9Afterward, King Sennacherib of Assyria sent his officers to Jerusalem—he and all his staff being at Lachish—with this message to King Hezekiah of Judah and to all the people of Judah who were in Jerusalem: 10“Thus said King Sennacherib of Assyria: On what do you trust to enable you to endure a siege in Jerusalem? 11Hezekiah is seducing you to a death of hunger and thirst, saying, ‘The LORD our God will save us from the king of Assyria.’ 12But is not Hezekiah the one who removed His shrines and His altars and commanded the people of Judah and Jerusalem saying, ‘Before this one altar you shall prostrate yourselves, and upon it make your burnt offerings’? 13Surely you know what I and my fathers have done to the peoples of the lands? Were the gods of the nations of the lands able to save their lands from me? 14Which of all the gods of any of those nations whom my fathers destroyed was able to save his people from me, that your God should be able to save you from me? 15Now then, do not let Hezekiah delude you; do not let him seduce you in this way; do not believe him. For no god of any nation or kingdom has been able to save his people from me or from my fathers—much less your God, to save you from me!” 16His officers said still more things against the LORD God and against His servant Hezekiah. 17He also wrote letters reviling the LORD God of Israel, saying of Him, “Just as the gods of the other nations of the earth did not save their people from me, so the God of Hezekiah will not save his people from me.” 18They called loudly in the language of Judah to the people of Jerusalem who were on the wall, to frighten them into panic, so as to capture the city. 19They spoke of the God of Jerusalem as though He were like the gods of the other peoples of the earth, made by human hands. 20Then King Hezekiah and the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz prayed about this, and cried out to heaven.
21The LORD sent an angel who annihilated every mighty warrior, commander, and officer in the army of the king of Assyria, and he returned in disgrace to his land. He entered the house of his god, and there some of his own offspring struck him down by the sword. 22Thus the LORD delivered Hezekiah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem from King Sennacherib of Assyria, and from everyone; He provided for them on all sides. 23Many brought tribute to the LORD to Jerusalem, and gifts to King Hezekiah of Judah; thereafter he was exalted in the eyes of all the nations.
24At that time, Hezekiah fell deathly sick. He prayed to the LORD, who responded to him and gave him a sign. 25Hezekiah made no return for what had been bestowed upon him, for he grew arrogant; so wrath was decreed for him and for Judah and Jerusalem. 26Then Hezekiah humbled himself where he had been arrogant, he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and no wrath of the LORD came on them during the reign of Hezekiah. 27Hezekiah enjoyed riches and glory in abundance; he filled treasuries with silver and gold, precious stones, spices, shields, and all lovely objects; 28and store-cities with the produce of grain, wine, and oil, and stalls for all kinds of beasts, and flocks for sheepfolds. 29And he acquired towns, and flocks of small and large cattle in great number, for God endowed him with very many possessions. 30It was Hezekiah who stopped up the spring of water of Upper Gihon, leading it downward west of the City of David; Hezekiah prospered in all that he did. 31So too in the matter of the ambassadors of the princes of Babylon, who were sent to him to inquire about the sign that was in the land, when God forsook him in order to test him, to learn all that was in his mind.
32The other events of Hezekiah’s reign, and his faithful acts, are recorded in the visions of the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz and in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel. 33Hezekiah slept with his fathers, and was buried on the upper part of the tombs of the sons of David. When he died, all the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem accorded him much honor. Manasseh, his son, succeeded him.
33 aManasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. 2He did what was displeasing to the LORD, following the abhorrent practices of the nations that the LORD had dispossessed before the Israelites. 3He rebuilt the shrines that his father Hezekiah had demolished; he erected altars for the Baals and made sacred posts. He bowed down to all the host of heaven and worshiped them, 4and he built altars [to them] in the House of the LORD, of which the LORD had said, “My name will be in Jerusalem forever.” 5He built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the House of the LORD. 6He consigned his sons to the fire in the Valley of Ben-hinnom, and he practiced soothsaying, divination, and sorcery, and consulted ghosts and familiar spirits; he did much that was displeasing to the LORD in order to vex Him. 7He placed a sculptured image that he made in the House of God, of which God had said to David and to his son Solomon, “In this House and in Jerusalem, which I chose out of all the tribes of Israel, I will establish My name forever. 8And I will never again remove the feet of Israel from the land that I assigned to their fathers, if only they observe faithfully all that I have commanded them—all the teaching and the laws and the rules given by Moses.” 9Manasseh led Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem astray into evil greater than that done by the nations that the LORD had destroyed before the Israelites.
10The LORD spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they would not pay heed, 11so the LORD brought against them the officers of the army of the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh captive in manacles, bound him in fetters, and led him off to Babylon. 12In his distress, he entreated the LORD his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. 13He prayed to Him, and He granted his prayer, heard his plea, and returned him to Jerusalem to his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD alone was God. 14Afterward he built the outer wall of the City of David west of Gihon in the wadi on the way to the Fish Gate, and it encircled Ophel; he raised it very high. He also placed army officers in all the fortified towns of Judah. 15He removed the foreign gods and the image from the House of the LORD, as well as all the altars that he had built on the Mount of the House of the LORD and in Jerusalem, and dumped them outside the city. 16He rebuilt the altar of the LORD and offered on it sacrifices of well-being and thanksgiving, and commanded the people of Judah to worship the LORD God of Israel. 17To be sure, the people continued sacrificing at the shrines, but only to the LORD their God.
18The other events of Manasseh’s reign, and his prayer to his God, and the words of the seers who spoke to him in the name of the LORD GOD of Israel are found in the chronicles of the kings of Israel. 19His prayer and how it was granted to him, the whole account of his sin and trespass, and the places in which he built shrines and installed sacred posts and images before he humbled himself are recorded in the words of Hozai.b 20Manasseh slept with his fathers and was buried on his palace grounds; his son Amon succeeded him as king.
21Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem. 22He did what was displeasing to the LORD, as his father Manasseh had done. Amon sacrificed to all the idols that his father Manasseh had made and worshiped them. 23He did not humble himself before the LORD, as his father Manasseh had humbled himself; instead, Amon incurred much guilt. 24His courtiers conspired against him and killed him in his palace. 25But the people of the land struck down all who had conspired against King Amon; and the people of the land made his son Josiah king in his stead.
34 aJosiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem. 2He did what was pleasing to the LORD, following the ways
