The Story of Rahab in the Bible

Joshua sends two men into Jericho to scout it, and the first thing that happens is they walk into the house of a woman the text calls a harlot, and stay there.

By the end of the story she is the only person in the whole city named as surviving its destruction – because of what she does in the next few hours.

The Story of Rahab

Joshua the son of Nun sent out of Shittim two men to spy secretly, saying, Go view the land, even Jericho. And they went, and came into an harlot’s house, named Rahab, and lodged there. It was told the king of Jericho that Israelite men had come to search out the country, and he sent to Rahab demanding she bring them out.

The woman took the two men, and hid them, and said thus, There came men unto me, but I wist not whence they were: and it came to pass about the time of shutting of the gate, when it was dark, that the men went out: whither the men went I wot not: pursue after them quickly; for ye shall overtake them. She lies to the king’s messengers, and sends the pursuit out toward the wrong road.

Before she lets the spies go, she tells them why she is doing this. I know that the LORD hath given you the land, and that your terror is fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you. As soon as we had heard these things, our hearts did melt, neither did there remain any more courage in any man, because of you: for the LORD your God, he is God in heaven above, and in earth beneath. A woman inside the doomed city states Israel’s own theology back to them.

She asks a price for the risk she has taken. Swear unto me by the LORD, since I have shewed you kindness, that ye will also shew kindness unto my father’s house, and give me a true token: and that ye will save alive my father, and my mother, and my brethren, and my sisters, and all that they have, and deliver our lives from death. The men answered her, Our life for yours, if ye utter not this our business.

Then she let them down by a cord through the window: for her house was upon the town wall, and she dwelt upon the wall. Before they leave, they give her the sign to use: thou shalt bind this line of scarlet thread in the window which thou didst let us down by: and thou shalt bring thy father, and thy mother, and thy brethren, and all thy father’s household, home unto thee. She agreed – according unto your words, so be it – and bound the scarlet line in the window.

When the city fell, Joshua had already told the two spies: only Rahab the harlot shall live, she and all that are with her in the house, because she hid the messengers that we sent. The young men that were spies went in, and brought Rahab, and her father, and her mother, and her brethren, and all that she had; and they brought out all her kindred, and left them without the camp of Israel. Joshua saved Rahab the harlot alive, and her father’s household, and all that she had; and she dwelleth in Israel even unto this day.

Key Verses

“They went, and came into an harlot’s house, named Rahab, and lodged there” Joshua 2:1

“I know that the LORD hath given you the land, and that your terror is fallen upon us” Joshua 2:9

“The LORD your God, he is God in heaven above, and in earth beneath” Joshua 2:11

“Our life for yours, if ye utter not this our business” Joshua 2:14

“Only Rahab the harlot shall live, she and all that are with her in the house, because she hid the messengers that we sent” Joshua 6:17

“Joshua saved Rahab the harlot alive, and her father’s household, and all that she had; and she dwelleth in Israel even unto this day” Joshua 6:25

Scripture quotations are from the King James Version (KJV), a public-domain translation.

What the Story of Rahab Teaches Us

Two full chapters, 2 and 6, are given to a woman who is not an Israelite and is identified by an occupation the text does not soften. She is not folded quietly into the story; she is named the harlot right up to the moment she is saved.

Her stated reason for helping the spies is theological, not merely practical fear: the LORD your God, he is God in heaven above, and in earth beneath. Whatever her past, the text records her as the one person in Jericho who said out loud what Israel’s God had already done.

The oath is kept exactly as given. The scarlet line, the closed door, the gathered family – every condition Rahab specified is honored when the city falls, and the account closes by saying she dwelleth in Israel even unto this day: a permanent resident, not a footnote.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Who was Rahab?

A woman living in Jericho, identified in Joshua 2:1 as a harlot, who hid two Israelite spies in her house on the town wall and helped them escape the king’s search.

Why did Rahab help the Israelite spies?

She told them she knew the LORD had given Israel the land and that the whole city’s courage had failed because of it, saying, the LORD your God, he is God in heaven above, and in earth beneath.

What did Rahab ask for in return?

She asked the spies to swear by the LORD to spare her father, mother, brothers, sisters and all they had when Israel took the city, and they agreed, saying, our life for yours, if ye utter not this our business.

What was the scarlet cord for?

It was the sign the spies told her to bind in the same window she let them down from, so that when Jericho fell, the Israelite soldiers would know which house to leave untouched.

What happened to Rahab when Jericho fell?

Joshua had ordered that only Rahab and everyone in her house be spared. The spies brought her out with her whole household before the city was destroyed, and she dwelleth in Israel even unto this day.

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The Story of Jeconiah in the Bible

He was eighteen, he reigned for three months, and a prophet told him his family line was finished on the throne of David.

Jeremiah’s words are about as final as Scripture gets: write ye this man childless. And yet his story does not end where the curse does.

The Story of Jeconiah

Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem three months. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his father had done.

At that time the servants of Nebuchadnezzar came up against Jerusalem and besieged it. Then Jehoiachin the king of Judah went out to the king of Babylon, he, and his mother, and his servants, and his princes, and his officers. He surrendered, with his household, in the eighth year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign.

