Study Desk

For I will help this city and save it, because of My honor, and because of My servant David.'"

In those days Hezekiah became sick enough to die. The man of God, Isaiah the son of Amoz, came to him and said, "This is what the Lord says, ‘Get those of your house ready. For you will die. You will not get well again.'"

Hezekiah said to Isaiah, "What will be the special thing for me to see, that the Lord will heal me, and that I will go up to the house of the Lord on the third day?"

Isaiah said, "This will be the special thing for you to see from the Lord, to show that the Lord will do what He has said. Will the shadow go ten steps farther, or go back ten steps?"

Hezekiah answered, "It is easy for the shadow to go ten steps farther. But let the shadow turn back ten steps."

At that time Berodach-baladan, a son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a gift to Hezekiah. For he heard that Hezekiah had been sick.

Hezekiah said to Isaiah, "The word of the Lord which you have spoken is good." For he thought, "Why not, if there will be peace and people will be safe in my days?"

He built again the high places which his father Hezekiah had destroyed. He built altars for Baal and made an object out of wood to worship the false goddess Asherah. He did as Ahab king of Israel had done. He worshiped all the stars of heaven and served them.

Manasseh built altars for all the stars of heaven in the two open spaces of the Lord's house.

Then Manasseh put the object he had made for Asherah into the house of the Lord. But the Lord had said to David and to his son Solomon, "I have chosen this house and Jerusalem from all the families of Israel. Here I will put My name forever.

Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king. He ruled for two years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Meshullemeth the daughter of Haruz of Jotbah.

Josiah was eight years old when he became king. He ruled for thirty-one years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jedidah the daughter of Adaiah of Bozkath.

Have them pay the builders and the men who work with wood and with stone. Have them use it for buying wood and cut stone needed to work on the house.

But do not make them tell you how the money was spent that was given to them. For they are honest men."

"Go, ask the Lord for me and all Judah about the words of this book that has been found. For the Lord is very angry with us, because our fathers have not listened to the words of this book. They have not done all that is written for us to do."

So Hilkiah the religious leader, Ahikam, Achbor, Shaphan and Asaiah went to Huldah the woman who spoke for God. She was the wife of Shallum the son of Tikvah, son of Harhas, and watched over the clothes of the house. (She lived in the Second Part of Jerusalem.) They spoke to her.

The king went up to the house of the Lord with all the men of Judah and all the people who lived in Jerusalem. The religious leaders, the men who speak for God, and all the people went with him, both small and great. And Josiah read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Law which was found in the house of the Lord.

Then the king spoke to Hilkiah the head religious leader, and the religious leaders who were next in power, and the door-keepers. He told them to bring out of the Lord's house all the objects made for the false gods Baal and Asherah and for all the stars of heaven. He burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron. And he carried their ashes to Bethel.

He broke down the small rooms in the Lord's house that were used by the men who sold the use of their bodies for their false gods. The women were making special curtains for the false goddess Asherah in these rooms.

The king made the high places sinful which were east of Jerusalem and south of the Mount of Destruction. King Solomon of Israel had built them for Ashtoreth the sinful goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the hated false god of Moab, and Milcom the hated god of the sons of Ammon.