Hezekiah and Isaiah pray to the Lord
20 King Hezekiah and Amoz's son, Isaiah the prophet, prayed to God in heaven. They asked him to help. 21 The Lord God sent an angel to destroy Assyria's army. The angel killed all the soldiers and the army officers in their camp. So the king of Assyria had to return home to his own country. He was very ashamed. He went into the temple of his god. There some of his own sons used their swords to kill him.
22 That is how the Lord saved Hezekiah and Jerusalem's people from King Sennacherib of Assyria. The Lord also saved them from all their other enemies. So all Judah had a time of peace. 23 Many people brought gifts to Jerusalem to offer to the Lord. They also brought valuable gifts for King Hezekiah. From that time, all the other nations respected Hezekiah as a great king.
24 Soon after that, Hezekiah became very ill. He nearly died. He prayed to the Lord and the Lord answered him. The Lord did a miracle to show that Hezekiah would get better. 25 But Hezekiah did not thank the Lord for the kind thing that he had done for him. The king was too proud to do that. So the Lord became angry with him, and with the people of Judah and Jerusalem. 26 But then Hezekiah and the people who lived in Jerusalem made themselves humble. They stopped being proud, so the Lord did not punish them. He was not angry with them while Hezekiah continued to be king.
27 Hezekiah was very rich. People gave him great honour. He built rooms to store all his valuable things. They included silver, gold, jewels, spices and shields. 28 He built rooms to store grain, wine and olive oil. He also made buildings to keep all his cows, sheep and goats. 29 He built special cities for himself. He put lots of sheep and cows in them, because God had given him very many things.
30 Hezekiah had stopped the water coming out from the higher spring at Gihon. Instead, he caused the water to go down to the west side of the City of David. Hezekiah was successful in all the things that he did. 31 After that, the rulers of Babylon sent some officers to visit Hezekiah. They wanted to ask him about the miracle that had happened in Judah. God let Hezekiah decide what to tell them. He wanted to test Hezekiah, to see if he would be faithful.