Study Desk

he planned with his captains and men of war to stop the water from the wells which were outside the city. And they helped him.

Then King Sennacherib of Assyria, whose army was gathered around Lachish with him, sent word by his servants to Jerusalem to King Hezekiah and to all the people of Judah who were in Jerusalem. He said,

Has not this same Hezekiah taken away His high places and His altars, and said to Judah and Jerusalem, "You will worship in front of one altar and burn special perfume on it"?

Who among all the gods could save his people from me in all those nations which my fathers destroyed? Would your God be able to save you from me?

So now do not let Hezekiah lie to you or lead you in the wrong way like this. Do not believe him. For no god of any nation was able to save his people from me or from my fathers. How much less will your God save you from me!'"

Sennacherib's men said still more against the Lord God and against His servant Hezekiah.

The Assyrian king also wrote letters to say things against the Lord God of Israel, saying, "As the gods of the other nations of the lands have not saved their people from me, so the God of Hezekiah will not save His people from me."

And the Lord sent an angel who destroyed every powerful soldier and every captain and leader in the camp of the king of Assyria. So Sennacherib returned in shame to his own land. And when he had gone into the house of his god, some of his own children killed him there with the sword.

But Hezekiah did not do anything in return for the good he received, because his heart was proud. So the Lord's anger came upon him and Judah and Jerusalem.

Then Hezekiah put away the pride of his heart, both he and the people of Jerusalem. So that the anger of the Lord did not come on them in the days of Hezekiah.

It was so even when the men were sent to him from the rulers of Babylon to ask about the wonder that had happened in the land. God left Hezekiah alone to test him, that He might know all that was in his heart.

Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah and his good works are written in the special dream of Isaiah the man of God, the son of Amoz, in the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel.

Hezekiah died and they buried him in the upper graves of the sons of David. All the people of Judah and Jerusalem honored him at his death. And his son Manasseh became king in his place.

For he built again the high places which his father Hezekiah had broken down. He built altars for the false gods of Baal and made objects of worship for the false goddess Asherah. He worshiped all the stars of heaven and served them.

And he burned his sons as a gift in the valley of Ben-hinnom. He did witchcraft and asked the demon world about the future. He asked the demon world to do very special things, and he talked with people who spoke with the spirits of the dead. He did what was very bad in the eyes of the Lord, and made Him angry.

Manasseh made an object to look like a false god, and put it in God's house, of which God had said to David and to Solomon his son, "In this house, and in Jerusalem which I have chosen from all the families of Israel, I will put My name forever.

The Lord spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they would not listen.

When Manasseh was in trouble, he prayed to the Lord his God, and put away his pride before the God of his fathers.

When he prayed to Him, God heard his prayer and listened to him, and brought him again to Jerusalem and to his nation. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord was God.

Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh, his prayer to his God, and the words the men who spoke for God spoke to him in the name of the Lord God of Israel, are among the writings of the kings of Israel.