Assyrian^(CR) camp. When the people got up the next morning—there were all the dead bodies! ³⁷So Sennacherib^(CS) king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh^(CT) and stayed there.

³⁸One day, while he was worshiping in the temple^(CU) of his god Nisrok, his sons Adrammelek and Sharezer killed him with the sword, and they escaped to the land of Ararat.^(CV) And Esarhaddon^(CW) his son succeeded him as king.^(CX)

Hezekiah’s Illness^(CY)

38 In those days Hezekiah became ill and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz^(CZ) went to him and said, “This is what the Lord says: Put your house in order,^(DA) because you are going to die; you will not recover.”^(DB)

²Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, ³“Remember, Lord, how I have walked^(DC) before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion^(DD) and have done what is good in your eyes.^(DE)” And Hezekiah wept^(DF) bitterly.

⁴Then the word^(DG) of the Lord came to Isaiah: ⁵“Go and tell Hezekiah, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of your father David,^(DH) says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears;^(DI) I will add fifteen years^(DJ) to your life. ⁶And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend^(DK) this city.

⁷“‘This is the Lord’s sign^(DL) to you that the Lord will do what he has promised: ⁸I will make the shadow cast by the sun go back the ten steps it has gone down on the stairway of Ahaz.’” So the sunlight went back the ten steps it had gone down.^(DM)

⁹A writing of Hezekiah king of Judah after his illness and recovery:

¹⁰I said, “In the prime of my life^(DN)
    must I go through the gates of death^(DO)
    and be robbed of the rest of my years?^(DP)”
¹¹I said, “I will not again see the Lord himself^(DQ)
    in the land of the living;^(DR)
no longer will I look on my fellow man,
    or be with those who now dwell in this world.
¹²Like a shepherd’s tent^(DS) my house
    has been pulled down^(DT) and taken from me.
Like a weaver I have rolled^(DU) up my life,
    and he has cut me off from the loom;^(DV)
    day and night^(DW) you made an end of me.
¹³I waited patiently^(DX) till dawn,
    but like a lion he broke^(DY) all my bones;^(DZ)
    day and night^(EA) you made an end of me.
¹⁴I cried like a swift or thrush,
    I moaned like a mourning dove.^(EB)
My eyes grew weak^(EC) as I looked to the heavens.
    I am being threatened; Lord, come to my aid!”^(ED)

¹⁵But what can I say?^(EE)
    He has spoken to me, and he himself has done this.^(EF)
I will walk humbly^(EG) all my years
    because of this anguish of my soul.^(EH)
¹⁶Lord, by such things people live;
    and my spirit finds life in them too.
You restored me to health
    and let me live.^(EI)
¹⁷Surely it was for my benefit^(EJ)
    that I suffered such anguish.^(EK)
In your love you kept me
    from the pit^(EL) of destruction;
you have put all my sins^(EM)
    behind your back.^(EN)
¹⁸For the grave^(EO) cannot praise you,
    death cannot sing your praise;^(EP)
those who go down to the pit^(EQ)
    cannot hope for your faithfulness.
¹⁹The living, the living—they praise^(ER) you,
    as I am doing today;
parents tell their children^(ES)
    about your faithfulness.

²⁰The Lord will save me,
and we will sing^(ET) with stringed instruments^(EU)
all the days of our lives^(EV)
in the temple^(EW) of the Lord.

²¹Isaiah had said, “Prepare a poultice of figs and apply it to the boil, and he will recover.”

²²Hezekiah had asked, “What will be the sign^(EX) that I will go up to the temple of the Lord?”

Envoys From Babylon^(EY)

39 At that time Marduk-Baladan son of Baladan king of Babylon^(EZ) sent Hezekiah letters and a gift, because he had heard of his illness and recovery. ²Hezekiah received the envoys^(FA) gladly and showed them what was in his storehouses—the silver, the gold,^(FB) the spices, the fine olive oil—his entire armory and everything found among his treasures.^(FC) There was nothing in his palace or in all his kingdom that Hezekiah did not show them.

³Then Isaiah the prophet went to King Hezekiah and asked, “What did those men say, and where did they come from?”

“From a distant land,^(FD)” Hezekiah replied. “They came to me from Babylon.”

⁴The prophet asked, “What did they see in your palace?”

“They saw everything in my palace,” Hezekiah said. “There is nothing among my treasures that I did not show them.”

⁵Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word^(FE) of the Lord Almighty: ⁶The time will surely come when everything in your palace, and all that your predecessors have stored up until this day, will be carried off to Babylon.^(FF) Nothing will be left, says the Lord. ⁷And some of your descendants, your own flesh and blood who will be born to you, will be taken away, and they will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.^(FG)”

⁸“The word of the Lord you have spoken is good,^(FH)” Hezekiah replied. For he thought, “There will be peace and security in my lifetime.^(FI)”

Footnotes

Isaiah 37:9 That is, the upper Nile region
Isaiah 37:20 Dead Sea Scrolls (see also 2 Kings 19:19); Masoretic Text you alone are the Lord
Isaiah 37:25 Dead Sea Scrolls (see also 2 Kings 19:24); Masoretic Text does not have in foreign lands.
Isaiah 37:27 Some manuscripts of the Masoretic Text, Dead Sea Scrolls and some Septuagint manuscripts (see also 2 Kings 19:26); most manuscripts of the Masoretic Text roof / and terraced fields

2 Kings 18-20

English Standard Version

Hezekiah Reigns in Judah

18 ^(A)In the third year of Hoshea son of Elah, king of Israel, ^(B)Hezekiah the son of Ahaz, king of Judah, began to reign. ²He was ^(C)twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was ^(D)Abi the daughter of Zechariah. ³^(E)And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that David his father had done. ⁴^(F)He removed the high places and broke the ^(G)pillars and cut down ^(H)the Asherah. And he broke in pieces ^(I)the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the people of Israel had made offerings to it (it was called Nehushtan).^[a] ⁵^(J)He trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel, ^(K)so that there was none like him among all the kings of Judah after him, nor among those who were before him. ⁶^(L)For he held fast to the Lord. He did not depart from following him, but kept the commandments that the Lord commanded Moses. ⁷^(M)And the Lord was with him; wherever he went out, ^(N)he prospered. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and would not serve him. ⁸^(O)He struck down the Philistines as far as Gaza and its territory, ^(P)from watchtower to fortified city.

⁹In the fourth year of King Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah, king of Israel, ^(Q)Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against Samaria and besieged it, ¹⁰and at the end of three years he took it. In the sixth year of Hezekiah, which was the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel, Samaria was taken. ¹¹The king of Assyria carried the Israelites away to Assyria and put them in ^(R)Halah, and on the ^(S)Habor, ^(T)the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes, ¹²because they did not obey the voice of the Lord their God but transgressed his covenant, even all that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded. They neither listened nor obeyed.

Sennacherib Attacks Judah

¹³^(U)In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them. ¹⁴And Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria at Lachish, saying, “I have done wrong; withdraw from me. Whatever you impose on me I will bear.” ^(V)And the king of Assyria required of Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents^[b] of silver and thirty talents of gold. ¹⁵And Hezekiah ^(W)gave him all the silver that was found in the house of the Lord and in the treasuries of the king's house. ¹⁶At that time Hezekiah stripped the gold from the doors of the temple of the Lord and from the doorposts that Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid and gave it to the king of Assyria. ¹⁷And the king of Assyria sent the ^(X)Tartan, the Rab-saris, and the Rabshakeh with a great army from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. And they went up and came to Jerusalem. When they arrived, they came and stood by ^(Y)the conduit of the upper pool, which is on the highway to the Washer's Field. ¹⁸And when they called for the king, there came out to them ^(Z)Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and ^(AA)Shebnah the secretary, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder.

¹⁹And the Rabshakeh said to them, “Say to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: On what do you rest this trust of yours? ²⁰Do you think that mere words are strategy and power for war? In whom do you now trust, that you have rebelled against me? ²¹Behold, you are trusting now in Egypt, that broken reed of ^(AB)a staff, which will pierce the hand of any man who leans on it. Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him. ²²But if you say to me, “We trust in the Lord our God,” is it not he ^(AC)whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and to Jerusalem, “You shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem”? ²³Come now, make a wager with my master the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to set riders on them. ²⁴How then can you repulse a single captain among the least of my master's servants, when you trust in Egypt for chariots and for horsemen? ²⁵Moreover, is it without the Lord that I have come up against this place to destroy it? The Lord said to me, “Go up against this land and destroy it.”’”