Babylon emptied the city. He carried out all the treasures of the house of the LORD and of the king’s house, and cut in pieces all the vessels of gold which Solomon king of Israel had made in the temple. He carried away ten thousand captives, all the princes and the mighty men of valour and all the craftsmen and smiths: none remained, save the poorest sort of the people of the land.

Jeremiah, who calls him Coniah, delivers the sentence. Though Coniah were the signet upon my right hand, yet would I pluck thee thence. He would be given into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar, cast out into another country with the mother who bore him, and there they would die, and to the land they desired to return they would not return.

Then the hardest line. Is this man Coniah a despised broken idol? Is he a vessel wherein is no pleasure? And the judgment: write ye this man childless, a man that shall not prosper in his days: for no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David, and ruling any more in Judah.

The book of Kings ends, thirty-seven years later, with him. Evil-merodach king of Babylon did lift up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah out of prison, and spake kindly to him, and set his throne above the throne of the kings that were with him in Babylon. He changed his prison garments, and he did eat bread continually before him all the days of his life, with a daily allowance given him all the days of his life. That is where the history of the kings stops: not with a throne restored, but with a released prisoner eating at a table.

Key Verses

“Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem three months” 2 Kings 24:8

“Cut in pieces all the vessels of gold which Solomon king of Israel had made in the temple” 2 Kings 24:13

“None remained, save the poorest sort of the people of the land” 2 Kings 24:14

“Though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were the signet upon my right hand” Jeremiah 22:24

“Write ye this man childless, a man that shall not prosper in his days” Jeremiah 22:30

“He did eat bread continually before him all the days of his life” 2 Kings 25:29

Scripture quotations are from the King James Version (KJV), a public-domain translation.

What the Story of Jeconiah Teaches Us

The curse is precise, and precision matters. No man of his seed would prosper sitting upon the throne of David and ruling in Judah. It closes that throne to his line. It does not say his line ends, and Kings deliberately finishes with him alive, fed, and honoured above the other captive kings.

The two halves of the story sit uncomfortably together on purpose. Jeremiah’s sentence is not softened, and the last four verses of Kings are not triumphant either. A man eating bread at another king’s table every day of his life is being provided for and owned at the same time.

Kings could have ended with the temple burning. It ends instead with a small, strange kindness thirty-seven years into an exile – the sort of ending that suggests the writer did not think the story was over.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Who was Jeconiah?

Jehoiachin, also called Jeconiah and Coniah, king of Judah. He was eighteen when he began to reign and reigned in Jerusalem three months before surrendering to Nebuchadnezzar and being carried to Babylon.

What was the curse on Jeconiah?

Jeremiah said to write this man childless, a man that shall not prosper in his days, for no man of his seed should prosper sitting upon the throne of David and ruling any more in Judah.

Did Jeconiah have children?

The curse is specific about the throne, not about offspring: no man of his seed would prosper sitting upon the throne of David and ruling in Judah. It closes the throne to his descendants rather than saying he had none.

What did Nebuchadnezzar take from Jerusalem?

All the treasures of the house of the LORD and of the king’s house, and he cut in pieces all the vessels of gold which Solomon had made in the temple. He carried away ten thousand captives including the princes, the mighty men of valour, the craftsmen and the smiths.

What happened to Jeconiah in the end?

In the thirty-seventh year of his captivity, Evil-merodach king of Babylon lifted his head out of prison, spoke kindly to him, set his throne above the other kings in Babylon, changed his prison garments, and gave him a daily allowance all the days of his life.

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The Story of Zedekiah in the Bible

Judah’s last king was not chosen by Judah. Babylon put him on the throne and even changed his name, which is what you do to a man you own.

Eleven years later he rebelled anyway, and the account of what followed is the bleakest stretch in the book of Kings. It ends with a burned temple, a broken wall, and a blind man in chains.

The Story of Zedekiah

The king of Babylon made Mattaniah, his predecessor’s uncle, king in his stead, and changed his name to Zedekiah. He was twenty-one, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. He did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that Jehoiakim had done.

Then one line explains the whole chapter before it happens: for through the anger of the LORD it came to pass in Jerusalem and Judah, until he had cast them out from his presence, that Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.

In the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day, Nebuchadnezzar came with all his host against Jerusalem and pitched against it, and they built forts against it round about. The text dates it to the day, the way you record something you never want argued about. The city was besieged until the eleventh year of Zedekiah – roughly eighteen months.

On the ninth day of the fourth month the famine prevailed in the city, and there was no bread for the people of the land. Then the city was broken up, and all the men of war fled by night by the way of the gate between two walls, which is by the king’s garden. The king went the way toward the plain.

The army of the Chaldees pursued after the king and overtook him in the plains of Jericho, and all his army were scattered from him. They took him and brought him to the king of Babylon at Riblah, and they gave judgment upon him. And they slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and put out the eyes of Zedekiah, and bound him with fetters of brass, and carried him to Babylon. The order of those clauses is deliberate: the last thing he ever saw was chosen for him.

