2 Kings 20

Hezekiah Gets Sick, Gets Healed, & Gets a Warning

1 In those days, Hezekiah got sick and was on his deathbed. Isaiah the prophet, son of Amoz, came to him and told him, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Straighten out your house, because you are going to die. You are not recovering.’”

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

3 “Listen, Lord, please remember how I walked before You in truth and with a whole heart, and did what was good in Your eyes.” And Hezekiah cried out hard.

4 Before Isaiah had even left the middle courtyard, the word of the Lord came to him, saying,

5 “Go back and tell Hezekiah, the leader of My people, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of your daddy David, says: “I heard your prayer, I saw your tears. Look, I am going to heal you. On the third day, you are going to go up to the Lord’s temple.”’”

6 “’And I am going to add fifteen years to your life. I will snatch you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city for My own sake and for My boy David’s sake.’”

7 Then Isaiah said, “Grab a cake of figs.” So they grabbed one and put it on the boil, and he recovered.

8 Hezekiah asked Isaiah, “What is the sign that the Lord is going to heal me and that I will go up to the Lord’s temple on the third day?”

9 Isaiah said, “This is going to be your sign from the Lord that the Lord will do what He promised: ‘Should the shadow go forward ten steps, or go back ten steps?’”

10 Hezekiah answered, “It is easy for the shadow to extend ten steps. Nah, let the shadow go back ten steps.”

11 Then Isaiah the prophet cried out to the Lord, and He made the shadow go back ten steps on the stairway of Ahaz, where it had already gone down.

Babylonian Envoys Visit Hezekiah

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

13 Hezekiah listened to them and showed them his whole treasure house, the silver, the gold, the spices, the fine oil, his armory, and everything found in his treasuries. There was not anything in his palace or in his whole kingdom that Hezekiah did not show them.

14 Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah and asked him, “What did these dudes say, And where did they come from to you?” Hezekiah said, “They came from a far country, from Babylon.”

15 He asked, “What did they see in your house?” Hezekiah answered, “They saw everything in my house. There was not anything in my treasuries that I did not show them.”

16 Then Isaiah told Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the Lord:”

17 “Look, the days are coming when everything in your house, and everything your ancestors piled up until this day, going to be carried away to Babylon. Nothing is going to be left behind,” says the Lord.

18 “And some of your own sons, who will be born to you, they are going to snatch them away, and they are going to be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.”

19 Hezekiah told Isaiah, “The word of the Lord that you spoke is good.” For he thought, “At least there will be peace and security in my time.”

20 As for the rest of Hezekiah’s story, all his power, and how he made the pool and the tunnel and brought water into the city, is it not written in the book of the Annals of the Kings of Judah,

21 Hezekiah passed away and joined his ancestors. And his son Manasseh took over as king.