Beginning

20 ¶ In those days Hezekiah became sick unto death. And the prophet Isaiah, the son of Amoz, came to him and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Set thy house in order, for thou shalt die, and not live.

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

³ I beseech thee, O LORD, remember how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept with great weeping.

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

⁵ Turn again and tell Hezekiah, prince of my people, Thus saith the LORD, the God of David, thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears; behold, I will heal thee; on the third day thou shalt go up unto the house of the LORD.

⁶ And I will add unto thy days fifteen years, and I will deliver thee 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 slave David’s sake.

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

⁸ And Hezekiah had said unto Isaiah, What shall be the sign that the LORD will heal me and that I shall go up into the house of the LORD the third day?

⁹ And Isaiah said, This sign shalt thou have of the LORD, that the LORD will do the thing that he has spoken: shall the shadow go forward ten degrees or go back ten degrees?

¹⁰ And Hezekiah answered, It is an easy thing for the shadow to go down ten degrees, but not for the shadow to return backward ten degrees.

¹¹ Then Isaiah, the prophet, cried unto the LORD, and he caused the shadow to return by the degrees by which it had gone down in the dial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward.

¹² ¶ At that time Berodachbaladan, the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and presents unto Hezekiah, for he had heard that Hezekiah had been sick.

¹³ And Hezekiah hearkened unto them and showed them all the house of his precious things, the silver and the gold and the spices and the precious ointment and all the house of his weapons and all that was found in his treasury; there was nothing in his house nor in all his dominion that Hezekiah did not show them.

¹⁴ Then Isaiah, the prophet, came unto King Hezekiah and said unto him, What did these men say, and where did they come from unto thee? And Hezekiah replied, They are come from a far country, even from Babylon.

¹⁵ And he said, What have they seen in thy house? And Hezekiah answered, All the things that are in my house they have seen; there is nothing among my treasury that I have not showed them.

¹⁶ Then Isaiah said unto Hezekiah, Hear the word of the LORD.

¹⁷ Behold, the days come that all that is in thy house and that which thy fathers have laid up in store unto this day shall be carried into Babylon; nothing shall be left, saith the LORD.

¹⁸ And of thy sons that shall issue from thee, which thou shalt beget, they shall take away; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.

¹⁹ Then Hezekiah said unto Isaiah, The word of the LORD which thou hast spoken is good. And he said, For shall there not be peace and truth in my days?

²⁰ The rest of the acts of Hezekiah and all his might 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 stead.

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

² And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, after the abominations of the Gentiles, whom the LORD cast out before the sons of Israel.

³ For he built up again the high places which Hezekiah, his father, had destroyed, and he raised up altars for Baal and made a grove, as Ahab, king of Israel, had done; and he worshipped all the host of heaven and served those things.

⁴ Likewise, he built altars in the house of the LORD, of which the LORD had said, In Jerusalem I will put my name.

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

⁶ And he made his son pass through the fire and observed times and used enchantments and dealt with spiritists and diviners and multiplied much wickedness in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger.

⁷ And he set a graven 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 tribes of Israel, will I put my name for ever;

⁸ neither will I make the feet of Israel move any more out of the land which I gave their fathers, only if they will observe to do according to all that I have commanded them and according to all the law that my slave Moses commanded them.

⁹ But they did not hearken, and Manasseh caused them to err and to do more evil than did the Gentiles whom the LORD destroyed before the sons of Israel.

¹⁰ ¶ And the LORD spoke by his slaves, the prophets, saying,

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

¹² therefore, thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Behold, I am bringing such evil upon Jerusalem and Judah, that whoever hears of it, both his ears shall tingle.

¹³ And I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria and the plummet of the house of Ahab; and I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down.

¹⁴ And I will forsake the remnant of my inheritance and deliver them into the hand of their enemies, and they shall become a prey and a spoil to all their enemies

¹⁵ because they have done that which was evil in my sight and have provoked me to anger since the day their fathers came forth out of Egypt, even unto this day.

¹⁶ Moreover, Manasseh shed innocent blood very much until he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another besides his sin with which he made Judah sin so that they would do that which was evil in the sight of the LORD.

¹⁷ Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh and all that he did and his sin with which 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 stead.

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

²⁰ And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, as his father Manasseh had done.

²¹ And he walked in all the way that his father walked in and served the idols that his father had 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 slaves of Amon conspired against him and slew the king in his own house.

²⁴ Then the people of the land slew all those that had conspired against King Amon, and the people of the land made Josiah, his son, king in his stead.

²⁵ Now 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 he was buried in his sepulchre in the garden of Uzza, and Josiah, his son, reigned in his stead.

22 ¶ Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jedidah, the daughter of Adaiah of Boscath.

² And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD and walked in all the way of David, his father, and did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left.

³ And in the year eighteen of King Josiah, the king sent Shaphan, the son of Azaliah, the son of Meshullam, the scribe, to the house of the LORD, saying,

⁴ Go up to Hilkiah, the high priest, that he may sum the silver which has been brought into the house of the LORD, which the keepers of the door have gathered of the people;

⁵ and let them deliver it into the hands of those that do the work, that have the oversight of the house of the LORD; and let them give it to those that do the work in the house of the LORD, to repair the breaches of the house,

⁶ unto carpenters and builders and masons, and to buy timber and hewn stone to repair the house;

⁷ and there is to be no accounting required of those unto whom the money is delivered because they deal faithfully.

⁸ Then Hilkiah, the high priest, said unto Shaphan, the scribe, 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 And Shaphan, the scribe, came to the king and brought the king word again and said, Thy slaves have gathered the money that was found in the house and have delivered it into the hand of those that do the work, that have the oversight of the house of the LORD.

¹⁰ Likewise, Shaphan, the scribe, declared unto the king, saying, Hilkiah, the priest, has delivered me a book. And Shaphan read it before the king.

¹¹ ¶ And when the king heard the words of the book of the law, he rent his clothes.

¹² And the king commanded Hilkiah, the priest, and Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, and Achbor, the son of Michaiah, and Shaphan, the scribe, and Asahiah, a slave of the king’s, saying,

¹³ Go and enquire of the LORD for me and for the people and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that is found, for great is the wrath of the LORD that is kindled against us because our fathers have not hearkened unto the words of this book, to do according unto all that which is written concerning us.

¹⁴ So Hilkiah, the priest, and Ahikam and Achbor and Shaphan and Asahiah went unto Huldah, the prophetess, the wife of Shallum, the son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe, who dwelt in Jerusalem in the house of doctrine; and they spoke with her.

¹⁵ And she said unto them, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Tell the man that sent you to me,

¹⁶ Thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will bring evil upon this place and upon its inhabitants, even all the words of the book which the king of Judah has read,

¹⁷ because they have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the works of their hands; therefore, my wrath is kindled against this place and shall not be quenched.

¹⁸ But to the king of Judah who sent you to enquire of the LORD, thus shall ye say to him, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Because thou didst hear the words of the book,

¹⁹ and thy heart became tender, and thou hast humbled thyself before the LORD when thou didst hear what I spoke against this place and against its inhabitants, that they should become desolate and cursed, and hast rent thy clothes and wept before me; I also have heard thee, saith the LORD.

²⁰ Behold, therefore, I will gather thee unto thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered into thy grave in peace, and thine eyes shall not see all the evil which I will bring upon this place. And they brought the king word again.