From Deliverance to Destruction: Hezekiah's Legacy

1. When king Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and went into Yahweh’s house. 2. He sent Eliakim, who was over the household, Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz. 3. They said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah, ‘Today is a day of trouble, of rebuke, and of rejection; for the children have come to the point of birth, and there is no strength to deliver them. 4. It may be Yahweh your God will hear all the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master has sent to defy the living God, and will rebuke the words which Yahweh your God has heard. Therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.’” 5. So the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah. 6. Isaiah said to them, “Tell your master this: ‘Yahweh says, “Don’t be afraid of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me. 7. Behold, I will put a spirit in him, and he will hear news, and will return to his own land. I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.”’” 8. So Rabshakeh returned and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah; for he had heard that he had departed from Lachish. 9. When he heard it said of Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, “Behold, he has come out to fight against you, he sent messengers again to Hezekiah, saying, 10. ‘Tell Hezekiah king of Judah this: “Don’t let your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying, Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. 11. Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, by destroying them utterly. Will you be delivered? 12. Have the gods of the nations delivered them, which my fathers have destroyed, Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the children of Eden who were in Telassar? 13. Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivvah?”’” 14. Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it. Then Hezekiah went up to Yahweh’s house, and spread it before Yahweh. 15. Hezekiah prayed before Yahweh, and said, “Yahweh, the God of Israel, who sit above the cherubim, you are the God, even you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. 16. Incline your ear, Yahweh, and hear. Open your eyes, Yahweh, and see. Hear the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to defy the living God. 17. Truly, Yahweh, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands, 18. and have cast their gods into the fire; for they were no gods, but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone. Therefore they have destroyed them. 19. Now therefore, Yahweh our God, save us, I beg you, out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, Yahweh, are God alone.” 20. Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, “Yahweh, the God of Israel, says ‘You have prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria, and I have heard you. 21. This is the word that Yahweh has spoken concerning him: ‘The virgin daughter of Zion has despised you and ridiculed you. The daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her head at you. 22. Whom have you defied and blasphemed? Against whom have you exalted your voice and lifted up your eyes on high? Against the Holy One of Israel! 23. By your messengers, you have defied the Lord, and have said, “With the multitude of my chariots, I have come up to the height of the mountains, to the innermost parts of Lebanon, and I will cut down its tall cedars and its choice cypress trees; and I will enter into his farthest lodging place, the forest of his fruitful field. 24. I have dug and drunk strange waters, and with the sole of my feet will I dry up all the rivers of Egypt.” 25. Haven’t you heard how I have done it long ago, and formed it of ancient times? Now I have brought it to pass, that it should be yours to lay waste fortified cities into ruinous heaps. 26. Therefore their inhabitants had little power. They were dismayed and confounded. They were like the grass of the field, and like the green herb, like the grass on the housetops, and like grain blasted before it has grown up. 27. But I know your sitting down, your going out, your coming in, and your raging against me. 28. Because of your raging against me, and because your arrogance has come up into my ears, therefore I will put my hook in your nose, and my bridle in your lips, and I will turn you back by the way by which you came.’ 29. “This will be the sign to you: This year, you will eat that which grows of itself, and in the second year that which springs of the same; and in the third year sow, and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat its fruit. 30. The remnant that has escaped of the house of Judah will again take root downward, and bear fruit upward. 31. For out of Jerusalem a remnant will go out, and out of Mount Zion those who shall escape. Yahweh’s zeal will perform this. 32. “Therefore Yahweh says concerning the king of Assyria, ‘He will not come to this city, nor shoot an arrow there. He will not come before it with shield, nor cast up a mound against it. 33. By the way that he came, by the same he will return, and he will not come to this city,’ says Yahweh. 34. ‘For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake, and for my servant David’s sake.’” 35. That night, Yahweh’s angel went out, and struck one hundred eighty-five thousand in the camp of the Assyrians. When men arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies. 36. So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and lived at Nineveh. 37. As he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat. Esar Haddon his son reigned in his place. 1. In those days Hezekiah was sick and dying. Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him, and said to him, “Yahweh says, ‘Set your house in order; for you will die, and not live.’” 2. Then he turned his face to the wall, and prayed to Yahweh, saying, 3. “Remember now, Yahweh, I beg you, how I have walked before you in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly. 4. Before Isaiah had gone out into the middle part of the city, Yahweh’s word came to him, saying, 5. “Turn back, and tell Hezekiah the prince of my people, ‘Yahweh, the God of David your father, says, “I have heard your prayer. I have seen your tears. Behold, I will heal you. On the third day, you will go up to Yahweh’s house. 