King Hezekiah Comparative bible study

 

            Here is a study on the one really good king, Hezekiah, drawing on the accounts of it in 2 Kings, 2 Chronicles and the book of Isaiah. Hezekiah was one of the later kings of Judah, at the time when Israel fell to the Assyrians, given over for idolatry or even after but Hezekiah led a powerful revival in Judah and indeed he and his nation were delivered from those Assyrians. He had other miracles done in his life and Hezekiah loved God very much.

In 2 Kings chapter 18 Hezekiah takes his kingship and rids Judah of all the idols and serves God like nobody else in Judah and the Lord was with him. Israel is conquered by Assyria in his reign and also they start to vex the people of Judah

(2 Kings 18:1)  In the third year of Hoshea son of Elah, king of Israel, Hezekiah the son of Ahaz, king of Judah, began to reign.

 

(2 Kings 18:2)  He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Abi the daughter of Zechariah.

 

(2 Kings 18:3)  And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, according to all that David his father had done.

 

(2 Kings 18:4)  He removed the high places and broke the pillars and cut down the Asherah. And he broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the people of Israel had made offerings to it (it was called Nehushtan).

 

(2 Kings 18:5)  He trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel, so that there was none like him among all the kings of Judah after him, nor among those who were before him.

 

(2 Kings 18:6)  For he held fast to the LORD. He did not depart from following him, but kept the commandments that the LORD commanded Moses.

 

(2 Kings 18:7)  And the LORD was with him; wherever he went out, he prospered. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and would not serve him.

 

(2 Kings 18:8)  He struck down the Philistines as far as Gaza and its territory, from watchtower to fortified city.

 

(2 Kings 18:9)  In the fourth year of King Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah, king of Israel, Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against Samaria and besieged it,

 

(2 Kings 18:10)  and at the end of three years he took it. In the sixth year of Hezekiah, which was the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel, Samaria was taken.

 

(2 Kings 18:11)  The king of Assyria carried the Israelites away to Assyria and put them in Halah, and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes,

 

(2 Kings 18:12)  because they did not obey the voice of the LORD their God but transgressed his covenant, even all that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded. They neither listened nor obeyed.

 

(2 Kings 18:13)  In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them.

 

(2 Kings 18:14)  And Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria at Lachish, saying, "I have done wrong; withdraw from me. Whatever you impose on me I will bear." And the king of Assyria required of Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.

 

(2 Kings 18:15)  And Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the house of the LORD and in the treasuries of the king's house.

 

(2 Kings 18:16)  At that time Hezekiah stripped the gold from the doors of the temple of the LORD and from the doorposts that Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid and gave it to the king of Assyria.

 

(2 Kings 18:17)  And the king of Assyria sent the Tartan, the Rab-saris, and the Rabshakeh with a great army from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. And they went up and came to Jerusalem. When they arrived, they came and stood by the conduit of the upper pool, which is on the highway to the Washer's Field.

 

(2 Kings 18:18)  And when they called for the king, there came out to them Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebnah the secretary, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder.

 

(2 Kings 18:19)  And the Rabshakeh said to them, "Say to Hezekiah, 'Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: On what do you rest this trust of yours?

 

(2 Kings 18:20)  Do you think that mere words are strategy and power for war? In whom do you now trust, that you have rebelled against me?

 

(2 Kings 18:21)  Behold, you are trusting now in Egypt, that broken reed of a staff, which will pierce the hand of any man who leans on it. Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him.

 

(2 Kings 18:22)  But if you say to me, "We trust in the LORD our God," is it not he whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and to Jerusalem, "You shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem"?

 

(2 Kings 18:23)  Come now, make a wager with my master the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to set riders on them.

 

(2 Kings 18:24)  How then can you repulse a single captain among the least of my master's servants, when you trust in Egypt for chariots and for horsemen?

 

(2 Kings 18:25)  Moreover, is it without the LORD that I have come up against this place to destroy it? The LORD said to me, Go up against this land, and destroy it.'"

 

(2 Kings 18:26)  Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, and Shebnah, and Joah, said to the Rabshakeh, "Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it. Do not speak to us in the language of Judah within the hearing of the people who are on the wall."

 

(2 Kings 18:27)  But the Rabshakeh said to them, "Has my master sent me to speak these words to your master and to you, and not to the men sitting on the wall, who are doomed with you to eat their own dung and to drink their own urine?"

 

(2 Kings 18:28)  Then the Rabshakeh stood and called out in a loud voice in the language of Judah: "Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria!

 

(2 Kings 18:29)  Thus says the king: 'Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you out of my hand.

 

(2 Kings 18:30)  Do not let Hezekiah make you trust in the LORD by saying, The LORD will surely deliver us, and this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.'

 

(2 Kings 18:31)  Do not listen to Hezekiah, for thus says the king of Assyria: 'Make your peace with me and come out to me. Then each one of you will eat of his own vine, and each one of his own fig tree, and each one of you will drink the water of his own cistern,

 

(2 Kings 18:32)  until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees and honey, that you may live, and not die. And do not listen to Hezekiah when he misleads you by saying, The LORD will deliver us.

 

(2 Kings 18:33)  Has any of the gods of the nations ever delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria?

 

(2 Kings 18:34)  Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah? Have they delivered Samaria out of my hand?

 

(2 Kings 18:35)  Who among all the gods of the lands have delivered their lands out of my hand, that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?'"

 

(2 Kings 18:36)  But the people were silent and answered him not a word, for the king's command was, "Do not answer him."

 

(2 Kings 18:37)  Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the secretary, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn and told him the words of the Rabshakeh.

 

In 2 Kings chapter 19 then Hezekiah prays diligently about the threat to Judah from Assyria, and the prophets say that the Assyrians will not enter Jerusalem. This is exactly what happens as an angel from the Lord kills 185,000 Assyrians and Sennacharib the king of Assyria goes back where he is killed

(2 Kings 19:1)  As soon as King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes and covered himself with sackcloth and went into the house of the LORD.

 

(2 Kings 19:2)  And he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the secretary, and the senior priests, covered with sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz.

