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In the third year of the reign of Hoshea son of Elah as king of Israel, Hezekiah son of Ahaz became king of Judah
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at the age of twenty-five, and he ruled in Jerusalem for twenty-nine years. His mother was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah.
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Following the example of his ancestor King David, he did what was pleasing to the LORD.
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He destroyed the pagan places of worship, broke the stone pillars, and cut down the images of the goddess Asherah. He also broke in pieces the bronze snake that Moses had made, which was called Nehushtan. Up to that time the people of Israel had burned incense in its honor.
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Hezekiah trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel; Judah never had another king like him, either before or after his time.
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He was faithful to the LORD and never disobeyed him, but carefully kept all the commands that the LORD had given Moses.
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So the LORD was with him, and he was successful in everything he did. He rebelled against the emperor of Assyria and refused to submit to him.
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He defeated the Philistines and raided their settlements, from the smallest village to the largest city, including Gaza and its surrounding territory.
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In the fourth year of Hezekiah's reign---which was the seventh year of King Hoshea's reign over Israel---Emperor Shalmaneser of Assyria invaded Israel and besieged Samaria.
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In the third year of the siege Samaria fell; this was the sixth year of Hezekiah's reign and the ninth year of Hoshea's reign.
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The Assyrian emperor took the Israelites to Assyria as prisoners and settled some of them in the city of Halah, some near the Habor River in the district of Gozan, and some in the cities of Media.
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Samaria fell because the Israelites did not obey the LORD their God, but broke the covenant he had made with them and disobeyed all the laws given by Moses, the servant of the LORD. They would not listen and they would not obey.
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In the fourteenth year of the reign of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib, the emperor of Assyria, attacked the fortified cities of Judah and conquered them.
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Hezekiah sent a message to Sennacherib, who was in Lachish: "I have done wrong; please stop your attack, and I will pay whatever you demand." The emperor's answer was that Hezekiah should send him ten tons of silver and one ton of gold.
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Hezekiah sent him all the silver in the Temple and in the palace treasury;
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he also stripped the gold from the temple doors and the gold with which he himself had covered the doorposts, and he sent it all to Sennacherib.
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The Assyrian emperor sent a large army from Lachish to attack Hezekiah at Jerusalem; it was commanded by his three highest officials. When they arrived at Jerusalem, they occupied the road where the cloth makers work by the ditch that brings water from the upper pool.
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Then they sent for King Hezekiah, and three of his officials went out to meet them: Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was in charge of the palace; Shebna, the court secretary; and Joah son of Asaph, who was in charge of the records.
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One of the Assyrian officials told them that the emperor wanted to know what made King Hezekiah so confident.
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He demanded, "Do you think that words can take the place of military skill and might? Who do you think will help you rebel against Assyria?
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You are expecting Egypt to help you, but that would be like using a reed as a walking stick---it would break and jab your hand. That is what the king of Egypt is like when anyone relies on him."
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The Assyrian official went on, "Or will you tell me that you are relying on the LORD your God? It was the LORD's shrines and altars that Hezekiah destroyed, when he told the people of Judah and Jerusalem to worship only at the altar in Jerusalem.
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I will make a bargain with you in the name of the emperor. I will give you two thousand horses if you can find that many men to ride them!
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You are no match for even the lowest ranking Assyrian official, and yet you expect the Egyptians to send you chariots and cavalry!
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Do you think I have attacked your country and destroyed it without the LORD's help? The LORD himself told me to attack it and destroy it."
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Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah told the official, "Speak Aramaic to us, sir. We understand it. Don't speak Hebrew; all the people on the wall are listening."
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He replied, "Do you think you and the king are the only ones the emperor sent me to say all these things to? No, I am also talking to the people who are sitting on the wall, who will have to eat their excrement and drink their urine, just as you will."
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Then the official stood up and shouted in Hebrew, "Listen to what the emperor of Assyria is telling you!
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He warns you not to let Hezekiah deceive you. Hezekiah can't save you.
