Jotham's son, King Ahaz of of Judah was an evil bugger that did not follow the Lord. He worshiped other gods, which included the sacrificing of his son with fire. This was probably an act of worship to the god Molech. Aram and Israel team up against Judah, so Ahaz seeks the help of Assyria. The great Assyrian Empire enters the fray and wipes out Aram. Ahaz goes back to his streak of idolatry by building a new altar in the Temple.
Up north in Israel, Hoshea is king and being bullied by King Shalmaneser of Assyria. Hoshea tries to appease him via tribute, but Shalmaneser invades, conquers, and exiles the rest of the populace to Assyria. Israel is then repopulated with foreigners. But they worship their own gods, so God sends lions to attack them! Not quite BEARS, but it'll do. So the King of Assyria sends an Israelite priest back to teach the folks how to worship the Lord. They don't do this exclusively, though, but just add him to their collective of deities to worship.
Back in Judah, Ahaz dies and his son Hezekiah takes over. Hezekiah is the first truly, all out, godly King since David. He removes all of the idols and idolatrous altars throughout Judah, reestablishing monotheism in the land. Now Assyria invades Judah and is knocking on Hezekiah's door. Sennacherib, the current king of Assyria sends his servants to the gates of Jerusalem to get Hezekiah and Judah to surrender. But Hezekiah is defiant! Way to be, Hezekiah, way to be.
The Assyrian servants loudly taunt and exclaim the horrors that should befall the people if Judah doesn't surrender. Hezekiah's men at the gate beg these Assyrian ambassadors to speak in another language, so any nearby citizens of Jerusalem won't hear the threatening things being said. The Assyrians respond, still in Hebrew, to the citizens listening in that they will be forced to "eat their own dung" and "drink their own urine" (18:27)! Seriously, I don't think literature gets any better than this! And I'd bet that, like today, such an insult would be vocalized in a much more derogatory fashion than as it's recorded here.
Enter Isaiah!
Hezekiah seeks out the prophet Isaiah for help. Isaiah says all will be well and not to worry. The Assyrians threaten ag
ain, so Hezekiah goes to the Temple to pray for victory. Isaiah confirms that God has heard Hezekiah's prayer and all will be well. That night an angel comes down and reportedly kills 185,000 Assyrian troops*, which causes the rest of the army to pack up and go home the next day.Hezekiah later falls ill and prays to be healed. Isaiah confirms that the king will be healed. But Hezekiah wants to know if it will be temporary or long lasting. If it's to be permanent, an advancing shadow should recede. Isaiah says this will happen and, at his word, the shadow goes backwards, implying that the Lord has control over the position of the sun (or can reverse the rotation of the earth. Or maybe it was just a cloud caught in a funky wind. Whatever, the shadow went the other way, deal with it!).
Then some Babylonians come on good terms and check out Hezekiah's digs. Isaiah later reveals that these Babylonians will be the downfall of Judah after Hezekiah is gone. The king responds that this is fine. Why should he care what comes later as long as there is peace during his reign? Hezekiah's a dick.
* The Bible has a track record of it's numbers and tallies not matching up to what we interpret them as today. Some have suggested that words like "thousand" may have held a different numerical value other than 1000. Sennacherib of Assyria usually kept detailed records of his military excursions, though they conspicuously say nothing about the sudden abandonment of the siege of Jerusalem. As for the death of so many men, some suggest the "angel of the Lord" could have come in the form of disease or plague. Or vampires.
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