6. I will add to your days fifteen years. I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city for my own sake, and for my servant David’s sake.”’” 7. Isaiah said, “Take a cake of figs.” They took and laid it on the boil, and he recovered. 8. Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “What will be the sign that Yahweh will heal me, and that I will go up to Yahweh’s house the third day?” 9. Isaiah said, “This will be the sign to you from Yahweh, that Yahweh will do the thing that he has spoken: should the shadow go forward ten steps, or go back ten steps?” 10. Hezekiah answered, “It is a light thing for the shadow to go forward ten steps. No, but let the shadow return backward ten steps.” 11. Isaiah the prophet cried to Yahweh; and he brought the shadow ten steps backward, by which it had gone down on the sundial of Ahaz. 12. At that time Berodach Baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah; for he had heard that Hezekiah had been sick. 13. Hezekiah listened to them, and showed them all the storehouse of his precious things, the silver, the gold, the spices, and the precious oil, and the house of his armor, and all that was found in his treasures. There was nothing in his house, or in all his dominion, that Hezekiah didn’t show them. 14. Then Isaiah the prophet came to king Hezekiah, and said to him, “What did these men say? From where did they come to you?” Hezekiah said, “They have come from a far country, even from Babylon.” 15. He said, “What have they seen in your house?” Hezekiah answered, “They have seen all that is in my house. There is nothing among my treasures that I have not shown them.” 16. Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear Yahweh’s word. 17. ‘Behold, the days come that all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have laid up in store to this day, will be carried to Babylon. Nothing will be left,’ says Yahweh. 18. ‘They will take away some of your sons who will issue from you, whom you will father; and they will be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.’” 19. Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “Yahweh’s word which you have spoken is good.” He said moreover, “Isn’t it so, if peace and truth will be in my days?” 20. Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, and all his might, and how he made the pool, and the conduit, and brought water into the city, aren’t they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? 21. Hezekiah slept with his fathers, and Manasseh his son reigned in his place. 1. Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hephzibah. 2. He did that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight, after the abominations of the nations whom Yahweh cast out before the children of Israel. 3. For he built again the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed; and he raised up altars for Baal, and made an Asherah, as Ahab king of Israel did, and worshiped all the army of the sky, and served them. 4. He built altars in Yahweh’s house, of which Yahweh said, “I will put my name in Jerusalem.” 5. He built altars for all the army of the sky in the two courts of Yahweh’s house. 6. He made his son to pass through the fire, practiced sorcery, used enchantments, and dealt with those who had familiar spirits, and with wizards. He did much evil in Yahweh’s sight, to provoke him to anger. 7. He set the engraved image of Asherah that he had made in the house of which Yahweh said to David and to Solomon his son, “In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, will I put my name forever; 8. I will not cause the feet of Israel to wander any more out of the land which I gave their fathers, if only they will observe to do according to all that I have commanded them, and according to all the law that my servant Moses commanded them.” 9. But they didn’t listen, and Manasseh seduced them to do that which is evil more than the nations did whom Yahweh destroyed before the children of Israel. 10. Yahweh spoke by his servants the prophets, saying, 11. “Because Manasseh king of Judah has done these abominations, and has done wickedly above all that the Amorites did, who were before him, and has also made Judah to sin with his idols; 12. therefore Yahweh the God of Israel says, ‘Behold, I bring such evil on Jerusalem and Judah that whoever hears of it, both his ears will tingle. 13. I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria, and the plummet of Ahab’s house; and I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down. 14. I will cast off the remnant of my inheritance, and deliver them into the hands of their enemies. They will become a prey and a plunder to all their enemies, 15. because they have done that which is evil in my sight, and have provoked me to anger, since the day their fathers came out of Egypt, even to this day.’” 16. Moreover Manasseh shed innocent blood very much, until he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another; besides his sin with which he made Judah to sin, in doing that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight. 17. Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh, and all that he did, and his sin that he sinned, aren’t they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? 18. Manasseh slept with his fathers, and was buried in the garden of his own house, in the garden of Uzza; and Amon his son reigned in his place. 19. Amon was twenty-two years old when he began to reign; and he reigned two years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Meshullemeth the daughter of Haruz of Jotbah. 20. He did that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight, as Manasseh his father did. 21. He walked in all the ways that his father walked in, and served the idols that his father served, and worshiped them; 22. and he abandoned Yahweh, the God of his fathers, and didn’t walk in the way of Yahweh. 23. The servants of Amon conspired against him, and put the king to death in his own house. 24. But the people of the land killed all those who had conspired against king Amon; and the people of the land made Josiah his son king in his place. 25. Now the rest of the acts of Amon which he did, aren’t they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? 26. He was buried in his tomb in the garden of Uzza, and Josiah his son reigned in his place.

