Text -- 2 Kings 20:1-19 (NET)

Hezekiah is Healed

20:1 In those days Hezekiah was stricken with a terminal illness. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz visited him and told him, “This is what the Lord says, ‘Give your household instructions, for you are about to die; you will not get well.’” 20:2 He turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, 20:3 “Please, Lord. Remember how I have served you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion, and how I have carried out your will.” Then Hezekiah wept bitterly. 20:4 Isaiah was still in the middle courtyard when the Lord told him, 20:5 “Go back and tell Hezekiah, the leader of my people: ‘This is what the Lord God of your ancestor David says: “I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Look, I will heal you. The day after tomorrow you will go up to the Lord’s temple. 20:6 I will add fifteen years to your life and rescue you and this city from the king of Assyria. I will shield this city for the sake of my reputation and because of my promise to David my servant.”’” 20:7 Isaiah ordered, “Get a fig cake.” So they did as he ordered and placed it on the ulcerated sore, and he recovered. 20:8 Hezekiah had said to Isaiah, “What is the confirming sign that the Lord will heal me and that I will go up to the Lord’s temple the day after tomorrow?” 20:9 Isaiah replied, “This is your sign from the Lord confirming that the Lord will do what he has said. Do you want the shadow to move ahead ten steps or to go back ten steps?” 20:10 Hezekiah answered, “It is easy for the shadow to lengthen ten steps, but not for it to go back ten steps.” 20:11 Isaiah the prophet called out to the Lord, and the Lord made the shadow go back ten steps on the stairs of Ahaz.

Messengers from Babylon Visit Hezekiah

20:12 At that time Merodach-Baladan son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a gift to Hezekiah, for he had heard that Hezekiah was ill. 20:13 Hezekiah welcomed them and showed them his whole storehouse, with its silver, gold, spices, and high quality olive oil, as well as his armory and everything in his treasuries. Hezekiah showed them everything in his palace and in his whole kingdom. 20:14 Isaiah the prophet visited King Hezekiah and asked him, “What did these men say? Where do they come from?” Hezekiah replied, “They come from the distant land of Babylon.” 20:15 Isaiah asked, “What have they seen in your palace?” Hezekiah replied, “They have seen everything in my palace. I showed them everything in my treasuries.” 20:16 Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Listen to the word of the Lord, 20:17 ‘Look, a time is coming when everything in your palace and the things your ancestors have accumulated to this day will be carried away to Babylon; nothing will be left,’ says the Lord. 20:18 ‘Some of your very own descendants whom you father will be taken away and will be made eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.’” 20:19 Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The Lord’s word which you have announced is appropriate.” Then he added, “At least there will be peace and stability during my lifetime.”

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: 2Ki 20:1

¹ tn Heb “was sick to the point of dying.”

² tn Heb “will not live.”

NET Notes: 2Ki 20:3

¹ tn Heb “walked before you.” For a helpful discussion of the background and meaning of this Hebrew idiom, see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 254.

² tn Heb “and with a complete heart.”

³ tn Heb “and that which is good in your eyes I have done.”

⁴ tn Heb “wept with great weeping.”

NET Notes: 2Ki 20:4

¹ tc Heb “and Isaiah had not gone out of the middle courtyard, and the word of the Lord came to him, saying.” Instead of “courtyard” (חָצֵר, khatser), the marginal reading, (Qere), the Hebrew consonantal text (Kethib) has הָעִיר (ha’ir), “the city.”

NET Notes: 2Ki 20:5

¹ tn Heb “on the third day.”

NET Notes: 2Ki 20:6

¹ tn Heb “for my sake and for the sake of David my servant.”

NET Notes: 2Ki 20:7

¹ tn Heb “and they got [a fig cake].”

² tn Heb “and he lived.”

NET Notes: 2Ki 20:9

¹ tn The Hebrew הָלַךְ (halakh, a perfect), “it has moved ahead,” should be emended to הֲיֵלֵךְ (hayelekh, an imperfect with interrogative he [ה] prefixed), “shall it move ahead.”

NET Notes: 2Ki 20:10

¹ tn Heb “the shadow.” The noun has been replaced by the pronoun (“it”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.

NET Notes: 2Ki 20:11

¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

² tn Heb “on the steps which [the sun] had gone down, on the steps of Ahaz, back ten steps.”

sn These steps probably functioned as a type of sundial. See HALOT 614 s.v. מַעֲלָה and M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 256.

NET Notes: 2Ki 20:12

¹ tc The MT has “Berodach-Baladan,” but several Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic, and Latin witnesses agree with the parallel passage in Isa 39:1 and read “Merodach-Baladan.”

NET Notes: 2Ki 20:13

¹ tc Heb “listened to.” Some Hebrew mss, as well as the LXX, Syriac, and Vulgate versions agree with the parallel passage in Isa 39:2 and read, “was happy with.”

² tn Heb “there was nothing which Hezekiah did not show them in his house and in all his kingdom.”

NET Notes: 2Ki 20:15

¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Isaiah) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

² tn Heb “there was nothing I did not show them.”

NET Notes: 2Ki 20:17

¹ tn Heb “days are.”

NET Notes: 2Ki 20:18

¹ tn Heb “Some of your sons, who go out from you, whom you father.”

NET Notes: 2Ki 20:19

¹ tn Heb “good.”

² tn Heb “and he said.” Many English versions translate, “for he thought.” The verb אָמַר (’amar), “say,” is sometimes used of what one thinks (that is, says to oneself). Cf. NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT.

³ tn Heb “Is it not [true] there will be peace and stability in my days?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Yes, there will be peace and stability.”