²⁶Then ^(AD)Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, and ^(AE)Shebnah, and Joah, said to the Rabshakeh, “Please speak to your servants in ^(AF)Aramaic, for we understand it. Do not speak to us in the language of Judah within the hearing of the people who are on the wall.” ²⁷But the Rabshakeh said to them, “Has my master sent me to speak these words to your master and to you, and not to the men sitting on the wall, who are doomed with you to eat their own dung and to drink their own urine?”

²⁸Then the Rabshakeh stood and called out in a loud voice in the language of Judah: “Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria! ²⁹Thus says the king: ‘Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you out of my^[c] hand. ³⁰Do not let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord by saying, The Lord will surely deliver us, and this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.’ ³¹Do not listen to Hezekiah, for thus says the king of Assyria: ‘Make your peace with me^[d] and come out to me. Then ^(AG)each one of you will eat of his own vine, and each one of his own fig tree, and each one of you will drink the water of his own cistern, ³²until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, ^(AH)a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees and ^(AI)honey, that you may live, and not die. And do not listen to Hezekiah when he misleads you by saying, “The Lord will deliver us.” ³³^(AJ)Has any of the gods of the nations ever delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria? ³⁴^(AK)Where are the gods of ^(AL)Hamath and ^(AM)Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and ^(AN)Ivvah? Have they delivered Samaria out of my hand? ³⁵Who among all the gods of the lands have delivered their lands out of my hand, ^(AO)that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?’”

³⁶But the people were silent and answered him not a word, for the king's command was, “Do not answer him.” ³⁷Then ^(AP)Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the secretary, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah ^(AQ)with their clothes torn and told him the words of the Rabshakeh.

Isaiah Reassures Hezekiah

19 ^(AR)As soon as King Hezekiah heard it, ^(AS)he tore his clothes and ^(AT)covered himself with sackcloth and went into the house of the Lord. ²And he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the secretary, and the senior priests, ^(AU)covered with sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz. ³They said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah, This day is a day of distress, of rebuke, and of disgrace; children have come to the point of birth, and there is no strength to bring them forth. ⁴^(AV)It may be that the Lord your God heard all the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent ^(AW)to mock the living God, and will rebuke the words that the Lord your God has heard; therefore lift up your prayer for ^(AX)the remnant that is left.” ⁵When the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah, ⁶Isaiah said to them, “Say to your master, ‘Thus says the Lord: Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which ^(AY)the servants of the king of Assyria have ^(AZ)reviled me. ⁷Behold, I will put a spirit in him, so that ^(BA)he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land, and I will make him ^(BB)fall by the sword in his own land.’”

Sennacherib Defies the Lord

⁸The Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria fighting against ^(BC)Libnah, for he heard that the king had left ^(BD)Lachish. ⁹^(BE)Now the king heard concerning Tirhakah king of Cush, “Behold, he has set out to fight against you.” So he sent messengers again to Hezekiah, saying, ¹⁰“Thus shall you speak to Hezekiah king of Judah: ‘Do not let your God ^(BF)in whom you trust deceive you by promising that ^(BG)Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. ¹¹Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, devoting them to destruction. And shall you be delivered? ¹²^(BH)Have the gods of the nations delivered them, the nations that my fathers destroyed, ^(BI)Gozan, ^(BJ)Haran, Rezeph, and the people of ^(BK)Eden who were in Telassar? ¹³^(BL)Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, the king of Hena, or the king of Ivvah?’”

Hezekiah's Prayer

¹⁴Hezekiah received ^(BM)the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it; and Hezekiah went up to the house of the Lord and spread it before the Lord. ¹⁵And Hezekiah prayed before the Lord and said: “O Lord, the God of Israel, ^(BN)enthroned above the cherubim, ^(BO)you are the God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made heaven and earth. ¹⁶^(BP)Incline your ear, O Lord, and hear; ^(BQ)open your eyes, O Lord, and see; and hear the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent ^(BR)to mock the living God. ¹⁷Truly, O Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands ¹⁸and have cast their gods into the fire, for they were not gods, ^(BS)but the work of men's hands, wood and stone. Therefore they were destroyed. ¹⁹So now, O Lord our God, save us, please, from his hand, ^(BT)that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that ^(BU)you, O Lord, are God alone.”

Isaiah Prophesies Sennacherib's Fall

²⁰Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Your prayer to me about Sennacherib king of Assyria ^(BV)I have heard. ²¹This is the word that the Lord has spoken concerning him:

“She despises you, she scorns you—
^(BW)the virgin daughter of Zion;
she ^(BX)wags her head behind you—
the daughter of Jerusalem.

²²“Whom have you ^(BY)mocked and ^(BZ)reviled?
    Against whom have you raised your voice
and lifted your eyes to the heights?
    Against ^(CA)the Holy One of Israel!
²³^(CB)By your messengers you have mocked the Lord,
    and you have said, ^(CC)‘With my many chariots
I have gone up the heights of the mountains,
    to the far recesses of ^(CD)Lebanon;
I felled its tallest cedars,
    its choicest cypresses;
I entered its farthest lodging place,
    its most ^(CE)fruitful forest.
²⁴I dug wells
    and drank foreign waters,
and I dried up with the sole of my foot
    all the streams ^(CF)of Egypt.’

²⁵“Have you not heard
    that ^(CG)I determined it long ago?
I planned from days of old
    what ^(CH)now I bring to pass,
that you should turn fortified cities
    into heaps of ruins,
²⁶while their inhabitants, shorn of strength,
    are dismayed and confounded,
and have become ^(CI)like plants of the field
    and like tender grass,
like grass on the housetops,
    blighted before it is grown.

²⁷“But I know your sitting down
    ^(CJ)and your going out and coming in,
    and your raging against me.
²⁸Because you have raged against me
    and your complacency has come into my ears,
I will ^(CK)put my hook in your nose
    and my bit in your mouth,
and ^(CL)I will turn you back on the way
    by which you came.

²⁹“And this shall be ^(CM)the sign for you: this year eat what grows of itself, and in the second year what springs of the same. Then in the third year sow and reap and plant vineyards, and eat their fruit. ³⁰^(CN)And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward. ³¹For out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant, and out of Mount Zion ^(CO)a band of survivors. ^(CP)The zeal of the Lord will do this.

³²“Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the king of Assyria: He shall not come into this city or shoot an arrow there, or come before it with a shield or ^(CQ)cast up a siege mound against it. ³³^(CR)By the way that he came, by the same he shall return, and he shall not come into this city, declares the Lord. ³⁴^(CS)For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake ^(CT)and for the sake of my servant David.”

³⁵And that night ^(CU)the angel of the Lord went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And when people arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies. ³⁶Then Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and went home and lived at ^(CV)Nineveh. ³⁷And as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, ^(CW)Adrammelech and Sharezer, his sons, struck him down with the sword and escaped into the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place.

Hezekiah's Illness and Recovery

20 ^(CX)In those days ^(CY)Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him and said to him, “Thus says the Lord, ^(CZ)‘Set your house in order, for you shall die; you shall not recover.’” ²Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, saying, ³“Now, O Lord, ^(DA)please remember how I have walked before you in faithfulness and ^(DB)with a whole heart, ^(DC)and have done what is good in your sight.” ^(DD)And Hezekiah wept bitterly. ⁴And before Isaiah had gone out of the middle court, the word of the Lord came to him: ⁵“Turn back, and say to Hezekiah ^(DE)the leader of my people, Thus says the Lord, the God of David your father: ^(DF)I have heard your prayer; ^(DG)I have seen your tears. Behold, I will heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of the Lord, ⁶and I will add fifteen years to your life. I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, ^(DH)and I will defend this city for my own sake and for my servant David's sake.” ⁷And Isaiah said, “Bring a cake of figs. And let them take and lay it on the boil, that he may recover.”

