The Daily Audio Bible

Hezekiah’s Illness and Recovery

20 ^(A)In those days Hezekiah became ^[a]mortally ill. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him and said to him, “Thus says the Lord, ‘^(B)Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live.’” ² Then he turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, saying, ³ “^(C)Remember now, O Lord, I beseech You, ^(D)how I have walked before You in truth and with a whole heart and have done what is good in Your sight.” And ^(E)Hezekiah wept ^[b]bitterly. ⁴ Before Isaiah had gone out of the middle court, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, ⁵ “Return and say to ^(F)Hezekiah the leader of My people, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of your father David, “^(G)I have heard your prayer, ^(H)I have seen your tears; behold, I will heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of the Lord. ⁶ I will add fifteen years to your ^[c]life, and I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria; and ^(I)I will defend this city for My own sake and for My servant David’s sake.”’” ⁷ Then Isaiah said, “Take a cake of figs.” And they took and laid it on the boil, and he recovered.

⁸ Now Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “What will be the sign that the Lord will heal me, and that I shall go up to the house of the Lord the third day?” ⁹ Isaiah said, “^(J)This shall be the sign to you from the Lord, that the Lord will do the thing that He has spoken: shall the shadow go forward ten steps or go back ten steps?” ¹⁰ So Hezekiah ^[d]answered, “It is easy for the shadow to decline ten steps; no, but let the shadow turn backward ten steps.” ¹¹ Isaiah the prophet cried to the Lord, and ^(K)He brought the shadow on the ^[e]stairway back ten steps by which it had gone down on the ^[f]stairway of Ahaz.

Hezekiah Shows Babylon His Treasures

^12 (L)At that time ^[g]Berodach-baladan a son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he heard that Hezekiah had been sick. ¹³ Hezekiah listened to them, and showed them ^(M)all 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 treasuries. There was nothing in his house nor in all his dominion that Hezekiah did not show them. ¹⁴ Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah and said to him, “What did these men say, and from where have they come to you?” And Hezekiah said, “They have come from a far country, from Babylon.” ¹⁵ He said, “What have they seen in your house?” So Hezekiah ^[h]answered, “They have seen all that is in my house; there is nothing among my treasuries 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 ^(N)all that is in your house, and all that your fathers have laid up in store to this day will be carried to Babylon; nothing shall be left,’ says the Lord. ¹⁸ ‘Some ^(O)of your sons who shall issue from you, whom you will beget, will be taken away; and they will become ^(P)officials in the palace of the king of Babylon.’” ¹⁹ Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of the Lord which you have spoken is ^(Q)good.” For he ^[i]thought, “Is it not so, if there will be peace and truth in my days?”

^20 (R)Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah and all his might, and how he ^(S)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? ^21 (T)So Hezekiah slept with his fathers, and Manasseh his son became king in his place.

Manasseh Succeeds Hezekiah

21 ^(U)Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Hephzibah. ^2 (V)He did evil in the sight of the Lord, ^(W)according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord dispossessed before the sons of Israel. ³ For ^(X)he rebuilt the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed; and ^(Y)he erected altars for Baal and made an ^[j]Asherah, as Ahab king of Israel had done, and ^(Z)worshiped all the host of heaven and served them. ^4 (AA)He built altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord had said, “^(AB)In Jerusalem I will put My name.” ⁵ For he built altars for ^(AC)all the host of heaven in ^(AD)the two courts of the house of the Lord. ^6 (AE)He made his son pass through the fire, ^(AF)practiced witchcraft and used divination, and dealt with mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord provoking Him to anger. ⁷ Then ^(AG)he set the carved image of Asherah that he had made, in the house of which the Lord said to David and to his son Solomon, “^(AH)In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen from all the tribes of Israel, I will put My name forever. ⁸ And I ^(AI)will not make the feet of Israel wander anymore from the land which I gave 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.” ⁹ But they did not listen, and Manasseh ^(AJ)seduced them to do evil more than the nations whom the Lord destroyed before the sons of Israel.

The King’s Idolatries Rebuked

¹⁰ Now the Lord spoke through His servants the prophets, saying, ¹¹ “^(AK)Because Manasseh king of Judah has done these abominations, ^(AL)having done wickedly more than all the Amorites did who were before him, and ^(AM)has also made Judah sin ^(AN)with his idols; ¹² therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Behold, I am bringing such calamity on Jerusalem and Judah, that whoever hears of it, ^(AO)both his ears will tingle. ^13 (AP)I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria and the plummet of the house of Ahab, and I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down. ¹⁴ I will abandon the remnant of My inheritance and deliver them into the hand of their enemies, and they will become as plunder and spoil to all their enemies; ¹⁵ because they have done evil in My sight, and have been provoking Me to anger since the day their fathers came from Egypt, even to this day.’”

