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2 Kings 20

Chapter 20 in 30 seconds

Hezekiah gets sick, and Isaiah tells him to get ready to die. Hezekiah prays and weeps, and God adds fifteen years. As a sign, the shadow on the stairway goes back ten steps. Then Hezekiah proudly shows the envoys from Babylon all his treasures, and Isaiah says Babylon will one day carry it all away.

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In this chapterField Notes · ArchaeologyThe Death of Sennacherib · after verse 7 The Big QuestionHezekiah's Sundial · after verse 19

Hezekiah’s Illness and Recovery// 2 Chronicles 32:24–31; Isaiah 38:1–8

¹In those days Hezekiah became mortally ill. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz came to him and said, “This is what Yahweh says: ‘Put your house in order, for you are about to die; you will not recover.’”

²Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to Yahweh, saying, ³“Please, O Yahweh, remember how I have walked before You faithfully and with wholehearted devotion; I have done what is good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

2KI 20:3[HEART]Hezekiah prayed that he had walked before God faithfully, with his whole heart.

⁴Before Isaiah had left the middle courtyard, the word of Yahweh came to him, saying, ⁵“Go back and tell Hezekiah the leader of My people that this is what Yahweh, the God of your father David, says: ‘I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. I will surely heal you. On the third day from now you will go up to the house of Yahweh. ⁶I will add fifteen years to your life. And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city for My sake and for the sake of My servant David.’”

2KI 20:5[PROPHECY]God would add fifteen years to Hezekiah's life and save the city from Assyria → 2KI 18:2; 2KI 19:35-36
2KI 20:5[NOTABLE]God said no, then changed His answer when Hezekiah wept and prayed. God sees our tears.

⁷Then Isaiah said, “Prepare a poultice of figs.” So they brought it and applied it to the boil, and Hezekiah recovered.

2KI 20:7[MIRACLE]Hezekiah recovers after the fig poultice is applied

Field Notes · Archaeology

The Death of Sennacherib

2 Kings 19:36 to 37 · Isaiah 37:37 to 38 · 2 Chronicles 32:21

A six sided clay prism of Esarhaddon, the son who took Sennacherib's throne, from Nimrud. Iraq Museum, Baghdad. This prism tells of his building work. His story of his brothers' revolt is on another prism like it. Photo Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin, CC BY SA 4.0.

WHAT IT IS: Records from Babylon and Assyria about Sennacherib's murder. A Babylonian Chronicle tablet says Sennacherib was killed by his son in a revolt. His son Esarhaddon wrote on clay prisms about how his brothers rebelled and how he chased them away and took the throne.
HOW OLD IT IS: Sennacherib died in 681 BC, twenty years after he left Judah. The records were written soon after.
WHERE AND WHEN FOUND: The Babylonian Chronicle tablet is in the British Museum. Esarhaddon's prisms come from Nineveh and Nimrud, in Iraq.
THE KILLER'S NAME: 2 Kings 19:37 names two sons, Adrammelech and Sharezer, who fled to the land of Ararat. In 1980 Simo Parpola showed that an Assyrian letter names the guilty son Arda Mulissu. Many scholars think that is the Bible's Adrammelech. Ararat is Urartu, a kingdom in the mountains to the north.
THE TEMPLE OF NISROCH: The Bible says he was killed while worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch. The Assyrian records do not say where he died. Nobody is sure which god Nisroch was.
WHAT IT DOES NOT PROVE: The records do not mention Isaiah's word. They do show that Sennacherib went home and was killed by the sword in his own land, as Isaiah said, 19:7.

CONFIDENCE: HIGH

⁸Now Hezekiah had asked Isaiah, “What will be the sign that Yahweh will heal me and that I will go up to the house of Yahweh on the third day?”

2KI 20:8[MIRACLE]Sun's shadow went backward 10 steps as a sign to Hezekiah

⁹And Isaiah had replied, “This will be a sign to you from Yahweh that He will do what He has promised: Would you like the shadow to go forward ten steps, or back ten steps?”

2KI 20:9[PROPHECY]The shadow on the stairway would go back ten steps as a sign → 2KI 20:11
2KI 20:9[NOTE]THE SHADOW. See the Big Question pages Hezekiah's Sundial.

¹⁰“It is easy for the shadow to lengthen ten steps,” answered Hezekiah, “but not for it to go back ten steps.”

¹¹So Isaiah the prophet called out to Yahweh, and He brought the shadow back the ten steps it had descended on the stairway of Ahaz.

2KI 20:11[FULFILLS]The shadow on the stairway would go back ten steps as a sign ← 2KI 20:9
2KI 20:11[FULFILLS]Hezekiah's life extended 15 years; sundial sign confirmed ← IS 38:5-8

Hezekiah Shows His Treasures// Isaiah 39:1–8

¹²At that time Merodach-baladan son of Baladan king of Babylon sent letters and a gift to Hezekiah, for he had heard about Hezekiah’s illness. ¹³And Hezekiah received the envoys and showed them all that was in his treasure house—the silver, the gold, the spices, and the precious oil, as well as his armory—all that was found in his storehouses. There was nothing in his palace or in all his dominion that Hezekiah did not show them.