⁸And Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “What shall be the sign that the Lord will heal me, and that I shall go up to the house of the Lord on the third day?” ⁹And Isaiah said, “This shall be ^(DI)the sign to you from the Lord, that the Lord will do the thing that he has promised: shall the shadow go forward ten steps, or go back ten steps?” ¹⁰And Hezekiah answered, “It is an easy thing for the shadow ^(DJ)to lengthen ten steps. Rather let the shadow go back ten steps.” ¹¹And Isaiah the prophet called to the Lord, ^(DK)and he brought the shadow back ten steps, by which it had gone down on the steps of Ahaz.

Hezekiah and the Babylonian Envoys

¹²^(DL)At that time ^(DM)Merodach-baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, ^(DN)sent envoys with letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he heard that Hezekiah had been sick. ¹³And Hezekiah welcomed them, and he showed them ^(DO)all his treasure house, the silver, the gold, the spices, the precious oil, his armory, all that was found in his storehouses. There was nothing in his house or in all his realm that Hezekiah did not show them. ¹⁴Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah, and said to him, “What did these men say? And from where did they come to you?” And Hezekiah said, “They have come from a far country, from Babylon.” ¹⁵He said, “What have they seen in your house?” And Hezekiah answered, “They have seen all that is in my house; there is nothing in my storehouses that I did not show them.”

¹⁶Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the Lord: ¹⁷Behold, the days are coming, when ^(DP)all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up till this day, shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, says the Lord. ¹⁸^(DQ)And some of your own sons, who will come from you, whom you will father, shall be taken away, ^(DR)and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.” ¹⁹Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, ^(DS)“The word of the Lord that you have spoken is good.” For he thought, “Why not, if there will be peace and security in my days?”

²⁰^(DT)The rest of the deeds of Hezekiah and all his might and how he made ^(DU)the pool and the conduit ^(DV)and brought water into the city, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? ²¹^(DW)And Hezekiah slept with his fathers, and Manasseh his son reigned in his place.

Footnotes

2 Kings 18:4 Nehushtan sounds like the Hebrew for both bronze and serpent
2 Kings 18:14 A talent was about 75 pounds or 34 kilograms
2 Kings 18:29 Hebrew his
2 Kings 18:31 Hebrew Make a blessing with me

2 Kings 18-20

New International Version

Hezekiah King of Judah^(A)^(B)^(C)

18 In the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, Hezekiah^(D) son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign. ²He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-nine years.^(E) His mother’s name was Abijah^[a] daughter of Zechariah. ³He did what was right^(F) in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father David^(G) had done. ⁴He removed^(H) the high places,^(I) smashed the sacred stones^(J) and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke into pieces the bronze snake^(K) Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it. (It was called Nehushtan.^[b])

⁵Hezekiah trusted^(L) in the Lord, the God of Israel. There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before him or after him. ⁶He held fast^(M) to the Lord and did not stop following him; he kept the commands the Lord had given Moses. ⁷And the Lord was with him; he was successful^(N) in whatever he undertook. He rebelled^(O) against the king of Assyria and did not serve him. ⁸From watchtower to fortified city,^(P) he defeated the Philistines, as far as Gaza and its territory.

⁹In King Hezekiah’s fourth year,^(Q) which was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, Shalmaneser king of Assyria marched against Samaria and laid siege to it. ¹⁰At the end of three years the Assyrians took it. So Samaria was captured in Hezekiah’s sixth year, which was the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel. ¹¹The king^(R) of Assyria deported Israel to Assyria and settled them in Halah, in Gozan on the Habor River and in towns of the Medes.^(S) ¹²This happened because they had not obeyed the Lord their God, but had violated his covenant^(T)—all that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded.^(U) They neither listened to the commands^(V) nor carried them out.

¹³In the fourteenth year^(W) of King Hezekiah’s reign, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all the fortified cities of Judah^(X) and captured them. ¹⁴So Hezekiah king of Judah sent this message to the king of Assyria at Lachish:^(Y) “I have done wrong.^(Z) Withdraw from me, and I will pay whatever you demand of me.” The king of Assyria exacted from Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents^[c] of silver and thirty talents^[d] of gold. ¹⁵So Hezekiah gave^(AA) him all the silver that was found in the temple of the Lord and in the treasuries of the royal palace.

¹⁶At this time Hezekiah king of Judah stripped off the gold with which he had covered the doors^(AB) and doorposts of the temple of the Lord, and gave it to the king of Assyria.

Sennacherib Threatens Jerusalem^(AC)^(AD)

¹⁷The king of Assyria sent his supreme commander,^(AE) his chief officer and his field commander with a large army, from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. They came up to Jerusalem and stopped at the aqueduct of the Upper Pool,^(AF) on the road to the Washerman’s Field. ¹⁸They called for the king; and Eliakim^(AG) son of Hilkiah the palace administrator, Shebna^(AH) the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph the recorder went out to them.

¹⁹The field commander said to them, “Tell Hezekiah:

“‘This is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says: On what are you basing this confidence^(AI) of yours? ²⁰You say you have the counsel and the might for war—but you speak only empty words. On whom are you depending, that you rebel against me? ²¹Look, I know you are depending on Egypt,^(AJ) that splintered reed of a staff,^(AK) which pierces the hand of anyone who leans on it! Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who depend on him. ²²But if you say to me, “We are depending on the Lord our God”—isn’t he the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah removed, saying to Judah and Jerusalem, “You must worship before this altar in Jerusalem”?

²³“‘Come now, make a bargain with my master, the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses—if you can put riders on them! ²⁴How can you repulse one officer^(AL) of the least of my master’s officials, even though you are depending on Egypt for chariots and horsemen^[e]? ²⁵Furthermore, have I come to attack and destroy this place without word from the Lord?^(AM) The Lord himself told me to march against this country and destroy it.’”

²⁶Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, and Shebna and Joah said to the field commander, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic,^(AN) since we understand it. Don’t speak to us in Hebrew in the hearing of the people on the wall.”

²⁷But the commander replied, “Was it only to your master and you that my master sent me to say these things, and not to the people sitting on the wall—who, like you, will have to eat their own excrement and drink their own urine?”

²⁸Then the commander stood and called out in Hebrew, “Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria! ²⁹This is what the king says: Do not let Hezekiah deceive^(AO) you. He cannot deliver you from my hand. ³⁰Do not let Hezekiah persuade you to trust in the Lord when he says, ‘The Lord will surely deliver us; this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.’

³¹“Do not listen to Hezekiah. This is what the king of Assyria says: Make peace with me and come out to me. Then each of you will eat fruit from your own vine and fig tree^(AP) and drink water from your own cistern,^(AQ) ³²until I come and take you to a land like your own—a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees and honey. Choose life^(AR) and not death!

“Do not listen to Hezekiah, for he is misleading you when he says, ‘The Lord will deliver us.’ ³³Has the god^(AS) of any nation ever delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria? ³⁴Where are the gods of Hamath^(AT) and Arpad?^(AU) Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena and Ivvah? Have they rescued Samaria from my hand? ³⁵Who of all the gods of these countries has been able to save his land from me? How then can the Lord deliver Jerusalem from my hand?”^(AV)

³⁶But the people remained silent and said nothing in reply, because the king had commanded, “Do not answer him.”

³⁷Then Eliakim^(AW) son of Hilkiah the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph the recorder went to Hezekiah, with their clothes torn,^(AX) and told him what the field commander had said.

Jerusalem’s Deliverance Foretold^(AY)

19 When King Hezekiah heard this, he tore^(AZ) his clothes and put on sackcloth and went into the temple of the Lord. ²He sent Eliakim^(BA) the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary and the leading priests,^(BB) all wearing sackcloth,^(BC) to the prophet Isaiah^(BD) son of Amoz. ³They told him, “This is what Hezekiah says: This day is a day of distress and rebuke and disgrace, as when children come to the moment^(BE) of birth and there is no strength to deliver them. ⁴It may be that the Lord your God will hear all the words of the field commander, whom his master, the king of Assyria, has sent to ridicule^(BF) the living God, and that he will rebuke^(BG) him for the words the Lord your God has heard. Therefore pray for the remnant^(BH) that still survives.”

