“Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” — Psalm 90 (New International Version)
Yesterday we watched Hezekiah pray while Assyria roared at the gates (see entries for Aug 17–18 2025). Chapter 20 moves from the battlefield to the sickroom—but the stakes are just as high. A private crisis often reveals more of the soul than a public one.
2 Kings 20 carries three short scenes:
The chapter closes with a brief notice of Hezekiah’s engineering feat, the famous Siloam Tunnel (vv. 20-21).
“Set your house in order, because you will die.” Isaiah’s words in verse 1 are as blunt in Hebrew as they sound in English. The prophet uses ṣawwē beytʾeḵā—“command your household.” Near-eastern kings prepared a detailed succession plan; to skip this duty was to court civil war.
Hezekiah turns his face to the wall (v.2), an action often missed by Western readers. In ancient rooms the wall was the place of privacy; the king who used to face courtiers now faces God alone. His prayer is raw and simple—no bargaining chips, just a life laid bare.
Within moments Isaiah is sent back: “I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears.” Many of us trust God in public dangers yet secretly fear He may ignore our tears in the quiet; verse 5 tells us otherwise. Fifteen extra years are promised, and Isaiah prescribes a poultice of figs. Divine healing here is not against medicine but through it—grace and means hand-in-hand (cf. 1 Timothy 5:23, Luke 5:31).
Cross-links:
• Isaiah 38 (parallel account, includes Hezekiah’s healing song)
• Psalm 30 (“You healed me… You turned my mourning into dancing”)
• James 5:14-16 (prayer of faith and anointing for the sick)
“By what sign will the Lord heal me?” Ancient kings commonly sought omens; Isaiah offers a sign, covenant language for God’s self-authenticating act. The “stairs of Ahaz” (maʿalōt ʾĀḥāz, v.11) were either a terraced stair-sundial or steps down to the royal garden where a pillar cast its shadow. Hezekiah chooses the harder option: time reversed, not merely accelerated.
The writer evokes Genesis 1; only the Creator can command day and night. The miracle whispers of resurrection hope: God can move history itself to keep covenant promises (cf. Joshua 10:12-14; 2 Kings 4:32-35).
Literary note: verses 4-11 form a tight chiastic structure (A promise – B sign offer – C choice – B′ sign given – A′ promise secure), highlighting God’s steadfastness.
Enter Merodach-baladan of Babylon. Assyria’s great rival sends gifts, ostensibly to congratulate Hezekiah on recovery. The Chronicler (2 Chronicles 32:25) says pride swelled in the king’s heart. Hezekiah unveils the whole treasury—silver, gold, armory, “everything in his storehouses.” The Hebrew phrase ʾēn dābār ʾăšer lōʾ herāʾēm (v. 13) is sweeping: “there was nothing he did not show them.” Transparency can be virtue, but here it is self-display.
Isaiah returns with piercing questions: “What did these men see?” Hezekiah’s stash will someday sail east in Babylonian caravans (vv. 16-17). Scholars trace this prophecy to Nebuchadnezzar’s deportations (2 Kings 24-25). The Exile seed is planted by Judah’s own hand.
Hezekiah answers, “The word of the Lord you have spoken is good… for there will be peace and truth in my days” (v. 19). Commentators split:
• Augustine saw resignation bordering on selfishness.
• Calvin read it as humble submission to God’s unchangeable
decree.
• Spurgeon warned of “a holy man’s melancholy fall”—faithful in crisis,
careless in comfort.
The text leaves us to wrestle: Do I value future generations’ welfare as I do my own?
Cross-links:
• Deuteronomy 8:10-14 (pride after prosperity)
• Luke 12:15-21 (the rich fool)
• 2 Kings 25 (Babylon fulfills Isaiah’s words)
Hezekiah’s tunnel still winds 533 meters beneath Jerusalem, its Siloam Inscription (now in Istanbul) recording how two crews hacked toward each other “pickax against pickax.” Archaeology underlines Scripture’s realism: faith is not opposed to engineering brains. Trust prayed on the wall (Aug 18 entry) was carved into the bedrock of the city.
• John Chrysostom: praised Hezekiah’s earnest tears,
urging believers not to suppress emotion in prayer.
• Martin Luther: saw the shadow miracle as a figure of
Christ turning back death’s darkness.
• Dietrich Bonhoeffer: reading this text in Tegel
prison, noted in his letters, “God may lengthen life, yet the question
remains what we do with borrowed time.”
• Choli (חֹלִי) – “sickness” / “weakness” (v. 1). Isaiah later
uses the same root for the Servant: “Surely he took up our
choli” (Isaiah 53:4).
• Selôḵâ (v. 5, “I will heal”) shares the root with
“physician”; yet it is God who speaks—healer and healing fused in one
voice.
• Shalom weʾemet (v. 19) – “peace and truth.” A pair echoing
covenant blessings (cf. Psalm 85:10).
• Royal treasuries were viewed as temple-linked; showing them risked
profaning what was sacred.
• Reversing a solar shadow attacked the heart of pagan sun worship;
Yahweh alone governs time.
• Courtesy to foreign envoys required gift-exchange, but Hezekiah’s
grand tour violated ancient prudence against boasting (§Amarna Letters
advise kings to understate wealth).
“Day Is Dying in the West” (Mary A. Lathbury, 1877)
Stanza 2’s line—“While the deepening shadows fall, hearts of love
confess Thy name”—mirrors the moving shadow on Ahaz’s steps and calls us
to trust the Lord of sunset and sunrise.
Sovereign Lord,
You who measure shadows and hours,
teach us to number our days.
Heal our hidden sicknesses—of body, soul, and pride.
Turn back the darkness that creeps across our steps,
and keep us humble whether enemies surround us
or guests applaud us.
May the years You grant be spent for Your glory
and for the generations who follow.
Through Jesus Christ, the Sun of Righteousness,
Amen.