Hezekiah’s Illness

20 In those days Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah 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.”^{(A) 2} Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, ³ “Remember now, O Lord, I implore you, how I have walked before you in faithfulness with a whole heart and have done what is good in your sight.” Hezekiah wept bitterly.^{(B) 4} Before Isaiah had gone out of the middle court, the word of the Lord came to him, ⁵ “Turn back and say to Hezekiah prince of my people: Thus says the Lord, the God of your ancestor David: I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; indeed, I will heal you; on the third day you shall go up to the house of the Lord.^{(C) 6} I will add fifteen years to your life. I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria; I will defend this city for my own sake and for my servant David’s sake.”^{(D) 7} Then Isaiah said, “Bring a lump of figs. Let them take it and apply it to the boil, so that he may recover.”^(E)

⁸ 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?” ⁹ Isaiah said, “This is the sign to you from the Lord, that the Lord will do the thing that he has promised: Shall the shadow advance^[a] ten intervals, or shall it retreat ten intervals?” ¹⁰ Hezekiah answered, “It is normal for the shadow to lengthen ten intervals; rather, let the shadow retreat ten intervals.” ¹¹ The prophet Isaiah cried to the Lord, and he brought the shadow back the ten intervals, by which the sun^[b] had declined on the dial of Ahaz.^(F)

Envoys from Babylon

¹² At that time King Merodach-baladan son of Baladan of Babylon sent envoys with letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he had heard that Hezekiah had been sick.^{(G) 13} Hezekiah welcomed them;^[c] 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.^{(H) 14} Then the prophet Isaiah came to King Hezekiah and said to him, “What did these men say? From where did they come to you?” Hezekiah answered, “They have come from a far country, from Babylon.” ¹⁵ 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.”^(I)

¹⁶ Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the Lord: ¹⁷ Days are coming when all that is in your house and that which your ancestors have stored up until this day shall be carried to Babylon; nothing shall be left, says the Lord.^{(J) 18} Some of your own sons who are born to you shall be taken away; they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.”^{(K) 19} Then Hezekiah said 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?”^(L)

Death of Hezekiah

²⁰ The rest of the deeds of Hezekiah, all his power, how he made the pool and the conduit and brought water into the city, are they not written in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Judah?^{(M) 21} Hezekiah slept with his ancestors, and his son Manasseh succeeded him.^(N)

From Death to Life

2 You were dead through the trespasses and sins ² in which you once walked, following the course of this world,^[a] following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient.^{[b](A) 3} All of us once lived among them in the passions of our flesh, doing the will of flesh and senses, and we were by nature children of wrath, like everyone else,^{(B) 4} but God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us^{(C) 5} even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ^[c]—by grace you have been saved— ⁶ and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places^[d] in Christ Jesus, ⁷ so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. ⁸ For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— ⁹ not the result of works, so that no one may boast. ¹⁰ For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we may walk in them.^(D)

Reign of Manasseh

33 Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign; he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem.^{(A) 2} He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to the abominable practices of the nations whom the Lord had driven out before the people of Israel.^{(B) 3} For he rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had pulled down and erected altars to the Baals, made sacred poles,^[a] worshiped all the host of heaven, and served them.^{(C) 4} He built altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord had said, “In Jerusalem shall my name be forever.”^{(D) 5} He built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord.^{(E) 6} He made his son pass through fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom, practiced soothsaying and augury and sorcery, and dealt with mediums and with wizards. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger.^{(F) 7} The carved image of the idol that he had made he set in the house of God, of which God had said to David and to his son Solomon, “In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put my name forever;^{(G) 8} I will never again remove the feet of Israel from the land that I appointed for your ancestors, if only they will be careful to do all that I have commanded them, all the law, the statutes, and the ordinances given through Moses.”^{(H) 9} Manasseh misled Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that they did more evil than the nations whom the Lord had destroyed before the people of Israel.

