2 Kings
Summary
Hezekiah falls critically ill and is told by Isaiah to set his house in order, for he will surely die. In a moment of deep distress, Hezekiah prays fervently to the LORD, who graciously grants him an additional fifteen years of life and provides a miraculous sign as a confirmation. However, the chapter ends with a sobering encounter as Hezekiah pridefully displays his royal wealth to envoys from Babylon. This leads to a prophetic warning from Isaiah that all these treasures will one day be carried away in a future exile.
In those days Hezekiah was sick and near death. The prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz came to him and said, "Thus says the LORD: 'Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live.'"
Then he turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD, saying,
"I pray, O LORD, remember now how I have walked before You in truth and with a loyal heart, and have done what was good in Your sight." And Hezekiah wept bitterly.
And it happened, before Isaiah had gone out into the middle court, that the word of the LORD came to him, saying,
"Return and tell 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; surely I will heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of the LORD.
And I will add to your days fifteen years. I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city for My own sake and for My servant David's sake."'"
Then Isaiah said, "Take a lump of figs." So they took and laid it on the boil, and he recovered.
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?"
Isaiah said, "This is the sign to you from the LORD, that the LORD will do the thing which He has spoken: shall the shadow go forward ten degrees or go backward ten degrees?"
Hezekiah answered, "It is an easy thing for the shadow to go down ten degrees; no, but let the shadow go backward ten degrees."
So Isaiah the prophet cried out to the LORD, and He brought the shadow ten degrees backward, by which it had gone down on the sundial of Ahaz.
At that time Berodach-Baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a gift to Hezekiah, for he heard that Hezekiah had been sick.
Hezekiah listened to them and showed them all the house of his precious things, the silver and gold, the spices and precious ointment, and all his armory, all that was found in his treasures. There was nothing in his house or in all his dominion that Hezekiah did not show them.
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?" So Hezekiah said, "They have come from a far country, from Babylon."
And he said, "What have they seen in your house?" So Hezekiah answered, "They have seen all that is in my house; there is nothing among my treasures that I have not shown them."
Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, "Hear the word of the LORD:
'Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house, and what your fathers have accumulated until this day, shall be carried to Babylon; nothing shall be left,' says the LORD.
'And they shall take away some of your sons who will descend from you, whom you will beget; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.'"
So Hezekiah said to Isaiah, "The word of the LORD which you have spoken is good!" For he thought, "Will there not be peace and truth at least in my days?"
Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, all his might, and how he made a pool and a tunnel and brought water into the city, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
So Hezekiah rested with his fathers. Then Manasseh his son reigned in his place.