2KI 20:12[ARCHAEOLOGY]Merodach baladan, Marduk apla iddina II, king of Babylon, is named in Assyrian records and on his own boundary stone

¹⁴Then the prophet Isaiah went to King Hezekiah and asked, “Where did those men come from, and what did they say to you?”

“They came from a distant land,” Hezekiah replied, “from Babylon.”

¹⁵“What have they seen in your palace?” Isaiah asked.

“They have seen everything in my palace,” answered Hezekiah. “There is nothing among my treasures that I did not show them.”

¹⁶Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of Yahweh: ¹⁷The time will surely come when everything in your palace and all that your fathers have stored up until this day will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left, says Yahweh. ¹⁸And some of your descendants, your own flesh and blood, will be taken away to be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.”

2KI 20:16[PROPHECY]Isaiah told Hezekiah his descendants would be carried to Babylon as eunuchs → 2KI 24:13-15; DAN 1:3

¹⁹But Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of Yahweh that you have spoken is good.” For he thought, “Will there not at least be peace and security in my lifetime?”

The Big Question

Hezekiah's Sundial

What Happened

2 Kings 20:1 to 11 · Isaiah 38:1 to 8 · 2 Chronicles 32:24 to 26

SICK TO DEATH: Hezekiah became mortally ill, and Isaiah told him, Put your house in order, for you are about to die, 20:1.
THE PRAYER: Hezekiah turned his face to the wall, prayed and wept bitterly, 20:2 to 3.
FIFTEEN YEARS: Before Isaiah had left the courtyard, God sent him back: I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. I will add fifteen years to your life, 20:4 to 6.
THE SIGN: Hezekiah asked for a sign. Isaiah said, Should the shadow go forward ten steps, or back ten steps? Hezekiah said going forward is easy, so let it go back. Isaiah cried out to Yahweh, and the shadow went back ten steps on the stairway of Ahaz, 20:8 to 11.
WHAT THE YEARS BROUGHT: In those fifteen years Hezekiah showed off his treasures to Babylon, 20:12 to 13, and his son Manasseh was born, 21:1.
ISAIAH'S CURE: Isaiah told them to put a lump of figs on Hezekiah's boil, and he recovered, 20:7. God healed him, and He used a simple remedy too.
THE QUESTION: What was the stairway of Ahaz, and did the sun really move backward?

Hezekiah's Sundial · Every View

2 Chronicles 32:31 · Joshua 10:12 to 14 · Isaiah 38:8

THE STAIRWAY: The Hebrew word means steps or stairs. Many think it was an outdoor stairway in the palace where the shadow crept up or down the steps as the day went on, like a clock. Others think it was a sundial Ahaz brought in from Assyria or Egypt.
VIEW 1: A MIRACLE IN THE SKY: Some think God turned back the sun itself, or the turning of the earth, the biggest kind of miracle.
VIEW 2: A MIRACLE OF THE SHADOW: Many think God moved the light and shadow in that place only. 2 Chronicles 32:31 says envoys from Babylon came to ask about the sign that happened in the land, which may mean it was seen in Judah, not everywhere.
VIEW 3: AN ECLIPSE OR BENT LIGHT: Some have suggested a partial eclipse of the sun or an unusual bending of light. Others answer that a sign that came on request, at the time God said, is still a miracle.
THE NASA STORY: A popular story says NASA computers found a missing day in time, from Joshua's long day plus Hezekiah's ten steps. It is not true. NASA says it never happened, and no computer can find a missing day.
WHAT ALL SIDES AGREE ON: God heard a sick man's prayer and saw his tears, 20:5. The sign was given to help Hezekiah believe God's promise.

Manasseh Succeeds Hezekiah

²⁰As for the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, along with all his might and how he constructed the pool and the tunnel to bring water into the city, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?

2KI 20:20[ARCHAEOLOGY]An underground water tunnel and a Hebrew inscription about its digging, about 701 BC
2KI 20:20[FIELD NOTES]Hezekiah's tunnel can still be walked today. See The Siloam Tunnel Inscription Field Notes page in Isaiah, and The Broad Wall Field Notes page.

²¹And Hezekiah rested with his fathers, and his son Manasseh reigned in his place.

2KI 20:21[ARCHAEOLOGY]Assyrian records list Manasseh king of Judah among the kings who served Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal

2 Kings 20

Hezekiah’s Illness and Recovery// 2 Chronicles 32:24–31; Isaiah 38:1–8

Hezekiah Shows His Treasures// Isaiah 39:1–8

Manasseh Succeeds Hezekiah

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