Later text
And so when ambassadors of the rulers of Babylon were sent to him to inquire about the wonder that had happened in the land, God left him alone to test him, that He might know all that was in Hezekiah's heart.
Intertextuality Pair
2 Chronicles 32:31 → 2 Kings 20:1-11
Allusion
Earlier text
In those days Hezekiah became mortally ill. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz came to him and said, "This is what the LORD says: 'Put your house in order, for you are about to die; you will not recover.'" Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD, saying, “Please, O LORD, remember how I have walked before You faithfully and with wholehearted devotion; I have done what was good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly. Before Isaiah had left the middle courtyard, the word of the LORD came to him, saying, “Go back and tell Hezekiah the leader of My people that this is what the LORD, the God of your father David, says: ‘I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. I will surely heal you. On the third day from now you will go up to the house of the LORD. I will add fifteen years to your life. And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city for My sake and for the sake of My servant David.’” Then Isaiah said, "Prepare a poultice of figs." So they brought it and applied it to the boil, and Hezekiah recovered. Now Hezekiah had asked Isaiah, "What will be the sign that the LORD will heal me and that I will go up to the house of the LORD on the third day?" And Isaiah had replied, “This will be a sign to you from the LORD that He will do what He has promised: Would you like the shadow to go forward ten steps, or back ten steps?” “It is easy for the shadow to lengthen ten steps,” answered Hezekiah, “but not for it to go back ten steps.” So Isaiah the prophet called out to the LORD, and He brought the shadow back the ten steps it had descended on the stairway of Ahaz.
Significance
The full narrative of Hezekiah's illness and recovery in 2 Kings 20:1-11 connects to the Chronicler's unique interpretation in 2 Chronicles 32:31: "God left him alone to test him (לְנַסּוֹתוֹ, lenassoto), that He might know all that was in Hezekiah's heart." The Chronicler applies the language of divine testing — the same word used for God testing Abraham (Gen 22:1) and Israel in the wilderness (Deut 8:2) — to Hezekiah's post-recovery period. What Kings presents as a sequence of events (illness, recovery, Babylonian visit), Chronicles reveals as a divinely orchestrated trial designed to expose the king's inner character.
- Found via
- Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
- Reference Type
- Allusion
- Connection Method(s)
- Redemptive-Historical Progression — 2 Chronicles 32:31's verdict, "God left him alone to test him, that He might know all that was in Hezekiah's heart," is the Chronicler's theological advance on the events 2 Kings 20:1-11 narrates: the envoys came "to inquire about the wonder that had happened in the land," the sundial sign of that very account. The later text interprets the earlier one, disclosing the divine purpose inside the recorded history as canonical revelation progresses.