Daily Text and Bible Reading: Tuesday, May 5 [Press play below]

20.1 In those days Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz came and said to him, “This is what Jehovah says: ‘Give instructions to your household, for you will die; you will not recover.’”
20.2 At that he turned his face to the wall and began to pray to Jehovah:
20.3 “I beg you, O Jehovah, remember, please, how I have walked before you faithfully and with a complete heart, and I have done what was good in your eyes.” And Hezekiah began to weep profusely.
20.4 Isaiah had not yet gone out to the middle courtyard when Jehovah’s word came to him, saying:
20.5 “Go back and say to Hezekiah, the leader of my people, ‘This is what Jehovah the God of David your forefather says: “I have heard your prayer. I have seen your tears. Here I am healing you. On the third day you will go up to the house of Jehovah.
20.6 I will add 15 years to your life, and I will rescue you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city for my own sake and for the sake of David my servant.”’”
20.7 Isaiah then said: “Bring a cake of pressed dried figs.” So they brought it and applied it to the boil, after which he gradually recovered.
20.8 Hezekiah had asked Isaiah: “What is the sign to show that Jehovah will heal me and that I will go up on the third day to the house of Jehovah?”
20.9 Isaiah replied: “This is the sign from Jehovah to show you that Jehovah will carry out the word that he has spoken: Do you want the shadow on the stairway to move forward ten steps or back ten steps?”
20.10 Hezekiah said: “It is an easy thing for the shadow to extend itself ten steps but not to go back ten steps.”
20.11 So Isaiah the prophet called out to Jehovah, and He made the shadow on the stairway of Ahaz go back ten steps after it had already descended the steps.
20.12 At that time the king of Babylon, Berodach-baladan son of Baladan, sent letters and a gift to Hezekiah, for he had heard that Hezekiah had been sick.
20.13 Hezekiah welcomed them and showed them his entire treasure-house—the silver, the gold, the balsam oil and other precious oil, his armory, and everything that was to be found in his treasuries. There was nothing that Hezekiah did not show them in his own house and in all his dominion.
20.14 After that Isaiah the prophet came in to King Hezekiah and asked him: “What did these men say, and where did they come from?” So Hezekiah said: “They came from a distant land, from Babylon.”
20.15 Next he asked: “What did they see in your house?” Hezekiah replied: “They saw everything in my house. There was nothing that I did not show them in my treasuries.”
20.16 Isaiah now said to Hezekiah: “Hear the word of Jehovah,
20.17 ‘Look! Days are coming, and all that is in your house and all that your forefathers have stored up to this day will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left,’ says Jehovah.
20.18 ‘And some of your own sons to whom you will become father will be taken and will become court officials in the palace of the king of Babylon.’”
20.19 At that Hezekiah said to Isaiah: “The word of Jehovah that you have spoken is good.” Then he added: “It is good if there will be peace and stability during my lifetime.”
20.20 As for the rest of the history of Hezekiah, all his mightiness and how he made the pool and the conduit and brought the water into the city, is it not written in the book of the history of the times of the kings of Judah?
20.21 Then Hezekiah was laid to rest with his forefathers; and his son Manasseh became king in his place.

