02 August - 2 Kings 20-21

Jude Thu Aug 02, 2018 6:41 am

My soul doth magnify my YAH, and my spirit hath rejoiced in EL my Saviour; For HE that is mighty hath done to me great things; and Holy is HIS Name. Now unto HIM who is ever present in my helpless estate; who is able to keep me from falling and to present me faultless before the presence of His Glory with exceeding joy, unto the King Eternal, Immortal, Invisible, the only wise EL our Saviour be honour and glory and majesty, dominion and power both now and for ever Halleluyah!

2 KINGS 20

1In those days Ḥizqiyahu was sick unto death. And Yeshayahu the prophet, son of Amots, went to him and said to him, “Thus said יהוה, ‘Set your house in order, for you are going to die, and not live.’ ”

2And he turned his face toward the wall, and prayed to יהוה, saying,

3“I pray to You, O יהוה, remember how I have walked before You in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done what was good in Your eyes.” And Ḥizqiyahu wept bitterly.

4And it came to be, before Yeshayahu had gone out into the middle court, that the word of יהוה came to him, saying,

5“Return and say to Ḥizqiyahu the leader of My people, ‘Thus said יהוה, the Elohim of Dawiḏ your father, “I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears. See, I am going to heal you. On the third day go up to the House of יהוה.

6“And I shall add to your days fifteen years, and deliver you and this city from the hand of the sovereign of Ashshur, and shall defend this city for My own sake, and for the sake of Dawiḏ My servant.” ’ ”

7And Yeshayahu said, “Take a cake of figs.” And they took and laid it on the boil, and he recovered.

8And Ḥizqiyahu said to Yeshayahu, “What is the sign that יהוה does heal me, and that I shall go up to the House of יהוה the third day?”

9And Yeshayahu said, “This is the sign for you from יהוה, that יהוה does the word which He has spoken: shall the shadow go forward ten degrees or go backward ten degrees?”

10And Ḥizqiyahu said, “It would be easy for the shadow to go down ten degrees; no, but let the shadow go backward ten degrees.”

11And Yeshayahu the prophet cried out to יהוה, and He brought the shadow ten degrees backward, by which it had gone down on the sundial of Aḥaz.

12At that time Beroḏaḵ-Balaḏan son of Balaḏan, sovereign of Baḇel, sent letters and a present to Ḥizqiyahu, for he heard that Ḥizqiyahu had been sick.

13And Ḥizqiyahu listened to them, and showed them all his treasure house, the silver and the gold, and the spices and the precious ointment, and all his armoury, and all that was found among his treasures. There was not an object in his house or in all his rule that Ḥizqiyahu did not show them.

14And Yeshayahu the prophet came to Sovereign Ḥizqiyahu, and said to him, “What did these men say, and from where did they come to you?” And Ḥizqiyahu said, “They came from a distant land, from Baḇel.”

15And he said, “What have they seen in your house?” And Ḥizqiyahu answered, “They saw all that is in my house; there is not an object among my treasures that I did not show them.”

16And Yeshayahu said to Ḥizqiyahu, “Hear the word of יהוה:

17‘See, the days are coming when all that is in your house, and what your fathers have treasured up until this day, shall be brought to Baḇel – no object is to be left,’ said יהוה.

18‘And they are going to take away some of your sons who are to be born to you, whom you bring forth, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the sovereign of Baḇel.’ ”

19And Ḥizqiyahu said to Yeshayahu, “The word of יהוה which you have spoken is good!” And he said, “Is it not so, if peace and truth are to be in my days?”

20And the rest of the acts of Ḥizqiyahu, and all his might and how he made a pool and a channel and brought water into the city, are they not written in the book of the annals of the sovereigns of Yehuḏah?

21So Ḥizqiyahu slept with his fathers. And Menashsheh his son reigned in his place.

2 KINGS 21

1Menashsheh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Yerushalayim. And his mother’s name was Ḥephtsiḇah.

2And he did evil in the eyes of יהוה, according to the abominations of the gentiles whom יהוה dispossessed before the children of Yisra’ĕl.

3For he turned and built the high places which Ḥizqiyahu his father had destroyed, and raised up altars for Ba‛al, and made an Ashĕrah, as Aḥaḇ sovereign of Yisra’ĕl had done, and he bowed himself to all the host of the heavens and served them.

4And he built altars in the House of יהוה, of which יהוה had said, “In Yerushalayim I put My Name.”

5And he built altars for all the host of the heavens in the two courtyards of the House of יהוה.

6And he made his son pass through the fire, and practised magic, and used divination, and consulted spiritists and mediums. He did much evil in the eyes of יהוה, to provoke Him.

7And he placed a carved image of Ashĕrah that he had made in the House of which יהוה had said to Dawiḏ and to Shelomoh his son, “In this house and in Yerushalayim, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Yisra’ĕl, I put My Name forever,

8and no more shall I cause the feet of Yisra’ĕl to move from the soil which I gave their fathers – only if they guard to do according to all that I have commanded them, and according to all the Torah that My servant Mosheh commanded them.”

9But they did not obey, and Menashsheh led them astray to do more evil than the gentiles whom יהוה had destroyed before the children of Yisra’ĕl.

10And יהוה spoke by His servants the prophets, saying,

11“Because Menashsheh sovereign of Yehuḏah has done these abominations, having done more evil than all the Amorites who were before him, and also made Yehuḏah sin with his idols,

12therefore thus said יהוה Elohim of Yisra’ĕl, ‘See, I am bringing such evil upon Yerushalayim and Yehuḏah that both ears of those who hear of it shall tingle.

13‘And I shall stretch over Yerushalayim the measuring line of Shomeron and the plummet of the house of Aḥaḇ, and shall wipe Yerushalayim as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down.

14‘And I shall forsake the remnant of My inheritance and give them into the hand of their enemies. And they shall be for a prey and for a plunder to all their enemies,

15because they have done evil in My eyes, and have provoked Me since the day their fathers came out of Mitsrayim, even to this day.’ ”

16And also, Menashsheh shed very much innocent blood, until he had filled Yerushalayim from one end to another, besides his sin with which he made Yehuḏah sin, in doing evil in the eyes of יהוה.

17And the rest of the acts of Menashsheh, and all that he did, and the sin that he committed, are they not written in the book of the annals of the sovereigns of Yehuḏah?

18So Menashsheh slept with his fathers, and was buried in the garden of his own house, in the garden of Uzza. And his son Amon reigned in his place.

19Amon was twenty-two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned two years in Yerushalayim. And the name of his mother was Meshullemeth the daughter of Ḥaruts of Yoteḇah.

20And he did evil in the eyes of יהוה, as his father Menashsheh had done,

21and walked in all the ways that his father had walked, and served the idols that his father had served, and bowed himself to them,

22and forsook יהוה Elohim of his fathers, and did not walk in the way of יהוה.

23And the servants of Amon conspired against him, and killed the sovereign in his own house.

24But the people of the land smote all those who had conspired against Sovereign Amon, and the people of the land set up his son Yoshiyahu to reign in his place.

25And the rest of the acts of Amon which he did, are they not written in the book of the annals of the sovereigns of Yehuḏah?

26And he was buried in his tomb in the garden of Uzza. And his son Yoshiyahu reigned in his place.