A month later Nebuzar-adan, captain of the guard, came to Jerusalem. He burnt the house of the LORD, and the king’s house, and all the houses of Jerusalem, and every great man’s house burnt he with fire. The army broke down the walls of Jerusalem round about, and carried the people away. But the captain of the guard left of the poor of the land to be vinedressers and husbandmen. The kingdom ends with a note about who was left to tend the vines.

Key Verses

“Made Mattaniah his father’s brother king in his stead, and changed his name to Zedekiah” 2 Kings 24:17

“Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon” 2 Kings 24:20

“The famine prevailed in the city, and there was no bread for the people of the land” 2 Kings 25:3

“They slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and put out the eyes of Zedekiah” 2 Kings 25:7

“He burnt the house of the LORD, and the king’s house” 2 Kings 25:9

“Left of the poor of the land to be vinedressers and husbandmen” 2 Kings 25:12

Scripture quotations are from the King James Version (KJV), a public-domain translation.

What the Story of Zedekiah Teaches Us

The writer refuses to let you read this as bad luck or bad strategy. The rebellion itself is placed inside God’s anger, and the warning had been running since 2 Kings 17, when the northern kingdom fell for the same reasons. Judah watched that happen and did it anyway.

Zedekiah’s name was given to him by the man who owned him, and he spent eleven years pretending otherwise. The rebellion looks like courage until you notice it was timed by someone else’s calendar and ended in the plains of Jericho with his army scattered.

The last detail is the one that stays. The poor were left behind to work the land – the people nobody bothered to deport. Judah as a kingdom ends here, but the story does not, and it carries on through exactly the people the empire did not think worth taking.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Who was Zedekiah?

The last king of Judah. His birth name was Mattaniah; the king of Babylon made him king in place of his nephew Jehoiachin and changed his name to Zedekiah. He was twenty-one and reigned eleven years in Jerusalem.

How long was Jerusalem besieged?

The siege began in the ninth year of Zedekiah, in the tenth month on the tenth day, and the city held until the eleventh year – about eighteen months. Famine prevailed and there was no bread for the people of the land.

What happened to Zedekiah?

He fled by night but the Chaldean army overtook him in the plains of Jericho. He was brought to Nebuchadnezzar at Riblah, where they slew his sons before his eyes, put out his eyes, bound him with fetters of brass and carried him to Babylon.

What happened to the temple?

Nebuzar-adan, captain of the guard, burnt the house of the LORD, the king’s house and all the houses of Jerusalem, and the army broke down the walls of the city round about.

Was anyone left in Judah?

Yes. The captain of the guard carried away the rest of the people, but left of the poor of the land to be vinedressers and husbandmen.

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The Story of Jezebel in the Bible

Her name became a byword, and most of what people mean by it is not in the Bible at all. The painted face in 2 Kings 9 is the source of the reputation, and it is the last thing she ever does.

What the text actually charges her with is worse, and more specific: she killed prophets, she threatened the one who got away, and she had an innocent man executed by forged letters so her husband could have his garden.

The Story of Jezebel

She arrives in one verse. As if it had been a light thing for Ahab to walk in the sins of Jeroboam, he took to wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Zidonians, and went and served Baal, and worshipped him. Ahab then reared up an altar for Baal in Samaria, and did more to provoke the LORD God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel before him.

The first charge is stated almost in passing, inside a bracket about somebody else. When Jezebel cut off the prophets of the LORD, Obadiah took an hundred prophets and hid them by fifty in a cave, and fed them with bread and water. A hundred men survived because one official disobeyed her, which tells you what was happening to the ones he could not reach.

After Carmel, Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done. Her reply is a message sent directly to the prophet: so let the gods do to me, and more also, if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by to morrow about this time. She gives him a deadline. Elijah, who had just faced four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal alone, runs.

Then Naboth. Ahab wanted his vineyard, Naboth refused, and Ahab went home and sulked and would not eat. Jezebel asked him, dost thou now govern the kingdom of Israel? Arise, and eat bread, and let thine heart be merry: I will give thee the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite.

So she wrote letters in Ahab’s name, and sealed them with his seal, and sent them to the elders and nobles of Naboth’s own city. Proclaim a fast, set Naboth on high among the people, set two men, sons of Belial, before him to bear witness that he blasphemed God and the king, then carry him out and stone him. The elders did exactly as the letters said. It is judicial murder, carried out by the man’s own neighbours, on paperwork.

Years later Jehu came to Jezreel. Jezebel heard of it, and she painted her face, and tired her head, and looked out at a window, and called down a taunt about another usurper who did not last. Jehu asked who was on his side, two or three eunuchs looked out, and he said, throw her down. Afterwards he sent men to bury her, for she is a king’s daughter, but they found no more of her than the skull, and the feet, and the palms of her hands.

