Hezekiah

Hezekiah
1. Hezekiah Becomes King Of Israel
2. Sennacherib King Of Assyria Comes Against Judah
3. Isaiah Tells Hezekiah What The Lord Says
4. Hezekiah Become Mortally Ill
5. Hezekiah Asks For A Sign
6. Hezekiah Shows His Treasuries To Babylonian Officials

1. Hezekiah Becomes King Of Israel - Back to Page Index
2 Kings 18:1-8
In the third year of Hoshea, the son of Elah king of Israel, that Hezekiah the son of Ahaz king of Judah became king. He was twenty five years old when he became king, and he reigned twenty nine years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Abi the daughter of Zechariah. He did right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his father David had done. He removed the high places, broke down the sacred pillars and cut down the Asherah. He broke up the bronze serpent Moses had made, because the children of Israel were burning incense to it, calling it Nehushtan. He trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel, so that among all the kings of Judah there were none like him before or after.

Hezekiah clung to the LORD and did not depart from following Him. He kept the commandments which the LORD had commanded through Moses. And the LORD was with him. Wherever he went he prospered. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and did not serve him. He defeated the Philistines as far as Gaza and its territory, from its watchtower to the fortified city.

2. Sennacherib King Of Assyria Comes Against Judah - Back to Page Index
2 Kings 18:13-37
In the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria seized all the fortified cities of Judah. Then Hezekiah sent a message to the king of Assyria at Lachish saying, "I have done wrong. Withdraw from me and I will give you whatever you say." So the king of Assyria required of Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold. Hezekiah gave him all the silver in the house of the LORD, and in the treasuries of the king's house. He cut off the gold from the doors of the temple of the LORD, and from the doorposts which he had overlaid, and gave it to the king of Assyria.

Then the king of Assyria sent Tartan, Rabsaris and Rabshakeh from Lachish with a great host against king Hezekiah at Jerusalem. They came and stood by the conduit of the upper pool which is on the highway of the fuller's field. They called to the king and Eliakim the son of Hilkiah who was over the household, to Shebna the scribe and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder. Rabshakeh said to them, "Tell Hezekiah, 'Thus says the great king of Assyria, where does your great confidence come from?' You are saying that you have strategy and the strength for war. On who are you relying that you should rebell against me? You are leaning on the staff of a crushed reed when you rely on Egypt. Your dependance on Pharaoh will come to nothing. And if you say you are trusting in the LORD your God, is it not His high places that Hezekiah has taken away? Hezekiah has insisted that you all worship before the altar in Jerusalem. Come make a bargain with my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses if you can provide that many riders. How can you turn away from one of the least of my master's servants, and rely on Egypt for chariots and horsemen? Have I come up against you without the LORD's approval? The LORD told me to go up against this land to destroy it."

Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, and Shebnah and Joah, said to Rabshakeh, 'Speak to us in the Syrian language, for we understand it. And do not speak in the Judean language in the hearing of the people on the wall. But Rabshakeh said to them, "Has my master sent me to speak only to your master? Everyone needs to hear the truth, of how they will become so hungry they will eat their own dung and drink their own urine."

Then Rabshakeh stood and cried with a loud voice, saying in Judean, "Hear the word of the great king of Assyria. Thus says the king, 'Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you from my hand.' Don't let Hezekiah talk you into trusting in the LORD. You may think that He will deliver you and keep Jerusalem from falling to the king of Assyria. Do not listen to Hezekiah. Make your peace with me, and each one may eat of his own vine and fig tree, and drink water from his own cistern, Until I come and take you away to a land like your own, a land of grain, new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees and honey, that you may live and not die. Do not listen to Hezekiah when he misleads you by saying the LORD will deliver you. Have the gods of any of the other nation's delivered them from the hand of the Assyrians? Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena and Ivah? Was Samaria delivered from my hand? Who among all the gods of the nations has delivered them out of my hand. What makes you think the LORD your God will be able to do any different for Jerusalem?"

But the people were silent and answered him not a word, for Hezekiah's command had been, "Do not answer him."

Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and told him what Rabshakeh had said.

2 Kings 19:1-19
When King Hezekiah heard their words, he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth and went into the house of the LORD. Then he sent Eliakim who was over the household with Shebna the scribe and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz. They said to him, "Hezekiah says this is a day of distress, rebuke and rejection, for it is the time of birth, but there is no strength to deliver. Perhaps the LORD your God had heard everything Rabshakeh has said for the king of Assyria. He has reproached the living God. Please offer a prayer for the remnant that is left." When the servants of King Hezekiah went to Isaiah, Isaiah said to them, "Thus you shall say to your master. The LORD says, 'Do not be afraid of the words you have heard from the servants of the king of Assyria who has blasphemed Me..' Behold, I will cause him to hear a rumor and return to his own land. And there I will make him fall by the sword."

Then Rabshakeh returned to find the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah, for he had heard that the king had left Lachish. He had heard them say that Tirhakah, the king of Cush, had come out to fight against him. So he sent a message to Hezekiah, saying, "Do not be deceived by the God in whom you trust, thinking He will save you from the king of Assyria. You have heard how the kings of Assyria have destroyed the people of all the lands. Do you think you will be spared? Did the gods of those other nations which my fathers destroyed deliver them? Nations such as Gozan, Haran and Rezeph, and the sons of Eden who were in Telassar? Where is the king of Hamath, or the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, and Hena, and Ivvah?"