⁵When King Hezekiah’s officials came to Isaiah, ⁶Isaiah said to them, “Tell your master, ‘This is what the Lord says: Do not be afraid^(BI) of what you have heard—those words with which the underlings of the king of Assyria have blasphemed^(BJ) me. ⁷Listen! When he hears a certain report,^(BK) I will make him want to return to his own country, and there I will have him cut down with the sword.^(BL)’”

⁸When the field commander heard that the king of Assyria had left Lachish,^(BM) he withdrew and found the king fighting against Libnah.^(BN)

⁹Now Sennacherib received a report that Tirhakah, the king of Cush,^[f] was marching out to fight against him. So he again sent messengers to Hezekiah with this word: ¹⁰“Say to Hezekiah king of Judah: Do not let the god you depend^(BO) on deceive^(BP) you when he says, ‘Jerusalem will not be given into the hands of the king of Assyria.’ ¹¹Surely you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the countries, destroying them completely. And will you be delivered? ¹²Did the gods of the nations that were destroyed by my predecessors deliver^(BQ) them—the gods of Gozan,^(BR) Harran,^(BS) Rezeph and the people of Eden who were in Tel Assar? ¹³Where is the king of Hamath or the king of Arpad? Where are the kings of Lair, Sepharvaim, Hena and Ivvah?”^(BT)

Hezekiah’s Prayer^(BU)

¹⁴Hezekiah received the letter^(BV) from the messengers and read it. Then he went up to the temple of the Lord and spread it out before the Lord. ¹⁵And Hezekiah prayed to the Lord: “Lord, the God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim,^(BW) you alone^(BX) are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. ¹⁶Give ear,^(BY) Lord, and hear;^(BZ) open your eyes,^(CA) Lord, and see; listen to the words Sennacherib has sent to ridicule the living God.

¹⁷“It is true, Lord, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste these nations and their lands. ¹⁸They have thrown their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods^(CB) but only wood and stone, fashioned by human hands.^(CC) ¹⁹Now, Lord our God, deliver^(CD) us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms^(CE) of the earth may know^(CF) that you alone, Lord, are God.”

Isaiah Prophesies Sennacherib’s Fall^(CG)^(CH)

²⁰Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent a message to Hezekiah: “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I have heard^(CI) your prayer concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria. ²¹This is the word that the Lord has spoken against^(CJ) him:

“‘Virgin Daughter^(CK) Zion
    despises^(CL) you and mocks^(CM) you.
Daughter Jerusalem
    tosses her head^(CN) as you flee.
²²Who is it you have ridiculed and blasphemed?^(CO)
    Against whom have you raised your voice
and lifted your eyes in pride?
    Against the Holy One^(CP) of Israel!
²³By your messengers
    you have ridiculed the Lord.
And you have said,^(CQ)
    “With my many chariots^(CR)
I have ascended the heights of the mountains,
    the utmost heights of Lebanon.
I have cut down^(CS) its tallest cedars,
    the choicest of its junipers.
I have reached its remotest parts,
    the finest of its forests.
²⁴I have dug wells in foreign lands
    and drunk the water there.
With the soles of my feet
    I have dried up all the streams of Egypt.”

²⁵“‘Have you not heard?^(CT)
    Long ago I ordained it.
In days of old I planned^(CU) it;
    now I have brought it to pass,
that you have turned fortified cities
    into piles of stone.^(CV)
²⁶Their people, drained of power,^(CW)
    are dismayed^(CX) and put to shame.
They are like plants in the field,
    like tender green shoots,^(CY)
like grass sprouting on the roof,
    scorched^(CZ) before it grows up.

²⁷“‘But I know^(DA) where you are
    and when you come and go
    and how you rage against me.
²⁸Because you rage against me
    and because your insolence has reached my ears,
I will put my hook^(DB) in your nose
    and my bit^(DC) in your mouth,
and I will make you return^(DD)
    by the way you came.’

²⁹“This will be the sign^(DE) for you, Hezekiah:

“This year you will eat what grows by itself,^(DF)
    and the second year what springs from that.
But in the third year sow and reap,
    plant vineyards^(DG) and eat their fruit.
³⁰Once more a remnant^(DH) of the kingdom of Judah
    will take root^(DI) below and bear fruit above.
³¹For out of Jerusalem will come a remnant,^(DJ)
    and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors.^(DK)

“The zeal^(DL) of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.

³²“Therefore this is what the Lord says concerning the king of Assyria:

“‘He will not enter this city
    or shoot an arrow here.
He will not come before it with shield
    or build a siege ramp against it.
³³By the way that he came he will return;^(DM)
    he will not enter this city,
declares the Lord.
³⁴I will defend^(DN) this city and save it,
    for my sake and for the sake of David^(DO) my servant.’”

³⁵That night the angel of the Lord^(DP) went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning—there were all the dead bodies!^(DQ) ³⁶So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew.^(DR) He returned to Nineveh^(DS) and stayed there.

³⁷One day, while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisrok, his sons Adrammelek^(DT) and Sharezer killed him with the sword,^(DU) and they escaped to the land of Ararat.^(DV) And Esarhaddon^(DW) his son succeeded him as king.

Hezekiah’s Illness^(DX)

20 In those days Hezekiah became ill and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz went to him and said, “This is what the Lord says: Put your house in order, because you are going to die; you will not recover.”

²Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, ³“Remember,^(DY) Lord, how I have walked^(DZ) before you faithfully^(EA) and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

⁴Before Isaiah had left the middle court, the word of the Lord came to him: ⁵“Go back and tell Hezekiah, the ruler of my people, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of your father David, says: I have heard^(EB) your prayer and seen your tears;^(EC) I will heal you. On the third day from now you will go up to the temple of the Lord. ⁶I will add fifteen years to your life. And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend^(ED) this city for my sake and for the sake of my servant David.’”

⁷Then Isaiah said, “Prepare a poultice of figs.” They did so and applied it to the boil,^(EE) and he recovered.

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

⁹Isaiah answered, “This is the Lord’s sign^(EF) to you that the Lord will do what he has promised: Shall the shadow go forward ten steps, or shall it go back ten steps?”

¹⁰“It is a simple^(EG) matter for the shadow to go forward ten steps,” said Hezekiah. “Rather, have it go back ten steps.”

¹¹Then the prophet Isaiah called on the Lord, and the Lord made the shadow go back^(EH) the ten steps it had gone down on the stairway of Ahaz.

Envoys From Babylon^(EI)^(EJ)

¹²At that time Marduk-Baladan son of Baladan king of Babylon sent Hezekiah letters and a gift, because he had heard of Hezekiah’s illness. ¹³Hezekiah received the envoys and showed them all that was in his storehouses—the silver, the gold, the spices and the fine olive oil—his armory and everything found among his treasures. There was nothing in his palace or in all his kingdom that Hezekiah did not show them.

¹⁴Then Isaiah the prophet went to King Hezekiah and asked, “What did those men say, and where did they come from?”

“From a distant land,” Hezekiah replied. “They came from Babylon.”

¹⁵The prophet asked, “What did they see in your palace?”

“They saw everything in my palace,” Hezekiah said. “There is nothing among my treasures that I did not show them.”

¹⁶Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the Lord: ¹⁷The time will surely come when everything in your palace, and all that your predecessors have stored up until this day, will be carried off to Babylon.^(EK) Nothing will be left, says the Lord. ¹⁸And some of your descendants,^(EL) your own flesh and blood who will be born to you, will be taken away, and they will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.”^(EM)

¹⁹“The word of the Lord you have spoken is good,” Hezekiah replied. For he thought, “Will there not be peace and security in my lifetime?”

²⁰As for the other events of Hezekiah’s reign, all his achievements and how he made the pool^(EN) and the tunnel^(EO) by which he brought water into the city, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah? ²¹Hezekiah rested with his ancestors. And Manasseh his son succeeded him as king.

Footnotes

2 Kings 18:2 Hebrew Abi, a variant of Abijah
2 Kings 18:4 Nehushtan sounds like the Hebrew for both bronze and snake.
2 Kings 18:14 That is, about 11 tons or about 10 metric tons
2 Kings 18:14 That is, about 1 ton or about 1 metric ton
2 Kings 18:24 Or charioteers
2 Kings 19:9 That is, the upper Nile region

2 Chronicles 29-32

English Standard Version

Hezekiah Reigns in Judah

29 ^(A)Hezekiah began to reign when he was twenty-five years old, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Abijah^[a] the daughter of ^(B)Zechariah. ²And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that David his father had done.

