king: Let not Hezekiah beguile you; for he is not able to rescue you out of his hand; and let not Hezekiah make you trust in Yahweh, saying: Yahweh will surely rescue us, and this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. Hearken not to Hezekiah; for thus saith the king of Assyria: Make your peace with me, and come out to me; and ye shall eat, every one, of his own vine and of his fig-tree, and every one shall drink the water of his own cistern, until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of wheat and new wine, a land of olive-yards and vineyards, of bread and of honey, that ye may live and not die. But the people held their peace, and answered him not a word; for the king's commandment was: Answer him not. Then came Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, the governor of the palace, and Shebna the scribe, and Joab the son of Asaph, the recorder, to Hezekiah with their clothes rent; and told him the words of the Rab-shakeh. And when king Hezekiah heard it, he rent his clothes and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of Yahweh. And he sent Eliakin, the governor of the palace, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests unto Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz. And they said unto him: Thus saith Hezekiah: This is a day of trouble and of rebuke and of contumely, for children are come to the birth, and there is no strength to bring forth. It may be that Yahweh thy God will hear all the words of the Rab-shakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master hath sent to taunt the living God, and will punish the words which Yahweh, thy God, hath heard. Wherefore, make prayer for the remnant which is left. So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah; and Isaiah said unto them: Thus shall ye say to your master: Thus saith Yahweh: Be not afraid of the words that thou hast heard, wherewith the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed Me. Surely I will strike him with a groundless fright, that when he shall hear a rumor of ill, he shall return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land. Then the Rab-shakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria still at Lachish. And he heard say of Tirhakah, king of Ethiopia: Behold, he is come out to fight against thee; and when he heard that, he departed. So Sennacherib, king of Assyria, returned and dwelt at Nineveh. And as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sarezer, his sons, slew him with the sword. But they escaped into the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon, his son, reigned in his stead. (SECOND ACCOUNT OF THE WITHDRAWAL OF SENNACHERIB) And Sennacherib was warring at Libnah; and he sent messengers to Hezekiah saying: . Let not thy God in whom thou trustest deceive thee, saying: Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. Behold, thou thyself hast heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, destroying them utterly; and shalt thou be delivered? Did the gods of the nations which my fathers destroyed deliver them,-Gozan, and Haran, and Reseph, and the Edenites in Telassar? Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of Sepharvaim, of Hena and Ivva? Which among all the gods of these countries have rescued their land out of my hand, that Yahweh should rescue Jerusalem out of my hand? And Hezekiah took the letter out of the hand of the messengers, and read it, and went up to the House of Yahweh. And Hezekiah spread it before Yahweh and prayed, saying: O Yahweh, the God of Israel, that sittest upon the cherubim! Thou art the God, even Thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; Thou hast made heaven and earth. Incline Thine ear, O Yahweh, and hear; open Thine eyes, O Yahweh, and see; and hear the message of Sennacherib, wherewith he would insult the Living God. Of a truth, O Yahweh, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands, 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 could destroy them. Now, therefore, O Yahweh, our God, save Thou me, I beseech Thee, out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that Thou, Yahweh, Thou alone art God. Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying: Thus saith Yahweh, the God of Israel: Whereas thou hast prayed to Me concerning Sennacherib, king of Assyria, thus saith Yahweh concerning the king of Assyria: He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow into it, And it came to pass that night, that the messenger of Yahweh went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and fourscore and five thousand; and when men arose early in the morning, behold, all those men were stark dead.) In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, came to him and said unto him: Thus saith Yahweh: Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live. Then he turned his face to the wall, and prayed unto Yahweh, saying: Remember now, O Yahweh, I beseech Thee, how I have walked before Thee in truth and with a whole heart, and have done that which is good in Thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore. And it came to pass, before Isaiah was gone out of the gate, that the word of Yahweh came to him, saying: Return, and say to Hezekiah, the prince of My people: Thus saith Yahweh, the God of David thy father: I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears, I will heal thee; on the third day thou shalt go up into the house of Yahweh. And I will add unto thy days fifteen years; and I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city for Mine own sake, and for My servant David's sake. And Isaiah said: Take a cake of figs. And they took it and laid it on the boil, and he recovered. And Hezekiah said unto Isaiah: What shall be the sign that Yahweh will heal me, and that I shall go up unto the house of Yahweh the third day. And Isaiah said: This shall be the sign unto thee from Yahweh, that Yahweh will do the thing that He hath spoken; shall the shadow go forward ten degrees, or go back ten degrees? And Hezekiah answered: It is a light thing for the shadow to decline ten degrees; nay, but let the shadow return backward ten degrees. And Isaiah the prophet cried unto Yahweh; and He brought the shadow ten degrees backward, by which it had gone down on the dial of Ahaz. At that time the king of Babylon, Merodach-Baladan son of Baladan, sent a letter and a present unto Hezekiah; for he had heard that Hezekiah had been sick. And Hezekiah had pleasure in this, and showed them his treasure-house, the silver and the gold, and the spices and the precious oil, and the house of his armor, and all that was found in his stores; there was nothing in his house nor in his dominion that Hezekiah showed them not. Then came Isaiah the prophet unto king Hezekiah, and said unto him: What said these men, and from whence came they unto thee? And Hezekiah said: They are come from a far country, even from Babylon. And he said: What have they seen in thine house? And Hezekiah answered: All that is in my house have they seen; there is nothing among my treasures that I have not shown them. Then Isaiah said unto Hezekiah: Hear the word of Yahweh: Behold, the days come, that all that is in thine house, and that which thy fathers have laid up in store unto this day, shall be carried to Babylon; nothing shall be left, saith Yahweh. And of thy sons that shall issue from thee they shall take away; and they shall be officers in the palace of the king of Babylon. Then said Hezekiah unto Isaiah: Good is the word of Yahweh which thou hast spoken. He said, moreover: Is it not so, if peace and truth shall be in my days? 