Day 122, 2 Kings 19-21

Isaiah Reassures Hezekiah

Hezekiah sent messengers to the prophet Isaiah and said how Hezekiah was in distress. Isaiah told them to tell Hezekiah the Lord said not to be afraid because of the words that he had heard. The Lord would put a spirit in the king of Assyria so that he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land, and the Lord would make him fall by the sword there.

Sennacherib Defies the Lord

Sennacherib sent messengers to Hezekiah telling him not to be fooled by the words of the Lord, for he would deceive him by promising that Jerusalem would not be given into his hand. For all the lands he planned to defeat he did, what would make them so much different?

Hezekiah’s Prayer

When Hezekiah received the letter he went up to the house of the Lord and prayed. He praised the Lord and asked him to save them from the king of Assyria; so all the kingdoms of the land would know that he was the Lord, and God alone.

Isaiah Prophesies Sennacherib’s Fall

Then Isaiah sent to Hezekiah telling him that the prayers he sent to the Lord has been heard.

The king of Assyria would not come into the city or shoot an arrow there. By the way that he came, is the same he would return, and he would not come into the city. The Lord would defend the city to save it, for his own sake and the sake of his servant David.

That night the angel of the Lord went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. Then Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and went home. As he was worshiping, his sons struck him down with the sword and escaped. And Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place.

Hezekiah’s Illness and Recovery

In those days Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of death. Isaiah the prophet came to him and told him to set his house in order, for he would die and not recover.

Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, asking him to please remember how he had walked before him in faithfulness and with a whole heart, and had done what was good in his sight. And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

Before Isaiah had left, the word of the Lord came to him and told him to go back. He told Hezekiah that the Lord had heard his prayer and seen his tears. Behold, he would heal him.

On the third day he would need to go up to the house of the Lord, and the Lord would add fifteen years to his life. He would deliver him and the city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and would defend the city.

Isaiah told him to bring a cake of figs and lay it on the boil, so that he may recover.

Hezekiah and the Babylonian Envoys

At that time Merodach-baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent envoys with letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he heard that he had been sick. Hezekiah welcomed them and showed him everything that he had in his treasure house.

Isaiah came and questioned who they were, what they said, and what Hezekiah had shown them. Then he said that the days were coming when everything that Hezekiah had stored up, would be carried to Babylon. Nothing would be left, said the Lord.

Even some of his own sons born to him would be taken away, and they would be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon. Hezekiah said that the word the Lord had spoken was good, so that there would be peace and security in his days. Hezekiah slept with his fathers, and Manasseh his son reigned in his place.

Manasseh Reigns in Judah

Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. He rebuilt the high places that Hezekiah his father had destroyed, and he erected altars for Baal and made an Asherah.

And he built altars in the house of the Lord which the Lord had forbade. He burned his son as an offering and used fortune-telling and omens and dealt with mediums and necromancers. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord and provoked him to anger.

Manasseh did not listen to the Lord and led the people astray to do more evil than the nations had done whom the Lord destroyed before the people of Israel.

Manasseh’s Idolatry Denounced

The Lord said that because Manasseh had done such evil things, he would bring disaster upon Jerusalem and Judah that the ears of all who hear of it would tingle. He would wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down.

He would forsake the remnants of his heritage and give them into the hands of their enemies, and they would become prey and spoil. Moreover, Manasseh shed very much innocent blood, and filled them all with sin.

Manasseh slept with his fathers and was buried in the garden of his house, in the garden of Uzza, and Amon his son reigned in his place.

Amon Reigns in Judah

Amon was twenty-two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned for two years in Jerusalem. He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, as Manasseh his father had done. He served the idols his father served and worshiped them. He abandoned the Lord.

The servants of Amon conspired against him and put the king to death in his house. But the people of the land struck down all those who conspired against King Amon, and the people made Josiah his son king in his place. Amon was buried in his tomb in the garden of Uzza, and Josiah his son reigned in his place.