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And don't let him persuade you to rely on the LORD. Don't think that the LORD will save you and that he will stop our Assyrian army from capturing your city.
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Don't listen to Hezekiah. The emperor of Assyria commands you to come out of the city and surrender. You will all be allowed to eat grapes from your own vines and figs from your own trees, and to drink water from your own wells---
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until the emperor resettles you in a country much like your own, where there are vineyards to give wine and there is grain for making bread; it is a land of olives, olive oil, and honey. If you do what he commands, you will not die, but live. Don't let Hezekiah fool you into thinking that the LORD will rescue you.
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Did the gods of any other nations save their countries from the emperor of Assyria?
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Where are they now, the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah? Did anyone save Samaria?
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When did any of the gods of all these countries ever save their country from our emperor? Then what makes you think the LORD can save Jerusalem?"
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The people kept quiet, just as King Hezekiah had told them to; they did not say a word.
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Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah tore their clothes in grief, and went and reported to the king what the Assyrian official had said.
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As soon as King Hezekiah heard their report, he tore his clothes in grief, put on sackcloth, and went to the Temple of the LORD.
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He sent Eliakim, the official in charge of the palace, Shebna, the court secretary, and the senior priests to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz. They also were wearing sackcloth.
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This is the message which he told them to give Isaiah: "Today is a day of suffering; we are being punished and are in disgrace. We are like a woman who is ready to give birth, but is too weak to do it.
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The Assyrian emperor has sent his chief official to insult the living God. May the LORD your God hear these insults and punish those who spoke them. So pray to God for those of our people who survive."
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When Isaiah received King Hezekiah's message,
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he sent back this answer: "The LORD tells you not to let the Assyrians frighten you with their claims that he cannot save you.
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The LORD will cause the emperor to hear a rumor that will make him go back to his own country, and the LORD will have him killed there."
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The Assyrian official learned that the emperor had left Lachish and was fighting against the nearby city of Libnah; so he went there to consult him.
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Word reached the Assyrians that the Egyptian army, led by King Tirhakah of Ethiopia, was coming to attack them. When the emperor heard this, he sent a letter to King Hezekiah of Judah
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to tell him, "The god you are trusting in has told you that you will not fall into my hands, but don't let that deceive you.
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You have heard what an Assyrian emperor does to any country he decides to destroy. Do you think that you can escape?
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My ancestors destroyed the cities of Gozan, Haran, and Rezeph, and killed the people of Betheden who lived in Telassar, and none of their gods could save them.
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Where are the kings of the cities of Hamath, Arpad, Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?"
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King Hezekiah took the letter from the messengers and read it. Then he went to the Temple, placed the letter there in the presence of the LORD,
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and prayed, "O LORD, the God of Israel, seated on your throne above the winged creatures, you alone are God, ruling all the kingdoms of the world. You created the earth and the sky.
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Now, LORD, look at what is happening to us. Listen to all the things that Sennacherib is saying to insult you, the living God.
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We all know, LORD, that the emperors of Assyria have destroyed many nations, made their lands desolate,
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and burned up their gods---which were no gods at all, only images of wood and stone made by human hands.
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Now, LORD our God, rescue us from the Assyrians, so that all the nations of the world will know that only you, O LORD, are God."
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Then Isaiah sent a message telling King Hezekiah that in answer to the king's prayer
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the LORD had said, "The city of Jerusalem laughs at you, Sennacherib, and makes fun of you.
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Whom do you think you have been insulting and ridiculing? You have been disrespectful to me, the holy God of Israel.
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You sent your messengers to boast to me that with all your chariots you had conquered the highest mountains of Lebanon. You boasted that there you cut down the tallest cedars and the finest cypress trees and that you reached the deepest parts of the forests.
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You boasted that you dug wells and drank water in foreign lands and that the feet of your soldiers tramped the Nile River dry.
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"Have you never heard that I planned all this long ago? And now I have carried it out. I gave you the power to turn fortified cities into piles of rubble.