 

(2 Kings 19:3)  They said to him, "Thus says Hezekiah, This day is a day of distress, of rebuke, and of disgrace; children have come to the point of birth, and there is no strength to bring them forth.

 

(2 Kings 19:4)  It may be that the LORD your God heard all the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to mock the living God, and will rebuke the words that the LORD your God has heard; therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left."

 

(2 Kings 19:5)  When the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah,

 

(2 Kings 19:6)  Isaiah said to them, "Say to your master, 'Thus says the LORD: Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have reviled me.

 

(2 Kings 19:7)  Behold, I will put a spirit in him, so that he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land, and I will make him fall by the sword in his own land.'"

 

(2 Kings 19:8)  The Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah, for he heard that the king had left Lachish.

 

(2 Kings 19:9)  Now the king heard concerning Tirhakah king of Cush, "Behold, he has set out to fight against you." So he sent messengers again to Hezekiah, saying,

 

(2 Kings 19:10)  "Thus shall you speak to Hezekiah king of Judah: 'Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you by promising that Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.

 

(2 Kings 19:11)  Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, devoting them to destruction. And shall you be delivered?

 

(2 Kings 19:12)  Have the gods of the nations delivered them, the nations that my fathers destroyed, Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden who were in Telassar?

 

(2 Kings 19:13)  Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, the king of Hena, or the king of Ivvah?'"

 

(2 Kings 19:14)  Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it; and Hezekiah went up to the house of the LORD and spread it before the LORD.

 

(2 Kings 19:15)  And Hezekiah prayed before the LORD and said: "O LORD, the God of Israel, enthroned above the cherubim, you are the God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made heaven and earth.

 

(2 Kings 19:16)  Incline your ear, O LORD, and hear; open your eyes, O LORD, and see; and hear the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to mock the living God.

 

(2 Kings 19:17)  Truly, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands

 

(2 Kings 19:18)  and have cast their gods into the fire, for they were not gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone. Therefore they were destroyed.

 

(2 Kings 19:19)  So now, O LORD our God, save us, please, from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, O LORD, are God alone."

 

(2 Kings 19:20)  Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Your prayer to me about Sennacherib king of Assyria I have heard.

 

(2 Kings 19:21)  This is the word that the LORD has spoken concerning him: "She despises you, she scorns you-- the virgin daughter of Zion; she wags her head behind you-- the daughter of Jerusalem.

 

(2 Kings 19:22)  "Whom have you mocked and reviled? Against whom have you raised your voice and lifted your eyes to the heights? Against the Holy One of Israel!

 

(2 Kings 19:23)  By your messengers you have mocked the Lord, and you have said, 'With my many chariots I have gone up the heights of the mountains, to the far recesses of Lebanon; I felled its tallest cedars, its choicest cypresses; I entered its farthest lodging place, its most fruitful forest.

 

(2 Kings 19:24)  I dug wells and drank foreign waters, and I dried up with the sole of my foot all the streams of Egypt.'

 

(2 Kings 19:25)  "Have you not heard that I determined it long ago? I planned from days of old what now I bring to pass, that you should turn fortified cities into heaps of ruins,

 

(2 Kings 19:26)  while their inhabitants, shorn of strength, are dismayed and confounded, and have become like plants of the field and like tender grass, like grass on the housetops, blighted before it is grown.

 

(2 Kings 19:27)  "But I know your sitting down and your going out and coming in, and your raging against me.

 

(2 Kings 19:28)  Because you have raged against me and your complacency has come into my ears, I will put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth, and I will turn you back on the way by which you came.

 

(2 Kings 19:29)  "And this shall be the sign for you: this year eat what grows of itself, and in the second year what springs of the same. Then in the third year sow and reap and plant vineyards, and eat their fruit.

 

(2 Kings 19:30)  And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward.

 

(2 Kings 19:31)  For out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant, and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors. The zeal of the LORD will do this.

 

(2 Kings 19:32)  "Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the king of Assyria: He shall not come into this city or shoot an arrow there, or come before it with a shield or cast up a siege mound against it.

 

(2 Kings 19:33)  By the way that he came, by the same he shall return, and he shall not come into this city, declares the LORD.

 

(2 Kings 19:34)  For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David."

 

(2 Kings 19:35)  And that night the angel of the LORD went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And when people arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies.

 

(2 Kings 19:36)  Then Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and went home and lived at Nineveh.

 

(2Ki 19:37)  And as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer, his sons, struck him down with the sword and escaped into the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place.

 

In 2 Kings chapter 20, then Hezekiah is delivered from God from a severe sickness with the sun going back ten steps for a sign to them

(2 Kings 20:1)  In those days Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him and said to him, "Thus says the LORD, 'Set your house in order, for you shall die; you shall not recover.'"

 

(2 Kings 20:2)  Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD, saying,

 

(2 Kings 20:3)  "Now, O LORD, please remember how I have walked before you in faithfulness and with a whole heart, and have done what is good in your sight." And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

 

(2 Kings 20:4)  And before Isaiah had gone out of the middle court, the word of the LORD came to him:

 

(2 Kings 20:5)  "Turn back, and say to Hezekiah the leader of my people, Thus says the LORD, the God of David your father: I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Behold, I will heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of the LORD,

 

(2 Kings 20:6)  and I will add fifteen years to your life. I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city for my own sake and for my servant David's sake."

 

(2 Kings 20:7)  And Isaiah said, "Bring a cake of figs. And let them take and lay it on the boil, that he may recover."

 

(2 Kings 20:8)  And Hezekiah said to Isaiah, "What shall be the sign that the LORD will heal me, and that I shall go up to the house of the LORD on the third day?"

 

(2 Kings 20:9)  And Isaiah said, "This shall be the sign to you from the LORD, that the LORD will do the thing that he has promised: shall the shadow go forward ten steps, or go back ten steps?"

 

(2 Kings 20:10)  And Hezekiah answered, "It is an easy thing for the shadow to lengthen ten steps. Rather let the shadow go back ten steps."

