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^(a)And when King Hezekiah heard it, he ^(b)tore his clothes, ^(c)covered himself with sackcloth and entered the house of the Lord .

Then he sent Eliakim who was over the household with Shebna the scribe and the elders of the priests, ^(d)covered with sackcloth, to ^(e)Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz.

They said to him, "Thus says Hezekiah, ‘This day is a day of distress, rebuke, and rejection; for children have come to birth and there is no strength to deliver.

^(f)Perhaps the Lord your God will hear all the words of Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent ^(g)to reproach the living God, and will rebuke the words which the Lord your God has heard. Therefore, offer a prayer for ^(h)the remnant that is left.'"

So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah.

Isaiah said to them, "Thus you shall say to your master, ‘Thus says the Lord , "Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the ⁽ⁱ⁾servants of the king of Assyria ^(j)have blasphemed Me.

Behold, I will put a spirit in him so that ^(k)he will hear a rumor and return to his own land. And ^(l)I will make him fall by the sword in his own land."'"

Then Rabshakeh returned and found the king of Assyria fighting against ^(m)Libnah, for he had heard that ^[a]the king had left ⁽ⁿ⁾Lachish.

When he heard them say concerning Tirhakah king of ^[b]Cush, "Behold, he has come out to fight against you," he sent messengers again to Hezekiah saying,

"Thus you shall say to Hezekiah king of ^[c]Judah, ‘Do not ^(o)let your God in whom you trust deceive you saying, "^(p)Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria."

Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands, destroying them completely. So will you be ^[d]spared?

^(q)Did the gods of ^[e]those nations which my fathers destroyed deliver them, even ^(r)Gozan and ^(s)Haran and Rezeph and ^(t)the sons of Eden who were in Telassar?

^(u)Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, and of Hena and Ivvah?'"

Then ^(v)Hezekiah took the ^[f]letter from the hand of the messengers and read it, and he went up to the house of the Lord and ^[g]spread it out before the Lord .

Hezekiah prayed before the Lord and said, "O Lord , the God of Israel, ^(w)who are ^[h]enthroned above the cherubim, ^(x)You are the God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth.

^(y)Incline Your ear, O Lord , and hear; ^(z)open Your eyes, O Lord , and see; and listen to the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent ^(aa)to reproach the living God.

Truly, O Lord , the kings of Assyria have devastated the nations and their lands

and have cast their gods into the fire, ^(ab)for they were not gods but the work of men's hands, wood and stone. So they have destroyed them.

Now, O Lord our God, I pray, deliver us from his hand ^(ac)that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, O ^(ad) Lord , are God."

Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah saying, "Thus says the Lord , the God of Israel, ‘Because you have prayed to Me about Sennacherib king of Assyria, ^(ae)I have heard you.'

This is the word that the Lord has spoken against him: ‘She has despised you and mocked you, ^(af)The virgin daughter of Zion; She ^(ag)has shaken her head behind you, The daughter of Jerusalem!

‘Whom have you ^(ah)reproached and ^(ai)blasphemed? And against whom have you raised your voice, And ^[i]haughtily lifted up your eyes? Against the ^(aj)Holy One of Israel!

‘^(ak)Through your messengers you have reproached the Lord, And you have said, "With my many chariots I came up to the heights of the mountains, To the remotest parts of Lebanon; And I ^[j]cut down its tall cedars and its choice cypresses. And I ^[k]entered its farthest lodging place, its ^(al)thickest forest.

"I dug wells and drank foreign waters, And with the sole of my feet I ^[l](am)dried up All the rivers of ^[m]Egypt."

‘^(an)Have you not heard? Long ago I did it; From ancient times I planned it. ^(ao)Now I have brought it to pass, That you should turn fortified cities into ruinous heaps.

‘Therefore their inhabitants were short of strength, They were dismayed and put to shame; They were ^(ap)as the vegetation of the field and as the green herb, As grass on the housetops is scorched before it is grown up.

‘But ^(aq)I know your sitting down, And your going out and your coming in, And your raging against Me.

‘Because of your raging against Me, And because your ^[n]arrogance has come up to My ears, Therefore I ^(ar)will put My hook in your nose, And My bridle in your lips, And ^(as)I will turn you back by the way which you came.

‘Then this shall be ^(at)the sign for you: ^[o]you will eat this year what grows of itself, in the second year what springs from the same, and in the third year sow, reap, plant vineyards, and eat their fruit.

^(au)The surviving remnant of the house of Judah will again take root downward and bear fruit upward.

For out of Jerusalem will go forth a remnant, and ^(av)out of Mount Zion ^[p]survivors. ^(aw)The zeal of ^[q]the Lord will perform this.

‘Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the king of Assyria, "^(ax)He will not come to this city or shoot an arrow there; and he will not come before it with a shield or throw up a siege ramp against it.

^(ay)By the way that he came, by the same he will return, and he shall not come to this city,"' declares the Lord .

‘^(az)For I will defend this city to save it for My own sake and ^(ba)for My servant David's sake.'"

^(bb)Then it happened that night that the angel of the Lord went out and struck 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians; and when ^[r]men rose early in the morning, behold, all of them were ^[s]dead.

So ^(bc)Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and returned home, and lived at ^(bd)Nineveh.

It came about as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, that ^[t](be)Adrammelech and Sharezer killed him with the sword; and they escaped into ^(bf)the land of Ararat. And ^(bg)Esarhaddon his son became king in his place.