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, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? And Hezekiah slept with his fathers, and Manasseh his son reigned in his stead.1 1 The last three chapters (ch. xviii-xx, A .V.), with the exception of two verses in ch. xviii and some slight changes in phraseology in the other two, are also found in the Book of Isaiah, (A. V. ch. xxxvi-xxxix), where they form a transition from the works formerly all attributed to the prophet of the eighth century to the treasury of poems by unknown writers of the exilic and post exilic ages, (ch. xl-lxvi). It is barely possible that they were collected and inserted in his compilation by JE, for there are indications that he lived until the age of Manasseh; but the vivid realism of the dialogue in ch. xviii, and the noble prayer of Hezekiah in ch. xx, could not have been from his pen. They are now held by many scholars to be by different Deuteronomists; but they are retained here since the question is still not decided. On the other hand, the "Poem of Derision" on Sennacherib (ch. xix, 21-81), is certainly post-exilic, and is therefore omitted. HISTORY OF THE LAST KINGS OF JUDAH FROM THE REIGN OF MANASSEH TO THE EXILE (698-584 B.C.) COMPILED BY P.1 (2 Kings, xxi-xxv) Materials: Chronicles of the kings of Judah, Temple Records, Biography of Jeremiah, and the narratives of eye-witnesses of the events handed down from father to son. Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned five and fifty years in Jerusalem, and his mother's name was Hephzibah. And he did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, after the abominations of the nations whom Yahweh had driven out before the Children of Israel. For he built again the high places which his father Hezekiah had destroyed, and he reared up altars for Baal, and made an Asherah, as did Ahab king of Israel, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served them. And he built altars in the House of Yahweh, whereof Yahweh had said: In Jerusalem have I put My name. And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the House of Yahweh. And he made his son to pass through fire, and practised soothsaying, and used enchantments, and appointed them that divined by a ghost or a familiar spirit; he wrought much evil in the sight of Yahweh, to provoke Him. And he set the graven image of the Asherah he had made, in the house of which Yahweh 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, will I put My name for ever; neither will I cause the feet of Israel to wander any more out of the land which I gave to 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. But they hearkened not; and Manasseh seduced them to do that which is evil more than did the nations whom Yahweh destroyed before the Children of Israel. And Yahweh spake by His servants the prophets, saying: Because Manasseh, king of Judah, hath done these abominations, and hath done wickedly above all that the Amorites did that were before him, and hath made Judah also to sin with his idols; therefore thus saith Yahweh, the God of Israel. Behold, I bring much evil upon Jerusalem and Judah, that whosoever shall hear of it, both his ears shall tingle. And I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria, and the plummet of the house of Ahab; and I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipeth a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down. And I will cast off the remnant of Mine inheritance, and deliver them into the hand of their enemies; because they have done that which is evil in My sight, and have provoked 1P may stand for one writer or many. Possibly they may have been a self-perpetuating committee, appointed by the Sanhedrim at the beginning of the Persian period to arrange the Canon. It is certain that many additions were made even after the LXX translation had been completed. Me since the day their fathers came forth out of Egypt, even unto this day. Moreover Manasseh shed very much innocent blood, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to the other, besides his sin wherewith he made Judah to sin in doing that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh. Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh, and all that he did, and his sin that he sinned, are they not written in the book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? And Manasseh slept with his fathers, and was buried in the garden of his own house, in the garden of Uzzah; and Amon his son reigned in his stead. Amon was twenty and two years old when he began to reign; and he reigned two years in Jerusalem; and his mother's name was Meshullemeth, the daughter of Haruz of Jotbah. And he did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, as did Manasseh his father. And he walked in all the way that his father had walked in, and served the idols that his father had served, and worshipped them. And he forsook Yahweh, the God of his fathers, and walked not in the way of Yahweh. And the servants of Amon conspired against him, and put the king to death in his own house. But the people of the land slew all them that had conspired against king Amon; and the people of the land made Josiah his son king in his stead. Now the rest of the acts of Amon which he did, are they not written in the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? And he was buried in the sepulchre in the garden of Uzzah and Josiah his son reigned in his stead. Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign; and he reigned thirty and one years in Jerusalem; and his mother's name was Jedidah, the daughter of Adaiah of Bozkath. And he did that which was right in the eyes of Yahweh, and walked in all the way of David his father, and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left. And it came to pass in the eighteenth year of king Josiah, that the king sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, the son of Meshullam the scribe, to the House of Yahweh, saying: Go up to Hilkiah the high-priest, that he may sum the money which is brought into the house of Yahweh, which the keepers of the door have gathered of the people; and let them deliver it into the hand of the workmen that have the oversight of the House of Yahweh; and let them give it to the workmen that are in the House of Yahweh to repair the breaches of the house; unto the carpenters, and to the builders, and to the masons; and for buying timber and hewn stone to repair the house. Howbeit there was no reckoning made with them of the money that was delivered into their hand; for they dealt faithfully. And Hilkiah the high-priest said unto Shaphan the scribe: I have found the Book of the Law in the house of Yahweh. And Hilkiah delivered the book to Shaphan, and he read it. And Shaphan the scribe came unto the king, and reported unto the king, and said: Thy servants have poured out the money that was found in the house, and have delivered it into the hand of the workmen that have oversight of the house of Yahweh. And Shaphan the scribe told the king, saying: Hilkiah the priest hath delivered me a book. And Shaphan read it before the king. And it came to pass when the king had heard the words of the Book of the Law, that he rent his clothes. And the king commanded Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and Achbor the son of Micaiah, and Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah, the king's servant, saying: Go ye, inquire of Yahweh for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that is found; for great |