Study Desk

Who among all the gods of those nations whom my ancestors utterly destroyed was able to save his people from my hand, that your God will be able to save you from my hand?

So now, do not let Hezekiah deceive you. Do not let him urge you according to this. Do not put trust in him, for no god of any nation and kingdom has been able to save his people from my hand and from the hand of my ancestors. Surely then your God will not save you from my hand!'"

And still more his servants said against Yahweh God and against Hezekiah his servant.

And he wrote letters to treat Yahweh the God of Israel with contempt and spoke against him, saying, "As the gods of the nations of the earth who did not save their people from my hand, so likewise the God of Hezekiah will not save his people from my hand."

Then Yahweh sent an angel, and he destroyed every mighty warrior of strength, commander, and officer in the camp of the king of Assyria. And he returned with shamed face to his land and went into the house of his god. And some of the offspring of his loins fell upon him there with the sword.

But Hezekiah did not reciprocate according to the benefit placed upon him, because his heart became proud. So wrath was upon him and upon Judah and Jerusalem.

But Hezekiah humbled himself with respect to the arrogance of his heart, he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the wrath of Yahweh did not come upon them in the days of Hezekiah.

And this same Hezekiah blocked off the flow of the waters of the upper Gihon, and directed them down the west side of the city of David. And Hezekiah prospered in all his works.

And thus in the matter of the envoys of the commanders of Babylon who had been sent to him to seek the sign that had happened in the land, God forsook him, to test him and to know all that was in his heart.

Now the remainder of the words of Hezekiah and his loyal love, behold, they are written in the visions of Isaiah the son of Amoz, the prophet, upon the scroll of the kings of Judah and Israel.

And Hezekiah slept with his ancestors, and they buried him in the upper part of the burial sites of the descendants of David. And all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem did him honor at his death. And Manasseh his son became king in his place.

And he rebuilt the high places that Hezekiah his father broke down, and he set up altars for the Baals, made Asherahs, and bowed down to the host of heaven and served them.

And he himself burned his sons in the fire in the Valley of Ben-Hinnom. And he practiced sorcery and divination, and he engaged in witchcraft and dealt with mediums and spiritists. And he did much evil in the eyes of Yahweh, to provoke him to anger.

And he placed the carved image of the idol that he had made in the house of God, 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 tribes of Israel, I will put my name forever.

And Yahweh spoke to Manasseh and to his people, but they would not listen.

And when he was in distress he entreated Yahweh his God and greatly humbled himself before the God of his ancestors

and prayed to him. And God responded to him and heard his plea and let him return to Jerusalem to his kingdom. And Manasseh knew that Yahweh was God.

Now the remainder of the words of Manasseh and his prayer to his God and the words of the seers who spoke to him in the name of Yahweh, the God of Israel, behold, they are in the words of the kings of Israel.

And his prayer, and how he responded to him, all his sin and his unfaithful acts, and the places where he built the high places and set up Asherahs and idols before he humbled himself, behold, they are written in the words of the seers.

And Manasseh slept with his ancestors, and they buried him in his house. And Amon his son became king in his place.