Hezekiah Cleanses the Temple

³In the first year of his reign, in the first month, he ^(C)opened the doors of the house of the Lord and repaired them. ⁴He brought in the priests and the Levites and assembled them in the square on the east ⁵and said to them, “Hear me, Levites! Now ^(D)consecrate yourselves, and consecrate the house of the Lord, the God of your fathers, and carry out the filth^[b] from the Holy Place. ⁶For our fathers have been unfaithful and have done what was evil in the sight of the Lord our God. They have forsaken him and ^(E)have turned away their faces from the habitation of the Lord and turned their backs. ⁷They also ^(F)shut the doors of the vestibule and put out the lamps and have not burned incense or offered burnt offerings in the Holy Place to the God of Israel. ⁸Therefore ^(G)the wrath of the Lord came on Judah and Jerusalem, and he has made them ^(H)an object of horror, of astonishment, ^(I)and of hissing, as you see with your own eyes. ⁹For behold, ^(J)our fathers have fallen by the sword, and our sons and our daughters and our wives are in captivity for this. ¹⁰Now ^(K)it is in my heart ^(L)to make a covenant with the Lord, the God of Israel, in order that his fierce anger may turn away from us. ¹¹My sons, do not now be negligent, ^(M)for the Lord has chosen you to stand in his presence, to minister to him and to be his ministers and make offerings to him.”

¹²Then the Levites arose, ^(N)Mahath the son of Amasai, and Joel the son of Azariah, of the sons of ^(O)the Kohathites; and of the sons of ^(P)Merari, Kish the son of Abdi, and Azariah the son of Jehallelel; and of the ^(Q)Gershonites, Joah the son of Zimmah, and Eden the son of Joah; ¹³and of the sons of ^(R)Elizaphan, Shimri and Jeuel; and of the sons of ^(S)Asaph, Zechariah and Mattaniah; ¹⁴and of the sons of ^(T)Heman, Jehuel and Shimei; and of the sons of ^(U)Jeduthun, Shemaiah and Uzziel. ¹⁵They gathered their brothers and ^(V)consecrated themselves and went in as the king had commanded, ^(W)by the words of the Lord, ^(X)to cleanse the house of the Lord. ¹⁶The priests went into the inner part of the house of the Lord to cleanse it, and they brought out all the uncleanness that they found in the temple of the Lord into the court of the house of the Lord. And the Levites took it and carried it out to ^(Y)the brook Kidron. ¹⁷They began to consecrate ^(Z)on the first day of the first month, and on the eighth day of the month they came to the vestibule of the Lord. Then for eight days they consecrated the house of the Lord, and on the sixteenth day of the first month they finished. ¹⁸Then they went in to Hezekiah the king and said, “We have cleansed all the house of the Lord, the altar of burnt offering and all its utensils, and the table for the showbread and all its utensils. ¹⁹All the utensils ^(AA)that King Ahaz discarded in his reign when he was faithless, we have made ready and consecrated, and behold, they are before the altar of the Lord.”

Hezekiah Restores Temple Worship

²⁰Then Hezekiah the king rose early and gathered the officials of the city and went up to the house of the Lord. ²¹And they brought seven bulls, seven rams, seven lambs, and seven male goats ^(AB)for a sin offering for the kingdom and for the sanctuary and for Judah. And he commanded the priests, the sons of Aaron, to offer them on the altar of the Lord. ²²So they slaughtered the bulls, and the priests received the blood ^(AC)and threw it against the altar. And they slaughtered the rams, and their blood was thrown against the altar. And they slaughtered the lambs, and their blood was thrown against the altar. ²³Then the goats for the sin offering were brought to the king and the assembly, ^(AD)and they laid their hands on them, ²⁴and the priests slaughtered them and made a sin offering with their blood on the altar, ^(AE)to make atonement for all Israel. For the king commanded that the burnt offering and the sin offering should be made for all Israel.

²⁵^(AF)And he stationed the Levites in the house of the Lord with cymbals, harps, and lyres, ^(AG)according to the commandment of David and of Gad ^(AH)the king's seer and of ^(AI)Nathan the prophet, for the commandment was from the Lord through his prophets. ²⁶The Levites stood with ^(AJ)the instruments of David, ^(AK)and the priests with the trumpets. ²⁷Then Hezekiah commanded that the burnt offering be offered on the altar. And when the burnt offering began, ^(AL)the song to the Lord began also, and the trumpets, accompanied by the instruments of David king of Israel. ²⁸The whole assembly worshiped, and the singers sang, and the trumpeters sounded. All this continued until the burnt offering was finished. ²⁹When the offering was finished, ^(AM)the king and all who were present with him bowed themselves and worshiped. ³⁰And Hezekiah the king and the officials commanded the Levites to sing praises to the Lord with the words of David and of Asaph the seer. And they sang praises with gladness, and they bowed down and worshiped.

³¹Then Hezekiah said, ^(AN)“You have now consecrated yourselves to^[c] the Lord. Come near; bring sacrifices and thank offerings to the house of the Lord.” And the assembly brought sacrifices and thank offerings, and all who were ^(AO)of a willing heart brought burnt offerings. ³²The number of the burnt offerings that the assembly brought was 70 bulls, 100 rams, and 200 lambs; all these were for a burnt offering to the Lord. ³³And the consecrated offerings were 600 bulls and 3,000 sheep. ³⁴But the priests were too few and could not flay all the burnt offerings, so until other priests had consecrated themselves, ^(AP)their brothers the Levites helped them, until the work was finished—^(AQ)for the Levites were more upright in heart than the priests in consecrating themselves. ³⁵Besides the great number of burnt offerings, there was ^(AR)the fat of the peace offerings, and there were ^(AS)the drink offerings for the burnt offerings. Thus the service of the house of the Lord was restored. ³⁶And Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced because God had provided for the people, for the thing came about suddenly.

Passover Celebrated

30 Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Judah, and wrote letters also to Ephraim and Manasseh, that they should come to the house of the Lord at Jerusalem to keep the Passover to the Lord, the God of Israel. ²For the king and his princes and all the assembly in Jerusalem had taken counsel to keep the Passover ^(AT)in the second month— ³for they could not keep it ^(AU)at that time ^(AV)because the priests had not consecrated themselves in sufficient number, nor had the people assembled in Jerusalem— ⁴and the plan seemed right to the king and all the assembly. ⁵So they decreed to make a proclamation throughout all Israel, ^(AW)from Beersheba to Dan, that the people should come and keep the Passover to the Lord, the God of Israel, at Jerusalem, for they had not kept it as often as prescribed. ⁶^(AX)So couriers went throughout all Israel and Judah with letters from the king and his princes, as the king had commanded, saying, “O people of Israel, ^(AY)return to the Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, that he may turn again to the remnant of you who have escaped from the hand of ^(AZ)the kings of Assyria. ⁷^(BA)Do not be like your fathers and your brothers, who were faithless to the Lord God of their fathers, so that he made them a desolation, as you see. ⁸^(BB)Do not now be stiff-necked as your fathers were, but yield yourselves to the Lord and come to his sanctuary, which he has consecrated forever, and serve the Lord your God, ^(BC)that his fierce anger may turn away from you. ⁹For ^(BD)if you return to the Lord, your brothers and your children ^(BE)will find compassion with their captors and return to this land. For ^(BF)the Lord your God is gracious and merciful and will not turn away his face from you, ^(BG)if you return to him.”

¹⁰^(BH)So the couriers went from city to city through the country of ^(BI)Ephraim and Manasseh, and as far as Zebulun, but ^(BJ)they laughed them to scorn and mocked them. ¹¹However, ^(BK)some men of Asher, of Manasseh, and of Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem. ¹²The hand of God was also on Judah to give them one heart to do what the king and the princes commanded ^(BL)by the word of the Lord.