 

(2 Kings 20:11)  And Isaiah the prophet called to the LORD, and he brought the shadow back ten steps, by which it had gone down on the steps of Ahaz.

 

(2 Kings 20:12)  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 Hezekiah had been sick.

 

(2 Kings 20:13)  And Hezekiah welcomed them, and he showed them all his treasure house, the silver, the gold, the spices, the precious oil, his armory, all that was found in his storehouses. There was nothing in his house or in all his realm that Hezekiah did not show them.

 

(2 Kings 20:14)  Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah, and said to him, "What did these men say? And from where did they come to you?" And Hezekiah said, "They have come from a far country, from Babylon."

 

(2 Kings 20:15)  He said, "What have they seen in your house?" And Hezekiah answered, "They have seen all that is in my house; there is nothing in my storehouses that I did not show them."

 

(2 Kings 20:16)  Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, "Hear the word of the LORD:

 

(2 Kings 20:17)  Behold, the days are coming, when all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up till this day, shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, says the LORD.

 

(2 Kings 20:18)  And some of your own sons, who shall be born to you, shall be taken away, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon."

 

(2 Kings 20:19)  Then said Hezekiah to Isaiah, "The word of the LORD that you have spoken is good." For he thought, "Why not, if there will be peace and security in my days?"

 

(2 Kings 20:20)  The rest of the deeds of Hezekiah and all his might and how he made the pool and the conduit and brought water into the city, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?

 

(2 Kings 20:21)  And Hezekiah slept with his fathers, and Manasseh his son reigned in his place.

 

Here is the account in 2 Chronicles of Hezekiah the good king of Judah, similar things happened told in different ways, and there are some new things. I won’t comment between chapters but will let this story flow

(2 Chronicles 29:1)  Hezekiah began to reign when he was twenty-five years old, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Abijah the daughter of Zechariah.

 

(2 Chronicles 29:2)  And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, according to all that David his father had done.

 

(2 Chronicles 29:3)  In the first year of his reign, in the first month, he opened the doors of the house of the LORD and repaired them.

 

(2 Chronicles 29:4)  He brought in the priests and the Levites and assembled them in the square on the east

 

(2 Chronicles 29:5)  and said to them, "Hear me, Levites! Now consecrate yourselves, and consecrate the house of the LORD, the God of your fathers, and carry out the filth from the Holy Place.

 

(2 Chronicles 29:6)  For our fathers have been unfaithful and have done what was evil in the sight of the LORD our God. They have forsaken him and have turned away their faces from the habitation of the LORD and turned their backs.

 

(2 Chronicles 29:7)  They also shut the doors of the vestibule and put out the lamps and have not burned incense or offered burnt offerings in the Holy Place to the God of Israel.

 

(2 Chronicles 29:8)  Therefore the wrath of the LORD came on Judah and Jerusalem, and he has made them an object of horror, of astonishment, and of hissing, as you see with your own eyes.

 

(2 Chronicles 29:9)  For behold, our fathers have fallen by the sword, and our sons and our daughters and our wives are in captivity for this.

 

(2 Chronicles 29:10)  Now it is in my heart to make a covenant with the LORD, the God of Israel, in order that his fierce anger may turn away from us.

 

(2 Chronicles 29:11)  My sons, do not now be negligent, for the LORD has chosen you to stand in his presence, to minister to him and to be his ministers and make offerings to him."

 

(2 Chronicles 29:12)  Then the Levites arose, Mahath the son of Amasai, and Joel the son of Azariah, of the sons of the Kohathites; and of the sons of Merari, Kish the son of Abdi, and Azariah the son of Jehallelel; and of the Gershonites, Joah the son of Zimmah, and Eden the son of Joah;

 

(2 Chronicles 29:13)  and of the sons of Elizaphan, Shimri and Jeuel; and of the sons of Asaph, Zechariah and Mattaniah;

 

(2 Chronicles 29:14)  and of the sons of Heman, Jehuel and Shimei; and of the sons of Jeduthun, Shemaiah and Uzziel.

 

(2 Chronicles 29:15)  They gathered their brothers and consecrated themselves and went in as the king had commanded, by the words of the LORD, to cleanse the house of the LORD.

 

(2 Chronicles 29:16)  The priests went into the inner part of the house of the LORD to cleanse it, and they brought out all the uncleanness that they found in the temple of the LORD into the court of the house of the LORD. And the Levites took it and carried it out to the brook Kidron.

 

(2 Chronicles 29:17)  They began to consecrate on the first day of the first month, and on the eighth day of the month they came to the vestibule of the LORD. Then for eight days they consecrated the house of the LORD, and on the sixteenth day of the first month they finished.

 

(2 Chronicles 29:18)  Then they went in to Hezekiah the king and said, "We have cleansed all the house of the LORD, the altar of burnt offering and all its utensils, and the table for the showbread and all its utensils.

 

(2 Chronicles 29:19)  All the utensils that King Ahaz discarded in his reign when he was faithless, we have made ready and consecrated, and behold, they are before the altar of the LORD."

 

(2 Chronicles 29:20)  Then Hezekiah the king rose early and gathered the officials of the city and went up to the house of the LORD.

 

(2 Chronicles 29:21)  And they brought seven bulls, seven rams, seven lambs, and seven male goats for a sin offering for the kingdom and for the sanctuary and for Judah. And he commanded the priests, the sons of Aaron, to offer them on the altar of the LORD.

 

(2 Chronicles 29:22)  So they slaughtered the bulls, and the priests received the blood and threw it against the altar. And they slaughtered the rams, and their blood was thrown against the altar. And they slaughtered the lambs, and their blood was thrown against the altar.

 

(2 Chronicles 29:23)  Then the goats for the sin offering were brought to the king and the assembly, and they laid their hands on them,

 

(2 Chronicles 29:24)  and the priests slaughtered them and made a sin offering with their blood on the altar, to make atonement for all Israel. For the king commanded that the burnt offering and the sin offering should be made for all Israel.

 

(2 Chronicles 29:25)  And he stationed the Levites in the house of the LORD with cymbals, harps, and lyres, according to the commandment of David and of Gad the king's seer and of Nathan the prophet, for the commandment was from the LORD through his prophets.

