Text: Isaiah 38:1-20
OT Text Referred to: 2 Chronicles 32:31
Subject: Hezekiah's illness and divine testing
Source: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Reference Type: Echo
Connection Method(s): None
Significance: Isaiah 38:1-20 recounts Hezekiah's illness and recovery in full narrative detail, including his psalm of lament and thanksgiving. 2 Chronicles 32:31 provides a unique theological interpretation of these events: "God left him to test him (נִסָּהוּ, nissahu), that He might know all that was in Hezekiah's heart." The Chronicler reframes the entire illness-recovery episode as a divine test, specifically linking it to the Babylonian ambassadors who came to inquire about "the wonder that had happened in the land." Where Isaiah presents the illness as a trial met by faithful prayer, Chronicles reveals that God's withdrawal was purposeful — a test designed to expose the contents of Hezekiah's heart, echoing the wilderness-testing motif of Deuteronomy 8:2.