Is it not the same Hezekiah who removed His high places and His altars, and said to Judah and Jerusalem, “You shall worship before one altar, and on it you shall burn incense”?
Parallel translations
- WEB Hasn’t the same Hezekiah taken away his high places and his altars, and commanded Judah and Jerusalem, saying, ‘You shall worship before one altar, and you shall burn incense on it?’
- KJV Hath not the same Hezekiah taken away his high places and his altars, and commanded Judah and Jerusalem, saying, Ye shall worship before one altar, and burn incense upon it?
- BSB Did not Hezekiah himself remove His high places and His altars and say to Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You must worship before one altar, and on it you shall burn sacrifices’?
- NKJV Has not the same Hezekiah taken away His high places and His altars, and commanded Judah and Jerusalem, saying, “You shall worship before one altar and burn incense on it”?
- NLT Don’t you realize that Hezekiah is the very person who destroyed all the Lord’s shrines and altars? He commanded Judah and Jerusalem to worship only at the altar at the Temple and to offer sacrifices on it alone.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Sennacherib argues that Hezekiah's removal of the high places proves he has offended their God. It matters because he misrepresents true reform as an offense against the Lord.
Overview
The Assyrian twists Hezekiah's faithful removal of idolatrous high places into evidence that he has angered God. He fails to grasp that centralizing worship at one altar was obedience, not offense. His confusion shows how the world misjudges true devotion, mistaking faithfulness for folly.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- 2 Chr 31:1Now when all this was finished, all Israel who were present went out to the cities of Judah, and broke the pillars in pieces, cut down the Asherah poles, and broke down the high places and the altars out of all Judah and Benjamin, also in Ephraim and Manasseh, until they had destroyed them all. Then all the children of Israel returned, every man to his possession, into their own cities.
- Exod 27:1–8“You shall make the altar of acacia wood, five cubits long, and five cubits wide; the altar shall be square: and its height shall be three cubits.
- Exod 40:26–29He put the golden altar in the Tent of Meeting before the veil;
- Deut 12:13–14Be careful that you don’t offer your burnt offerings in every place that you see;
- Deut 12:26–27Only your holy things which you have, and your vows, you shall take, and go to the place which Yahweh shall choose.
- 2 Kgs 18:22But if you tell me, ‘We trust in Yahweh our God;’ isn’t that he whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away, and has said to Judah and to Jerusalem, ‘You shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem?’
- 2 Kgs 18:4He removed the high places, and broke the pillars, and cut down the Asherah. He also broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, because in those days the children of Israel burned incense to it; and he called it Nehushtan.
- 1 Kgs 7:48Solomon made all the vessels that were in Yahweh’s house: the golden altar and the table that the show bread was on, of gold;
- 2 Chr 4:1Then he made an altar of brass, twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and ten cubits high.
- Exod 30:1–6“You shall make an altar to burn incense on. You shall make it of acacia wood.
- Isa 36:7But if you tell me, ‘We trust in Yahweh our God,’ isn’t that he whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away, and has said to Judah and to Jerusalem, ‘You shall worship before this altar?’”
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Christ at the center
Temple, priesthood, and the repeated need for a faithful king who seeks the LORD all point past every imperfect reign to the King and Temple who finally and fully dwell with God's people.
How 2 Chronicles 32:12 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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