 

(2 Chronicles 29:26)  The Levites stood with the instruments of David, and the priests with the trumpets.

 

(2 Chronicles 29:27)  Then Hezekiah commanded that the burnt offering be offered on the altar. And when the burnt offering began, the song to the LORD began also, and the trumpets, accompanied by the instruments of David king of Israel.

 

(2 Chronicles 29:28)  The whole assembly worshiped, and the singers sang, and the trumpeters sounded. All this continued until the burnt offering was finished.

 

(2 Chronicles 29:29)  When the offering was finished, the king and all who were present with him bowed themselves and worshiped.

 

(2 Chronicles 29:30)  And Hezekiah the king and the officials commanded the Levites to sing praises to the LORD with the words of David and of Asaph the seer. And they sang praises with gladness, and they bowed down and worshiped.

 

(2 Chronicles 29:31)  Then Hezekiah said, "You have now consecrated yourselves to the LORD. Come near; bring sacrifices and thank offerings to the house of the LORD." And the assembly brought sacrifices and thank offerings, and all who were of a willing heart brought burnt offerings.

 

(2 Chronicles 29:32)  The number of the burnt offerings that the assembly brought was 70 bulls, 100 rams, and 200 lambs; all these were for a burnt offering to the LORD.

 

(2 Chronicles 29:33)  And the consecrated offerings were 600 bulls and 3,000 sheep.

 

(2 Chronicles 29:34)  But the priests were too few and could not flay all the burnt offerings, so until other priests had consecrated themselves, their brothers the Levites helped them, until the work was finished--for the Levites were more upright in heart than the priests in consecrating themselves.

 

(2 Chronicles 29:35)  Besides the great number of burnt offerings, there was the fat of the peace offerings, and there were the drink offerings for the burnt offerings. Thus the service of the house of the LORD was restored.

 

(2 Chronicles 29:36)  And Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced because God had prepared for the people, for the thing came about suddenly.

 

(2 Chronicles 30:1)  Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Judah, and wrote letters also to Ephraim and Manasseh, that they should come to the house of the LORD at Jerusalem to keep the Passover to the LORD, the God of Israel.

 

(2 Chronicles 30:2)  For the king and his princes and all the assembly in Jerusalem had taken counsel to keep the Passover in the second month--

 

(2 Chronicles 30:3)  for they could not keep it at that time because the priests had not consecrated themselves in sufficient number, nor had the people assembled in Jerusalem--

 

(2 Chronicles 30:4)  and the plan seemed right to the king and all the assembly.

 

(2 Chronicles 30:5)  So they decreed to make a proclamation throughout all Israel, from Beersheba to Dan, that the people should come and keep the Passover to the LORD, the God of Israel, at Jerusalem, for they had not kept it as often as prescribed.

 

(2 Chronicles 30:6)  So couriers went throughout all Israel and Judah with letters from the king and his princes, as the king had commanded, saying, "O people of Israel, return to the LORD, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, that he may turn again to the remnant of you who have escaped from the hand of the kings of Assyria.

 

(2 Chronicles 30:7)  Do not be like your fathers and your brothers, who were faithless to the LORD God of their fathers, so that he made them a desolation, as you see.

 

(2 Chronicles 30:8)  Do not now be stiff-necked as your fathers were, but yield yourselves to the LORD and come to his sanctuary, which he has consecrated forever, and serve the LORD your God, that his fierce anger may turn away from you.

 

(2 Chronicles 30:9)  For if you return to the LORD, your brothers and your children will find compassion with their captors and return to this land. For the LORD your God is gracious and merciful and will not turn away his face from you, if you return to him."

 

(2 Chronicles 30:10)  So the couriers went from city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh, and as far as Zebulun, but they laughed them to scorn and mocked them.

 

(2 Chronicles 30:11)  However, some men of Asher, of Manasseh, and of Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem.

 

(2 Chronicles 30:12)  The hand of God was also on Judah to give them one heart to do what the king and the princes commanded by the word of the LORD.

 

(2 Chronicles 30:13)  And many people came together in Jerusalem to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread in the second month, a very great assembly.

 

(2 Chronicles 30:14)  They set to work and removed the altars that were in Jerusalem, and all the altars for burning incense they took away and threw into the Kidron Valley.

 

(2 Chronicles 30:15)  And they slaughtered the Passover lamb on the fourteenth day of the second month. And the priests and the Levites were ashamed, so that they consecrated themselves and brought burnt offerings into the house of the LORD.

 

(2 Chronicles 30:16)  They took their accustomed posts according to the Law of Moses the man of God. The priests threw the blood that they received from the hand of the Levites.

 

(2 Chronicles 30:17)  For there were many in the assembly who had not consecrated themselves. Therefore the Levites had to slaughter the Passover lamb for everyone who was not clean, to consecrate it to the LORD.

 

(2 Chronicles 30:18)  For a majority of the people, many of them from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun, had not cleansed themselves, yet they ate the Passover otherwise than as prescribed. For Hezekiah had prayed for them, saying, "May the good LORD pardon everyone

 

(2 Chronicles 30:19)  who sets his heart to seek God, the LORD, the God of his fathers, even though not according to the sanctuary's rules of cleanness."

 

(2 Chronicles 30:20)  And the LORD heard Hezekiah and healed the people.

 

(2 Chronicles 30:21)  And the people of Israel who were present at Jerusalem kept the Feast of Unleavened Bread seven days with great gladness, and the Levites and the priests praised the LORD day by day, singing with all their might to the LORD.

 

(2 Chronicles 30:22)  And Hezekiah spoke encouragingly to all the Levites who showed good skill in the service of the LORD. So they ate the food of the festival for seven days, sacrificing peace offerings and giving thanks to the LORD, the God of their fathers.

 

(2 Chronicles 30:23)  Then the whole assembly agreed together to keep the feast for another seven days. So they kept it for another seven days with gladness.

