Old Testament · History

2 Kings chapter 20

Around that time, got deathly sick. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz came to him and said, “This is what says: , because you’re going to die. You won’t recover from this.”Hezekiah and prayed to Yahweh:“Please, Yahweh, remember how I’ve and , and how I’ve done what is good in your eyes.” And Hezekiah .Before Isaiah had even left the , Yahweh’s message came to him:“Go back and tell Hezekiah, the : This is what Yahweh, , says -- I’ve heard your prayer. I’ve seen your tears. I’m going to heal you. On the third day, you’ll go up to .”“I’ll add fifteen years to your life. And I’ll you and this city from the hand of the . I’ll defend this city for my own sake and for the sake of .”Then Isaiah said, “Prepare a .” They prepared it and applied it to the , and Hezekiah recovered.Hezekiah had asked Isaiah, “What will be the that Yahweh will heal me and that I’ll go up to Yahweh’s house on the third day?”Isaiah said, “This will be your sign from Yahweh that he’ll do what he promised: Do you want the shadow to move forward ten , or go back ten steps?”Hezekiah said, “It’s easy for the shadow to move forward ten steps. No -- make it go back ten steps instead.”So the prophet Isaiah called out to Yahweh, and Yahweh made the shadow go back ten steps on the -- back the way it had already come down.Around that time, son of Baladan, the , sent letters and a gift to Hezekiah, because he’d heard that Hezekiah had been sick.Hezekiah welcomed them and showed them everything in his -- the silver, the gold, the spices, the fine oils, his , and everything that was in his storehouses. There wasn’t a single thing in his palace or in his entire kingdom that Hezekiah didn’t show them.Then the prophet Isaiah came to King Hezekiah and asked him, “What did those men say? And where did they come from?” Hezekiah said, “They came from a distant land -- from Babylon.”Isaiah asked, “What did they see in your palace?” Hezekiah said, “They saw everything in my palace. There isn’t a single thing in my storehouses that I didn’t show them.”Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Listen to what Yahweh says:“The time is coming when everything in your palace -- everything your ancestors stored up until today -- will be . Nothing will be left, says Yahweh.“And some of your own descendants -- -- will be taken away. They’ll become in the palace of the king of Babylon.”Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The message from Yahweh that you’ve spoken is good.” He was thinking, “At least there will be during my lifetime.”As for the rest of Hezekiah’s story -- all his achievements, and how he built to bring water into the city -- it’s all written in the .Hezekiah died and . His son became king after him.