Second Book of Chronicles 32

¹ After these loyal acts of service came the invasion of Sennacherib king of Assyria. He invaded Judah, pitched camp before the fortified towns and gave orders for them to be taken by storm.

² Realising that Sennacherib’s advance was the preliminary to an attack on Jerusalem, Hezekiah

³ and his officers and champions decided to cut off the water supply from the springs situated outside the city. His military staff supported this plan

⁴ and numbers of people banded together to block all the springs and cut off the watercourse flowing through the fields. ‘Why’ they said ‘should the kings of Assyria find plenty of water when they arrive?’

⁵ Hezekiah strengthened his defences: he had the broken parts of the wall repaired, built towers on it, constructed a second wall on the outer side, strengthened the Millo of the Citadel of David and made quantities of missiles and shields.

⁶ He then appointed generals to command the people, summoned them to him in the square by the city gate and spoke as follows to encourage them,

⁷ ‘Be strong and stand firm; be fearless, be undaunted when you face the king of Assyria and the whole horde he brings with him, since he that is with us is stronger than he that is with him.

⁸ He has only an arm of flesh, but we have Yahweh our God to help us and fight our battles.’ The people took heart at the words of Hezekiah king of Judah.

⁹ Next, Sennacherib king of Assyria, who was then outside Lachish with all his forces, sent his servants to Jerusalem, to Hezekiah king of Judah, and to all the Judaeans who were in Jerusalem. They said,

¹⁰ ‘Hear the message from Sennacherib king of Assyria, “What gives you the confidence to stay in Jerusalem under siege?

¹¹ Is not Hezekiah deluding you? Is he not condemning you to die of hunger and thirst when he says: Yahweh our God will save us from the king of Assyria?

¹² Is not Hezekiah the very man who has suppressed his high places and his altars, and given the order to Judah and to Jerusalem: Before one altar only are you to worship, and on that alone offer incense?

¹³ Do you not know what I have done, I and my ancestors, to all the peoples of other countries? Have the gods of any single nation in those countries ever been able to save them from me?

¹⁴ Of all the gods of those nations devoted to the ban by my father, name a single one who has been able to save his people from me! So how could your god save you?

¹⁵ Do not let Hezekiah deceive you. Do not let him delude you like this. Do not believe him, for no god of any nation or kingdom has been able to save his people from me or from my ancestors. No more will your god be able to save you from me.”‘

¹⁶ The envoys were still maligning Yahweh God, and his servant Hezekiah,

¹⁷ when Sennacherib wrote a letter insulting Yahweh the God of Israel. This is what he said about him, ‘Just as the gods of the nations in other countries have failed to save their peoples from me, so will the god of Hezekiah fail to save his people’.

¹⁸ They shouted this out in the language of Judah, to the people of Jerusalem on the ramparts, to confuse and frighten them, and so that they might capture the city;

¹⁹ they spoke of the God of Jerusalem as of one of the gods of the peoples of the world, the work of men’s hands.

²⁰ Faced with this situation, King Hezekiah and the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz prayed and cried out to heaven.

²¹ Yahweh sent an angel who massacred all the mighty warriors, commanders and officers in the camp of the king of Assyria. Covered with disgrace he retired to his own country. He went into the temple of his god, and there some of his own children struck him down with the sword.

²² So Yahweh saved Hezekiah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem from the power of Sennacherib king of Assyria and of everyone else, and he gave them peace on every side.

²³ Many people brought oblations to Yahweh in Jerusalem and gifts for Hezekiah king of Judah; after what had happened, he stood high in the esteem of all the nations.

²⁴ In those days, Hezekiah fell ill and was at the point of death. He prayed to Yahweh, who heard him and granted him a sign.

²⁵ But Hezekiah made no return for the benefit he received; his heart grew proud and the wrath came on him and on Judah and Jerusalem.

²⁶ Hezekiah did however humble the pride of his heart, and so did the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem; hence the wrath of Yahweh did not come on them in the lifetime of Hezekiah.

²⁷ Hezekiah enjoyed immense riches and honour. He built himself treasuries for gold, silver, precious stones, spices, gems and every sort of valuable.

²⁸ He had storehouses for his returns of corn, wine and oil, buildings for his different sorts of cattle, and sheep-runs for his sheep,

²⁹ and, further, acquired donkeys and enormous herds and flocks. God had indeed given him immense possessions.

³⁰ It was Hezekiah who stopped the upper outlet of the waters of Gihon and directed them down to the west side of the Citadel of David. Hezekiah succeeded in all he undertook.

³¹ Even in the affair of the messengers from the authorities in Babylon, sent to him to inquire about the extraordinary thing that had taken place in the country, God only deserted him to test him, and to discover the secrets of his heart.

³² The rest of the history of Hezekiah, and his deeds of piety, are recorded in the Vision of the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz, in the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel.

³³ Then Hezekiah slept with his ancestors, and they buried him on the slope going up to the tombs of the sons of David. At his death, all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem did him honour. His son Manasseh succeeded him.