 

(2 Chronicles 30:24)  For Hezekiah king of Judah gave the assembly 1,000 bulls and 7,000 sheep for offerings, and the princes gave the assembly 1,000 bulls and 10,000 sheep. And the priests consecrated themselves in great numbers.

 

(2 Chronicles 30:25)  The whole assembly of Judah, and the priests and the Levites, and the whole assembly that came out of Israel, and the sojourners who came out of the land of Israel, and the sojourners who lived in Judah, rejoiced.

 

(2 Chronicles 30:26)  So there was great joy in Jerusalem, for since the time of Solomon the son of David king of Israel there had been nothing like this in Jerusalem.

 

(2 Chronicles 30:27)  Then the priests and the Levites arose and blessed the people, and their voice was heard, and their prayer came to his holy habitation in heaven.

 

(2 Chronicles 31:1)  Now when all this was finished, all Israel who were present went out to the cities of Judah and broke in pieces the pillars and cut down the Asherim and broke down the high places and the altars throughout all Judah and Benjamin, and in Ephraim and Manasseh, until they had destroyed them all. Then all the people of Israel returned to their cities, every man to his possession.

 

(2 Chronicles 31:2)  And Hezekiah appointed the divisions of the priests and of the Levites, division by division, each according to his service, the priests and the Levites, for burnt offerings and peace offerings, to minister in the gates of the camp of the LORD and to give thanks and praise.

 

(2 Chronicles 31:3)  The contribution of the king from his own possessions was for the burnt offerings: the burnt offerings of morning and evening, and the burnt offerings for the Sabbaths, the new moons, and the appointed feasts, as it is written in the Law of the LORD.

 

(2 Chronicles 31:4)  And he commanded the people who lived in Jerusalem to give the portion due to the priests and the Levites, that they might give themselves to the Law of the LORD.

 

(2 Chronicles 31:5)  As soon as the command was spread abroad, the people of Israel gave in abundance the firstfruits of grain, wine, oil, honey, and of all the produce of the field. And they brought in abundantly the tithe of everything.

 

(2 Chronicles 31:6)  And the people of Israel and Judah who lived in the cities of Judah also brought in the tithe of cattle and sheep, and the tithe of the dedicated things that had been dedicated to the LORD their God, and laid them in heaps.

 

(2 Chronicles 31:7)  In the third month they began to pile up the heaps, and finished them in the seventh month.

 

(2 Chronicles 31:8)  When Hezekiah and the princes came and saw the heaps, they blessed the LORD and his people Israel.

 

(2 Chronicles 31:9)  And Hezekiah questioned the priests and the Levites about the heaps.

 

(2 Chronicles 31:10)  Azariah the chief priest, who was of the house of Zadok, answered him, "Since they began to bring the contributions into the house of the LORD, we have eaten and had enough and have plenty left, for the LORD has blessed his people, so that we have this large amount left."

 

(2 Chronicles 31:11)  Then Hezekiah commanded them to prepare chambers in the house of the LORD, and they prepared them.

 

(2 Chronicles 31:12)  And they faithfully brought in the contributions, the tithes, and the dedicated things. The chief officer in charge of them was Conaniah the Levite, with Shimei his brother as second,

 

(2 Chronicles 31:13)  while Jehiel, Azaziah, Nahath, Asahel, Jerimoth, Jozabad, Eliel, Ismachiah, Mahath, and Benaiah were overseers assisting Conaniah and Shimei his brother, by the appointment of Hezekiah the king and Azariah the chief officer of the house of God.

 

(2 Chronicles 31:14)  And Kore the son of Imnah the Levite, keeper of the east gate, was over the freewill offerings to God, to apportion the contribution reserved for the LORD and the most holy offerings.

 

(2 Chronicles 31:15)  Eden, Miniamin, Jeshua, Shemaiah, Amariah, and Shecaniah were faithfully assisting him in the cities of the priests, to distribute the portions to their brothers, old and young alike, by divisions,

 

(2 Chronicles 31:16)  except those enrolled by genealogy, males from three years old and upward--all who entered the house of the LORD as the duty of each day required--for their service according to their offices, by their divisions.

 

(2 Chronicles 31:17)  The enrollment of the priests was according to their fathers' houses; that of the Levites from twenty years old and upward was according to their offices, by their divisions.

 

(2 Chronicles 31:18)  They were enrolled with all their little children, their wives, their sons, and their daughters, the whole assembly, for they were faithful in keeping themselves holy.

 

(2 Chronicles 31:19)  And for the sons of Aaron, the priests, who were in the fields of common land belonging to their cities, there were men in the several cities who were designated by name to distribute portions to every male among the priests and to everyone among the Levites who was enrolled.

 

(2 Chronicles 31:20)  Thus Hezekiah did throughout all Judah, and he did what was good and right and faithful before the LORD his God.

 

(2 Chronicles 31:21)  And every work that he undertook in the service of the house of God and in accordance with the law and the commandments, seeking his God, he did with all his heart, and prospered.

 

(2 Chronicles 32:1)  After these things and these acts of faithfulness, Sennacherib king of Assyria came and invaded Judah and encamped against the fortified cities, thinking to win them for himself.

 

(2 Chronicles 32:2)  And when Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib had come and intended to fight against Jerusalem,

 

(2 Chronicles 32:3)  he planned with his officers and his mighty men to stop the water of the springs that were outside the city; and they helped him.

 

(2 Chronicles 32:4)  A great many people were gathered, and they stopped all the springs and the brook that flowed through the land, saying, "Why should the kings of Assyria come and find much water?"

 

(2 Chronicles 32:5)  He set to work resolutely and built up all the wall that was broken down and raised towers upon it, and outside it he built another wall, and he strengthened the Millo in the city of David. He also made weapons and shields in abundance.

 

(2 Chronicles 32:6)  And he set combat commanders over the people and gathered them together to him in the square at the gate of the city and spoke encouragingly to them, saying,

 

(2 Chronicles 32:7)  "Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or dismayed before the king of Assyria and all the horde that is with him, for there are more with us than with him.