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The people who lived there were powerless; they were frightened and stunned. They were like grass in a field or weeds growing on a roof when the hot east wind blasts them.
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"But I know everything about you, what you do and where you go. I know how you rage against me.
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I have received the report of that rage and that pride of yours, and now I will put a hook through your nose and a bit in your mouth, and take you back by the same road you came."
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Then Isaiah said to King Hezekiah, "Here is a sign of what will happen. This year and next you will have only wild grain to eat, but the following year you will be able to plant your grain and harvest it, and plant vines and eat grapes.
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Those in Judah who survive will flourish like plants that send roots deep into the ground and produce fruit.
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There will be people in Jerusalem and on Mount Zion who will survive, because the LORD is determined to make this happen.
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"And this is what the LORD has said about the Assyrian emperor: 'He will not enter this city or shoot a single arrow against it. No soldiers with shields will come near the city, and no siege mounds will be built around it.
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He will go back by the same road he came, without entering this city. I, the LORD, have spoken.
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I will defend this city and protect it, for the sake of my own honor and because of the promise I made to my servant David.' "
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That night an angel of the LORD went to the Assyrian camp and killed 185,000 soldiers. At dawn the next day there they lay, all dead!
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Then the Assyrian emperor Sennacherib withdrew and returned to Nineveh.
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One day, when he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, two of his sons, Adrammelech and Sharezer, killed him with their swords and then escaped to the land of Ararat. Another of his sons, Esarhaddon, succeeded him as emperor.
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After these events, in which King Hezekiah served the LORD faithfully, Sennacherib, the emperor of Assyria, invaded Judah. He besieged the fortified cities and gave orders for his army to break their way through the walls.
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When Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib intended to attack Jerusalem also,
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he and his officials decided to cut off the supply of water outside the city in order to keep the Assyrians from having any water when they got near Jerusalem. The officials led a large number of people out and stopped up all the springs, so that no more water flowed out of them.
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The king strengthened the city's defenses by repairing the wall, building towers on it, and building an outer wall. In addition, he repaired the defenses built on the land that was filled in on the east side of the old part of Jerusalem. He also had a large number of spears and shields made.
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He placed all the men in the city under the command of army officers and had them assemble in the open square at the city gate. He said to them,
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"Be determined and confident, and don't be afraid of the Assyrian emperor or of the army he is leading. We have more power on our side than he has on his.
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He has human power, but we have the LORD our God to help us and to fight our battles." The people were encouraged by these words of their king.
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Some time later, while Sennacherib and his army were still at Lachish, he sent the following message to Hezekiah and the people of Judah who were with him in Jerusalem:
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"I, Sennacherib, Emperor of Assyria, ask what gives you people the confidence to remain in Jerusalem under siege.
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Hezekiah tells you that the LORD your God will save you from our power, but Hezekiah is deceiving you and will let you die of hunger and thirst.
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He is the one who destroyed the LORD's shrines and altars and then told the people of Judah and Jerusalem to worship and burn incense at one altar only.
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Don't you know what my ancestors and I have done to the people of other nations? Did the gods of any other nation save their people from the emperor of Assyria?
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When did any of the gods of all those countries ever save their country from us? Then what makes you think that your god can save you?
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Now don't let Hezekiah deceive you or mislead you like that. Don't believe him! No god of any nation has ever been able to save his people from any Assyrian emperor. So certainly this god of yours can't save you!"
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The Assyrian officials said even worse things about the LORD God and Hezekiah, the LORD's servant.
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The letter that the emperor wrote defied the LORD, the God of Israel. It said, "The gods of the nations have not saved their people from my power, and neither will Hezekiah's god save his people from me."
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The officials shouted this in Hebrew in order to frighten and discourage the people of Jerusalem who were on the city wall, so that it would be easier to capture the city.
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They talked about the God of Jerusalem in the same way that they talked about the gods of the other peoples, idols made by human hands.
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Then King Hezekiah and the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz prayed to God and cried out to him for help.