Key Verses

“He took to wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Zidonians” 1 Kings 16:31

“When Jezebel cut off the prophets of the LORD” 1 Kings 18:4

“If I make not thy life as the life of one of them by to morrow about this time” 1 Kings 19:2

“I will give thee the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite” 1 Kings 21:7

“She wrote letters in Ahab’s name, and sealed them with his seal” 1 Kings 21:8

“She painted her face, and tired her head, and looked out at a window” 2 Kings 9:30

Scripture quotations are from the King James Version (KJV), a public-domain translation.

What the Story of Jezebel Teaches Us

The Bible’s case against her is about power, not appearance. Killing prophets, threatening Elijah, and forging her husband’s seal to have a man judicially murdered – those are the charges. The one scene people remember, painting her face at the window, is her facing her own death, and the text spends no words condemning it.

The Naboth letters are the most chilling part because nothing illegal-looking happens. There is a fast, a court, two witnesses, a verdict. Every form is observed. The elders of Jezreel read the instructions and did it, and the account names no one who refused.

Ahab is not let off. He sulked, she acted, and he went down to take possession of the vineyard without asking how it came free. The text holds him responsible for what he was content not to know.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Who was Jezebel?

The daughter of Ethbaal king of the Zidonians, married to Ahab king of Israel. After the marriage Ahab served and worshipped Baal, built an altar for Baal in Samaria, and provoked the LORD more than all the kings of Israel before him.

What did Jezebel actually do?

The text charges her with cutting off the prophets of the LORD, sending a messenger threatening to kill Elijah within a day, and writing letters in Ahab’s name, sealed with his seal, arranging for Naboth to be falsely accused and stoned so Ahab could take his vineyard.

Did Jezebel kill the prophets?

1 Kings 18:4 says she cut off the prophets of the LORD. It is mentioned while explaining why Obadiah hid a hundred of them by fifty in a cave and fed them with bread and water.

Why did she paint her face?

When Jehu came to Jezreel she painted her face, tired her head and looked out at a window before confronting him. The passage gives no motive and offers no comment on it; it is the last thing she does before she is thrown down.

How did Jezebel die?

Jehu told the eunuchs at the window to throw her down, and they did. When men were later sent to bury her because she was a king’s daughter, they found no more of her than the skull, the feet and the palms of her hands – which Jehu identified as the word the LORD had spoken by Elijah.

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The Story of the Death of Josiah in the Bible

The best king Judah ever had dies in a battle he had no reason to be in, against a man who told him to go home.

The strangest part is where the warning came from. Chronicles says the words that Josiah refused to hear were God’s, and they arrived in the mouth of a foreign Pharaoh.

The Story of the Death of Josiah

After all this, when Josiah had prepared the temple, Necho king of Egypt came up to fight against Charchemish by Euphrates. The fight was not with Judah. Necho was marching north on his own business, and his road ran past Josiah’s border.

Josiah went out against him anyway. Necho sent ambassadors ahead with a message that reads less like a threat than a plea: what have I to do with thee, thou king of Judah? I come not against thee this day, but against the house wherewith I have war.

Then the line that makes this story hard. For God commanded me to make haste: forbear thee from meddling with God, who is with me, that he destroy thee not. The Egyptian king tells the king of Judah that God is on the other side of this one.

Nevertheless Josiah would not turn his face from him, but disguised himself, that he might fight with him, and hearkened not unto the words of Necho from the mouth of God, and came to fight in the valley of Megiddo. The disguise is a detail worth sitting with: he knew enough to hide who he was.

And the archers shot at king Josiah. He said to his servants, Have me away; for I am sore wounded. They took him out of that chariot and put him in the second chariot that he had, and brought him to Jerusalem, and he died, and was buried in one of the sepulchres of his fathers.

And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah. Jeremiah lamented for him, and the singing men and the singing women spake of Josiah in their lamentations, and made them an ordinance in Israel. The king who had torn his clothes over a book was buried by a country that had learned to grieve properly, largely because he taught them to.

Key Verses

“Necho king of Egypt came up to fight against Charchemish by Euphrates: and Josiah went out against him” 2 Chronicles 35:20

“I come not against thee this day … forbear thee from meddling with God, who is with me” 2 Chronicles 35:21

“Josiah would not turn his face from him, but disguised himself” 2 Chronicles 35:22

“The archers shot at king Josiah” 2 Chronicles 35:23

“His servants carried him in a chariot dead from Megiddo” 2 Kings 23:30

“Jeremiah lamented for Josiah” 2 Chronicles 35:25

Scripture quotations are from the King James Version (KJV), a public-domain translation.

What the Story of the Death of Josiah Teaches Us

This is the same man who heard the book of the law and tore his clothes, who pulled down shrines that had stood since Solomon. Being right for thirty-one years did not make him right on the last day. A good record is not a substitute for asking.

The warning came through Necho, a foreign king with his own reasons. Chronicles is blunt that the words were from the mouth of God, which means Josiah dismissed a true thing because of who was saying it. That is an ordinary way to go wrong, and it is easier to see in someone else.

He disguised himself before riding in. Whatever else that tells us, it tells us he had already weighed the risk. The account never says why he went – no motive is offered, no strategy explained – and the silence is part of the point.

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Frequently Asked Questions

How did Josiah die?

