The Divided Kingdom

And afore Isaiah was gone out into the middle of the court, the worde of the Lord came to him, saying,

Turne againe, and tell Hezekiah the captaine of my people, Thus saith the Lord God of Dauid thy father, I haue heard thy prayer, and seene thy teares: behold, I haue healed thee, and ye third day thou shalt go vp to ye house of ye Lord,

And I wil adde vnto thy dayes fiftene yere, and wil deliuer thee and this citie out of the hand of the King of Asshur, and will defende this citie for mine owne sake, and for Dauid my seruats sake.

Then Isaiah sayde, Take a lumpe of dry figges. And they tooke it, and layed it on the boyle, and he recouered.

For Hezekiah had saide vnto Isaiah, What shalbe the signe that the Lord will heale me, and that I shall goe vp into the house of the Lord the thirde day?

And Isaiah answered, This signe shalt thou haue of the Lord, that the Lord will doe that he hath spoken, Wilt thou that the shadowe goe forwarde ten degrees, or go backe ten degrees?

And Hezekiah answered, It is a light thing for the shadowe to passe forward ten degrees: not so then, but let ye shadow go backe ten degrees.

And Isaiah the Prophet called vnto the Lord, and he brought againe the shadowe ten degrees backe by the degrees whereby it had gone downe in the diall of Ahaz.

The same season Berodach Baladan the sonne of Baladan King of Babel, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah: for he had heard howe that Hezekiah was sicke.

And Hezekiah heard them, and shewed them all his treasure house, to wit, the siluer, and the golde, and the spices, and the precious oyntment, and all the house of his armour, and al that was founde in his treasures: there was nothing in his house, and in all his realme, that Hezekiah shewed them not.

Then Isaiah the Prophet came vnto King Hezekiah, and saide vnto him, What saide these men? and from whence came they to thee? And Hezekiah said, They be come from a farre countrey, euen from Babel.

Then saide he, What haue they seene in thine house? And Hezekiah answered, All that is in mine house haue they seene: there is nothing among my treasures, that I haue not shewed the.

And Isaiah said vnto Hezekiah, Heare the worde of the Lord.

Beholde, the dayes come, that all that is in thine house, and what so euer thy fathers haue layed vp in store vnto this day, shall be caryed into Babel: Nothing shall be left, saith the Lord.

And of thy sonnes, that shall proceede out of thee, and which thou shalt beget, shall they take away, and they shalbe eunuches in the palace of the King of Babel.

Then Hezekiah said vnto Isaiah, The word of the Lord which thou hast spoken, is good: for saide he, Shall it not be good, if peace and trueth be in my dayes?

Concerning the rest of the actes of Hezekiah, and all his valiant deedes, and howe he made a poole and a cundite, and brought water into the citie, are they not written in the booke of the Chronicles of the Kings of Iudah?

And Hezekiah slept with his fathers: and Manasseh his sonne reigned in his steade.

Manasseh was twelue yeere olde when he began to reigne, and reigned fiftie and fiue yeere in Ierusalem: his mothers name also was Hephzi-bah.

And he did euill in the sight of the Lord after the abomination of the heathen, whom the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel.

For he went backe and built the hie places, which Hezekiah his father had destroyed: and he erected vp altars for Baal, and made a groue, as did Ahab King of Israel, and worshipped all the hoste of heauen and serued them.

Also he built altars in the house of the Lord, of the which the Lord saide, In Ierusalem will I put my Name.

And he built altars for al the hoste of ye heauen in the two courtes of the house of the Lord.

And he caused his sonnes to passe through the fire, and gaue him selfe to witchcraft and sorcerie, and he vsed them that had familiar spirits and were soothsayers, and did much euill in the sight of the Lord to anger him.

And he set the image of the groue, that he had made, in the house, whereof ye Lord had saide to Dauid and to Salomon his sonne, In this house and in Ierusalem, which I haue chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, will I put my Name for euer.