¹³And many people came together in Jerusalem to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread ^(BM)in the second month, a very great assembly. ¹⁴They set to work and removed ^(BN)the altars that were in Jerusalem, and all the altars for burning incense they took away ^(BO)and threw into the brook Kidron. ¹⁵^(BP)And they slaughtered the Passover lamb on the fourteenth day of the second month. ^(BQ)And the priests and the Levites were ashamed, ^(BR)so that they consecrated themselves and brought burnt offerings into the house of the Lord. ¹⁶^(BS)They took their accustomed posts according to the Law of Moses ^(BT)the man of God. The priests threw the blood that they received from the hand of the Levites. ¹⁷For there were many in the assembly who had not consecrated themselves. Therefore the Levites had to slaughter the Passover lamb for everyone who was not clean, to consecrate it to the Lord. ¹⁸For a majority of the people, ^(BU)many of them from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun, had not cleansed themselves, yet they ate the Passover otherwise ^(BV)than as prescribed. For Hezekiah had prayed for them, saying, “May the good Lord pardon everyone ¹⁹^(BW)who sets his heart to seek God, the Lord, the God of his fathers, even though not according to the sanctuary's rules of cleanness.”^[d] ²⁰And the Lord heard Hezekiah and healed the people. ²¹And the people of Israel who were present at Jerusalem kept ^(BX)the Feast of Unleavened Bread seven days with great gladness, and the Levites and the priests praised the Lord day by day, singing with all their might^[e] to the Lord. ²²And Hezekiah spoke ^(BY)encouragingly to all the Levites who showed good skill in the service of the Lord. So they ate the food of the festival for seven days, sacrificing ^(BZ)peace offerings and giving thanks to the Lord, the God of their fathers.

²³Then the whole assembly agreed together to keep the feast ^(CA)for another seven days. So they kept it for another seven days with gladness. ²⁴For Hezekiah king of Judah ^(CB)gave the assembly 1,000 bulls and 7,000 sheep for offerings, and the princes gave the assembly 1,000 bulls and 10,000 sheep. And the priests ^(CC)consecrated themselves in great numbers. ²⁵The whole assembly of Judah, and the priests and the Levites, ^(CD)and the whole assembly that came out of Israel, and the sojourners who came out of the land of Israel, and the sojourners who lived in Judah, rejoiced. ²⁶So there was great joy in Jerusalem, for ^(CE)since the time of Solomon the son of David king of Israel there had been nothing like this in Jerusalem. ²⁷Then ^(CF)the priests and the Levites arose and ^(CG)blessed the people, and their voice was heard, and their prayer came to ^(CH)his holy habitation in heaven.

Hezekiah Organizes the Priests

31 Now when all this was finished, all Israel who were present went out to the cities of Judah and ^(CI)broke in pieces the ^(CJ)pillars and cut down ^(CK)the Asherim and broke down the high places and the altars throughout all Judah and Benjamin, and in Ephraim and Manasseh, until they had destroyed them all. Then all the people of Israel returned to their cities, every man to his possession.

²And Hezekiah appointed ^(CL)the divisions of the priests and of the Levites, division by division, each according to his service, the priests and the Levites, ^(CM)for burnt offerings and peace offerings, to minister in the gates of the camp of the Lord and to give thanks and praise. ³^(CN)The contribution of the king from his own possessions was for the burnt offerings: the burnt offerings of morning and evening, and the burnt offerings for the Sabbaths, the new moons, and the appointed feasts, ^(CO)as it is written in the Law of the Lord. ⁴And he commanded the people who lived in Jerusalem to give ^(CP)the portion due to the priests and the Levites, that they might give themselves to the Law of the Lord. ⁵As soon as the command was spread abroad, the people of Israel gave in abundance the firstfruits of grain, wine, oil, honey, and of all the produce of the field. And they brought in abundantly ^(CQ)the tithe of everything. ⁶And the people of Israel and Judah who lived in the cities of Judah also brought in the tithe of cattle and sheep, and ^(CR)the tithe of the dedicated things that had been dedicated to the Lord their God, and laid them in heaps. ⁷In the third month they began to pile up the heaps, and finished them in the seventh month. ⁸When Hezekiah and the princes came and saw the heaps, they blessed the Lord and his people Israel. ⁹And Hezekiah questioned the priests and the Levites about the heaps. ¹⁰Azariah the chief priest, who was ^(CS)of the house of Zadok, answered him, “Since they began to bring the contributions into the house of the Lord, we have eaten and had enough and have plenty left, ^(CT)for the Lord has blessed his people, so that we have this large amount left.”

¹¹Then Hezekiah commanded them to prepare ^(CU)chambers in the house of the Lord, and they prepared them. ¹²And they faithfully brought in the contributions, the tithes, and the dedicated things. The chief officer ^(CV)in charge of them was Conaniah the Levite, with ^(CW)Shimei his brother as second, ¹³^(CX)while Jehiel, Azaziah, Nahath, Asahel, Jerimoth, Jozabad, Eliel, Ismachiah, ^(CY)Mahath, and Benaiah were overseers assisting Conaniah and Shimei his brother, by the appointment of Hezekiah the king and ^(CZ)Azariah the chief officer of the house of God. ¹⁴And Kore the son of Imnah the Levite, keeper of the east gate, was over the freewill offerings to God, to apportion the contribution reserved for the Lord and the most holy offerings. ¹⁵^(DA)Eden, Miniamin, Jeshua, Shemaiah, Amariah, and Shecaniah were faithfully assisting him in ^(DB)the cities of the priests, to distribute the portions to their brothers, old and young alike, by divisions, ¹⁶except those enrolled by genealogy, males from three years old and upward—all who entered the house of the Lord ^(DC)as the duty of each day required—for their service according to their offices, by their divisions. ¹⁷The enrollment of the priests was according to their fathers' houses; that of the Levites ^(DD)from twenty years old and upward was according to their offices, by their divisions. ¹⁸They were enrolled with all their little children, their wives, their sons, and their daughters, the whole assembly, for they were faithful in keeping themselves holy. ¹⁹And for the sons of Aaron, the priests, who were in the fields of common land belonging to their cities, there were men in the several cities who were ^(DE)designated by name to distribute portions to every male among the priests and to everyone among the Levites who was enrolled.

²⁰Thus Hezekiah did throughout all Judah, ^(DF)and he did what was good and right and faithful before the Lord his God. ²¹And every work that he undertook in the service of the house of God and in accordance with the law and the commandments, seeking his God, he did with all his heart, and prospered.

Sennacherib Invades Judah

32 ^(DG)After these things and these acts of faithfulness, Sennacherib king of Assyria came and invaded Judah and encamped against the fortified cities, thinking to win them for himself. ²And when Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib had come and intended to fight against Jerusalem, ³he planned with his officers and his mighty men to stop the water of the springs that were outside the city; and they helped him. ⁴A great many people were gathered, and they stopped all the springs and ^(DH)the brook that flowed through the land, saying, “Why should the kings of Assyria come and find much water?”

Footnotes

2 Chronicles 29:1 Spelled Abi in 2 Kings 18:2
2 Chronicles 29:5 Hebrew impurity
2 Chronicles 29:31 Hebrew filled your hand for
2 Chronicles 30:19 Hebrew not according to the cleanness of holiness
2 Chronicles 30:21 Compare 1 Chronicles 13:8; Hebrew with instruments of might

2 Chronicles 29-32

New International Version

Hezekiah Purifies the Temple^(A)

29 Hezekiah^(B) was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-nine years. His mother’s name was Abijah daughter of Zechariah. ²He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father David^(C) had done.

³In the first month of the first year of his reign, he opened the doors of the temple of the Lord and repaired^(D) them. ⁴He brought in the priests and the Levites, assembled them in the square on the east side ⁵and said: “Listen to me, Levites! Consecrate^(E) yourselves now and consecrate the temple of the Lord, the God of your ancestors. Remove all defilement from the sanctuary. ⁶Our parents^(F) were unfaithful;^(G) they did evil in the eyes of the Lord our God and forsook him. They turned their faces away from the Lord’s dwelling place and turned their backs on him. ⁷They also shut the doors of the portico and put out the lamps. They did not burn incense^(H) or present any burnt offerings at the sanctuary to the God of Israel. ⁸Therefore, the anger of the Lord has fallen on Judah and Jerusalem; he has made them an object of dread and horror^(I) and scorn,^(J) as you can see with your own eyes. ⁹This is why our fathers have fallen by the sword and why our sons and daughters and our wives are in captivity.^(K) ¹⁰Now I intend to make a covenant^(L) with the Lord, the God of Israel, so that his fierce anger^(M) will turn away from us. ¹¹My sons, do not be negligent now, for the Lord has chosen you to stand before him and serve him,^(N) to minister^(O) before him and to burn incense.”