^(a)In those days Hezekiah became ^[a]mortally ill. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him and said to him, "Thus says the Lord , ‘^(b)Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live.'"

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

"^(c)Remember now, O Lord , I beseech You, ^(d)how I have walked before You in truth and with a whole heart and have done what is good in Your sight." And ^(e)Hezekiah wept ^[b]bitterly.

Before Isaiah had gone out of the middle court, the word of the Lord came to him, saying,

"Return and say to ^(f)Hezekiah the leader of My people, ‘Thus says the Lord , the God of your father David, "^(g)I have heard your prayer, ^(h)I have seen your tears; behold, I will heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of the Lord .

I will add fifteen years to your ^[c]life, and I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria; and ⁽ⁱ⁾I will defend this city for My own sake and for My servant David's sake."'"

Then Isaiah said, "Take a cake of figs." And they took and laid it on the boil, and he recovered.

Now Hezekiah said to Isaiah, "What will be the sign that the Lord will heal me, and that I shall go up to the house of the Lord the third day?"

Isaiah said, "^(j)This shall be the sign to you from the Lord , that the Lord will do the thing that He has spoken: shall the shadow go forward ten steps or go back ten steps?"

So Hezekiah ^[d]answered, "It is easy for the shadow to decline ten steps; no, but let the shadow turn backward ten steps."

Isaiah the prophet cried to the Lord , and ^(k)He brought the shadow on the ^[e]stairway back ten steps by which it had gone down on the ^[f]stairway of Ahaz.

^(l)At that time ^[g]Berodach-baladan a son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he heard that Hezekiah had been sick.

Hezekiah listened to them, and showed them ^(m)all his treasure house, the silver and the gold and the spices and the precious oil and the house of his armor and all that was found in his treasuries. There was nothing in his house nor in all his dominion that Hezekiah did not show them.

Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah and said to him, "What did these men say, and from where have they come to you?" And Hezekiah said, "They have come from a far country, from Babylon."

He said, "What have they seen in your house?" So Hezekiah ^[h]answered, "They have seen all that is in my house; there is nothing among my treasuries that I have not shown them."

Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, "Hear the word of the Lord .

‘Behold, the days are coming when ⁽ⁿ⁾all that is in your house, and all that your fathers have laid up in store to this day will be carried to Babylon; nothing shall be left,' says the Lord .

‘Some ^(o)of your sons who shall issue from you, whom you will beget, will be taken away; and they will become ^(p)officials in the palace of the king of Babylon.'"

Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, "The word of the Lord which you have spoken is ^(q)good." For he ^[i]thought, "Is it not so, if there will be peace and truth in my days?"

^(r)Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah and all his might, and how he ^(s)made 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?

^(t)So Hezekiah slept with his fathers, and Manasseh his son became king in his place.

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

^(b)He did evil in the sight of the Lord , ^(c)according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord dispossessed before the sons of Israel.

For ^(d)he rebuilt the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed; and ^(e)he erected altars for Baal and made an ^[a]Asherah, as Ahab king of Israel had done, and ^(f)worshiped all the host of heaven and served them.

^(g)He built altars in the house of the Lord , of which the Lord had said, "^(h)In Jerusalem I will put My name."

For he built altars for ⁽ⁱ⁾all the host of heaven in ^(j)the two courts of the house of the Lord .

^(k)He made his son pass through the fire, ^(l)practiced witchcraft and used divination, and dealt with mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord provoking Him to anger.

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

And I ^(o)will not make the feet of Israel wander anymore from the land which I gave their fathers, if only they will observe to do according to all that I have commanded them, and according to all the law that My servant Moses commanded them."

But they did not listen, and Manasseh ^(p)seduced them to do evil more than the nations whom the Lord destroyed before the sons of Israel.

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

"^(q)Because Manasseh king of Judah has done these abominations, ^(r)having done wickedly more than all the Amorites did who were before him, and ^(s)has also made Judah sin ^(t)with his idols;

therefore thus says the Lord , the God of Israel, ‘Behold, I am bringing such calamity on Jerusalem and Judah, that whoever hears of it, ^(u)both his ears will tingle.

^(v)I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria and the plummet of the house of Ahab, and I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down.

I will abandon the remnant of My inheritance and deliver them into the hand of their enemies, and they will become as plunder and spoil to all their enemies;

because they have done evil in My sight, and have been provoking Me to anger since the day their fathers came from Egypt, even to this day.'"

^(w)Moreover, Manasseh shed very much innocent blood until he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another; besides his sin ^(x)with which he made Judah sin, in doing evil in the sight of the Lord .

^(y)Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh and all that he did and his sin which he ^[b]committed, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?

^(z)And Manasseh slept with his fathers and was buried in the garden of his own house, ^(aa)in the garden of Uzza, and Amon his son became king in his place.

^(ab)Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem; and his mother's name was Meshullemeth the daughter of Haruz of Jotbah.

He did evil in the sight of the Lord , ^(ac)as Manasseh his father had done.

For he walked in all the way that his father had walked, and served the idols that his father had served and worshiped them.

So ^(ad)he forsook the Lord , the God of his fathers, and did not walk in the way of the Lord .

^(ae)The servants of Amon conspired against him and killed the king in his own house.

Then ^(af)the people of the land ^[c]killed all those who had conspired against King Amon, and the people of the land made Josiah his son king in his place.

Now the rest of the acts of Amon which he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?

He was buried in his grave ^(ag)in the garden of Uzza, and Josiah his son became king in his place.