Beginning

20 About that time, Hezekiah was sick to death. And the Prophet Isaiah, the son of Amoz, came to him and said to him, “Thus says the LORD: ‘Put your house in order. For you shall die, and not live.’”

² Then he turned his face to the wall, and prayed to the LORD, saying,

³ “O LORD, I pray, remember now how I have walked before you in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

⁴ And before Isaiah had gone out into the middle of the court, the Word of the LORD came to him, saying:

⁵ “Turn back and tell Hezekiah, the captain of My people, ‘Thus says the LORD God of David, your father: “I have heard your prayer and seen your tears. Behold, I have healed you. On the third day, you shall go up to the House of the LORD.

⁶ “And I will add fifteen years to your days and will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and will defend this city for My own sake, and for David My servant’s sake.”’”

⁷ Then Isaiah said, “Take a lump of dry figs.” And they took it and laid it on the boil. And he recovered.

⁸ (For Hezekiah had said to Isaiah, “What shall be the sign that the LORD will heal me, and that I shall go up into the House of the LORD on the third day?”

⁹ And Isaiah answered, “Which sign would you prefer from the LORD, that the LORD will do what He has spoken: that the shadow go forward ten degrees or go back ten degrees?”

¹⁰ And Hezekiah answered, “It is a small thing for the shadow to pass forward ten degrees. So, not that. But let the shadow go back ten degrees.”

¹¹ And Isaiah the Prophet called to the LORD; and He brought back the shadow ten degrees by which it had gone down in the dial of Ahaz.)

¹² The same season, Berodach-Baladan, the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah; for he had heard that Hezekiah was sick.

¹³ And Hezekiah heard them and showed them his whole treasure house: the silver, the gold, the spices, the precious ointment, the entire house of his armor, and all that was found in his treasures. There was nothing in his house, and in all his realm, that Hezekiah did not show them.

¹⁴ Then Isaiah the Prophet came to King Hezekiah, and said to him, “What did these men say? And from where have they come to you?” And Hezekiah said, “They have come from a far country, from Babylon.”

¹⁵ Then he said, “What have they seen in your house?” And Hezekiah answered, “They have seen everything that is in my house. There is nothing among my treasures that I have not shown them.”

¹⁶ And Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the Word of the LORD:

¹⁷ ‘Behold, the days come, that all that is in your house, and whatever your fathers have laid up in store until this day, shall be carried into Babylon. Nothing shall be left,’ says the LORD,

¹⁸ ‘And they shall take away some of your sons who shall proceed out of you, which you shall beget, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.’”

¹⁹ Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The Word of the LORD which you have spoken is good.” For he said, “Is it not good if there is peace and truth in my days?”

²⁰ Concerning the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, and all his valiant deeds, and how he made a pool and a conduit and brought water into the city, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?

²¹ And Hezekiah slept with his fathers. And Manasseh, his son, reigned in his place.

21 Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign and reigned for fifty-five years in Jerusalem. Also, his mother’s name was Hephzibah.

² And he did evil in the sight of the LORD, after the abominations of the heathen whom the LORD had cast out before the children of Israel.

³ For he went back and built the high places which Hezekiah, his father, had destroyed. And he erected altars for Baal and made a grove (as did Ahab, king of Israel) and worshipped all the host of heaven and served them.

⁴ Also, he built altars in the House of the LORD, of the which the LORD said, “In Jerusalem will I put My Name.”

⁵ And he built altars for all the host of the heaven in the two courts of the House of the LORD.

⁶ And he made his sons pass through the fire and gave himself to witchcraft and sorcery. And he used mediums and those who were soothsayers and did much evil in the sight of the LORD, to anger Him.

⁷ And he set the image of the grove that he had made in the House (of which the LORD had 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, will I put My Name forever.

⁸ “And I will never again make the feet of Israel move out of the land which I gave their fathers, so that they will observe and do all that I have Commanded them, according to all the Law that My servant Moses commanded them.”).

⁹ Yet they did not obey. But Manasseh led them out of the way, to do more wickedly than the heathen did (whom the LORD destroyed before the children of Israel).

¹⁰ Therefore, the LORD spoke by His servants, the Prophets, saying,

¹¹ “Because Manasseh, king of Judah, has done such abominations, and has worked more wickedly than all that the Amorites who were before him did, and has also made Judah sin with his idols,

¹² “therefore thus says the LORD God of Israel: ‘Behold, I will bring a misery upon Jerusalem and Judah, so that whoever hears of it, both his ears shall tingle.

¹³ ‘And I will stretch the line of Samaria and the plummet of the House of Ahab over Jerusalem. And I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipes a dish, which he wipes and turns upside down.

