Study Desk

So one of the priests whom they had led into exile from Samaria came and lived in Bethel, and taught them how they were to fear the LORD.

So while these nations feared the LORD, they also served their idols; their children likewise and their grandchildren, just as their fathers did, they do to this day.

Then Hezekiah king of Judah sent messengers to the king of Assyria at Lachish, saying, "I have done wrong. Withdraw from me; whatever you impose on me I will endure." So the king of Assyria imposed on Hezekiah king of Judah the payment of three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.

Then the king of Assyria sent Tartan, Rab-saris, and Rabshakeh from Lachish to King Hezekiah with a large army to Jerusalem. So they went up and came to Jerusalem. And when they went up, they came and stood by the conduit of the upper pool, which is on the road of the fuller's field.

Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, Shebnah, and Joah, said to Rabshakeh, "Speak now to your servants in Aramaic, because we understand it; and do not speak with us in Judean so that the people who are on the wall hear you."

until I come and take you to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees producing oil, and of honey, so that you will live and not die." But do not listen to Hezekiah, because he misleads you by saying, "The LORD will save us."

So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah.

"Behold, I am going to put a spirit in him so that he will hear news and return to his own land. And I will make him fall by the sword in his own land."'"

'Behold, you yourself have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands, destroying them completely. So will you be saved?

and have hurled their gods into the fire; for they were not gods, but only the work of human hands, wood and stone. So they have destroyed them.

"But now, LORD our God, please, save us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, LORD, are God."

So Sennacherib the king of Assyria departed and returned home, and lived at Nineveh.

So Hezekiah said, "It is easy for the shadow to decline ten steps; no, but have the shadow turn backward ten steps."

Isaiah said, "What have they seen in your house?" So Hezekiah answered, "They have seen everything that is in my house; there is nothing among my treasuries that I have not shown them."

So Hezekiah lay down with his fathers, and his son Manasseh became king in his place.

So he abandoned the LORD, the God of his fathers, and did not walk in the way of the LORD.

So Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam, Achbor, Shaphan, and Asaiah went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe (and she lived in Jerusalem in the Second Quarter); and they spoke to her.

'Since they have abandoned Me and have burned incense to other gods so that they may provoke Me to anger with all the work of their hands, My wrath burns against this place, and it shall not be quenched.'"

'Therefore, behold, I am going to gather you to your fathers, and you will be gathered to your grave in peace, and your eyes will not look at all the devastation that I am going to bring on this place.'" So they brought back word to the king.

He also defiled Topheth, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, so that no one would make his son or his daughter pass through the fire for Molech.