He was shot by archers in the valley of Megiddo after riding out against Necho king of Egypt. His servants moved him from his chariot into a second chariot and brought him to Jerusalem, where he died and was buried in one of the sepulchres of his fathers.

Why did Josiah fight Necho?

The text never says. Necho was marching north to fight at Charchemish by the Euphrates and told Josiah the quarrel was not with him. Josiah went out against him anyway, and no reason is given.

Did God really warn Josiah through Pharaoh?

2 Chronicles 35 says so directly. Necho’s message included the words, forbear thee from meddling with God, who is with me, and the account adds that Josiah hearkened not unto the words of Necho from the mouth of God.

Why did Josiah disguise himself?

The passage says he disguised himself that he might fight, but does not explain further. It does show he understood the danger before he rode in.

Who mourned for Josiah?

All Judah and Jerusalem. Jeremiah lamented for him, and the singing men and singing women spoke of him in their lamentations, which were made an ordinance in Israel.

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The Story of the Fall of Samaria in the Bible

A three-year siege ends, a capital falls, and ten tribes are marched out of their own country. It is the end of the northern kingdom of Israel, and it never comes back.

What makes this chapter unusual is that the writer stops telling the story halfway through and spends twenty verses explaining why. The siege gets two verses. The reason gets the rest of the chapter.

The Story of the Fall of Samaria

Hoshea was the last king of Israel. He had been paying tribute to Shalmaneser king of Assyria, and then he stopped, and sent messengers to So king of Egypt instead. The king of Assyria found the conspiracy, shut him up, and bound him in prison.

Then the Assyrian army came up throughout all the land and went up to Samaria, and besieged it three years. In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria and carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.

At that point the account stops. For so it was, the writer says, that the children of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, which had brought them up out of the land of Egypt. They had feared other gods and walked in the statutes of the heathen.

The charge is detailed. They built high places in all their cities, from the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city. They set up images and groves in every high hill and under every green tree. They made two calves and a grove, worshipped all the host of heaven, and served Baal. They caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire, and used divination and enchantments.

And there had been warning. Yet the LORD testified against Israel, and against Judah, by all the prophets, and by all the seers, saying, Turn ye from your evil ways, and keep my commandments and my statutes. The reply is one of the bleakest lines in the book: notwithstanding they would not hear, but hardened their necks, like to the neck of their fathers, that did not believe in the LORD their God.

Therefore the LORD was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of his sight. There was none left but the tribe of Judah only. The chapter closes the way it began, plainly: so was Israel carried away out of their own land to Assyria unto this day.

Key Verses

“Went up to Samaria, and besieged it three years” 2 Kings 17:5

“The king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria” 2 Kings 17:6

“Turn ye from your evil ways, and keep my commandments and my statutes” 2 Kings 17:13

“Notwithstanding they would not hear, but hardened their necks” 2 Kings 17:14

“Therefore the LORD was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of his sight” 2 Kings 17:18

“So was Israel carried away out of their own land to Assyria” 2 Kings 17:23

Scripture quotations are from the King James Version (KJV), a public-domain translation.

What the Story of the Fall of Samaria Teaches Us

The collapse is dated to one year, but the chapter refuses to treat it as one year’s problem. The list of practices goes back generations, and so does the list of warnings. What fell in the ninth year of Hoshea had been coming apart for a long time in ways nobody had to notice.

The phrase that carries the chapter is they would not hear. It is not that no prophet came, or that the message was unclear. Warning after warning arrived and was simply declined, which is a harder thing to read than outright rebellion.

There is also a quiet warning shot aimed at the reader. Verse 19 adds that Judah kept not the commandments of the LORD their God, but walked in the statutes of Israel which they made. The southern kingdom is watching its neighbor be deported and copying it anyway. Six chapters later the same thing happens to them.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What happened at the fall of Samaria?

The king of Assyria besieged Samaria for three years, took the city in the ninth year of Hoshea, and carried Israel away into Assyria, settling them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan and in the cities of the Medes.

Who was the last king of Israel?

Hoshea the son of Elah. He had been a servant of Shalmaneser king of Assyria and paying him presents, but he sent messengers to So king of Egypt and stopped paying, and the king of Assyria imprisoned him.

Why did the northern kingdom fall?

2 Kings 17 gives the reason at length: Israel had feared other gods, built high places in all their cities, set up images and groves, worshipped the host of heaven and served Baal, and would not hear the prophets who told them to turn from their evil ways.

How long did the siege of Samaria last?

Three years. The Assyrian army came up throughout all the land, went up to Samaria, and besieged it three years before the city was taken.

Which tribe was left after Israel was carried away?

The text says there was none left but the tribe of Judah only. It then adds that Judah also kept not the commandments of the LORD, and walked in the statutes Israel had made.

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The Story of Hezekiah and the Letter in the Bible

An empire that has never lost is standing outside Jerusalem, and its spokesman is shouting up at the men on the wall in their own language so everyone can understand him.

The king of Judah does something with the threat that nobody expects. He does not answer it, and he does not hide it. He carries it into the temple and opens it out in front of God.

