Hezekiah’s Illness

20 In those days Hezeki′ah 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 Then Hezeki′ah turned his face to the wall, and prayed to the Lord, saying, ³ “Remember now, O Lord, I beseech thee, how I have walked before thee in faithfulness and with a whole heart, and have done what is good in thy sight.” And Hezeki′ah wept bitterly. ⁴ And before Isaiah had gone out of the middle court, the word of the Lord came to him: ⁵ “Turn back, and say to Hezeki′ah the prince 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. 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.” ⁷ And Isaiah said, “Bring a cake of figs. And let them take and lay it on the boil, that he may recover.”

⁸ And Hezeki′ah 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 And 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 go forward ten steps, or go back ten steps?” ¹⁰ And Hezeki′ah answered, “It is an easy thing for the shadow to lengthen ten steps; rather let the shadow go back ten steps.” ¹¹ And Isaiah the prophet cried to the Lord; and he brought the shadow back ten steps, by which the sun^[a] had declined on the dial of Ahaz.

Envoys from Babylon

¹² At that time Mero′dach-bal′adan the son of Bal′adan, king of Babylon, sent envoys with letters and a present to Hezeki′ah; for he heard that Hezeki′ah had been sick. ¹³ And Hezeki′ah 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 Hezeki′ah did not show them. ¹⁴ Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezeki′ah, and said to him, “What did these men say? And whence did they come to you?” And Hezeki′ah said, “They have come from a far country, from Babylon.” ¹⁵ He said, “What have they seen in your house?” And Hezeki′ah answered, “They have seen all that is in my house; there is nothing in my storehouses that I did not show them.”

¹⁶ Then Isaiah said to Hezeki′ah, “Hear the word of the Lord: 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. ¹⁸ And some of your own sons, who are born to you, shall be taken away; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.” ¹⁹ Then said Hezeki′ah to Isaiah, “The word of the Lord which you have spoken is good.” For he thought, “Why not, if there will be peace and security in my days?”

Death of Hezekiah

²⁰ The rest of the deeds of Hezeki′ah, 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? ²¹ And Hezeki′ah slept with his fathers; and Manas′seh his son reigned in his stead.

From Death to Life

2 And you he made alive, when you were dead through the trespasses and sins ² in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. ³ Among these we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of body and mind, and so we were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. ⁴ But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us, ⁵ even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), ⁶ and raised us up with him, and made us sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, ⁷ that in the coming ages 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 because of works, lest any man should boast. ¹⁰ For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Reign of Manasseh

33 Manas′seh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. ² He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to the abominable practices of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel. ³ For he rebuilt the high places which his father Hezeki′ah had broken down, and erected altars to the Ba′als, and made Ashe′rahs, and worshiped all the host of heaven, and served them. ⁴ And he built altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord had said, “In Jerusalem shall my name be for ever.” ⁵ And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord. ⁶ And he burned his sons as an offering in the valley of the son of Hinnom, and 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. ⁷ And the image of the idol which he had made he set in the house of God, of which God said to David and to Solomon his son, “In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put my name for ever; ⁸ and I will no more remove the foot of Israel from the land which I appointed for your fathers, 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.” ⁹ Manas′seh seduced Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that they did more evil than the nations whom the Lord destroyed before the people of Israel.

Manasseh Restored after Repentance

¹⁰ The Lord spoke to Manas′seh and to his people, but they gave no heed. ¹¹ Therefore the Lord brought upon them the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria, who took Manas′seh with hooks and bound him with fetters of bronze and brought him to Babylon. ¹² And when he was in distress he entreated the favor of the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. ¹³ He prayed to him, and God received his entreaty and heard his supplication and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manas′seh knew that the Lord was God.

¹⁴ Afterwards he built an outer wall for the city of David west of Gihon, in the valley, and for the entrance into the Fish Gate, and carried it round Ophel, and raised it to a very great height; he also put commanders of the army in all the fortified cities in Judah. ¹⁵ And 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 outside of the city. ¹⁶ He also restored the altar of the Lord and offered upon it sacrifices of peace offerings and of thanksgiving; and he commanded Judah to serve the Lord the God of Israel. ¹⁷ Nevertheless the people still sacrificed at the high places, but only to the Lord their God.

Death of Manasseh

¹⁸ Now the rest of the acts of Manas′seh, and his prayer to his God, and the words of the seers who spoke to him in the name of the Lord the God of Israel, behold, they are in the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel. ¹⁹ And his prayer, and how God received his entreaty, and all his sin and his faithlessness, and the sites on which he built high places and set up the Ashe′rim and the images, before he humbled himself, behold, they are written in the Chronicles of the Seers.^{[a] 20} So Manas′seh slept with his fathers, and they buried him in his house; and Amon his son reigned in his stead.

Amon’s Reign and Death

²¹ Amon was twenty-two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem. ²² He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, as Manas′seh his father had done. Amon sacrificed to all the images that Manas′seh his father had made, and served them. ²³ And he did not humble himself before the Lord, as Manas′seh his father had humbled himself, but this Amon incurred guilt more and more. ²⁴ And his servants conspired against him and killed him in his house. ²⁵ But the people of the land slew all those who had conspired against King Amon; and the people of the land made Josi′ah his son king in his stead.

²⁴ Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me, has eternal life; he does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.

²⁵ “Truly, truly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. ²⁶ For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself, ²⁷ and has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of man. ²⁸ Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice ²⁹ and come forth, those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment.

Witnesses to Jesus

³⁰ “I can do nothing on my own authority; as I hear, I judge; and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me. ³¹ If I bear witness to myself, my testimony is not true; ³² there is another who bears witness to me, and I know that the testimony which he bears to me is true. ³³ You sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth. ³⁴ Not that the testimony which I receive is from man; but I say this 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. ³⁶ But the testimony which I have is greater than that of John; for the works which the Father has granted me to accomplish, these very works which I am doing, bear me witness that the Father has sent me. ³⁷ And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness to me. His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen; ³⁸ and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe him whom he has sent. ³⁹ You search the scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness to me; ⁴⁰ yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. ⁴¹ I do not receive glory from men. ⁴² But I know that you have not the love of God within you. ⁴³ I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not receive me; if another comes in his own name, him you will receive. ⁴⁴ How can you believe, who receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? ⁴⁵ Do not think that I shall accuse you to the Father; it is Moses who accuses you, on whom you set your hope. ⁴⁶ If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote of me. ⁴⁷ But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?”