2 Kings 20
2 Kings 20 (Chapter a Day)
Hezekiah’s Illness
1
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.”
2 Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD, 3
“Remember, O LORD, how I have walked before you faithfully and with
wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes.” And
Hezekiah wept bitterly.
4 Before Isaiah had left the middle court, the word of the LORD came to him: 5
“Go back and tell Hezekiah, the leader of my people, ‘This is what the
LORD, the God of your father David, says: I have heard your prayer and
seen your tears; I will heal you. On the third day from now you will go
up to the temple of the LORD. 6
I 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 this city for
my sake and for the sake of my servant David.’ ”
7 Then Isaiah said, “Prepare a poultice of figs.” They did so and applied it to the boil, and he recovered.
8
Hezekiah 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?”
9
Isaiah answered, “This is the LORD’s sign 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 matter for the shadow to go forward ten steps,” said Hezekiah. “Rather, have it go back ten steps.”
11
Then the prophet Isaiah called upon the LORD, and the LORD made the
shadow go back the ten steps it had gone down on the stairway of Ahaz.
Envoys From Babylon
12
At that time Merodach-Baladan son of Baladan king of Babylon sent
Hezekiah letters and a gift, because he had heard of Hezekiah’s
illness. 13 Hezekiah
received the messengers and showed them all that was in his
storehousesâ€â€the silver, the gold, the spices and the fine
oilâ€â€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.
14 Then 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.”
15 The 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.”
16 Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the LORD : 17
The time will surely come when everything in your palace, and all that
your fathers have stored up until this day, will be carried off to
Babylon. Nothing will be left, says the LORD. 18
And some of your descendants, your own flesh and blood, that will be
born to you, will be taken away, and they will become eunuchs in the
palace of the king of Babylon.”
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?”
20
As for the other events of Hezekiah’s reign, all his achievements and
how he made the pool and the tunnel by which he brought water into the
city, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of
Judah? 21 Hezekiah rested with his fathers. And Manasseh his son succeeded him as king.
New International Version (NIV) Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society