“Remember now, O Lord, I pray, how I have walked before You in truth and with a loyal heart, and have done what was good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly. 2 Kings 20:3
Hezekiah’s illness: 2 Kings 20:1-11; Isaiah 38. Near death, Hezekiah prays emotionally for healing. Isaiah announces God’s reprieve. Hezekiah’s thoughts and feelings at this time are recorded in Isaiah 38.
2 Then he turned his face toward the wall, and prayed to the Lord, saying, 3 “Remember now, O Lord, I pray, how I have walked before You in truth and with a loyal heart, and have done what was good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.
5 “Return and tell Hezekiah the leader of My people, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of David your father: “I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; surely I will heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of the Lord. 6 And I will add to your days fifteen years. I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city for My own sake, and for the sake of My servant David.”
“In the prime of my life I shall go to the gates of Sheol; I am deprived of the remainder of my years.” 11 I said, “I shall not see Yah, The Lord in the land of the living; I shall observe man no more among the inhabitants of the world. 12 My life span is gone, Taken from me like a shepherd’s tent; I have cut off my life like a weaver. He cuts me off from the loom; From day until night You make an end of me. 13 I have considered until morning– Like a lion, So He breaks all my bones; From day until night You make an end of me. 14 Like a crane or a swallow, so I chattered; I mourned like a dove; My eyes fail from looking upward. O Lord, I am oppressed; Undertake for me! 15 “What shall I say? He has both spoken to me, And He Himself has done it. I shall walk carefully all my years In the bitterness of my soul. 16 O Lord, by these things men live; And in all these things is the life of my spirit; So You will restore me and make me live. 17 Indeed it was for my own peace That I had great bitterness; But You have lovingly delivered my soul from the pit of corruption, For You have cast all my sins behind Your back. 18 For Sheol cannot thank You, Death cannot praise You; Those who go down to the pit cannot hope for Your truth. 19 The living, the living man, he shall praise You, As I do this day; The father shall make known Your truth to the children. 20 “The Lord was ready to save me; Therefore we will sing my songs with stringed instruments All the days of our life, in the house of the Lord.” Isaiah 38:9-20
Envoy’s from Babylon: 2 Kings 20:12:12-21; Isaiah 39. The king of Babylon sends Hezekiah congratulations on his recovery. At this time Babylon is a distant and insignificant power. Foolishly Hezekiah shows the envoys all his wealth and his armory. Isaiah angrily rebukes him: the day is coming when the Babylonians will carry away the wealth Hezekiah has displayed, and Judah’s people as well.
13 And Hezekiah was attentive to them, and showed them all the house of his treasures–the silver and gold, the spices and precious ointment, and all his armory–all that was found among his treasures. There was nothing in his house or in all his dominion that Hezekiah did not show them.
17 ‘Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house, and what your fathers have accumulated until this day, shall be carried to Babylon; nothing shall be left,’ says the Lord. 18 ‘And they shall take away some of your sons who will descend from you, whom you will beget; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.’ “
Death of Hezekiah
20 Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah–all his might, and how he made a pool and a tunnel and brought water into the city–are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? 21 So Hezekiah rested with his fathers. Then Manasseh his son reigned in his place.
Hezekiah’s Tunnel