The Story of Hezekiah and the Letter

In the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fenced cities of Judah, and took them. Hezekiah sent word admitting he had offended and asking him to withdraw, and paid an enormous ransom, stripping the silver from the house of the LORD and cutting the gold off the temple doors.

It bought nothing. The king of Assyria sent officers from Lachish to Jerusalem with a great host, and Rab-shakeh stood by the conduit of the upper pool and made a speech. What confidence is this wherein thou trustest? Egypt, he said, is a bruised reed that will go into your hand and pierce it.

Then he turned the argument on God. Have any of the gods of the nations delivered their land out of the hand of the king of Assyria? Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? He ended with the line that made the whole thing blasphemy rather than diplomacy: who among all the gods of the countries has delivered their country out of mine hand, that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem out of mine hand?

Hezekiah’s officials had asked him to speak in the Syrian language so the people on the wall would not understand. He refused, and spoke louder, in the Jews’ language. The people held their peace and answered him not a word, because the king’s commandment was to answer him not.

When Hezekiah heard it he rent his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the LORD. He sent to Isaiah the prophet with a message that sounds like exhaustion: this day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and blasphemy, for the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth. Isaiah sent back word not to be afraid of the words he had heard.

Then a letter came. Sennacherib wrote directly, repeating the taunt and naming more conquered gods. Hezekiah received the letter of the hand of the messengers, and read it, and went up into the house of the LORD, and spread it before the LORD. His prayer does not argue with the letter’s facts. It agrees with them. The kings of Assyria really have destroyed those nations and burned their gods, he says, for they were no gods, but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone. Then he asks one thing: save thou us out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the LORD God, even thou only.

Key Verses

“Did Sennacherib king of Assyria come up against all the fenced cities of Judah, and took them” 2 Kings 18:13

“That the LORD should deliver Jerusalem out of mine hand” 2 Kings 18:35

“He rent his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the LORD” 2 Kings 19:1

“Hezekiah went up into the house of the LORD, and spread it before the LORD” 2 Kings 19:14

“Thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth” 2 Kings 19:15

“Save thou us out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the LORD God, even thou only” 2 Kings 19:19

Scripture quotations are from the King James Version (KJV), a public-domain translation.

What the Story of Hezekiah and the Letter Teaches Us

Hezekiah had already tried paying. He emptied the treasury and stripped gold off the temple doors, and the army came anyway. The prayer in chapter 19 is not his first move, it is what is left after the obvious move failed, which is worth noticing before treating him as a model of instant faith.

The prayer is unusual because it concedes the enemy’s evidence. Sennacherib’s list of defeated gods was accurate, and Hezekiah says so. What he disputes is the category: those were wood and stone, and the God of Israel is not on that list.

Spreading the letter out before the LORD is one of the plainest pictures of prayer in the Old Testament. He does not summarize the threat or soften it. He puts the actual document down and leaves it open.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Who was Rab-shakeh?

He was one of the officers Sennacherib sent from Lachish to Jerusalem, along with Tartan and Rabsaris. He made the speech outside the wall demanding Jerusalem’s surrender and mocking the idea that the LORD could deliver the city.

Why did Hezekiah’s officials ask Rab-shakeh to speak in Syrian?

So the people sitting on the wall would not understand the threat. He refused, and instead stood and cried with a loud voice in the Jews’ language so that everyone could hear him.

What did Hezekiah do with Sennacherib’s letter?

He received it from the messengers, read it, went up into the house of the LORD, and spread it before the LORD, then prayed that God would save them so that all the kingdoms of the earth would know he alone is the LORD God.

Did Hezekiah try to buy Sennacherib off first?

Yes. He sent word to Lachish saying he had offended, and paid three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold, taking the silver from the house of the LORD and cutting the gold from the temple doors. The army came to Jerusalem anyway.

How did the people on the wall answer Rab-shakeh?

They did not. The people held their peace and answered him not a word, because the king had commanded them not to answer him.

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The Story of the 185,000 Assyrians in the Bible

Hezekiah has finished praying. The Assyrian army is still there, and nothing outside the temple has changed.

What follows is one of the shortest turning points in the Old Testament. The siege of Jerusalem ends in a single verse, overnight, and the army that had taken every other city in Judah simply goes home.

The Story of the 185,000 Assyrians

Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, That which thou hast prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria I have heard. The answer comes before anything visible happens.

The word that follows is addressed to Sennacherib rather than about him. The virgin the daughter of Zion hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn. Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed? The charge is not that he attacked Judah but that he lifted up his eyes on high against the Holy One of Israel.

Sennacherib had boasted of cutting down the tall cedars of Lebanon and drying up rivers with the sole of his feet. God answers that he had been given whatever he took: hast thou not heard long ago how I have done it, and of ancient times that I have formed it? The conqueror had been an instrument and had mistaken himself for the cause.

Then the sentence, in the language of a farmer handling livestock: I will put my hook in thy nose, and my bridle in thy lips, and I will turn thee back by the way by which thou camest.