Manasseh Restored after Repentance

¹⁰ The Lord spoke to Manasseh and to his people, but they gave no heed. ¹¹ Therefore the Lord brought against them the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh captive in manacles, bound him with fetters, and brought him to Babylon.^{(I) 12} While he was in distress, he entreated the favor of the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his ancestors.^{(J) 13} He prayed to him, and God received his entreaty, heard his plea, and restored him again to Jerusalem and to his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord indeed was God.^(K)

¹⁴ Afterward he built an outer wall for the city of David west of Gihon, in the valley, reaching the entrance at the Fish Gate; he carried it around Ophel and raised it to a very great height. He also put commanders of the army in all the fortified cities in Judah.^{(L) 15} He took away the foreign gods and the idol from the house of the Lord and all the altars that he had built on the mountain of the house of the Lord and in Jerusalem, and he threw them out of the city.^{(M) 16} He also restored the altar of the Lord and offered on it sacrifices of well-being and of thanksgiving, and he commanded Judah to serve the Lord the God of Israel. ¹⁷ The people, however, still sacrificed at the high places, but only to the Lord their God.^(N)

Death of Manasseh

¹⁸ Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh, his prayer to his God, and the words of the seers who spoke to him in the name of the Lord God of Israel, these are in the Annals of the Kings of Israel.^{(O) 19} His prayer, and how God received his entreaty, all his sin and his faithlessness, the sites on which he built high places and set up the sacred poles^[b] and the images, before he humbled himself, these are written in the records of the seers.^{[c](P) 20} So Manasseh slept with his ancestors, and they buried him in his house. His son Amon succeeded him.^(Q)

Amon’s Reign and Death

²¹ Amon was twenty-two years old when he began to reign; he reigned two years in Jerusalem.^{(R) 22} He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, as his father Manasseh had done. Amon sacrificed to all the images that his father Manasseh had made and served them.^{(S) 23} He did not humble himself before the Lord, as his father Manasseh had humbled himself, but this Amon incurred more and more guilt.^{(T) 24} His servants conspired against him and killed him in his house.^{(U) 25} But the people of the land killed all those who had conspired against King Amon, and the people of the land made his son Josiah king to succeed him.

²⁴ Very truly, I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and does not come under judgment but has passed from death to life.^(A)

²⁵ “Very truly, I tell you, the hour is coming and is now here when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.^{(B) 26} For just as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself, ²⁷ and he has given him authority to execute judgment because he is the Son of Man.^{(C) 28} Do not be astonished at this, for the hour is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice ²⁹ and will come out: those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation.^(D)

Witnesses to Jesus

³⁰ “I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just because I seek to do not my own will but the will of him who sent me.^(E)

³¹ “If I testify about myself, my testimony is not true.^{(F) 32} There is another who testifies on my behalf, and I know that his testimony to me is true.^{(G) 33} You sent messengers to John, and he testified to the truth.^{(H) 34} Not that I accept such human testimony, but I say these things so that you may be saved. ³⁵ He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light.^{(I) 36} But I have a testimony greater than John’s. The works that the Father has given me to complete, the very works that I am doing, testify on my behalf that the Father has sent me.^{(J) 37} And the Father who sent me has himself testified on my behalf. You have never heard his voice or seen his form,^{(K) 38} and you do not have his word abiding in you, because you do not believe him whom he has sent.^(L)

³⁹ “You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life, and it is they that testify on my behalf.^{(M) 40} Yet you refuse to come to me to have life. ⁴¹ I do not accept glory from humans. ⁴² But I know that you do not have the love of God in^[a] you. ⁴³ I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not accept me; if another comes in his own name, you will accept him. ⁴⁴ How can you believe when you accept glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the one who alone is God?^{[b](N) 45} Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father; your accuser is Moses, on whom you have set your hope.^{(O) 46} If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me.^{(P) 47} But if you do not believe what he wrote, how will you believe what I say?”