 

(2 Chronicles 32:8)  With him is an arm of flesh, but with us is the LORD our God, to help us and to fight our battles." And the people took confidence from the words of Hezekiah king of Judah.

 

(2 Chronicles 32:9)  After this, Sennacherib king of Assyria, who was besieging Lachish with all his forces, sent his servants to Jerusalem to Hezekiah king of Judah and to all the people of Judah who were in Jerusalem, saying,

 

(2 Chronicles 32:10)  "Thus says Sennacherib king of Assyria, 'On what are you trusting, that you endure the siege in Jerusalem?

 

(2 Chronicles 32:11)  Is not Hezekiah misleading you, that he may give you over to die by famine and by thirst, when he tells you, "The LORD our God will deliver us from the hand of the king of Assyria"?

 

(2 Chronicles 32:12)  Has not this same Hezekiah taken away his high places and his altars and commanded Judah and Jerusalem, "Before one altar you shall worship, and on it you shall burn your sacrifices"?

 

(2 Chronicles 32:13)  Do you not know what I and my fathers have done to all the peoples of other lands? Were the gods of the nations of those lands at all able to deliver their lands out of my hand?

 

(2 Chronicles 32:14)  Who among all the gods of those nations that my fathers devoted to destruction was able to deliver his people from my hand, that your God should be able to deliver you from my hand?

 

(2 Chronicles 32:15)  Now, therefore, do not let Hezekiah deceive you or mislead you in this fashion, and do not believe him, for no god of any nation or kingdom has been able to deliver his people from my hand or from the hand of my fathers. How much less will your God deliver you out of my hand!'"

 

(2 Chronicles 32:16)  And his servants said still more against the LORD God and against his servant Hezekiah.

 

(2 Chronicles 32:17)  And he wrote letters to cast contempt on the LORD, the God of Israel, and to speak against him, saying, "Like the gods of the nations of the lands who have not delivered their people from my hands, so the God of Hezekiah will not deliver his people from my hand."

 

(2 Chronicles 32:18)  And they shouted it with a loud voice in the language of Judah to the people of Jerusalem who were on the wall, to frighten and terrify them, in order that they might take the city.

 

(2 Chronicles 32:19)  And they spoke of the God of Jerusalem as they spoke of the gods of the peoples of the earth, which are the work of men's hands.

 

(2 Chronicles 32:20)  Then Hezekiah the king and Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, prayed because of this and cried to heaven.

 

(2 Chronicles 32:21)  And the LORD sent an angel, who cut off all the mighty warriors and commanders and officers in the camp of the king of Assyria. So he returned with shame of face to his own land. And when he came into the house of his god, some of his own sons struck him down there with the sword.

 

(2 Chronicles 32:22)  So the LORD saved Hezekiah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem from the hand of Sennacherib king of Assyria and from the hand of all his enemies, and he provided for them on every side.

 

(2 Chronicles 32:23)  And many brought gifts to the LORD to Jerusalem and precious things to Hezekiah king of Judah, so that he was exalted in the sight of all nations from that time onward.

 

(2 Chronicles 32:24)  In those days Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of death, and he prayed to the LORD, and he answered him and gave him a sign.

 

(2 Chronicles 32:25)  But Hezekiah did not make return according to the benefit done to him, for his heart was proud. Therefore wrath came upon him and Judah and Jerusalem.

 

(2 Chronicles 32:26)  But Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart, both he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the wrath of the LORD did not come upon them in the days of Hezekiah.

 

(2 Chronicles 32:27)  And Hezekiah had very great riches and honor, and he made for himself treasuries for silver, for gold, for precious stones, for spices, for shields, and for all kinds of costly vessels;

 

(2 Chronicles 32:28)  storehouses also for the yield of grain, wine, and oil; and stalls for all kinds of cattle, and sheepfolds.

 

(2 Chronicles 32:29)  He likewise provided cities for himself, and flocks and herds in abundance, for God had given him very great possessions.

 

(2 Chronicles 32:30)  This same Hezekiah closed the upper outlet of the waters of Gihon and directed them down to the west side of the city of David. And Hezekiah prospered in all his works.

 

(2 Chronicles 32:31)  And so in the matter of the envoys of the princes of Babylon, who had been sent to him to inquire about the sign that had been done in the land, God left him to himself, in order to test him and to know all that was in his heart.

 

(2 Chronicles 32:32)  Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah and his good deeds, behold, they are written in the vision of Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz, in the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel.

 

(2 Chronicles 32:33)  And Hezekiah slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the upper part of the tombs of the sons of David, and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem did him honor at his death. And Manasseh his son reigned in his place.

 

Hezekiah is an awesome story of revival, deliverance and a man who loved God with all of his heart, a powerful role model to Christians today.

Lastly here is Hezekiah as presented in the book of Isaiah, the prophet. Isaiah chapters 36 through 38 deal with the Assyrian invasion and God’s miraculous deliverance of Judah, and then also Hezekiah’s healing. The first three chapters are presented without comment in between

(Isaiah 36:1)  In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them.

 

(Isaiah 36:2)  And the king of Assyria sent the Rabshakeh from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem, with a great army. And he stood by the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the Washer's Field.

 

(Isaiah 36:3)  And there came out to him Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the secretary, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder.

 

(Isaiah 36:4)  And the Rabshakeh said to them, "Say to Hezekiah, 'Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: On what do you rest this trust of yours?

 

(Isaiah 36:5)  Do you think that mere words are strategy and power for war? In whom do you now trust, that you have rebelled against me?

 

(Isaiah 36:6)  Behold, you are trusting in Egypt, that broken reed of a staff, which will pierce the hand of any man who leans on it. Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him.

 

(Isaiah 36:7)  But if you say to me, "We trust in the LORD our God," is it not he whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and to Jerusalem, "You shall worship before this altar"?

 

(Isaiah 36:8)  Come now, make a wager with my master the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to set riders on them.

 

(Isaiah 36:9)  How then can you repulse a single captain among the least of my master's servants, when you trust in Egypt for chariots and for horsemen?