Isaiah gives Hezekiah a specific promise about the city. He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shield, nor cast a bank against it. By the way that he came, by the same shall he return. And the reason given is not Judah’s merit: for I will defend this city, to save it, for mine own sake, and for my servant David’s sake.

And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the LORD went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand. When they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses. So Sennacherib departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh. Years later, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, his own sons Adrammelech and Sharezer smote him with the sword, and Esar-haddon his son reigned in his stead.

Key Verses

“That which thou hast prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria I have heard” 2 Kings 19:20

“Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed?” 2 Kings 19:22

“I will put my hook in thy nose, and my bridle in thy lips” 2 Kings 19:28

“He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there” 2 Kings 19:32

“For I will defend this city, to save it, for mine own sake” 2 Kings 19:34

“The angel of the LORD went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand” 2 Kings 19:35

Scripture quotations are from the King James Version (KJV), a public-domain translation.

What the Story of the 185,000 Assyrians Teaches Us

The deliverance is given a reason, and it is not the one a reader expects. God says he will defend the city for mine own sake, and for my servant David’s sake. Hezekiah’s prayer is answered, but the city is not saved because Judah had earned it.

Sennacherib’s boasts are quoted back to him almost word for word, and the reply is that he had been doing what was already decided long ago. The chapter’s argument is about who was actually running the campaign, and the Assyrian king never finds out.

The ending is deliberately quiet. An army of a hundred and eighty-five thousand is gone in one night, and the man who ordered it goes home and dies years later in his own temple, killed by his sons. The text reports both with the same flat tone.

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Frequently Asked Questions

How many Assyrians died in one night?

An hundred fourscore and five thousand, which is 185,000. The angel of the LORD went out and smote them in the camp of the Assyrians, and when the survivors arose early in the morning, they were all dead corpses.

What did Isaiah say would happen to Sennacherib?

That God would put a hook in his nose and a bridle in his lips and turn him back by the way he came, that he would not come into the city or shoot an arrow there, and that he would fall by the sword in his own land.

Why did God defend Jerusalem?

The reason given in the text is not Judah’s obedience. God says, I will defend this city, to save it, for mine own sake, and for my servant David’s sake.

How did Sennacherib die?

As he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer smote him with the sword and escaped into the land of Armenia. His son Esar-haddon reigned in his stead.

Did the Assyrians ever attack Jerusalem?

No. Isaiah’s word was that Sennacherib would not come into the city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shield, nor cast a bank against it, and after that night he returned to Nineveh.

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The Story of Hezekiah and the Shadow in the Bible

A prophet arrives with a message that leaves no room for negotiation: set thine house in order, for thou shalt die, and not live.

The king does not argue and does not send for a second opinion. He turns his face to the wall. Before the prophet has crossed the middle court, the answer has already changed.

The Story of Hezekiah and the Shadow

In those days Hezekiah was sick unto death, and Isaiah the son of Amoz came to him and said, Thus saith the LORD, Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live.

Then he turned his face to the wall, and prayed unto the LORD. His prayer is short and personal: I beseech thee, O LORD, remember now how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore.

The reversal is immediate. Before Isaiah had gone out into the middle court, the word of the LORD came to him: turn again, and tell Hezekiah the captain of my people. I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will heal thee. On the third day he would go up to the house of the LORD.

With the healing came a number. I will add unto thy days fifteen years, and I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria. Then the cure itself, entirely ordinary: Isaiah said, Take a lump of figs. They took it and laid it on the boil, and he recovered.

Hezekiah asked for a sign. Isaiah offered him a choice, which is unusual: shall the shadow go forward ten degrees, or go back ten degrees? Hezekiah picked the harder one. It is a light thing for the shadow to go down ten degrees, he said, nay, but let the shadow return backward ten degrees.

And Isaiah the prophet cried unto the LORD, and he brought the shadow ten degrees backward, by which it had gone down in the dial of Ahaz. The rest of the chapter is less happy. Messengers come from Babylon, Hezekiah shows them everything in his treasury, and Isaiah tells him it will all be carried to Babylon one day.

Key Verses

“Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live” 2 Kings 20:1

“Then he turned his face to the wall, and prayed unto the LORD” 2 Kings 20:2

“I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will heal thee” 2 Kings 20:5

“And I will add unto thy days fifteen years” 2 Kings 20:6

“Shall the shadow go forward ten degrees, or go back ten degrees?” 2 Kings 20:9

“He brought the shadow ten degrees backward, by which it had gone down in the dial of Ahaz” 2 Kings 20:11

Scripture quotations are from the King James Version (KJV), a public-domain translation.

What the Story of Hezekiah and the Shadow Teaches Us

Hezekiah never asks for more years. He asks God to remember how he has walked, and weeps. The fifteen years are added to the answer without being requested, which is easy to miss when the chapter is remembered as a story about getting what you pray for.

The healing arrives through a lump of figs on a boil. A miracle and an ordinary poultice are in the same sentence and the text sees no tension in it at all.

The sign is the one moment where Hezekiah does choose, and he deliberately picks the option that could not be mistaken for the sun doing what it always does. Given two ways to be reassured, he took the one that left no room for a second explanation.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What did Isaiah tell Hezekiah at the start of 2 Kings 20?