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The LORD sent an angel that killed the soldiers and officers of the Assyrian army. So the emperor went back to Assyria disgraced. One day when he was in the temple of his god, some of his sons killed him with their swords.
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In this way the LORD rescued King Hezekiah and the people of Jerusalem from the power of Sennacherib, the emperor of Assyria, and also from their other enemies. He let the people live in peace with all the neighboring countries.
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Many people came to Jerusalem, bringing offerings to the LORD and gifts to Hezekiah, so that from then on all the nations held Hezekiah in honor.
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About this time King Hezekiah became sick and almost died. He prayed, and the LORD gave him a sign that he would recover.
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But Hezekiah was too proud to show gratitude for what the LORD had done for him, and Judah and Jerusalem suffered for it.
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Finally, however, Hezekiah and the people of Jerusalem humbled themselves, and so the LORD did not punish the people until after Hezekiah's death.
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King Hezekiah became very wealthy, and everyone held him in honor. He had storerooms built for his gold, silver, precious stones, spices, shields, and other valuable objects.
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In addition, he had storehouses built for his grain, wine, and olive oil; barns for his cattle; and pens for his sheep.
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Besides all this, God gave him sheep and cattle and so much other wealth that he built many cities.
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It was King Hezekiah who blocked the outlet for Gihon Spring and channeled the water to flow through a tunnel to a point inside the walls of Jerusalem. Hezekiah succeeded in everything he did,
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and even when the Babylonian ambassadors came to inquire about the unusual event that had happened in the land, God let Hezekiah go his own way only in order to test his character.
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Everything else that King Hezekiah did and his devotion to the LORD are recorded in The Vision of the Prophet Isaiah Son of Amoz and in The History of the Kings of Judah and Israel.
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Hezekiah died and was buried in the upper section of the royal tombs. All the people of Judah and Jerusalem paid him great honor at his death. His son Manasseh succeeded him as king.
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And now, you rich people, listen to me! Weep and wail over the miseries that are coming upon you!
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Your riches have rotted away, and your clothes have been eaten by moths.
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Your gold and silver are covered with rust, and this rust will be a witness against you and will eat up your flesh like fire. You have piled up riches in these last days.
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You have not paid any wages to those who work in your fields. Listen to their complaints! The cries of those who gather in your crops have reached the ears of God, the Lord Almighty.
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Your life here on earth has been full of luxury and pleasure. You have made yourselves fat for the day of slaughter.
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You have condemned and murdered innocent people, and they do not resist you.
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Be patient, then, my friends, until the Lord comes. See how patient farmers are as they wait for their land to produce precious crops. They wait patiently for the autumn and spring rains.
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You also must be patient. Keep your hopes high, for the day of the Lord's coming is near.
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Do not complain against one another, my friends, so that God will not judge you. The Judge is near, ready to appear.
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My friends, remember the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. Take them as examples of patient endurance under suffering.
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We call them happy because they endured. You have heard of Job's patience, and you know how the Lord provided for him in the end. For the Lord is full of mercy and compassion.
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Above all, my friends, do not use an oath when you make a promise. Do not swear by heaven or by earth or by anything else. Say only "Yes" when you mean yes, and "No" when you mean no, and then you will not come under God's judgment.
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Are any among you in trouble? They should pray. Are any among you happy? They should sing praises.
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Are any among you sick? They should send for the church elders, who will pray for them and rub olive oil on them in the name of the Lord.
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This prayer made in faith will heal the sick; the Lord will restore them to health, and the sins they have committed will be forgiven.
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So then, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, so that you will be healed. The prayer of a good person has a powerful effect.
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Elijah was the same kind of person as we are. He prayed earnestly that there would be no rain, and no rain fell on the land for three and a half years.
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Once again he prayed, and the sky poured out its rain and the earth produced its crops.
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My friends, if any of you wander away from the truth and another one brings you back again,
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remember this: whoever turns a sinner back from the wrong way will save that sinner's soul from death and bring about the forgiveness of many sins.