 

(Isaiah 36:10)  Moreover, is it without the LORD that I have come up against this land to destroy it? The LORD said to me, Go up against this land and destroy it.'"

 

(Isaiah 36:11)  Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the Rabshakeh, "Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it. Do not speak to us in the language of Judah within the hearing of the people who are on the wall."

 

(Isaiah 36:12)  But the Rabshakeh said, "Has my master sent me to speak these words to your master and to you, and not to the men sitting on the wall, who are doomed with you to eat their own dung and drink their own urine?"

 

(Isaiah 36:13)  Then the Rabshakeh stood and called out in a loud voice in the language of Judah: "Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria!

 

(Isaiah 36:14)  Thus says the king: 'Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you.

 

(Isaiah 36:15)  Do not let Hezekiah make you trust in the LORD by saying, "The LORD will surely deliver us. This city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria."

 

(Isaiah 36:16)  Do not listen to Hezekiah. For thus says the king of Assyria: Make your peace with me and come out to me. Then each one of you will eat of his own vine, and each one of his own fig tree, and each one of you will drink the water of his own cistern,

 

(Isaiah 36:17)  until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards.

 

(Isaiah 36:18)  Beware lest Hezekiah mislead you by saying, "The LORD will deliver us." Has any of the gods of the nations delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria?

 

(Isaiah 36:19)  Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they delivered Samaria out of my hand?

 

(Isaiah 36:20)  Who among all the gods of these lands have delivered their lands out of my hand, that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?'"

 

(Isaiah 36:21)  But they were silent and answered him not a word, for the king's command was, "Do not answer him."

 

(Isaiah 36:22)  Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the secretary, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and told him the words of the Rabshakeh.

 

(Isaiah 37:1)  As soon as King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes and covered himself with sackcloth and went into the house of the LORD.

 

(Isaiah 37:2)  And he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the secretary, and the senior priests, covered with sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz.

 

(Isaiah 37:3)  They said to him, "Thus says Hezekiah, 'This day is a day of distress, of rebuke, and of disgrace; children have come to the point of birth, and there is no strength to bring them forth.

 

(Isaiah 37:4)  It may be that the LORD your God will hear the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to mock the living God, and will rebuke the words that the LORD your God has heard; therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.'"

 

(Isaiah 37:5)  When the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah,

 

(Isaiah 37:6)  Isaiah said to them, "Say to your master, 'Thus says the LORD: Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the young men of the king of Assyria have reviled me.

 

(Isaiah 37:7)  Behold, I will put a spirit in him, so that he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land, and I will make him fall by the sword in his own land.'"

 

(Isaiah 37:8)  The Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah, for he had heard that the king had left Lachish.

 

(Isaiah 37:9)  Now the king heard concerning Tirhakah king of Cush, "He has set out to fight against you." And when he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying,

 

(Isaiah 37:10)  "Thus shall you speak to Hezekiah king of Judah: 'Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you by promising that Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.

 

(Isaiah 37:11)  Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, devoting them to destruction. And shall you be delivered?

 

(Isaiah 37:12)  Have the gods of the nations delivered them, the nations that my fathers destroyed, Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden who were in Telassar?

 

(Isaiah 37:13)  Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, the king of Hena, or the king of Ivvah?'"

 

(Isaiah 37:14)  Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it; and Hezekiah went up to the house of the LORD, and spread it before the LORD.

 

(Isaiah 37:15)  And Hezekiah prayed to the LORD:

 

(Isaiah 37:16)  "O LORD of hosts, God of Israel, enthroned above the cherubim, you are the God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made heaven and earth.

 

(Isaiah 37:17)  Incline your ear, O LORD, and hear; open your eyes, O LORD, and see; and hear all the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to mock the living God.

 

(Isaiah 37:18)  Truly, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations and their lands,

 

(Isaiah 37:19)  and have cast their gods into the fire. For they were no gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone. Therefore they were destroyed.

 

(Isaiah 37:20)  So now, O LORD our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone are the LORD."

 

(Isaiah 37:21)  Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Because you have prayed to me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria,

 

(Isaiah 37:22)  this is the word that the LORD has spoken concerning him: "'She despises you, she scorns you-- the virgin daughter of Zion; she wags her head behind you-- the daughter of Jerusalem.

 

(Isaiah 37:23)  "'Whom have you mocked and reviled? Against whom have you raised your voice and lifted your eyes to the heights? Against the Holy One of Israel!

 

(Isaiah 37:24)  By your servants you have mocked the Lord, and you have said, With my many chariots I have gone up the heights of the mountains, to the far recesses of Lebanon, to cut down its tallest cedars, its choicest cypresses, to come to its remotest height, its most fruitful forest.

 

(Isaiah 37:25)  I dug wells and drank waters, to dry up with the sole of my foot all the streams of Egypt.

 

(Isaiah 37:26)  "'Have you not heard that I determined it long ago? I planned from days of old what now I bring to pass, that you should make fortified cities crash into heaps of ruins,

 

(Isaiah 37:27)  while their inhabitants, shorn of strength, are dismayed and confounded, and have become like plants of the field and like tender grass, like grass on the housetops, blighted before it is grown.

 

(Isaiah 37:28)  "'I know your sitting down and your going out and coming in, and your raging against me.

 

(Isaiah 37:29)  Because you have raged against me and your complacency has come to my ears, I will put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth, and I will turn you back on the way by which you came.'

 

(Isaiah 37:30)  "And this shall be the sign for you: this year you shall eat what grows of itself, and in the second year what springs from that. Then in the third year sow and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat their fruit.

 

(Isaiah 37:31)  And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward.

 

(Isaiah 37:32)  For out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant, and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.

 

(Isaiah 37:33)  "Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the king of Assyria: He shall not come into this city or shoot an arrow there or come before it with a shield or cast up a siege mound against it.

 

(Isaiah 37:34)  By the way that he came, by the same he shall return, and he shall not come into this city, declares the LORD.

 

(Isaiah 37:35)  For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David."

 

(Isaiah 37:36)  And the angel of the LORD went out and struck down a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the camp of the Assyrians. And when people arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies.

