The In-Dept Study of the Bible
Kings 20
1 In those days Hezekiah was sick and
dying. Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz
came to him, and said to him, “Yahweh
says, ‘Set your house in order; for you will
die, and not live.’ ”
2 Then he turned his face to the wall, and
prayed to Yahweh, saying,
3 “Remember now, Yahweh, I beg you,
how I have walked before you in truth and
with a perfect heart, and have done that
whichis good inyour sight.” AndHezekiah
wept bitterly.
4 Before Isaiah had gone out into the
middle part of the city, Yahweh’s word
came to him, saying,
5 “Turn back, and tell Hezekiah the
prince of my people, ‘Yahweh, the God of
David your father, says, “I have heard your
prayer. I have seen your tears. Behold, I
will heal you. On the third day, you will go
up to Yahweh’s house.
6 I will add to your days fifteen years.
I will deliver you and this city out of the
hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend
this city for my own sake, and for my servant David’s sake.”
7 Isaiah said, “Take a cake of figs.”
They took and laid it on the boil, and he
recovered.
8 Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “What will be
the sign that Yahweh will heal me, and that
I will go up to Yahweh’s house the third
day?”
9 Isaiah said, “This will be the sign to
you from Yahweh, that Yahweh will do
the thing that he has spoken: should the
shadow go forward ten steps, or go back
ten steps?”
10 Hezekiah answered, “It is a light thing
for the shadow to go forward ten steps. No,
but let the shadow return backward ten
steps.”
11 Isaiah the prophet cried to Yahweh;
and he brought the shadow ten steps backward, by which it had gone down on the
sundial of Ahaz.
12 At that time Berodach Baladan the son
of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters
and a present to Hezekiah, for he had
heard that Hezekiah had been sick.
13 Hezekiah listened to them, and
showed them all the storehouse of his
precious things—the silver, the gold, the
spices, and the precious oil, and the house
of his armor, and all that was found in his
treasures. There was nothing in his house,
or in all his dominion, that Hezekiah didn’t
show them.
14 Then Isaiah the prophet came to King
Hezekiah, and said to him, “What did these
men say? From where did they come to
you? Hezekiah said, “They have come from a
far country, even from Babylon.”
15 He said, “What have they seen in your
house?” Hezekiah answered, “They have seen all
that is in my house. There is nothing
among my treasures that I have not shown
them.”
16 Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear Yahweh’s word.
17 ‘Behold, the days come that all that is
in your house, and that which your fathers
have laid up in store to this day, will be
carried to Babylon. Nothing will be left,’
says Yahweh.
18 ‘They willtake away some of your sons
who will issue from you, whom you will
father; and they will be eunuchs in the
palace of the king of Babylon.’
19 Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “Yahweh’s word which you have spoken is
good.” He said moreover, “Isn’t it so, if
peace and truth will be in my days?”
20 Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah,
and all his might, and how he made the
pool, and the conduit, and brought water
into the city, aren’tthey written in the book
of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
21 Hezekiah slept with his fathers, and
Manasseh his son reigned in his place.