20:5,6Over a 100-year period of Judah’s history (732-640 B.C.), Hezekiah was the only faithful king; but what a difference he made! Because of Hezekiah's faith and prayer, God healed him and saved his city from the Assyvians. You can make a difference, too, even if your faith puts you in the minority. Faith and prayer, if they are sincere and directed toward the one true God, can change any situation.
Life Application Study Bible2 KingsChapter 20
2 Kings 20
New Living Translation · Life Application Study Bible · Original page: 606
A few verse numbers on this page were hard to read in the scan and are marked with a dotted underline — compare with the original page image if in doubt.
202 Kings 20
Hezekiah’s Sickness and Recovery
120 About that time Hezekiah became deathly ill, and the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz I went to visithim. He gave the king this message: “T his is what the LORD says: Setyour — affairs in order, for you are going to die. You will not recover from this ilIness.” 2when Hezekiah heard this, he turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD, 3“Remember, O LORD, how I have always been faithful to you and have served you singlemindedly, always doing what pleases you.” Then he broke down and wept bitterly. 4But before Isaiah had left the middle courtyard, this message came to him from the Lor: 5“Go back to Hezekiah, the leader of my people. Teil him, ‘This is what the LORD, the God of your ancestor David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears. 1 will heal you, and three days from now you will get out of bed and go to the Temple of the LORD. ®1 will add fifteen years to your life, and I will rescue you and this city from the king of Assyria. 1 will defend this city for my own honor and for the sake of my servant David.’” 7Then Isaiah said, “Make an ointment from figs.” So Hezekiah’s servants spread the ointment over the boil, and Hezekiah recovered! 8Meanwhile, Hezekiah had said to Isaiah, “What sign will the LORD give to prove that he will heal me and that I will go to the Temple of the LORD three days from now?” 9Isaiah replied, “This is the sign from the LORD to prove that he will do as he promised. Would you like the shadow on the sundial to go forward ten steps or backward ten steps?*” 10” The shadow always moves forward,” Hezekiah replied, “so that would be easy. Make it go ten steps backward instead.” "So Isaiah the prophet asked the LORD to do this, and he caused the shadow to move ten steps backward on the sundial* of Ahaz!
Envoys from Babylon
1212Soon after this, Merodach-baladan son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent Hezekiah his 20:12-19 best wishes and a gift, for he had heard that Hezekiah had been very sick. ‘Hezekiah 50.4, received the Babylonian envoys and showed them everything in his treasure-houses—the 2 Chr 32:27 silver, the gold, the spices, and the aromatic oils. He also took them to see his armory and showed them everything in his royal treasuries! There was nothing in his palace or kingdom that Hezekiah did not show them. 14Then Isaiah the prophet went to King Hezekiah and asked him, “What did those men want? Where were they from?” Hezekiah replied, “They came from the distant land of Babylon.” 15What did they see in your palace?” Isaiah asked. “They saw everything,” Hezekiah replied. “I showed them everything I own—all my royal treasuries.”
Textual footnotes
- 20:9 Or The shadow on the sundial has gone forward ten steps; do you want it to go
- 20:14 Babylon, a city that had rebelled against the Assyrian
- 20:20 Hebrew watercourse.
Life Application Notes 3 notes
20:11Egyptian sundiais in this period were sometimes made in the form of miniature staircases so that the shadows moved up and down the steps.
20:12-19Hezekiah had been a good ane faithful king. But when Isaiah asked him what he had shown the messengers prophets but willfully ted his people into sin. (See his Profile in 2 Chronicles 33, p. 713, for more information about his life.)