 

(Isaiah 37:37)  Then Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and returned home and lived at Nineveh.

 

(Isaiah 37:38)  And as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer, his sons, struck him down with the sword. And after they escaped into the land of Ararat, Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place.

 

(Isaiah 38:1)  In those days Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him, and said to him, "Thus says the LORD: Set your house in order, for you shall die, you shall not recover."

 

(Isaiah 38:2)  Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD,

 

(Isaiah 38:3)  and said, "Please, O LORD, remember how I have walked before you in faithfulness and with a whole heart, and have done what is good in your sight." And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

 

(Isaiah 38:4)  Then the word of the LORD came to Isaiah:

 

(Isaiah 38:5)  "Go and say to Hezekiah, Thus says the LORD, the God of David your father: I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Behold, I will add fifteen years to your life.

 

(Isaiah 38:6)  I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and will defend this city.

 

(Isaiah 38:7)  "This shall be the sign to you from the LORD, that the LORD will do this thing that he has promised:

 

(Isaiah 38:8)  Behold, I will make the shadow cast by the declining sun on the dial of Ahaz turn back ten steps." So the sun turned back on the dial the ten steps by which it had declined.

 

(Isaiah 38:9)  A writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, after he had been sick and had recovered from his sickness:

 

(Isaiah 38:10)  I said, In the middle of my days I must depart; I am consigned to the gates of Sheol for the rest of my years.

 

(Isaiah 38:11)  I said, I shall not see the LORD, the LORD in the land of the living; I shall look on man no more among the inhabitants of the world.

 

(Isaiah 38:12)  My dwelling is plucked up and removed from me like a shepherd's tent; like a weaver I have rolled up my life; he cuts me off from the loom; from day to night you bring me to an end;

 

(Isaiah 38:13)  I calmed myself until morning; like a lion he breaks all my bones; from day to night you bring me to an end.

 

(Isaiah 38:14)  Like a swallow or a crane I chirp; I moan like a dove. My eyes are weary with looking upward. O Lord, I am oppressed; be my pledge of safety!

 

(Isaiah 38:15)  What shall I say? For he has spoken to me, and he himself has done it. I walk slowly all my years because of the bitterness of my soul.

 

(Isaiah 38:16)  O Lord, by these things men live, and in all these is the life of my spirit. Oh restore me to health and make me live!

 

(Isaiah 38:17)  Behold, it was for my welfare that I had great bitterness; but in love you have delivered my life from the pit of destruction, for you have cast all my sins behind your back.

 

(Isaiah 38:18)  For Sheol does not thank you; death does not praise you; those who go down to the pit do not hope for your faithfulness.

 

(Isaiah 38:19)  The living, the living, he thanks you, as I do this day; the father makes known to the children your faithfulness.

 

(Isaiah 38:20)  The LORD will save me, and we will play my music on stringed instruments all the days of our lives, at the house of the LORD.

 

(Isaiah 38:21)  Now Isaiah had said, "Let them take a cake of figs and apply it to the boil, that he may recover."

 

(Isaiah 38:22)  Hezekiah also had said, "What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the LORD?"

 

The final chapter deals with a visit from Babylon, then Isaiah prophesies the eventual Babylonian captivity

(Isaiah 39:1)  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 and had recovered.

 

(Isaiah 39:2)  And Hezekiah welcomed them gladly. And he showed them his treasure house, the silver, the gold, the spices, the precious oil, his whole armory, all that was found in his storehouses. There was nothing in his house or in all his realm that Hezekiah did not show them.

 

(Isaiah 39:3)  Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah, and said to him, "What did these men say? And from where did they come to you?" Hezekiah said, "They have come to me from a far country, from Babylon."

 

(Isaiah 39:4)  He said, "What have they seen in your house?" Hezekiah answered, "They have seen all that is in my house. There is nothing in my storehouses that I did not show them."

 

(Isaiah 39:5)  Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, "Hear the word of the LORD of hosts:

 

(Isaiah 39:6)  Behold, the days are coming, when all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up till this day, shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, says the LORD.

 

(Isaiah 39:7)  And some of your own sons, who will come from you, whom you will father, shall be taken away, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon."

 

(Isaiah 39:8)  Then said Hezekiah to Isaiah, "The word of the LORD that you have spoken is good." For he thought, "There will be peace and security in my days."

 

For the story on the remaining kings of Israel up to the Babylonian captivity including Manasseh the evil but Josiah who was good please go here to this link

https://www.facebook.com/notes/jay-dougherty/final-kings-of-judah-bible-study/10200740323044017

 

The story of king Hezekiah is an awesome one showing how God has mercy on and really blesses someone who follows Him with their whole heart as Hezekiah did. He was very blessed and delivered from the same invasion that conquered Israel. God would later show His faithfulness to us by sending His son Jesus to the cross to die for all of our sins in the ultimate show of mercy. Jesus willingly and lovingly died to enable us to have that special relationship with us to which there is nothing that can compare. I am now including a prayer which you can invite Jesus into your heart for this special love relationship so that it can start or you can return to it for God welcomes repentant people back in His mercy. Please pray this prayer with me:

Dear God in heaven, I come to you in the name of Jesus. I acknowledge to You that I am a sinner, and I am sorry for my sins and the life that I have lived; I need your forgiveness. I believe that your only begotten Son Jesus Christ shed His precious blood on the cross at Calvary and died for my sins, and I am now willing to turn from my sin. You said in Your Holy Word, Romans 10:9 that if we confess Jesus as our Lord and believe in our hearts that God raised Jesus from the dead, we will be saved. Right now I confess Jesus as the Lord of my soul. With my heart, I believe that God raised Jesus from the dead. This very moment I accept Jesus Christ as my own personal Savior and according to His Word, right now I am saved. Thank you Jesus for your unlimited grace which has saved me from my sins. I thank you Jesus that your grace never leads to license, but rather it always leads to repentance. Therefore Lord Jesus transform my life so that I may bring glory and honor to you alone and not to myself. Thank you Jesus for dying for me and giving me eternal life.

Amen.

God bless you and yours