^16 (AQ)Moreover, Manasseh shed very much innocent blood until he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another; besides his sin ^(AR)with which he made Judah sin, in doing evil in the sight of the Lord. ^17 (AS)Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh and all that he did and his sin which he ^[k]committed, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? ^18 (AT)And Manasseh slept with his fathers and was buried in the garden of his own house, ^(AU)in the garden of Uzza, and Amon his son became king in his place.

Amon Succeeds Manasseh

^19 (AV)Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Meshullemeth the daughter of Haruz of Jotbah. ²⁰ He did evil in the sight of the Lord, ^(AW)as Manasseh his father had done. ²¹ For he walked in all the way that his father had walked, and served the idols that his father had served and worshiped them. ²² So ^(AX)he forsook the Lord, the God of his fathers, and did not walk in the way of the Lord. ^23 (AY)The servants of Amon conspired against him and killed the king in his own house. ²⁴ Then ^(AZ)the people of the land ^[l]killed all those who had conspired against King Amon, and the people of the land made Josiah his son 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 He was buried in his grave ^(BA)in the garden of Uzza, and Josiah his son became king in his place.

Josiah Succeeds Amon

22 ^(BB)Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Jedidah the daughter of Adaiah of ^(BC)Bozkath. ² He did right in the sight of the Lord and walked in all the way of his father David, nor did he ^(BD)turn aside to the right or to the left.

¹⁸ And the following day Paul went in with us to ^[a](A)James, and all ^(B)the elders were present. ¹⁹ After he had greeted them, he ^(C)began to relate one by one the things which God had done among the Gentiles through his ^(D)ministry. ²⁰ And when they heard it they began ^(E)glorifying God; and they said to him, “You see, brother, how many ^[b]thousands there are among the Jews of those who have believed, and they are all ^(F)zealous for the Law; ²¹ and they have been told about you, that you are ^(G)teaching all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, telling them ^(H)not to circumcise their children nor to ^[c]walk according to ^(I)the customs. ²² What, then, is to be done? They will certainly hear that you have come. ²³ Therefore do this that we tell you. We have four men who ^[d](J)are under a vow; ²⁴ take them and ^(K)purify yourself along with them, and ^[e]pay their expenses so that they may ^(L)shave their ^[f]heads; and all will know that there is nothing to the things which they have been told about you, but that you yourself also walk orderly, keeping the Law. ²⁵ But concerning the Gentiles who have believed, we wrote, ^(M)having decided that they should abstain from ^[g]meat sacrificed to idols and from blood and from what is strangled and from fornication.” ²⁶ Then Paul ^[h]took the men, and the next day, ^(N)purifying himself along with them, ^(O)went into the temple giving notice of the completion of the days of purification, until the sacrifice was offered for each one of them.

Paul Seized in the Temple

²⁷ When ^(P)the seven days were almost over, ^(Q)the Jews from ^[i](R)Asia, upon seeing him in the temple, began to stir up all the crowd and laid hands on him, ²⁸ crying out, “Men of Israel, come to our aid! ^(S)This is the man who preaches to all men everywhere against our people and the Law and this place; and besides he has even brought Greeks into the temple and has ^(T)defiled this holy place.” ²⁹ For they had previously seen ^(U)Trophimus the ^(V)Ephesian in the city with him, and they supposed that Paul had brought him into the temple. ³⁰ Then all the city was provoked, and ^[j]the people rushed together, and taking hold of Paul they ^(W)dragged him out of the temple, and immediately the doors were shut. ³¹ While they were seeking to kill him, a report came up to the ^[k]commander of the ^(X)Roman ^[l]cohort that all Jerusalem was in confusion. ³² At once he ^(Y)took along some soldiers and centurions and ran down to them; and when they saw the ^[m]commander and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul. ³³ Then the ^[n]commander came up and took hold of him, and ordered him to be ^(Z)bound with ^(AA)two chains; and he began asking who he was and what he had done. ³⁴ But among the crowd ^(AB)some were shouting one thing and some another, and when he could not find out the ^[o]facts because of the uproar, he ordered him to be brought into ^(AC)the barracks. ³⁵ When he got to ^(AD)the stairs, he was carried by the soldiers because of the violence of the ^[p]mob; ³⁶ for the multitude of the people kept following them, shouting, “^(AE)Away with him!”

A Psalm of Praise.