21.1 Manasseh was 12 years old when he became king, and he reigned for 55 years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hephzibah.
21.2 He did what was bad in Jehovah’s eyes, following the detestable practices of the nations that Jehovah had driven out from before the people of Israel.
21.3 He rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had destroyed, and he set up altars to Baal and made a sacred pole, just as Ahab the king of Israel had done. And he bowed down to all the army of the heavens and served them.
21.4 He also built altars in the house of Jehovah, about which Jehovah had said: “In Jerusalem, I will put my name.”
21.5 And he built altars to all the army of the heavens in two courtyards of the house of Jehovah.
21.6 And he made his own son pass through the fire; he practiced magic, looked for omens, and appointed spirit mediums and fortune-tellers. He did on a grand scale what was bad in Jehovah’s eyes, to offend him.
21.7 He put the carved image of the sacred pole that he made into the house about which Jehovah had said to David and to his son Solomon: “In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will permanently put my name.
21.8 And I will never again make the feet of Israel wander from the land that I gave to their forefathers, provided they carefully observe all that I have commanded them, the entire Law that my servant Moses ordered them to follow.”
21.9 But they did not obey, and Manasseh kept leading them astray, causing them to do greater evil than the nations that Jehovah had annihilated from before the Israelites.
21.10 Jehovah kept speaking through his servants the prophets, saying:
21.11 “Manasseh the king of Judah has done all these detestable things; he has acted more wickedly than all the Amorites before him, and he has made Judah sin with his disgusting idols.
21.12 Therefore this is what Jehovah the God of Israel says: ‘Here I am bringing such a disaster on Jerusalem and Judah that it will make both ears of anyone who hears about it tingle.
21.13 And I will stretch out on Jerusalem the measuring line applied to Samaria and use the leveling tool applied to the house of Ahab, and I will wipe Jerusalem clean, just as one wipes a bowl clean, wiping it and turning it upside down.
21.14 I will forsake the remnant of my inheritance and give them into the hand of their enemies, and they will become plunder and spoil to all their enemies,
21.15 because they did what was bad in my eyes and were continually offending me from the day that their forefathers came out of Egypt to this day.’”
21.16 Manasseh also shed innocent blood in very great quantity until he had filled Jerusalem from one end to the other, besides his sin of causing Judah to sin by doing what was bad in the eyes of Jehovah.
21.17 As for the rest of the history of Manasseh and all that he did and the sins that he committed, are they not written in the book of the history of the times of the kings of Judah?
21.18 Then Manasseh was laid to rest with his forefathers and was buried in the garden of his house, in the garden of Uzza; and his son Amon became king in his place.
21.19 Amon was 22 years old when he became king, and he reigned for two years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Meshullemeth the daughter of Haruz from Jotbah.
21.20 He continued to do what was bad in Jehovah’s eyes, just as his father Manasseh had done.
21.21 He kept walking in all the ways that his father walked, and he continued serving and bowing down to the disgusting idols that his father had served.
21.22 So he abandoned Jehovah the God of his forefathers, and he did not walk in the way of Jehovah.
21.23 Eventually Amon’s servants conspired against him and put the king to death in his own house.
21.24 But the people of the land struck down all those who conspired against King Amon, and they made his son Josiah king in his place.
21.25 As for the rest of the history of Amon, what he did, is it not written in the book of the history of the times of the kings of Judah?
21.26 So they buried him in his grave in the garden of Uzza, and his son Josiah became king in his place.

22.1 Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned for 31 years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jedidah the daughter of Adaiah from Bozkath.
22.2 He did what was right in Jehovah’s eyes and walked in all the ways of David his forefather, and he did not deviate to the right or to the left.
22.3 In the 18th year of King Josiah, the king sent Shaphan the secretary, the son of Azaliah the son of Meshullam, to the house of Jehovah, saying:
22.4 “Go up to Hilkiah the high priest, and let him collect all the money that is being brought into the house of Jehovah, which the doorkeepers have collected from the people.
22.5 Have them give it to those appointed over the work in the house of Jehovah who, in turn, will give it to the workers in the house of Jehovah who are to repair the damage to the house,
22.6 that is, to the craftsmen, the builders, and the masons; and they are to use it to buy timbers and hewn stones to repair the house.
22.7 But no accounting should be required of them for the money that they are given, because they are trustworthy.”
22.8 Later Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the secretary: “I have found the book of the Law in the house of Jehovah.” So Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, who began to read it.
22.9 Then Shaphan the secretary went to the king and told him: “Your servants have poured out the money that was found in the house, and they have handed it over to those appointed over the work in the house of Jehovah.”
22.10 Shaphan the secretary also told the king: “There is a book that Hilkiah the priest has given me.” Then Shaphan began to read it before the king.
22.11 As soon as the king heard the words of the book of the Law, he ripped his garments apart.
22.12 Then the king gave this order to Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam the son of Shaphan, Achbor the son of Micaiah, Shaphan the secretary, and Asaiah the king’s servant:
22.13 “Go, inquire of Jehovah in my behalf, in behalf of the people, and in behalf of all Judah concerning the words of this book that has been found; for Jehovah’s rage that has been set ablaze against us is great, because our forefathers did not obey the words of this book by observing all that is written concerning us.”
22.14 So Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam, Achbor, Shaphan, and Asaiah went to Huldah the prophetess. She was the wife of Shallum son of Tikvah son of Harhas, the caretaker of the wardrobe, and she was dwelling in the Second Quarter of Jerusalem; and they spoke to her there.
22.15 She said to them: “This is what Jehovah the God of Israel says, ‘Tell the man who sent you to me:
22.16 “This is what Jehovah says, ‘I will bring calamity on this place and its inhabitants, all the words of the book that the king of Judah has read.
22.17 Because they have abandoned me and are making sacrifices smoke to other gods in order to offend me with all the work of their hands, my rage will be set ablaze against this place and it will not be extinguished.’”
22.18 But to the king of Judah who sent you to inquire of Jehovah, this is what you should say to him, “This is what Jehovah the God of Israel says: ‘Regarding the words that you have heard,
22.19 because your heart was responsive and you humbled yourself before Jehovah on hearing what I have spoken against this place and its inhabitants—that they would become an object of horror and a curse—and you ripped your garments apart and wept before me, I also have heard you, declares Jehovah.
22.20 That is why I will gather you to your ancestors, and you will be laid in your grave in peace, and your eyes will not see all the calamity that I will bring on this place.’”’” Then they brought the reply to the king.