THE DANGER OF PRIDE AND IDOLATRY AND THE NEED FOR REPENTANCE...

2 Chronicles 32

24 In those days Hezekiah fell mortally ill; and he prayed to the Lord, who spoke to him, and gave him a sign.

25 But Hezekiah did not respond to the benefit that had been done to him; because his heart was lifted up; Therefore great wrath came upon him, and upon Judah and Jerusalem.

26 But Hezekiah humbled himself because of the exaltation of his heart, he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and the great wrath of the Lord came not upon them in the days of Hezekiah.

27 And Hezekiah had riches and glory in great abundance; he provided himself with a treasury for silver, gold, precious stones, spices, shields, and all manner of desirable objects.

28 Also storehouses for harvesting wheat, wine, and oil; and stables for all kinds of animals and corrals for livestock.

29 He also built cities, and had plenty of sheep and herds; because God had given him very many possessions.

30 Also Hezekiah himself stopped the upper spring of the waters of Gihon, and made them flow underneath to the west of the city of David; for Hezekiah prospered in all his works.

31 However, as regards the ambassadors of the princes of Babylon, who were sent to him, to inquire about the wonder that had been done in that land, God forsook him, to tempt him, to know all that was in his heart.

32 As for the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, and his good works, behold, they are written in the vision of the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz, and in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel.

Isaiah 38

1 In those days Hezekiah fell ill with a deadly illness; And the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz came to him and said to him, Thus says the LORD: Set your house in order, for you will die and not live.

2 Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall, and prayed to the Lord.

3 And he said: Ah! Lord, I pray thee, remember now, that I walked before thee in truth, and with a perfect heart, and did that which was right in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept exceedingly.

4 Then the word of the Lord came to Isaiah, saying:

5 Go and tell Hezekiah: Thus says the Lord, the God of your father David: I have heard your prayer, and I have seen your tears; behold, I will add fifteen years to your days.

6 And I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city.

7 And this will be from the Lord for you as a sign that the Lord will fulfill this word that he spoke.

8 Behold, I will turn back ten degrees the shadow cast by the declining sun on the clock of Ahaz. Thus the sun moved back the ten degrees it had already declined.

9 The writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he was sick and recovered from his illness:

10 I said: At the end of my days I will go to the gates of the grave; I am already deprived of the rest of my years.

11 He said, I will not see the Lord, the Lord in the land of the living; I will never see the man with the inhabitants of the world.

12 The time of my life has passed away, and it has been taken from me like a shepherd's tent; I cut my life as a weaver; he will cut me from the loom; from morning until night you will destroy me.

13 I waited patiently until dawn; like a lion he broke all my bones; from morning until night you will destroy me.

14 Like a crane, or a swallow, so I chirped, and moaned like a dove; I raised my eyes high; O Lord, I am oppressed, remain my guarantor.

15 What shall I say? As he promised me, so he did; so I will pass through all my years meekly, because of the bitterness of my soul.

16 Lord, by these things I live, and in them all is the life of my spirit, therefore heal me and make me live.

17 Behold, it was for my peace that I had great bitterness, but it pleased you to rescue my soul from the pit of corruption; because you cast all my sins behind your back.

18 For the grave shall not praise you, neither shall death glorify you; Neither will those who go down into the pit wait for your truth.

19 The living, the living, he will praise you, as I do today; the father will make your truth known to his children.

20 The Lord came to save me; therefore, playing on my instruments, we will praise him all the days of our life in the house of the Lord.

21 And Isaiah said, Take a paste of figs, and put it as a plaster on the sore; and it will heal.

22 Hezekiah also said, What will be the sign that I will go up to the house of the Lord?

2 Chronicles 33

1 He was twelve years old when Manasseh began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem.

2 And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, according to the abominations of the Gentiles, whom the Lord had cast out from before the children of Israel.

3 For he built again the high places which his father Hezekiah had torn down; and he set up altars to the Baals, and made groves, and fell down before all the host of heaven, and served them.

4 And he built altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord had spoken: In Jerusalem shall my name be for ever.

5 He built altars for all the host of heaven in both courts of the house of the Lord.

6 He also made his sons pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom, and used divinations and omens and sorcery, and consulted diviners and enchanters, and did exceedingly evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke him to anger.

7 He also set up a graven image of the idol that he had made in the house of God, about which God had spoken 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 never again remove the foot of Israel from the land which I appointed for your fathers; as long as you are careful to do everything that I have commanded you, according to all the law, and statutes, and judgments, given by the hand of Moses.

9 And Manasseh did so much wrong to Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, that they did worse than the nations which the Lord had destroyed from before the children of Israel.

10 And the Lord spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they did not listen.

11 So the Lord brought upon them the captains of the army of the king of Assyria, who caught Manasseh with hooks, and bound him with chains, and carried him to Babylon.

12 And he, being in anguish, prayed indeed to the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers;

13 And he prayed to him, and God was appeased to him, and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem, to his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord was God.

14 And after this he built the wall outside the city of David, on the west of Gihon, in the valley, and at the entrance of the Fish Gate, and around Ophel, and raised it very high; he also placed war captains in all the fortified cities of Judah.

15 And he took away the strange gods and the idol from the house of the Lord, and all the altars which he had built in the mountain of the house of the Lord, and in Jerusalem, and cast them out of the city.

16 And he repaired the altar of the Lord, and offered upon it sacrifices of peace offerings and of praise; and commanded Judah to serve the Lord God of Israel.

17 However, the people still sacrificed on high places, but only to the Lord their God.

18 The rest of the acts of Manasseh, and his prayer to his God, and the words of the seers who spoke to him in the name of the Lord God of Israel, behold, they are in the chronicles of the kings of Israel.

19 And his prayer, and how God was appeased to him, and all his sin, and his transgression, and the places where he built high places, and set up groves and graven images, before he humbled himself, behold, it is written in the books of seers.

20 And Manasseh slept with his fathers, and they buried him in his house. Amon, his son, reigned in his place.

21 Ammon was twenty-two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem two years.

22 And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, as Manasseh his father had done; for Amon sacrificed all the graven images that Manasseh his father had made, and served them.

23 But he did not humble himself before the Lord, as Manasseh his father had humbled himself; but Ammon multiplied his trespasses.

24 And his servants conspired against him, and killed him in his house. 25 But the people of the land smote all who conspired against king Ammon; and the people of the land made Josiah his son reign in his stead.

33 And Hezekiah slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the highest of the tombs of the children of David; and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem did him honor at his death; and Manasseh his son reigned in his stead.

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