1. For every high priest, being taken from among men, is appointed for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins. 2. The high priest can deal gently with those who are ignorant and going astray, because he himself is also surrounded with weakness. 3. Because of this, he must offer sacrifices for sins for the people, as well as for himself. 4. Nobody takes this honor on himself, but he is called by God, just like Aaron was. 5. So also Christ didn’t glorify himself to be made a high priest, but it was he who said to him, “You are my Son. Today I have become your father.” 6. As he says also in another place, “You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek.” 7. He, in the days of his flesh, having offered up prayers and petitions with strong crying and tears to him who was able to save him from death, and having been heard for his godly fear, 8. though he was a Son, yet learned obedience by the things which he suffered. 9. Having been made perfect, he became to all of those who obey him the author of eternal salvation, 10. named by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek. 11. About him we have many words to say, and hard to interpret, seeing you have become dull of hearing. 12. For although by this time you should be teachers, you again need to have someone teach you the rudiments of the first principles of the revelations of God. You have come to need milk, and not solid food. 13. For everyone who lives on milk is not experienced in the word of righteousness, for he is a baby. 14. But solid food is for those who are full grown, who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern good and evil. 1. Therefore leaving the teaching of the first principles of Christ, let us press on to perfection—not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works, of faith toward God, 2. of the teaching of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. 3. This will we do, if God permits. 4. For concerning those who were once enlightened and tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit, 5. and tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the age to come, 6. and then fell away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance; seeing they crucify the Son of God for themselves again, and put him to open shame. 7. For the land which has drunk the rain that comes often on it, and produces a crop suitable for them for whose sake it is also tilled, receives blessing from God; 8. but if it bears thorns and thistles, it is rejected and near being cursed, whose end is to be burned. 9. But, beloved, we are persuaded of better things for you, and things that accompany salvation, even though we speak like this. 10. For God is not unrighteous, so as to forget your work and the labor of love which you showed toward his name, in that you served the saints, and still do serve them. 11. We desire that each one of you may show the same diligence to the fullness of hope even to the end, 12. that you won’t be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and perseverance inherited the promises. 13. For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he could swear by no one greater, he swore by himself, 14. saying, “Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you.” 15. Thus, having patiently endured, he obtained the promise. 16. For men indeed swear by a greater one, and in every dispute of theirs the oath is final for confirmation. 17. In this way God, being determined to show more abundantly to the heirs of the promise the immutability of his counsel, interposed with an oath; 18. that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we may have a strong encouragement, who have fled for refuge to take hold of the hope set before us. 19. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and entering into that which is within the veil; 20. where as a forerunner Jesus entered for us, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. 1. For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of God Most High, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, 2. to whom also Abraham divided a tenth part of all (being first, by interpretation, “king of righteousness”, and then also “king of Salem”, which means “king of peace”; 3. without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God), remains a priest continually. 4. Now consider how great this man was, to whom even Abraham, the patriarch, gave a tenth out of the best plunder. 5. They indeed of the sons of Levi who receive the priest’s office have a commandment to take tithes of the people according to the law, that is, of their brothers, though these have come out of the body of Abraham, 6. but he whose genealogy is not counted from them has accepted tithes from Abraham, and has blessed him who has the promises. 7. But without any dispute the lesser is blessed by the greater. 8. Here people who die receive tithes, but there one receives tithes of whom it is testified that he lives. 9. We can say that through Abraham even Levi, who receives tithes, has paid tithes, 10. for he was yet in the body of his father when Melchizedek met him. 11. Now if there were perfection through the Levitical priesthood (for under it the people have received the law), what further need was there for another priest to arise after the order of Melchizedek, and not be called after the order of Aaron? 12. For the priesthood being changed, there is of necessity a change made also in the law. 13. For he of whom these things are said belongs to another tribe, from which no one has officiated at the altar. 