Study Desk

For he clung to Adonai and did not leave off following him, but obeyed his mitzvot, which Adonai had given Moshe.

So Adonai was with him. Wherever he went out to battle, he did well. He rebelled against the king of Ashur and refused to be his vassal.

This happened because they did not heed the voice of Adonai their God, but violated his covenant, everything that Moshe the servant of Adonai had ordered them to do, and would neither hear it nor do it.

Now look! Relying on Egypt is like using a broken stick as a staff — when you lean on it, it punctures your hand. That's what Pharaoh king of Egypt is like for anyone who puts his trust in him.

Don't listen to Hizkiyahu.' For this is what the king of Ashur says: ‘Make peace with me, surrender to me. Then every one of you can eat from his vine and fig tree and drink the water in his own cistern;

Has any god of any nation ever saved his land from the power of the king of Ashur?

On hearing it, King Hizkiyahu tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth and entered the house of Adonai .

Maybe Adonai your God will hear all the words of Rav-Shakeh, whom his master the king of Ashur has sent to taunt the living God, and will rebuke the message which Adonai your God has heard. So pray for the remnant that is left."

I will put a spirit in him that will make him hear a rumor and return to his own land; then I will cause him to die by the sword in his own land.'"

Then, on hearing it said that Tirhakah king of Ethiopia was on his way to fight him, the king of Ashur sent messengers to Hizkiyahu, telling them,

Now therefore, Adonai our God, please save us from his power — so that all the kingdoms on earth will know that you are Adonai , God — you only."

One day, as he was worshipping in the temple of Nisrokh his god, [his sons] Adramelekh and Shar'etzer struck him with the sword and escaped into the land of Ararat. So his son Esar-Hadon took his place as king.

Hizkiyahu turned his face toward the wall and prayed to Adonai :

Hizkiyahu listened to [the messengers] and showed them the building where he kept his treasures, including the silver, gold, spices and precious oils; also the building where he kept his armor; and everything in his treasury — there was nothing in his palace or in his entire domain that Hizkiyahu did not show them.

Other activities of Hizkiyahu, his power and how he built the pool and aqueduct to bring water into the city are recorded in the Annals of the Kings of Y'hudah.

Then Hizkiyahu slept with his ancestors, and M'nasheh his son took his place as king.

M'nasheh was twelve years old when he began his reign, and he ruled for fifty-five years in Yerushalayim. His mother's name was Heftzibah.

For he rebuilt the high places Hizkiyahu his father had destroyed; he erected altars for Ba‘al and made an asherah, as had Ach'av king of Isra'el; and he worshipped all the army of heaven and served them.

He made his son pass through the fire [as a sacrifice]. He practiced soothsaying and divination and appointed mediums and persons who used spirit guides. He did much that was evil from Adonai 's perspective, thus provoking him to anger.

He set the carved image for the asherah he had made in the house concerning which Adonai had told David and Shlomo his son, "In this house and in Yerushalayim, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Isra'el, I will put my name forever.