< BACK | NEXT >

2 Kings Chapter 20

Hezekiah being sick, is told by Isaiah that he shall die; but praying to God, he obtains longer life, and in confirmation thereof receives a sign by the sun's returning back. He shows all his treasures to the ambassadors of the king of Babylon: Isaiah reproving him for it, foretells the Babylonish captivity.

English (Douay-Rheims)

1 In those days Ezechias was sick unto death: and Isaiah, the son of Amos, the prophet, came and said to him: Thus saith the Lord God: Give charge concerning thy house, for thou shalt die, and not live. 2 And he turned his face to the wall, and prayed to the Lord, saying: 3 I beseech thee, O Lord, remember how I have walked before thee in truth, and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is pleasing before thee. And Ezechias wept with much weeping. 4 And before Isaiah was gone out of the middle of the court, the word of the Lord came to him, saying: 5 Go back, and tell Ezechias, the captain of my people: Thus saith the Lord, the God of David, thy father: I have heard thy prayer, and I have seen thy tears: and behold I have healed thee: on the third day thou shalt go up to the temple of the Lord. 6 And I will add to thy days fifteen years: and I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of the Assyrians, and I will protect this city for my own sake, and for David, my servant's sake. 7 And Isaiah said: Bring me a lump of figs. And when they had brought it, and laid it upon his boil, he was healed. 8 And Ezechias had said to Isaiah: What shall be the sign that the Lord will heal me, and that I will go up to the temple of the Lord the third day? 9 And Isaiah said to him: This shall be the sign from the Lord, that the Lord will do the word which he hath spoken: Wilt thou that the shadow go forward ten lines, or that it go back so many degrees? 10 And Ezechias said: It is an easy matter for the shadow to go forward ten lines: and I do not desire that this be done, but let it return back ten degrees. 11 And Isaiah, the prophet, called upon the Lord, and he brought the shadow ten degrees backwards by the lines, by which it had already gone down on the dial of Achaz.

12 At that time Berodach Baladan, the son of Baladan, king of the Babylonians, sent letters and presents to Ezechias: for he had heard that Ezechias had been sick. 13 And Ezechias rejoiced at their coming, and he showed them the house of his aromatical spices, and the gold, and the silver, and divers precious odours, and ointments, and the house of his vessels, and all that he had in his treasures. There was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominions, that Ezechias showed them not. 14 And Isaiah, the prophet, came to king Ezechias, and said to him: What said these men? or from whence came they to thee? And Ezechias said to him: From a far country, they came to me out of Babylon. 15 And he said: What did they see in thy house? Ezechias said: They saw all the things that are in my house: There is nothing among my treasures that I have not showed them. 16 And Isaiah said to Ezechias: Hear the word of the Lord. 17 Behold the days shall come, that all that is in thy house, and that thy fathers have laid up in store unto this day, shall be carried into Babylon: nothing shall be left, saith the Lord. 18 And of thy sons also that shall issue from thee, whom thou shalt beget, they shall take away, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon. 19 Ezechias said to Isaiah: The word of the Lord, which thou hast spoken, is good: let peace and truth be in my days.

20 And the rest of the acts of Ezechias, and all his might, and how he made a pool, and a conduit, and brought waters into the city, are they not written in the book of the words of the days of the kings of Juda? 21 And Ezechias slept with his fathers, and Manasses, his son reigned in his stead.

Old Testament first published 1609 by the English College at Douay
New Testament first published 1582 by the English College at Rheims
Revised and Annotated 1749 by Bishop Richard Challoner
Imprimatur. +James Cardinal Gibbons, Archbishop of Baltimore, September 1, 1899

Latin (Clementine Vulgate)

1 In diebus illis ægrotavit Ezechias usque ad mortem: et venit ad eum Isaias filius Amos propheta, dixitque ei: Hæc dicit Dominus Deus: Præcipe domui tuæ: morieris enim tu, et non vives. 2 Qui convertit faciem suam ad parietem, et oravit Dominum, dicens: 3 Obsecro, Domine: memento, quæso, quomodo ambulaverim coram te in veritate, et in corde perfecto, et quod placitum est coram te fecerim. Flevit itaque Ezechias fletu magno. 4 Et antequam egrederetur Isaias mediam partem atrii, factus est sermo Domini ad eum, dicens: 5 Revertere, et dic Ezechiæ duci populi mei: Hæc dicit Dominus Deus David patris tui: Audivi orationem tuam, et vidi lacrimas tuas, et ecce sanavi te: die tertio ascendes templum Domini. 6 Et addam diebus tuis quindecim annos: sed et de manu regis Assyriorum liberabo te, et civitatem hanc: et protegam urbem istam propter me, et propter David servum meum. 7 Dixitque Isaias: Afferte massam ficorum. Quam cum attulissent, et posuissent super ulcus ejus, curatus est. 8 Dixerat autem Ezechias ad Isaiam: Quod erit signum, quia Dominus me sanabit, et quia ascensurus sum die tertia templum Domini? 9 Cui ait Isaias: Hoc erit signum a Domino quod facturus sit Dominus sermonem quem locutus est: vis ut ascendat umbra decem lineis, an ut revertatur totidem gradibus? 10 Et ait Ezechias: Facile est umbram crescere decem lineis: nec hoc volo ut fiat, sed ut revertatur retrorsum decem gradibus. 11 Invocavit itaque Isaias propheta Dominum, et reduxit umbram per lineas quibus jam descenderat in horologio Achaz, retrorsum decem gradibus.

12 In tempore illo misit Berodach Baladan, filius Baladan, rex Babyloniorum, litteras et munera ad Ezechiam: audierat enim quod ægrotasset Ezechias. 13 Lætatus est autem in adventu eorum Ezechias, et ostendit eis domum aromatum, et aurum et argentum, et pigmenta varia, unguenta quoque, et domum vasorum suorum, et omnia quæ habere poterat in thesauris suis. Non fuit quod non monstraret eis Ezechias in domo sua, et in omni potestate sua. 14 Venit autem Isaias propheta ad regem Ezechiam, dixitque ei: Quid dixerunt viri isti? aut unde venerunt ad te? Cui ait Ezechias: De terra longinqua venerunt ad me, de Babylone. 15 At ille respondit: Quid viderunt in domo tua? Ait Ezechias: Omnia quæcumque sunt in domo mea, viderunt: nihil est quod non monstraverim eis in thesauris meis. 16 Dixit itaque Isaias Ezechiæ: Audi sermonem Domini: 17 Ecce dies venient, et auferentur omnia quæ sunt in domo tua, et quæ condiderunt patres tui usque in diem hanc, in Babylonem: non remanebit quidquam, ait Dominus. 18 Sed et de filiis tuis qui egredientur ex te, quos generabis, tollentur, et erunt eunuchi in palatio regis Babylonis. 19 Dixit Ezechias ad Isaiam: Bonus sermo Domini quem locutus es: sit pax et veritas in diebus meis.

20 Reliqua autem sermonum Ezechiæ, et omnis fortitudo ejus, et quomodo fecerit piscinam et aquæductum, et introduxerit aquas in civitatem, nonne hæc scripta sunt in libro sermonum dierum regum Juda? 21 Dormivitque Ezechias cum patribus suis, et regnavit Manasses filius ejus pro eo.

Transcribed as part of the Clementine Vulgate Project
Please notify the original transcriber (little.mouth@soon.com) of any errors in this Latin edition