14. For it is evident that our Lord has sprung out of Judah, about which tribe Moses spoke nothing concerning priesthood. 15. This is yet more abundantly evident, if after the likeness of Melchizedek there arises another priest, 16. who has been made, not after the law of a fleshly commandment, but after the power of an endless life: 17. for it is testified, “You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.” 18. For there is an annulling of a foregoing commandment because of its weakness and uselessness 19. (for the law made nothing perfect), and a bringing in of a better hope, through which we draw near to God. 20. Inasmuch as he was not made priest without the taking of an oath 21. (for they indeed have been made priests without an oath), but he with an oath by him that says of him, “The Lord swore and will not change his mind, ‘You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.’” 22. By so much, Jesus has become the collateral of a better covenant. 23. Many, indeed, have been made priests, because they are hindered from continuing by death. 24. But he, because he lives forever, has his priesthood unchangeable. 25. Therefore he is also able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, seeing that he lives forever to make intercession for them. 26. For such a high priest was fitting for us: holy, guiltless, undefiled, separated from sinners, and made higher than the heavens; 27. who doesn’t need, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices daily, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. For he did this once for all, when he offered up himself. 28. For the law appoints men as high priests who have weakness, but the word of the oath which came after the law appoints a Son forever who has been perfected. 1. Now in the things which we are saying, the main point is this. We have such a high priest, who sat down on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, 2. a servant of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man. 3. For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices. Therefore it is necessary that this high priest also have something to offer. 4. For if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, seeing there are priests who offer the gifts according to the law; 5. who serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things, even as Moses was warned by God when he was about to make the tabernacle, for he said, “See, you shall make everything according to the pattern that was shown to you on the mountain.” 6. But now he has obtained a more excellent ministry, by so much as he is also the mediator of a better covenant, which on better promises has been given as law. 7. For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second. 8. For finding fault with them, he said, “Behold, the days come”, says the Lord, “that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah; 9. not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers, in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; for they didn’t continue in my covenant, and I disregarded them,” says the Lord. 10. “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel. After those days,” says the Lord; “I will put my laws into their mind, I will also write them on their heart. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 11. They will not teach every man his fellow citizen, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for all will know me, from their least to their greatest. 12. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness. I will remember their sins and lawless deeds no more.” 13. In that he says, “A new covenant”, he has made the first old. But that which is becoming old and grows aged is near to vanishing away.

1. My son, pay attention to my wisdom. Turn your ear to my understanding: 2. that you may maintain discretion, that your lips may preserve knowledge. 3. For the lips of an adulteress drip honey. Her mouth is smoother than oil, 4. but in the end she is as bitter as wormwood, and as sharp as a two-edged sword. 5. Her feet go down to death. Her steps lead straight to Sheol. 6. She gives no thought to the way of life. Her ways are crooked, and she doesn’t know it. 7. Now therefore, my sons, listen to me. Don’t depart from the words of my mouth. 8. Remove your way far from her. Don’t come near the door of her house, 9. lest you give your honor to others, and your years to the cruel one; 10. lest strangers feast on your wealth, and your labors enrich another man’s house. 11. You will groan at your latter end, when your flesh and your body are consumed, 12. and say, “How I have hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof; 13. neither have I obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor turned my ear to those who instructed me! 14. I have come to the brink of utter ruin, among the gathered assembly.” 15. Drink water out of your own cistern, running water out of your own well. 16. Should your springs overflow in the streets, streams of water in the public squares? 17. Let them be for yourself alone, not for strangers with you. 18. Let your spring be blessed. Rejoice in the wife of your youth. 19. A loving doe and a graceful deer— let her breasts satisfy you at all times. Be captivated always with her love. 20. For why should you, my son, be captivated with an adulteress? Why embrace the bosom of another? 21. For the ways of man are before Yahweh’s eyes. He examines all his paths. 22. The evil deeds of the wicked ensnare him. The cords of his sin hold him firmly. 23. He will die for lack of instruction. In the greatness of his folly, he will go astray.