¹²Then these Levites^(P) set to work:

from the Kohathites,

Mahath son of Amasai and Joel son of Azariah;

from the Merarites,

Kish son of Abdi and Azariah son of Jehallelel;

from the Gershonites,

Joah son of Zimmah and Eden^(Q) son of Joah;

¹³from the descendants of Elizaphan,^(R)

Shimri and Jeiel;

from the descendants of Asaph,^(S)

Zechariah and Mattaniah;

¹⁴from the descendants of Heman,

Jehiel and Shimei;

from the descendants of Jeduthun,

Shemaiah and Uzziel.

¹⁵When they had assembled their fellow Levites and consecrated themselves, they went in to purify^(T) the temple of the Lord, as the king had ordered, following the word of the Lord. ¹⁶The priests went into the sanctuary of the Lord to purify it. They brought out to the courtyard of the Lord’s temple everything unclean that they found in the temple of the Lord. The Levites took it and carried it out to the Kidron Valley.^(U) ¹⁷They began the consecration on the first day of the first month, and by the eighth day of the month they reached the portico of the Lord. For eight more days they consecrated the temple of the Lord itself, finishing on the sixteenth day of the first month.

¹⁸Then they went in to King Hezekiah and reported: “We have purified the entire temple of the Lord, the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils, and the table for setting out the consecrated bread, with all its articles. ¹⁹We have prepared and consecrated all the articles^(V) that King Ahaz removed in his unfaithfulness while he was king. They are now in front of the Lord’s altar.”

²⁰Early the next morning King Hezekiah gathered the city officials together and went up to the temple of the Lord. ²¹They brought seven bulls, seven rams, seven male lambs and seven male goats^(W) as a sin offering^[a]^(X) for the kingdom, for the sanctuary and for Judah. The king commanded the priests, the descendants of Aaron, to offer these on the altar of the Lord. ²²So they slaughtered the bulls, and the priests took the blood and splashed it against the altar; next they slaughtered the rams and splashed their blood against the altar; then they slaughtered the lambs and splashed their blood^(Y) against the altar. ²³The goats^(Z) for the sin offering were brought before the king and the assembly, and they laid their hands^(AA) on them. ²⁴The priests then slaughtered the goats and presented their blood on the altar for a sin offering to atone^(AB) for all Israel, because the king had ordered the burnt offering and the sin offering for all Israel.^(AC)

²⁵He stationed the Levites in the temple of the Lord with cymbals, harps and lyres in the way prescribed by David^(AD) and Gad^(AE) the king’s seer and Nathan the prophet; this was commanded by the Lord through his prophets. ²⁶So the Levites stood ready with David’s instruments,^(AF) and the priests with their trumpets.^(AG)

²⁷Hezekiah gave the order to sacrifice the burnt offering on the altar. As the offering began, singing to the Lord began also, accompanied by trumpets and the instruments^(AH) of David king of Israel. ²⁸The whole assembly bowed in worship, while the musicians played and the trumpets sounded. All this continued until the sacrifice of the burnt offering^(AI) was completed.

²⁹When the offerings were finished, the king and everyone present with him knelt down and worshiped.^(AJ) ³⁰King Hezekiah and his officials ordered the Levites to praise the Lord with the words of David and of Asaph the seer. So they sang praises with gladness and bowed down and worshiped.

³¹Then Hezekiah said, “You have now dedicated yourselves to the Lord. Come and bring sacrifices^(AK) and thank offerings to the temple of the Lord.” So the assembly brought sacrifices and thank offerings, and all whose hearts were willing^(AL) brought burnt offerings.

³²The number of burnt offerings^(AM) the assembly brought was seventy bulls, a hundred rams and two hundred male lambs—all of them for burnt offerings to the Lord. ³³The animals consecrated as sacrifices amounted to six hundred bulls and three thousand sheep and goats. ³⁴The priests, however, were too few to skin all the burnt offerings;^(AN) so their relatives the Levites helped them until the task was finished and until other priests had been consecrated,^(AO) for the Levites had been more conscientious in consecrating themselves than the priests had been. ³⁵There were burnt offerings in abundance, together with the fat^(AP) of the fellowship offerings^(AQ) and the drink offerings^(AR) that accompanied the burnt offerings.

So the service of the temple of the Lord was reestablished. ³⁶Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced at what God had brought about for his people, because it was done so quickly.^(AS)

Hezekiah Celebrates the Passover

30 Hezekiah sent word to all Israel^(AT) and Judah and also wrote letters to Ephraim and Manasseh,^(AU) inviting them to come to the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem and celebrate the Passover^(AV) to the Lord, the God of Israel. ²The king and his officials and the whole assembly in Jerusalem decided to celebrate^(AW) the Passover in the second month. ³They had not been able to celebrate it at the regular time because not enough priests had consecrated^(AX) themselves and the people had not assembled in Jerusalem. ⁴The plan seemed right both to the king and to the whole assembly. ⁵They decided to send a proclamation throughout Israel, from Beersheba to Dan,^(AY) calling the people to come to Jerusalem and celebrate the Passover to the Lord, the God of Israel. It had not been celebrated in large numbers according to what was written.

⁶At the king’s command, couriers went throughout Israel and Judah with letters from the king and from his officials, which read:

“People of Israel, return to the Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, that he may return to you who are left, who have escaped from the hand of the kings of Assyria. ⁷Do not be like your parents^(AZ) and your fellow Israelites, who were unfaithful^(BA) to the Lord, the God of their ancestors, so that he made them an object of horror,^(BB) as you see. ⁸Do not be stiff-necked,^(BC) as your ancestors were; submit to the Lord. Come to his sanctuary, which he has consecrated forever. Serve the Lord your God, so that his fierce anger^(BD) will turn away from you. ⁹If you return^(BE) to the Lord, then your fellow Israelites and your children will be shown compassion^(BF) by their captors and will return to this land, for the Lord your God is gracious and compassionate.^(BG) He will not turn his face from you if you return to him.”

¹⁰The couriers went from town to town in Ephraim and Manasseh, as far as Zebulun, but people scorned and ridiculed^(BH) them. ¹¹Nevertheless, some from Asher, Manasseh and Zebulun humbled^(BI) themselves and went to Jerusalem.^(BJ) ¹²Also in Judah the hand of God was on the people to give them unity^(BK) of mind to carry out what the king and his officials had ordered, following the word of the Lord.

¹³A very large crowd of people assembled in Jerusalem to celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread^(BL) in the second month. ¹⁴They removed the altars^(BM) in Jerusalem and cleared away the incense altars and threw them into the Kidron Valley.^(BN)

¹⁵They slaughtered the Passover lamb on the fourteenth day of the second month. The priests and the Levites were ashamed and consecrated^(BO) themselves and brought burnt offerings to the temple of the Lord. ¹⁶Then they took up their regular positions^(BP) as prescribed in the Law of Moses the man of God. The priests splashed against the altar the blood handed to them by the Levites. ¹⁷Since many in the crowd had not consecrated themselves, the Levites had to kill^(BQ) the Passover lambs for all those who were not ceremonially clean and could not consecrate their lambs^[b] to the Lord. ¹⁸Although most of the many people who came from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar and Zebulun had not purified themselves,^(BR) yet they ate the Passover, contrary to what was written. But Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, “May the Lord, who is good, pardon everyone ¹⁹who sets their heart on seeking God—the Lord, the God of their ancestors—even if they are not clean according to the rules of the sanctuary.” ²⁰And the Lord heard^(BS) Hezekiah and healed^(BT) the people.^(BU)

²¹The Israelites who were present in Jerusalem celebrated the Festival of Unleavened Bread^(BV) for seven days with great rejoicing, while the Levites and priests praised the Lord every day with resounding instruments dedicated to the Lord.^[c]

²²Hezekiah spoke encouragingly to all the Levites, who showed good understanding of the service of the Lord. For the seven days they ate their assigned portion and offered fellowship offerings and praised^[d] the Lord, the God of their ancestors.

