Now therefore, LORD our God, save us, I beg you, out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, LORD, are God alone.2 Kgs 19:19
“Now in the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, Hezekiah the son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign” (2 Kgs 18:1). “He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem” (2 Kgs 18:2). “He removed the high places, broke the pillars, and cut down the Asherah. He also broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, because in those days the children of Israel burned incense to it” (2 Kgs 18:4). “He trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel, so that after him was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, nor among them that were before him” (2 Kgs 18:5). “The LORD was with him. Wherever he went, he prospered. He rebelled against the king of Assyria, and didn’t serve him” (2 Kgs 18:7).
His father Ahaz had “shut up the doors of the LORD’s house” (2 Chr 28:24). Second Chronicles records that “In the first year of his reign, in the first month, he opened the doors of the LORD’s house and repaired them” (2 Chr 29:3). He said to the priests and Levites: “Now sanctify yourselves, and sanctify the house of the LORD, the God of your fathers” (2 Chr 29:5); “Now it is in my heart to make a covenant with the LORD, the God of Israel, that his fierce anger may turn away from us” (2 Chr 29:10). “They sanctified the LORD’s house in eight days, and on the sixteenth day of the first month they finished” (2 Chr 29:17). “Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced because of that which God had prepared for the people; for the thing was done suddenly” (2 Chr 29:36).
During his reign, “In the sixth year of Hezekiah, which was the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel, Samaria was taken” (2 Kgs 18:10).
Second Chronicles records that Hezekiah “wrote letters also to Ephraim and Manasseh, that they should come to the LORD’s house at Jerusalem, to keep the Passover to the LORD, the God of Israel” (2 Chr 30:1). The letter said: “the LORD your God is gracious and merciful, and will not turn away his face from you if you return to him” (2 Chr 30:9). In the north, “people ridiculed them and mocked them” (2 Chr 30:10); “Nevertheless some men of Asher, Manasseh, and Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem” (2 Chr 30:11).
Many “had not cleansed themselves, yet they ate the Passover other than the way it is written” (2 Chr 30:18), and Hezekiah prayed for them: “May the good LORD pardon everyone” (2 Chr 30:18) “who sets his heart to seek God, the LORD, the God of his fathers, even if they aren’t clean according to the purification of the sanctuary” (2 Chr 30:19). “The LORD listened to Hezekiah, and healed the people” (2 Chr 30:20). “So there was great joy in Jerusalem; for since the time of Solomon the son of David king of Israel there was nothing like this in Jerusalem” (2 Chr 30:26).
After this, “Hezekiah appointed the divisions of the priests and the Levites” (2 Chr 31:2); the people “brought in the tithe of all things abundantly” (2 Chr 31:5). “In every work that he began in the service of God’s house, in the law, and in the commandments, to seek his God, he did it with all his heart and prospered” (2 Chr 31:21).
“Now in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them” (2 Kgs 18:13). Hezekiah sent word to the king of Assyria: “I have offended you. Withdraw from me. That which you put on me, I will bear” (2 Kgs 18:14). He gave him all the silver in the LORD’s house and in the king’s treasuries (2 Kgs 18:15), and “cut off the gold from the doors of the LORD’s temple, and from the pillars which Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid, and gave it to the king of Assyria” (2 Kgs 18:16).
Still the king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh with a great army to Jerusalem (2 Kgs 18:17). Rabshakeh shouted outside the city: “What confidence is this in which you trust?” (2 Kgs 18:19); “that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?” (2 Kgs 18:35). “But the people stayed quiet, and answered him not a word; for the king’s commandment was, ‘Don’t answer him’” (2 Kgs 18:36).
Second Chronicles tells these events differently: Hezekiah “took counsel with his princes and his mighty men to stop the waters of the springs which were outside of the city” (2 Chr 32:3), built up the wall (2 Chr 32:5), and gathered the people and encouraged them: “Be strong and courageous. Don’t be afraid or dismayed because of the king of Assyria, nor for all the multitude who is with him; for there is a greater one with us than with him” (2 Chr 32:7). “The people rested themselves on the words of Hezekiah king of Judah” (2 Chr 32:8).