Then Hezekiah took the letter from the hand of the messengers and after reading it, went up to the house of the LORD and spread it out before the LORD. He prayed to the LORD, saying, "O LORD, the God of Israel, who is enthroned above the cherubim. You alone in all the earth are God. You made heaven and earth. Incline Your ear, O LORD, hear and open Your eyes and see. Listen to the words of this letter from Sennacherib, a reproach to the living God. It is true, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have devastated the nations, casting their gods into the fire, for they are not gods, but the work of men's hands, made of wood and stone. So they have been destroyed. Now, O LORD our God, I pray, deliver us from his hand that all the nations of the earth may know that You alone are God."

3. Isaiah Tells Hezekiah What The Lord Says - Back to Page Index
2 Kings 19:20-37
Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent a message to Hezekiah, saying, "The LORD God of Israel says that because you have prayed to Him about Sennacherib king of Assyria, He has heard your request. This is the word that the LORD has spoken against him: 'He has despised and mocked you, the virgin daughter of Zion. The daughter of Jerusalem mocks you as you flee..' In doing this you have blasphemed against the Holy One of Israel! Though your messengers have reproached the LORD, while trusting in Assyria's many chariots, cutting down the tall cedars of Lebanon, and having come into the forests of Carmel," saying, 'I have dug wells and drunk foreign water, I have dried up the rivers of Egypt. '. "Have you not heard? From ancient times I have planned what will be, and that you should turn fortified cities in to heaps of ruins. This is why you were able to destroy them and their land. I know everything about you. And I know of your raging against Me. And because of your arrogance, I will put a hook in your nose and a bridle in your mouth, and I will turn you back from the way you have come."

"This shall be a sign to you Hezekiah. You will eat this year of what grows by itself. In the second year you will eat what springs up volunteer, and the third year you shall sow, eat and reap, plant vineyards and eat its fruit. The surviving remnant of Judah will again take root and bear fruit. A remnant will go out of Jerusalem, and survivors out of Mount Zion. The zeal of the LORD will perform this. And thus says the LORD concerning Assyria, 'He will not come to this city or shoot an arrow here. Neither will he bring a shield or throw up a siege ramp against its wall..' He shall leave by the way he came and not return to this city, " declares the LORD. "For I will defend this city to save it for My own sake and for the sake of my servant David."

That night the angel of the LORD struck 185,000 men in the Assyrian camp. Those still alive in the morning got up and saw dead men everywhere.

So Sennacherib king of Assyria returned to Nineveh. It came about that as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his God, Adrammelech and Sharezer killed him with the sword and escaped to the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son became king in his place.

4. Hezekiah Become Mortally Ill - Back to Page Index
2 Kings 20:1-7
Hezekiah became mortally ill. Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, came to him and said, "Thus says the LORD, set your house in order, for you are going to die." Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD, saying, As he wept bitterly, "I beseech you O LORD, remember how I have walked with you in truth with my whole heart." Before Isaiah had left the middle court, the word of the LORD came to him, saying, "Return and say to Hezekiah, 'Thus says the LORD, the God of your father David, I have heard your prayer and seen your tears. 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 life and deliver you and this city for My own sake and for My servant David's sake." Then Isaiah said, "Make a poltice of figs." And they took the poltice and laid it on the boil, and Hezekiah recovered.

5. Hezekiah Asks For A Sign - Back to Page Index
2 Kings 20:8-11
Then Hezekiah asked for a sign to show that the LORD would heal him. Isaiah said, "This shall be a sign for you that the LORD has spoken: shall the sun's shadow shall go forward ten degrees or back ten degrees?" Hezekiah answered, "It is harder for the shadow to go back ten degrees." Isaiah the prophet cried to the LORD and He brought the shadow back ten degrees on the stairway of Ahaz.

6. Hezekiah Shows His Treasuries To Babylonian Officials - Back to Page Index
2 Kings 20:12-21
At about that time Berodachbaladan, the son of Baladan, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he had heard how Hezekiah had been sick. Hezekiah received them and showed them all the treasures of his house, such as the silver and gold, the spices and precious oil, and the armor. He showed them everything there was to show. Then Isaiah the prophet came to the king and said, "Where did these men come from and what did they say to you?" And Hezekiah answered, "They have come from Babylon, a far country." Isaiah asked, "What have they seen in your house?" Hezekiah said, "I showed them everything." Then Isaiah said to him, "Hear the word of the LORD. Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house, and all that your fathers have laid up until this day will be carried to Babylon. Nothing will be left, says the LORD. And some of your sons will be taken away to become officials in the palace of the king of Babylon."

Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, "The word of the LORD is good." And he thought in his heart, "At least there will be peace and truth in my days."

The rest of the acts of Hezekiah, the account of the pool and the conduit he made to bring water into the city, are written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah. So Hezekiah slept with his fathers, and Manasseh his son became king in his place.

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