King Hezekiah's Illness and Recovery

¹About this time King Hezekiah became sick and almost died. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz went to see him and said to him, “The Lord tells you that you are to put everything in order, because you will not recover. Get ready to die.”

²Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed:

³“Remember, Lord, that I have served you faithfully and loyally and that I have always tried to do what you wanted me to.” And he began to cry bitterly.

⁴Isaiah left the king, but before he had passed through the central courtyard of the palace the Lord told him

⁵to go back to Hezekiah, ruler of the Lord's people, and say to him, “I, the Lord, the God of your ancestor David, have heard your prayer and seen your tears. I will heal you, and in three days you will go to the Temple.

⁶I will let you live fifteen years longer. I will rescue you and this city Jerusalem from the emperor of Assyria. I will defend this city, for the sake of my own honor and because of the promise I made to my servant David.”

⁷Then Isaiah told the king's attendants to put on his boil a paste made of figs, and he would get well.

⁸King Hezekiah asked, “What is the sign to prove that the Lord will heal me and that three days later I will be able to go to the Temple?”

⁹Isaiah replied, “The Lord will give you a sign to prove that he will keep his promise. Now, would you prefer to have the shadow on the stairway go forward ten steps or go back ten steps?”

¹⁰Hezekiah answered, “It's easy to have the shadow go forward ten steps! Have it go back ten steps.”

¹¹Isaiah prayed to the Lord, and the Lord made the shadow go back ten steps on the stairway set up by King Ahaz.

Messengers from Babylonia

¹²About that same time the king of Babylonia, Merodach Baladan, the son of Baladan, heard that King Hezekiah had been sick, so he sent him a letter and a present.

¹³Hezekiah welcomed the messengers and showed them his wealth—his silver and gold, his spices and perfumes, and all his military equipment. There was nothing in his storerooms or anywhere in his kingdom that he did not show them.

¹⁴Then the prophet Isaiah went to King Hezekiah and asked, “Where did these men come from and what did they say to you?” Hezekiah answered, “They came from a very distant country, from Babylonia.”

¹⁵“What did they see in the palace?” “They saw everything. There is nothing in the storerooms that I didn't show them.”

¹⁶Isaiah then told the king, “The Lord Almighty says that

¹⁷a time is coming when everything in your palace, everything that your ancestors have stored up to this day, will be carried off to Babylonia. Nothing will be left.

¹⁸Some of your own direct descendants will be taken away and made eunuchs to serve in the palace of the king of Babylonia.”

¹⁹King Hezekiah understood this to mean that there would be peace and security during his lifetime, so he replied, “The message you have given me from the Lord is good.”

The End of Hezekiah's Reign

²⁰Everything else that King Hezekiah did, his brave deeds, and an account of how he built a reservoir and dug a tunnel to bring water into the city, are all recorded in The History of the Kings of Judah.

²¹Hezekiah died, and his son Manasseh succeeded him as king.

Hezekiah Reforms Religious Life

¹After the festival ended, all the people of Israel went to every city in Judah and broke the stone pillars, cut down the symbols of the goddess Asherah, and destroyed the altars and the pagan places of worship. They did the same thing throughout the rest of Judah, and the territories of Benjamin, Ephraim, and Manasseh; then they all returned home.

²King Hezekiah reestablished the organization of the priests and Levites, under which they each had specific duties. These included offering the burnt offerings and the fellowship offerings, taking part in the Temple worship, and giving praise and thanks in the various parts of the Temple.

³From his own flocks and herds he provided animals for the burnt offerings each morning and evening, and for those offered on the Sabbath, at the New Moon Festival, and at the other festivals which are required by the Law of the Lord.

⁴In addition, the king told the people of Jerusalem to bring the offerings to which the priests and the Levites were entitled, so that they could give all their time to the requirements of the Law of the Lord.

⁵As soon as the order was given, the people of Israel brought gifts of their finest grain, wine, olive oil, honey, and other farm produce, and they also brought the tithes of everything they had.

⁶All the people who lived in the cities of Judah brought tithes of their cattle and sheep, and they also brought large quantities of gifts which they dedicated to the Lord their God.

⁷The gifts started arriving in the third month and continued to pile up for the next four months.

⁸When King Hezekiah and his officials saw how much had been given, they praised the Lord and praised his people Israel.

⁹The king spoke to the priests and the Levites about these gifts,

¹⁰and Azariah the High Priest, a descendant of Zadok, said to him, “Since the people started bringing their gifts to the Temple, there has been enough to eat and a large surplus besides. We have all this because the Lord has blessed his people.”

¹¹On the king's orders they prepared storerooms in the Temple area

¹²and put all the gifts and tithes in them for safekeeping. They placed a Levite named Conaniah in charge and made his brother Shimei his assistant.

¹³Ten Levites were assigned to work under them: Jehiel, Azaziah, Nahath, Asahel, Jerimoth, Jozabad, Eliel, Ismachiah, Mahath, and Benaiah. All this was done under the authority of King Hezekiah and Azariah the High Priest.

¹⁴Kore son of Imnah, a Levite who was chief guard at the East Gate of the Temple, was in charge of receiving the gifts offered to the Lord and of distributing them.

¹⁵In the other cities where priests lived, he was faithfully assisted in this by other Levites: Eden, Miniamin, Jeshua, Shemaiah, Amariah, and Shecaniah. They distributed the food equally to their fellow Levites according to what their duties were,

¹⁶and not by clans. They gave a share to all males thirty years of age or older who had daily responsibilities in the Temple in accordance with their positions.

¹⁷The priests were assigned their duties by clans, and the Levites twenty years of age or older were assigned theirs by work groups.

¹⁸They were all registered together with their wives, children, and other dependents, because they were required to be ready to perform their sacred duties at any time.

¹⁹Among the priests who lived in the cities assigned to Aaron's descendants or in the pasture lands belonging to these cities, there were responsible men who distributed the food to all the males in the priestly families and to everyone who was on the rolls of the Levite clans.

²⁰Throughout all Judah, King Hezekiah did what was right and what was pleasing to the Lord his God.

²¹He was successful, because everything he did for the Temple or in observance of the Law, he did in a spirit of complete loyalty and devotion to his God.

A King Thanks God for Victory

¹Praise the Lord, my protector! He trains me for battle and prepares me for war.

²He is my protector and defender, my shelter and savior, in whom I trust for safety. He subdues the nations under me.

³Lord, what are mortals, that you notice them; mere mortals, that you pay attention to us?

⁴We are like a puff of wind; our days are like a passing shadow.

⁵O Lord, tear the sky open and come down; touch the mountains, and they will pour out smoke.

⁶Send flashes of lightning and scatter your enemies; shoot your arrows and send them running.

⁷Reach down from above, pull me out of the deep water, and rescue me; save me from the power of foreigners,

⁸who never tell the truth and lie even under oath.

⁹I will sing you a new song, O God; I will play the harp and sing to you.

¹⁰You give victory to kings and rescue your servant David.

¹¹Save me from my cruel enemies; rescue me from the power of foreigners, who never tell the truth and lie even under oath.

¹²May our sons in their youth be like plants that grow up strong. May our daughters be like stately columns which adorn the corners of a palace.

¹³May our barns be filled with crops of every kind. May the sheep in our fields bear young by the tens of thousands.

¹⁴May our cattle reproduce plentifully without miscarriage or loss. May there be no cries of distress in our streets.

¹⁵Happy is the nation of whom this is true; happy are the people whose God is the Lord!