“When King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the LORD’s house” (2 Kgs 19:1). He sent to the prophet Isaiah, saying: “Today is a day of trouble, of rebuke, and of rejection” (2 Kgs 19:3). Isaiah sent back the LORD’s word: “Don’t be afraid of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me” (2 Kgs 19:6).
The king of Assyria sent a letter as well. “Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it. Then Hezekiah went up to the LORD’s house, and spread it before the LORD” (2 Kgs 19:14). He prayed: “Now therefore, LORD our God, save us, I beg you, out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, LORD, are God alone” (2 Kgs 19:19). Isaiah sent the answer: “You have prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria, and I have heard you” (2 Kgs 19:20).
“That night, the LORD’s angel went out and struck one hundred eighty-five thousand in the camp of the Assyrians” (2 Kgs 19:35). “So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, went home, and lived at Nineveh” (2 Kgs 19:36). Second Chronicles records: “Hezekiah the king and Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, prayed because of this, and cried to heaven” (2 Chr 32:20); “Thus the LORD saved Hezekiah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem from the hand of Sennacherib the king of Assyria” (2 Chr 32:22).
“In those days Hezekiah was sick and dying. Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him, and said to him, ‘The LORD says, “Set your house in order; for you will die, and not live”’” (2 Kgs 20:1). “Then he turned his face to the wall, and prayed to the LORD” (2 Kgs 20:2), “And Hezekiah wept bitterly” (2 Kgs 20:3).
“Before Isaiah had gone out into the middle part of the city, the LORD’s word came to him” (2 Kgs 20:4), sending him back to tell Hezekiah: “I have heard your prayer. I have seen your tears. Behold, I will heal you” (2 Kgs 20:5); “I will add to your days fifteen years” (2 Kgs 20:6). Isaiah had a cake of figs laid on the boil, “and he recovered” (2 Kgs 20:7). As a sign, the LORD “brought the shadow ten steps backward” (2 Kgs 20:11).
The book of Isaiah records what he wrote after he recovered: “The writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick, and had recovered of his sickness” (Isa 38:9); in it he says: “The father shall make known your truth to the children” (Isa 38:19).
The king of Babylon “sent letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he had heard that Hezekiah had been sick” (2 Kgs 20:12). “There was nothing in his house, or in all his dominion, that Hezekiah didn’t show them” (2 Kgs 20:13). Isaiah told him: “Behold, the days come that all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have laid up in store to this day, will be carried to Babylon. Nothing will be left” (2 Kgs 20:17). “Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, ‘The LORD’s word which you have spoken is good.’ He said moreover, ‘Isn’t it so, if peace and truth will be in my days?’” (2 Kgs 20:19).
Second Chronicles records: “But Hezekiah didn’t reciprocate appropriate to the benefit done for him, because his heart was lifted up” (2 Chr 32:25); “However, Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart, both he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the LORD’s wrath didn’t come on them in the days of Hezekiah” (2 Chr 32:26). In the matter of the envoys from Babylon, “God left him to test him, that he might know all that was in his heart” (2 Chr 32:31).
“Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, and all his might, and how he made the pool, and the conduit, and brought water into the city, aren’t they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?” (2 Kgs 20:20). “Hezekiah slept with his fathers, and Manasseh his son reigned in his place” (2 Kgs 20:21). “All Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem honored him at his death” (2 Chr 32:33).
Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus Christ names Hezekiah: “Uzziah became the father of Jotham. Jotham became the father of Ahaz. Ahaz became the father of Hezekiah” (Matt 1:9). “Hezekiah became the father of Manasseh. Manasseh became the father of Amon. Amon became the father of Josiah” (Matt 1:10).
2 Kings Chapters 18 – 20 tell of Hezekiah: his trust in the LORD, the Assyrian attack, the letter spread before the LORD, his illness, and the envoys from Babylon.
2 Chronicles Chapters 29 – 32 also tell how he opened the temple doors and kept the Passover, and tell his story in their own way.
Isaiah Chapters 36 – 39 largely match 2 Kings; chapter 38 has the writing Hezekiah made after he recovered.
6 lessons, for personal study or small groups. Leader guide →
Scripture: World English Bible.