Study Desk

Now behold, you trust in the staff of this crushed reed, even on Egypt; on which if a man leans, it will go into his hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him.

Thus says the king, ‘Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you from his hand;

Do not listen to Hezekiah, for thus says the king of Assyria, "Make your peace with me and come out to me, and eat each of his vine and each of his fig tree and drink each of the waters of his own cistern,

Has any one of the gods of the nations delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria?

Now it happened that when King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and entered the house of Yahweh.

Perhaps Yahweh your God will hear all the words of Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to reproach the living God, and will reprove the words which Yahweh your God has heard. Therefore, lift up a prayer for the remnant that is left.'"

Behold, I will put a spirit in him so that he will hear a report and return to his own land. And I will make him fall by the sword in his own land."'"

But now, O Yahweh our God, I pray, save us from his hand that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, O Yahweh, are God."

Now it happened that as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him down with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son became king in his place.

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

And Hezekiah listened to them, and showed them all his treasure house, the silver and the gold and the spices and the good oil and the house of his armor and all that was found in his treasuries. There was nothing in his house nor in all his dominion that Hezekiah did not show them.

Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah 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?

So Hezekiah slept with his fathers, and Manasseh his son became king in his place.

Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem; and his mother's name was Hephzibah.

Indeed, he rebuilt the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed; and he erected altars for Baal and made an Asherah, as Ahab king of Israel had done, and worshiped all the host of heaven and served them.

He even made his son pass through the fire, practiced soothsaying and interpreted omens, and dealt with mediums and spiritists. He did much that was evil in the sight of Yahweh provoking Him to anger.

Then he put the graven image of Asherah, which he had made, in the house of which Yahweh had said to David and to Solomon his son, "In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen from all the tribes of Israel, I will put My name forever.

Then Yahweh spoke by the hand of His slaves the prophets, saying,

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

therefore thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, ‘Behold, I am bringing such calamity on Jerusalem and Judah, that whoever hears of it, both his ears will tingle.