¹⁴ ‘And I will forsake the remnant of My inheritance and deliver them into the hand of their enemies. And they shall be robbed and plundered by all their adversaries,

¹⁵ ‘because they have done evil in My sight and have provoked Me to anger since the time their fathers came out of Egypt until this day.’”

¹⁶ Moreover, Manasseh shed exceedingly much innocent blood, until he filled Jerusalem from end to end (besides his sin with which he had made Judah sin and do evil in the sight of the LORD).

¹⁷ Concerning the rest of the acts of Manasseh, and all that he did, and his sin that he sinned, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?

¹⁸ And Manasseh slept with his fathers and was buried in the garden of his own house, in the garden of Uzza. And Amon, his son, reigned in his place.

¹⁹ Amon was twenty-two years old when he began to reign. And he reigned for two years in Jerusalem. Also, his mother’s name was Meshullemeth, the daughter of Haruz of Jotbah.

²⁰ And he did evil in the sight of the LORD, as his father Manasseh did.

²¹ For he walked in all the ways that his father walked in, and served the idols that his father served, and worshipped them.

²² And he forsook the LORD God of his fathers, and did not walk in the way of the LORD.

²³ And the servants of Amon conspired against him and killed the king in his own house.

²⁴ And the people of the land killed all those who had conspired against King Amon, and the people made Josiah, his son, king in his place.

²⁵ Concerning the rest of the acts of Amon, which he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?

²⁶ And they buried him in his sepulcher, in the garden of Uzza. And Josiah, his son, reigned in his place.

22 Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign. And he reigned for thirty-one years in Jerusalem. Also, his mother’s name was Jedidah, the daughter of Adaiah of Bozkath.

² And he did uprightly in the sight of the LORD and walked in all the ways of David, his father, and bowed neither to the right hand nor to the left.

³ And in the eighteenth year of King Josiah, the king sent Shaphan, the son of Azaliah, the son of Meshullam, the chancellor, to the House of the LORD, saying,

⁴ “Go up to Hilkiah, the High Priest, so that he may count all the silver which has been brought into the House of the LORD, which the keepers of the door have gathered from the people.

⁵ “And let them deliver it into the hands of those who do the work and have the oversight of the House of the LORD. Let them give it to those who work in the House of the LORD, to repair the decayed places of the House:

⁶ “to the builders and carpenters and masons, and to buy timber and hewn stone, to repair the House.

⁷ However, let no accounting be made with them of the money that is delivered into their hand; for they deal faithfully.”

⁸ And Hilkiah the High Priest said to Shaphan the chancellor, “I have found the Book of the Law in the House of the LORD.” And Hilkiah gave the Book to Shaphan. And he read it.

⁹ So Shaphan the chancellor came to the king, and brought him word back, and said, “Your servants have gathered the money that was found in the House and have delivered it into the hands of those who do the work and have the oversight of the House of the LORD.”

¹⁰ Also, Shaphan the chancellor told the king, saying, “Hilkiah the Priest has delivered a Book to me.” And Shaphan read it before the king.

¹¹ And when the king had heard the Words of the Book of the Law, he tore his clothes.

¹² Therefore, the king commanded Hilkiah the Priest, and Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, and Achbor, the son of Michaiah, and Shaphan the chancellor, and Asahiah, the king’s servant, saying,

¹³ “Go and inquire of the LORD for me and for the people and for all Judah concerning the Words of this Book that has been found. For great is the wrath of the LORD that is kindled against us because our fathers have not obeyed the Words of this Book, to do according to all that which is written in it for us.”

¹⁴ So Hilkiah the Priest and Ahikam and Achbor and Shaphan and Asahiah went to Huldah the Prophetess, the wife of Shallum, the son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe (now she dwelt in Jerusalem, in the college). And they communed with her.

¹⁵ And she answered them, “Thus says the LORD God of Israel: ‘Tell the man who sent you to me,

¹⁶ “Thus says the LORD: ‘Behold, I will bring misery upon this place, and on its inhabitants—all the Words of the Book which the king of Judah has read—

¹⁷ ‘because they have forsaken Me and have burnt incense to other gods, to anger Me with all the works of their hands. Also, My wrath shall be kindled against this place, and shall not be quenched.’”’

¹⁸ “But to the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the LORD, so shall you say to him, ‘Thus says the LORD God of Israel: “Concerning the Words that you have heard:

¹⁹ “because your heart melted, and you humbled yourself before the LORD when you heard what I spoke against this place, and against the inhabitants of the same—that it would be destroyed and accursed—and have torn your clothes and wept before Me, I have also heard that,” says the LORD,

²⁰ “Behold, therefore, I will gather you to your fathers. And you shall be put in your grave in peace. And your eyes shall not see all the misery which I will bring upon this place.”’” Thus, they brought word back to the king.