²³The whole assembly then agreed to celebrate^(BW) the festival seven more days; so for another seven days they celebrated joyfully. ²⁴Hezekiah king of Judah provided^(BX) a thousand bulls and seven thousand sheep and goats for the assembly, and the officials provided them with a thousand bulls and ten thousand sheep and goats. A great number of priests consecrated themselves. ²⁵The entire assembly of Judah rejoiced, along with the priests and Levites and all who had assembled from Israel^(BY), including the foreigners who had come from Israel and also those who resided in Judah. ²⁶There was great joy in Jerusalem, for since the days of Solomon^(BZ) son of David king of Israel there had been nothing like this in Jerusalem. ²⁷The priests and the Levites stood to bless^(CA) the people, and God heard them, for their prayer reached heaven, his holy dwelling place.

31 When all this had ended, the Israelites who were there went out to the towns of Judah, smashed the sacred stones and cut down^(CB) the Asherah poles. They destroyed the high places and the altars throughout Judah and Benjamin and in Ephraim and Manasseh. After they had destroyed all of them, the Israelites returned to their own towns and to their own property.

Contributions for Worship^(CC)

²Hezekiah^(CD) assigned the priests and Levites to divisions^(CE)—each of them according to their duties as priests or Levites—to offer burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, to minister,^(CF) to give thanks and to sing praises^(CG) at the gates of the Lord’s dwelling.^(CH) ³The king contributed^(CI) from his own possessions for the morning and evening burnt offerings and for the burnt offerings on the Sabbaths, at the New Moons and at the appointed festivals as written in the Law of the Lord.^(CJ) ⁴He ordered the people living in Jerusalem to give the portion^(CK) due the priests and Levites so they could devote themselves to the Law of the Lord. ⁵As soon as the order went out, the Israelites generously gave the firstfruits^(CL) of their grain, new wine,^(CM) olive oil and honey and all that the fields produced. They brought a great amount, a tithe of everything. ⁶The people of Israel and Judah who lived in the towns of Judah also brought a tithe^(CN) of their herds and flocks and a tithe of the holy things dedicated to the Lord their God, and they piled them in heaps.^(CO) ⁷They began doing this in the third month and finished in the seventh month.^(CP) ⁸When Hezekiah and his officials came and saw the heaps, they praised the Lord and blessed^(CQ) his people Israel.

⁹Hezekiah asked the priests and Levites about the heaps; ¹⁰and Azariah the chief priest, from the family of Zadok,^(CR) answered, “Since the people began to bring their contributions to the temple of the Lord, we have had enough to eat and plenty to spare, because the Lord has blessed his people, and this great amount is left over.”^(CS)

¹¹Hezekiah gave orders to prepare storerooms in the temple of the Lord, and this was done. ¹²Then they faithfully brought in the contributions, tithes and dedicated gifts. Konaniah,^(CT) a Levite, was the overseer in charge of these things, and his brother Shimei was next in rank. ¹³Jehiel, Azaziah, Nahath, Asahel, Jerimoth, Jozabad,^(CU) Eliel, Ismakiah, Mahath and Benaiah were assistants of Konaniah and Shimei his brother. All these served by appointment of King Hezekiah and Azariah the official in charge of the temple of God.

¹⁴Kore son of Imnah the Levite, keeper of the East Gate, was in charge of the freewill offerings given to God, distributing the contributions made to the Lord and also the consecrated gifts. ¹⁵Eden,^(CV) Miniamin, Jeshua, Shemaiah, Amariah and Shekaniah assisted him faithfully in the towns^(CW) of the priests, distributing to their fellow priests according to their divisions, old and young alike.

¹⁶In addition, they distributed to the males three years old or more whose names were in the genealogical records^(CX)—all who would enter the temple of the Lord to perform the daily duties of their various tasks, according to their responsibilities and their divisions. ¹⁷And they distributed to the priests enrolled by their families in the genealogical records and likewise to the Levites twenty years old or more, according to their responsibilities and their divisions. ¹⁸They included all the little ones, the wives, and the sons and daughters of the whole community listed in these genealogical records. For they were faithful in consecrating themselves.

¹⁹As for the priests, the descendants of Aaron, who lived on the farmlands around their towns or in any other towns,^(CY) men were designated by name to distribute portions to every male among them and to all who were recorded in the genealogies of the Levites.

²⁰This is what Hezekiah did throughout Judah, doing what was good and right and faithful^(CZ) before the Lord his God. ²¹In everything that he undertook in the service of God’s temple and in obedience to the law and the commands, he sought his God and worked wholeheartedly. And so he prospered.^(DA)

Sennacherib Threatens Jerusalem^(DB)^(DC)

32 After all that Hezekiah had so faithfully done, Sennacherib^(DD) king of Assyria came and invaded Judah. He laid siege to the fortified cities, thinking to conquer them for himself. ²When Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib had come and that he intended to wage war against Jerusalem,^(DE) ³he consulted with his officials and military staff about blocking off the water from the springs outside the city, and they helped him. ⁴They gathered a large group of people who blocked all the springs^(DF) and the stream that flowed through the land. “Why should the kings^[e] of Assyria come and find plenty of water?” they said.

Footnotes

2 Chronicles 29:21 Or purification offering; also in verses 23 and 24
2 Chronicles 30:17 Or consecrate themselves
2 Chronicles 30:21 Or priests sang to the Lord every day, accompanied by the Lord’s instruments of praise
2 Chronicles 30:22 Or and confessed their sins to
2 Chronicles 32:4 Hebrew; Septuagint and Syriac king

English Standard Version (ESV)

New International Version (NIV)

Isaiah 37:2-39:8 English Standard Version

Hezekiah's Prayer for Deliverance

Sennacherib's Fall

Hezekiah's Sickness and Recovery

Envoys from Babylon

Footnotes

Cross references

Isaiah 37:2-39:8 New International Version

Hezekiah’s Prayer(AD)

Sennacherib’s Fall(AZ)

Hezekiah’s Illness(CY)

Envoys From Babylon(EY)

Footnotes

Cross references

2 Kings 18-20 English Standard Version

Hezekiah Reigns in Judah

Sennacherib Attacks Judah

Isaiah Reassures Hezekiah

Sennacherib Defies the Lord

Hezekiah's Prayer

Isaiah Prophesies Sennacherib's Fall

Hezekiah's Illness and Recovery

Hezekiah and the Babylonian Envoys

Footnotes

Cross references

2 Kings 18-20 New International Version

Hezekiah King of Judah(A)(B)(C)

Sennacherib Threatens Jerusalem(AC)(AD)

Jerusalem’s Deliverance Foretold(AY)

Hezekiah’s Prayer(BU)

Isaiah Prophesies Sennacherib’s Fall(CG)(CH)

Hezekiah’s Illness(DX)

Envoys From Babylon(EI)(EJ)

Footnotes

Cross references

2 Chronicles 29-32 English Standard Version

Hezekiah Reigns in Judah

Hezekiah Cleanses the Temple

Hezekiah Restores Temple Worship

Passover Celebrated

Hezekiah Organizes the Priests

Sennacherib Invades Judah

Footnotes

Cross references

2 Chronicles 29-32 New International Version

Hezekiah Purifies the Temple(A)

Hezekiah Celebrates the Passover

Contributions for Worship(CC)

Sennacherib Threatens Jerusalem(DB)(DC)

Footnotes

Cross references

More on the NIV

Isaiah 37:2-39:8

English Standard Version

Isaiah 37:2-39:8

New International Version

Hezekiah’s Prayer^(AD)

Sennacherib’s Fall^(AZ)

Hezekiah’s Illness^(CY)

Envoys From Babylon^(EY)

2 Kings 18-20

English Standard Version

2 Kings 18-20

New International Version

Hezekiah King of Judah^(A)^(B)^(C)

Sennacherib Threatens Jerusalem^(AC)^(AD)

Jerusalem’s Deliverance Foretold^(AY)

Hezekiah’s Prayer^(BU)

Isaiah Prophesies Sennacherib’s Fall^(CG)^(CH)

Hezekiah’s Illness^(DX)

Envoys From Babylon^(EI)^(EJ)

2 Chronicles 29-32

English Standard Version

2 Chronicles 29-32

New International Version

Hezekiah Purifies the Temple^(A)

Contributions for Worship^(CC)

Sennacherib Threatens Jerusalem^(DB)^(DC)