Study Desk

'Has any of the gods of the nations actually saved his land from the hand of the king of Assyria?

Now when King Hezekiah heard the report, he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and entered the house of the LORD.

'Perhaps the LORD your God will hear all the words of Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to taunt the living God, and will avenge the words which the LORD your God has heard. Therefore, offer a prayer for the remnant that is left.'"

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

"But now, LORD our God, please, save us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, LORD, are God."

Then it came about, as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer killed him with the sword; and they escaped to the land of Ararat. And his son Esarhaddon became king in his place.

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

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

Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah and all his might, and how he constructed 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 lay down with his fathers, and his son Manasseh became king in his place.

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

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

And he made his son pass through the fire, interpreted signs, practiced divination, and used mediums and spiritists. He did great evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking Him to anger.

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

Now the LORD spoke through His servants the prophets, saying,

"Since Manasseh king of Judah has committed these abominations, having done more evil than all that the Amorites did who were before him, and has also misled Judah into sin with his idols,

therefore this is what the LORD, the God of Israel says: 'Behold, I am bringing such a disaster on Jerusalem and Judah that whoever hears about it, both of his ears will ring.

Furthermore, Manasseh shed very much innocent blood until he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another, besides his sin into which he misled Judah, in doing evil in the sight of the LORD.

Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh and all that he did, and his sin which he committed, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?

And Manasseh lay down with his fathers and was buried in the garden of his own house, in the garden of Uzza, and his son Amon became king in his place.