2 Kings 20

Translated from the Hebrew of the Westminster Leningrad Codex. Tap a verse to see why it reads as it does. Tap a small letter to read its footnote.

This is the Balanced text at the default settings. The notes, the reasoning behind each verse and the reader settings need JavaScript..disputed-note .fn-pop-more { display: none; }

Hezekiah’s illness

¹In those days Hezekiah fell ill and was close to death. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz came to him and said, “The LORD says this: Give final instructions to your household, for you are dying and will not live.” ²Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall and prayed to the LORD: ³“Please, LORD, remember how I have lived before you faithfully and with an undivided heart, doing what is good in your sight.” And Hezekiah wept loudly.

⁴Isaiah had not yet left the middle courtyard when the word of the LORD came to him: ⁵“Go back and say to Hezekiah, the ruler of my people, ‘The LORD, the God of your ancestor David, says this: I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. I am about to heal you, and on the third day you will go up to the house of the LORD. ⁶I will add fifteen years to your days. I will rescue you and this city from the grasp of the king of Assyria, and I will shield this city for my own sake and for my servant David’s sake.’” ⁷Then Isaiah said, “Bring a lump of pressed figs.” They brought it and spread it on the sore, and he recovered. ⁸Hezekiah had asked Isaiah, “What sign will there be that the LORD is going to heal me, and that on the third day I will go up to the house of the LORD?” ⁹Isaiah answered, “This will be your sign from the LORD that the LORD will carry out what he has said: Should the shadow go forward ten steps, or should it go back ten steps?” ¹⁰Hezekiah answered, “It is easy for the shadow to lengthen ten steps. No, let the shadow go back ten steps.” ¹¹Then the prophet Isaiah called out to the LORD, and he made the shadow go back ten steps, back up the steps of Ahaz that it had gone down.

Envoys from Babylon

¹²About that time Berodach-baladan son of Baladan, the king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah, because he had heard that Hezekiah had been ill. ¹³Hezekiah listened to them and showed them his whole treasury: the silver and the gold, the spices and the fine oil, his armory, and everything to be found in his storehouses. In his palace and across his whole kingdom, there was nothing he did not let them see. ¹⁴Then the prophet Isaiah came to King Hezekiah and asked him, “What did these men say? And where did they come from to visit you?” Hezekiah answered, “They came from a faraway country, from Babylon.” ¹⁵He asked, “What did they see in your palace?” Hezekiah replied, “They saw all that is in my palace. In my storerooms there is not a thing I failed to show them.” ¹⁶Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Listen to the word of the LORD: ¹⁷Look, a time is coming when all that is in your palace, everything your ancestors have laid up until today, will be hauled off to Babylon. Not one thing will remain, says the LORD. ¹⁸Some of your descendants, born of your own line, will be taken away, and they will serve as eunuchs in the palace of the Babylonian king.” ¹⁹Hezekiah answered Isaiah, “This word of the LORD that you have brought is good.” He was thinking, “Is it not good, if there will be peace and stability as long as I live?” ²⁰The rest of the acts of Hezekiah, all his might, and the pool and the conduit he made to bring water into the city, are written in the Book of the History of the Kings of Judah. ²¹Then Hezekiah rested with his ancestors, and his son Manasseh became king in his place.