That he should set his house in order, because he would die and not live. Hezekiah was sick unto death at the time.

How many years were added to Hezekiah’s life?

Fifteen. God said, I will add unto thy days fifteen years, and also promised to deliver him and the city out of the hand of the king of Assyria.

What was Hezekiah healed with?

A lump of figs. Isaiah said to take one, and they laid it on the boil, and he recovered.

What sign was Hezekiah given?

Isaiah asked whether the shadow should go forward ten degrees or back ten degrees. Hezekiah chose backward, and the LORD brought the shadow ten degrees back on the dial of Ahaz.

Why did Hezekiah choose the shadow to go backward?

He said it was a light thing for the shadow to go down ten degrees, since that is the direction it moves anyway. Going backward was the harder sign and could not be mistaken for the normal course of the day.

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The Story of Manasseh in the Bible

The son of Judah’s best king becomes its worst. Manasseh takes the throne at twelve and holds it for fifty-five years, longer than anyone else who ever ruled in Jerusalem.

2 Kings tells his story and stops. 2 Chronicles tells the same story and then adds a chapter nobody expects, in which the worst king in Judah’s history is brought back.

The Story of Manasseh

Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and reigned fifty and five years in Jerusalem. He did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, after the abominations of the heathen.

The list reads like a point-by-point reversal of his father. He built up again the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed. He reared up altars for Baal and made a grove, as did Ahab king of Israel, and worshipped all the host of heaven. Then he built altars in the house of the LORD itself, and altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the temple, and set a graven image of the grove in the house where God had said he would put his name.

He made his son pass through the fire, observed times, used enchantments, and dealt with familiar spirits and wizards. And Manasseh seduced the people to do more evil than did the nations whom the LORD destroyed before them.

The prophets brought the sentence. Behold, I am bringing such evil upon Jerusalem and Judah, that whosoever heareth of it, both his ears shall tingle. Jerusalem would be wiped as a man wipeth a dish, wiping it, and turning it upside down. And one more charge is recorded: Manasseh shed innocent blood very much, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another.

In 2 Kings that is where he ends. He slept with his fathers and was buried in the garden of his own house. 2 Chronicles 33 tells the rest. The LORD spake to Manasseh and to his people, but they would not hearken, so the captains of the king of Assyria took Manasseh among the thorns, bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon.

And when he was in affliction, he besought the LORD his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. God heard his supplication and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD he was God. He took away the strange gods and the idol out of the house of the LORD, cast the altars he had built out of the city, repaired the altar of the LORD, and commanded Judah to serve him.

Key Verses

“Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and reigned fifty and five years in Jerusalem” 2 Kings 21:1

“He built up again the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed” 2 Kings 21:3

“Whosoever heareth of it, both his ears shall tingle” 2 Kings 21:12

“Manasseh shed innocent blood very much, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another” 2 Kings 21:16

“Took Manasseh among the thorns, and bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon” 2 Chronicles 33:11

“He besought the LORD his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers” 2 Chronicles 33:12

“Then Manasseh knew that the LORD he was God” 2 Chronicles 33:13

Scripture quotations are from the King James Version (KJV), a public-domain translation.

What the Story of Manasseh Teaches Us

Reading only 2 Kings gives you a complete, closed story of a man who ruined a nation. Reading 2 Chronicles alongside it changes the ending without softening anything that came before. Both accounts are in the Bible, and neither cancels the other.

The repentance does not undo the damage. The altars come down, but 2 Kings 23:26 still says God’s anger against Judah stood because of all the provocations that Manasseh had provoked him withal. Forgiveness and consequence run at the same time, and the text does not try to reconcile them.

The turning point is the least dignified moment of his life. He is a prisoner among thorns, in fetters, in a foreign capital, and that is where he humbled himself greatly. Fifty-five years on a throne did not produce it and a few months in chains did.

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Frequently Asked Questions

How old was Manasseh when he became king?

Twelve years old. He reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem, the longest reign of any king of Judah.

What did Manasseh do that was so evil?

He rebuilt the high places Hezekiah had destroyed, reared up altars for Baal, worshipped the host of heaven, built altars inside the house of the LORD, set a graven image in the temple, made his son pass through the fire, used enchantments and dealt with familiar spirits, and shed innocent blood until Jerusalem was filled from one end to another.

Did Manasseh ever repent?

2 Chronicles 33 says he did. After the Assyrians took him with fetters to Babylon, he besought the LORD his God and humbled himself greatly, and God heard him and brought him back to Jerusalem. 2 Kings does not record this part.

What happened to Manasseh in Babylon?

The captains of the host of the king of Assyria took him among the thorns, bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon. There, in affliction, he prayed, and God was intreated of him and restored him to his kingdom.

What did Manasseh do after he came back?

He built a wall outside the city of David, took away the strange gods and the idol out of the house of the LORD, cast the altars he had built out of the city, repaired the altar of the LORD, and commanded Judah to serve the LORD God of Israel.

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