DONNIE DAILY GEMS FOR SUNDAY AUGUST 2:
DAILY BIBLE READING
2 Kings 20-21 New King James Version (NKJV)
Hezekiah's Life Extended
20 In those days Hezekiah was sick and near death. And Isaiah the prophet,
the son of Amoz, went to him and said to him, "Thus says the Lord: 'Set your
house in order, for you shall die, and not live.' "
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.
4 And it happened, before Isaiah had gone out into the middle court, that
the word of the Lord came to him, saying, 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." ' "
7 Then Isaiah said, "Take a lump of figs." So they took and laid it on the
boil, and he recovered.
8 And Hezekiah said to Isaiah, "What is the sign that the Lord will heal me,
and that I shall go up to the house of the Lord the third day?"
9 Then Isaiah said, "This is the sign to you from the Lord, that the Lord
will do the thing which He has spoken: shall the shadow go forward ten
degrees or go backward ten degrees?"
10 And Hezekiah answered, "It is an easy thing for the shadow to go down ten
[a]degrees; no, but let the shadow go backward ten degrees."
11 So Isaiah the prophet cried out to the Lord, and He brought the shadow
ten [b]degrees backward, by which it had gone down on the sundial of Ahaz.
The Babylonian Envoys
12 At that time [c]Berodach-Baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon,
sent letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he heard that Hezekiah had been
sick. 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
[d]all [e]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.
14 Then Isaiah the prophet went to King Hezekiah, and said to him, "What did
these men say, and from where did they come to you?"
So Hezekiah said, "They came from a far country, from Babylon."
15 And he said, "What have they seen in your house?"
So Hezekiah answered, "They have seen all that is in my house; there is
nothing among my treasures that I have not shown them."
16 Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, "Hear the word of the Lord: 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 [f]descend from you, whom you will beget; and they shall be eunuchs in
the palace of the king of Babylon.' "
19 So Hezekiah said to Isaiah, "The word of the Lord which you have spoken
is good!" For he said, "Will there not be peace and truth at least in my
days?"
Death of Hezekiah
20 Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah-all his might, and how he made a
pool and a [g]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 [h]rested
with his fathers. Then Manasseh his son reigned in his place.
Manasseh Reigns in Judah
21 Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned
fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hephzibah. 2 And he did
evil in the sight of the Lord, according to the abominations of the nations
whom the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel. 3 For he rebuilt
the [i]high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed; he raised up
altars for Baal, and made a [j]wooden image, as Ahab king of Israel had
done; and he worshiped all [k]the host of heaven and served them. 4 He also
built altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord had said, "In
Jerusalem I will put My name." 5 And he built altars for all the host of
heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord. 6 Also he made his son
pass through the fire, practiced soothsaying, used witchcraft, and consulted
spiritists and mediums. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, to
provoke Him to anger. 7 He even set a carved image of [l]Asherah that he had
made, in the [m]house of which the Lord had 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, I will put My name forever; 8 and I will not make the feet
of Israel wander anymore from the land which I gave their fathers-only if
they are careful 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
paid no attention, and Manasseh seduced them to do more evil than the
nations whom the Lord had destroyed before the children of Israel.
10 And the Lord spoke by His servants the prophets, saying, 11 "Because
Manasseh king of Judah has done these abominations (he has acted more
wickedly than all the Amorites who were before him, and has also made Judah
sin with his idols), 12 therefore thus says the Lord God of Israel: 'Behold,
I am bringing such calamity upon Jerusalem and Judah, that whoever hears of
it, both his ears will tingle. 13 And I will stretch over Jerusalem the
measuring line of Samaria and the plummet of the house of Ahab; I will wipe
Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down. 14 So I
will forsake the remnant of My inheritance and deliver them into the hand of
their enemies; and they shall become victims of plunder to all their
enemies, 15 because they have done 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 very much innocent blood, till he had filled
Jerusalem from one end to another, besides his sin by which he made Judah
sin, in doing evil in the sight of the Lord.
17 Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh-all that he did, and the sin that he
committed-are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of
Judah? 18 So Manasseh [n]rested with his fathers, and was buried in the
garden of his own house, in the garden of Uzza. Then his son Amon reigned in
his place.
Amon's Reign and Death
19 Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned two
years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Meshullemeth the daughter of Haruz
of Jotbah. 20 And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, as his father
Manasseh had done. 21 So he walked in all the ways that his father had
walked; and he served the idols that his father had served, and worshiped
them. 22 He forsook the Lord God of his fathers, and did not walk in the way
of the Lord.
23 Then the servants of Amon conspired against him, and killed the king in
his own house. 24 But the people of the land executed all those who had
conspired against King Amon. Then the people of the land made his son Josiah
king in his place.
25 Now the rest of the acts of Amon which he did, are they not written in
the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? 26 And he was buried in
his tomb in the garden of Uzza. Then Josiah his son reigned in his place.
Footnotes:
2 Kings 20:10 Lit. steps
2 Kings 20:11 Lit. steps
2 Kings 20:12 Merodach-Baladan, Is. 39:1
2 Kings 20:13 So with many Heb. mss., Syr., Tg.; MT omits all
2 Kings 20:13 Lit. the house of his armor
2 Kings 20:18 be born from
2 Kings 20:20 aqueduct
2 Kings 20:21 Died and joined his ancestors
2 Kings 21:3 Places for pagan worship
2 Kings 21:3 Heb. Asherah, a Canaanite goddess
2 Kings 21:3 The gods of the Assyrians
2 Kings 21:7 A Canaanite goddess
2 Kings 21:7 Temple
2 Kings 21:18 Died and joined his ancestors
