1 In those days Hezekiah became mortally ill. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz came to him and said, “This is what the LORD says: ‘Put your house in order, for you are about to die; you will not recover.’” 2 Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD, saying, 3 “Please, O LORD, 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. 4 Before Isaiah had left the middle courtyard, the word of the LORD came to him, saying, 5 “Go back and tell Hezekiah the leader of My people that this is what the LORD, 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 the LORD. 6 I 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.’” 7 Then Isaiah said, “Prepare a poultice of figs.” So they brought it and applied it to the boil, and Hezekiah recovered. 8 Now Hezekiah had asked Isaiah, “What will be the sign that the LORD will heal me and that I will go up to the house of the LORD on the third day?” 9 And Isaiah had replied, “This will be a sign to you from the LORD that He will do what He has promised: Would you like the shadow to go forward ten steps, or back ten steps?” 10 “It is easy for the shadow to lengthen ten steps,” answered Hezekiah, “but not for it to go back ten steps.” 11 So Isaiah the prophet called out to the LORD, and He brought the shadow back the ten steps it had descended on the stairway of Ahaz. 12 At 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. 13 And 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. 14 Then 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.” 16 Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the LORD: 17 The 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 the LORD. 18 And some of your descendants, your own flesh and blood, will be taken away to be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.” 19 But Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of the LORD that you have spoken is good.” For he thought, “Will there not at least be peace and security in my lifetime?” 20 As 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? 21 And Hezekiah rested with his fathers, and his son Manasseh reigned in his place.
2 Kings · Majority Standard Bible
2 Kings 20 Majority Standard Bible
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
People & places in this chapter
From this site's family tree and Bible maps, only where those guides cite this chapter.
People
Amoz
Named as the father of the prophet Isaiah.
Cited in the guide: 2 Kings 19:2; 2 Kings 19:20; 2 Kings 20:1
Baladan
Named as the father of Merodach-baladan king of Babylon.
Cited in the guide: 2 Kings 20:12; Isaiah 39:1
Hezekiah
A great reformer who trusted God and saw Jerusalem delivered from Assyria.
Cited in the guide: 2 Kings 18-20; 2 Chron. 29-32; Isa. 36-39; Matt. 1:9-10
Isaiah
The prophet, son of Amoz, who told Hezekiah that Sennacherib would not enter Jerusalem, foretold his illness and recovery, brought back the shadow ten steps, and warned of the…
Cited in the guide: 2 Kings 19:2; 2 Kings 19:20; 2 Kings 20:1
Merodach-baladan
Son of Baladan and king of Babylon, who sent letters and a gift to Hezekiah after hearing of his illness.
Cited in the guide: 2 Kings 20:12; Isaiah 39:1
Cross references (21)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 Isaiah 38:1–22; 2 Chronicles 32:24–26; Philippians 2:27; Jonah 3:4–10; 2 Kings 19:20
- 2 Psalm 50:15; Matthew 6:6; 1 Kings 8:30; Isaiah 38:2–3
- 3 Nehemiah 13:14; Nehemiah 13:22; 2 Kings 18:3–6; Nehemiah 5:19; Nehemiah 13:31
- 4 1 Kings 7:8; 2 Kings 22:14
- 5 Psalm 66:19–20; Isaiah 38:5; 1 Samuel 9:16; Psalm 39:12; 2 Kings 19:20
- 6 2 Kings 19:34; Acts 27:24; Isaiah 10:24; Psalm 116:15; 2 Chronicles 32:22
- 7 Isaiah 38:21; 2 Kings 2:20–22; 2 Kings 4:41
- 8 Isaiah 7:11; Judges 6:17; 2 Kings 20:5; Hosea 6:2; 2 Kings 19:29
- 9 Isaiah 38:7–8; Matthew 16:1–4; Luke 11:29–30; Mark 8:11–12
- 10 2 Kings 2:10; 2 Kings 3:18; John 14:12; Isaiah 49:6; Mark 9:28–29
- 11 Isaiah 38:8; Joshua 10:12–14; 2 Chronicles 32:24; Acts 9:40; Exodus 14:15
- 12 2 Chronicles 32:31; Isaiah 39:1–8; Genesis 10:10; Genesis 11:9; Isaiah 14:4
- 13 Isaiah 39:2; Proverbs 23:5; 2 Chronicles 32:25–27; 1 Kings 10:15; 1 Kings 10:25
- 14 Jeremiah 26:18–19; Joshua 9:9; Deuteronomy 28:49; 2 Samuel 12:7–15; Isaiah 13:5
- 15 2 Kings 20:13; Job 31:33; 1 John 1:8–10; Proverbs 28:13; Joshua 7:19
- 16 1 Kings 22:19; 2 Kings 7:1; Amos 7:16; Isaiah 1:10
- 17 2 Kings 24:13; 2 Chronicles 36:10; Jeremiah 27:21–22; Jeremiah 52:17–19; 2 Kings 25:13–15
- 18 2 Chronicles 33:11; 2 Kings 24:12; Daniel 1:3; 2 Kings 25:6
- 19 1 Samuel 3:18; Job 1:21; Zechariah 8:19; Luke 2:10; Psalm 39:9
- 20 Nehemiah 3:16; 2 Chronicles 32:32; 2 Chronicles 32:4; 2 Chronicles 32:30; Isaiah 22:9–11
- 21 2 Chronicles 32:33; 1 Kings 14:31; 2 Kings 21:18; 2 Chronicles 26:23; 1 Kings 2:10
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
For when he had fallen sick, Esaias said to him, Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 7 (1894)