2 Kings 20

2 KINGS CHAPTER 20

Hezekiah’s Sickness and Recovery

• • • In those days Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah, who was Amoz’s son, came to him and said, “This is what Yahweh says: ‘Set your household in order because you will die. You will not recover from this sickness.’” Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to Yahweh saying, “O Yahweh, please remember how I have walked before You faithfully and wholeheartedly, and how I have done what is good in Your eyes.” Then Hezekiah wept bitterly.

• • • • ESV Study Bible writes, “Verses 1-19 represent a ‘flashback’ to the period around 713-712 BC, some 12 years before Sennacherib’s invasion and some 15 years before Hezekiah’s death (cf v. 6).”

• • • • NLT Illustrated Study Bible says, “The general time reference indicates that the order of events is thematic rather than chronological. The episode concerning Merodach-baladan (20:12-19), whom Sennacherib had driven from Babylon before 701 BC, happened earlier than the events of chs 18-19 but after Hezekiah’s illness (20:12). Since Isaiah was already active in Hezekiah’s reign before Sennacherib moved to take Jerusalem, he was readily available to the king during that emergency…Hezekiah’s illness was terminal. Unlike Ahab, who went to bed in a royal pout (1 Kgs 21:4), Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed.”

• • • • Guzik mentions, “The events of this chapter are also recorded in Isaiah 38.”

• • • Isaiah had not yet left the middle courtyard when the word of Yahweh came to him, “Go back and tell Hezekiah, the leader of My people: ‘This is what Yahweh, the God of your ancestor David, says: “I have heard your prayer and seen your tears. Look, I will heal you. The third day from today, you will go up to the house of Yahweh. I will add 15 years to your life and I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city for My sake and for My servant David’s sake.”’” Then Isaiah said, “Bring a lump of pressed figs.” So they brought it, applied it to the boil, and he lived.

• • • • ESV Study Bible writes, “The middle court was the area between the temple and the palace…Isaiah is on the way back to the temple. The word of the Lord comes to him suddenly and unexpectedly.”

• • • • NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible notes, “Figs had long been cultivated in Palestine, and as well as being eaten fresh, they could be dried and made into cakes or fermented and made into wine. However, it is specifically their medicinal use that is in view here: A fig poultice is applied to what may have been an abscess. The belief that figs had medicinal qualities is also attested later in Rome and earlier at Ugarit. Sweet substances such as figs and dates were used to combat infection in the ancient world, and they do have antibacterial properties.”

• • • • ESV Study Bible remarks, “…But the healing of such a serious illness…probably included a supernatural work of God as well.”

• • • • Guzik says, “In response to Hezekiah’s prayer, God granted Hezekiah fifteen years more…Because Hezekiah recovered, was God’s word (You shall die and not live, 2 Kings 20:1) proved false? No…when God announces judgment it is almost always an invitation to repent and to receive mercy…Hezekiah’s prayer was important. By all indications, if Hezekiah had not made his passionate prayer, his life would not have been extended. This is another demonstration of the principle that prayer matters…This promise was in accord with the LORD’s previous prophecies of deliverance, and dates this chapter as being before God destroyed the Assyrian army (Isaiah 37:36-37). The connection of the two promises indicates that one would confirm the other. When Hezekiah recovered his health, he could know that God would also deliver him from the Assyrians.”

• • • Hezekiah asked Isaiah, “What will be the sign that Yahweh will heal me and that I will go up to the house of Yahweh on the third day from now?” Isaiah answered, “This will be the sign to you from Yahweh that Yahweh will do as He has promised: Do you want the shadow to move ahead ten steps or go back ten steps?” Hezekiah replied, “It’s easy for the shadow to move forward ten steps. Have it go backward ten steps instead.” Then Isaiah called out to Yahweh, and Yahweh made the shadow go backwards ten steps on the stairway of Ahaz.

• • • • Some commentaries take the position that it was wrong for Hezekiah to ask for a sign. However, Guzik cites Knapp’s apt comment on the issue, “Hezekiah quite properly asks for a sign to assure himself of his recovery. His hypocritical father, in mock modesty, refused to ask for a sign.” Benson Commentary adds, “He asks a sign, not because he distrusted the divine promise, but for the strengthening of his faith, which otherwise might have been shaken by the greatness of his danger, and by the contradiction between this and the prophet’s former message.”

• • • • On the sign, ESV Study Bible writes, “…the unnatural movement of a shadow on some steps associated with Ahaz (it moves back, even though the sun has already caused it to go down the steps). The text offers no explanation of the details of this miracle; in the biblical worldview, nothing is beyond the power of the Maker of heaven and earth…”

Hezekiah and the Babylonian Envoys

• • • At that time Merodach Baladan, who was the son of Baladan, the king of Babylon, sent envoys with letters and a gift because he had heard that Hezekiah had been sick. Hezekiah welcomed them and showed them everything that was in his storehouse- the silver, the gold, the spices, the fine olive oil- as well as his armory and everything that was in his treasuries. There was nothing in his house or in his entire kingdom that Hezekiah didn’t show them. Then the prophet Isaiah came to King Hezekiah and asked, “What did these men say and where did they come from?” Hezekiah replied, “They have come from the far-away country of Babylon.” Isaiah asked, “What did they see in your house?” Hezekiah answered, “They saw everything in my house. There is nothing in my storehouses that I didn’t show them.” Isaiah told Hezekiah, “Hear the word of Yahweh: ‘Look, the days are coming when everything in your house and the things your ancestors have stored up until this day, will be carried away to Babylon. Nothing will be left,’ Yahweh says. ‘Some of your own sons, who will be born to you, will be taken away and will be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.’” Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of Yahweh which you have spoken is good,” because he thought, “Why not, if there will be peace and security in my lifetime?”

• • • • NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible notes, “When Sargon II ascended the Assyrian throne in 722 BC, Marduk-Baladan (Marduk-apla-iddina II) [Merodach Baladan] had himself crowned king of Babylon, and there ensued a period of ongoing if intermittent conflict in Mesopotamia that lasted until Esarhaddon’s reign…The visit of Marduk-Baladan’s envoys to Jerusalem is best set during the period in which he was still enjoying his first spell of kingship in Babylon (722-710 BC), before Sargon II reconquered Babylonia into exile…This visit suggests that the anti-Assyrian resistance that arose after Sargon’s death in different parts of the empire was coordinated rather than coincidental and had its roots in long-term prior contacts between the different groups involved. Hezekiah may have been involved at this time in a revolt against Assyria spearheaded by the Philistine city of Ashdod…”

• • • • NLT Illustrated Study Bible adds, “He probably sent envoys bearing his best wishes and a gift because he needed an ally against Assyria…Hezekiah showed the Babylonian envoys his vast treasuries, which had not yet been sent to Sennacherib (18:13-16). However, his attempt to impress his visitors was misguided. The Lord’s message through Isaiah predicted the taking of the palace…treasures in Jerusalem to Babylon, and event that took place in 597-586 BC (24:10-17; 25:1-21). Hezekiah’s son Manasseh was taken as a prisoner to Babylon (2 Chr 33:11-13). This prophecy found ultimate fulfillment in Hezekiah’s descendants during the Babylonian deportations of 605 BC (see 2 Kgs 24:1…; Dan 1:1-7), 597 BC (2 Kgs 24:10-12; 2 Chr 36:10), and 586 BC (2 Kgs 25:5-7; 2 Chr 36:20; Jer 39:1-7; 52:4-15).”

• • • • Guzik says, “We can imagine that this was flattering for King Hezekiah. After all, Judah was a lowly nation with little power, and Babylon was a junior superpower. To receive this notice and recognition from the king of Babylon must have really made Hezekiah feel he was important. We can imagine Hezekiah wanting to please these envoys from Babylon, and wanting to show them that they had good reason to be impressed with him and his kingdom. So he did everything he could to impress them, and showed them the very best riches of the royal household – and he showed them everything. As the coming rebuke from Isaiah will demonstrate, this was nothing but proud foolishness on Hezekiah’s part. He was in the dangerous place of wanting to please and impress men, especially ungodly men.”

• • • • On Hezekiah’s final statement and thought, Guzik continues, “This was a sad state of heart in the king of Judah. God announced coming judgment, and all he could respond with was relief that it would not happen in his lifetime.”

Hezekiah’s Death

• • • The rest of the events of Hezekiah’s reign, including all of his accomplishments, and the pool and the tunnel he made by which he brought water into the city, are recorded in the book, “Annals of the Kings of Judah.” Hezekiah rested with his ancestors and his son Manasseh succeeded him as king.

• • • • The NIV Cultural Backgrounds Bible includes this fascinating information about the pool and tunnel mentioned in this passage:

• • • • • “Settled existence in Syria-Palestine required adequate water supplies, or at least water supplies that could be made adequate by human interference with nature. Towns were often built, therefore, beside rivers and springs, so that the course of the rivers could be altered and the flow of springs could be improved. Wells were dug in order to access underground water, and rainwater from the wet months was collected in cisterns or reservoirs for later use. Particular attention had been given to ensuring that towns possessed water sources that would enable them to withstand siege.”

• • • • “In the case of Jerusalem, the Gihon Spring in the Kidron Valley was the crucial resource, and a complex water system was created early in order to secure and access its water. An impressive tower was constructed in the Middle Bronze Age (eighteenth to seventeenth centuries BC) to protect the spring, and a large, quarter-mile long conduit (often known as the Siloam Tunnel) channeled the water from there to the reservoir at Birket el-Hamra (pehaps the Lower (old) Pool of Isa 22:9-11) at the southern end of the City of David, gathering as it went run-off water from above and irrigating adjacent fields. Although well protected by large boulders wedged in the channel, this water supply lay outside the city’s walls and was vulnerable in time of siege.”

• • • • • “However, the Middle Bronze Age system water system also contained a subsidiary tunnel that led from the Siloam conduit, near to its beginning point by the Gihon Spring, into a large rock-cut pool, from which Jerusalem residents could draw water from above by way of a further tunnel that began inside the city walls. This water supply would have been especially useful in time of siege. Later, in preparation for the Assyrian attack, King Hezekiah had a tunnel cut that diverted water from the Gihon Spring directly underground to the Pool of Siloam (Birket es-Silwan) at the southern end of the Tyropoeon Valley- which by this time lay within the city walls. This not only secured his own water supply, but also deprived the Assyrians of one (see 2 Chr 32:4, 30). At this point the old water system was apparently abandoned.”

• • • • • “An inscription cut into the tunnel wall (known as the Siloam Tunnel Inscription) commemorates King Hezekiah’s accomplishment in building a tunnel that brought water from the Gihon spring directly underground to the Pool of Siloam. The feat was considered remarkable partly because the tunnel was cut by two teams working toward each other from opposite directions and yet meeting accurately in the middle.”

Image via BiblePlaces.com

Siloam Inscription

Two images above via Watch Jerusalem

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