Study Desk

You must worship only the Lord your God. He is the one who will rescue you from all your enemies."

Hezekiah trusted in the Lord , the God of Israel. There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before or after his time.

For they refused to listen to the Lord their God and obey him. Instead, they violated his covenant—all the laws that Moses the Lord 's servant had commanded them to obey.

"But perhaps you will say to me, ‘We are trusting in the Lord our God!' But isn't he the one who was insulted by Hezekiah? Didn't Hezekiah tear down his shrines and altars and make everyone in Judah and Jerusalem worship only at the altar here in Jerusalem?

What happened to the gods of Hamath and Arpad? And what about the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah? Did any god rescue Samaria from my power?

What god of any nation has ever been able to save its people from my power? So what makes you think that the Lord can rescue Jerusalem from me?"

But perhaps the Lord your God has heard the Assyrian chief of staff, sent by the king to defy the living God, and will punish him for his words. Oh, pray for those of us who are left!"

"This message is for King Hezekiah of Judah. Don't let your God, in whom you trust, deceive you with promises that Jerusalem will not be captured by the king of Assyria.

And Hezekiah prayed this prayer before the Lord : "O Lord , God of Israel, you are enthroned between the mighty cherubim! You alone are God of all the kingdoms of the earth. You alone created the heavens and the earth.

Bend down, O Lord , and listen! Open your eyes, O Lord , and see! Listen to Sennacherib's words of defiance against the living God.

Now, O Lord our God, rescue us from his power; then all the kingdoms of the earth will know that you alone, O Lord , are God."

Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent this message to Hezekiah: "This is what the Lord , the God of Israel, says: I have heard your prayer about King Sennacherib of Assyria.

One day while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer killed him with their swords. They then escaped to the land of Ararat, and another son, Esarhaddon, became the next king of Assyria.

"Go back to Hezekiah, the leader of my people. Tell him, ‘This is what the Lord , the God of your ancestor David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears. I will heal you, and three days from now you will get out of bed and go to the Temple of the Lord .

So this is what the Lord , the God of Israel, says: I will bring such disaster on Jerusalem and Judah that the ears of those who hear about it will tingle with horror.

He abandoned the Lord , the God of his ancestors, and he refused to follow the Lord 's ways.

She said to them, "The Lord , the God of Israel, has spoken! Go back and tell the man who sent you,

"But go to the king of Judah who sent you to seek the Lord and tell him: ‘This is what the Lord , the God of Israel, says concerning the message you have just heard:

The king also desecrated the pagan shrines east of Jerusalem, to the south of the Mount of Corruption, where King Solomon of Israel had built shrines for Ashtoreth, the detestable goddess of the Sidonians; and for Chemosh, the detestable god of the Moabites; and for Molech, the vile god of the Ammonites.

Then Josiah turned around and noticed several tombs in the side of the hill. He ordered that the bones be brought out, and he burned them on the altar at Bethel to desecrate it. (This happened just as the Lord had promised through the man of God when Jeroboam stood beside the altar at the festival.) Then Josiah turned and looked up at the tomb of the man of God who had predicted these things.