Finally, however, Hezekiah and the people of Jerusalem humbled themselves, and so the LORD did not punish the people until after Hezekiah's death.

In his suffering he became humble, turned to the LORD his God, and begged him for help.

The king's prayer and God's answer to it, and an account of the sins he committed before he repented---the evil he did, the pagan places of worship and the symbols of the goddess Asherah that he made and the idols that he worshiped---are all recorded in The History of the Prophets.

But unlike his father, he did not become humble and turn to the LORD; he was even more sinful than his father had been.

So Moses and Aaron went to the king and said to him, "The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, says, 'How much longer will you refuse to submit to me? Let my people go, so that they may worship me.

"But your descendants will confess their sins and the sins of their ancestors, who resisted me and rebelled against me,

and caused me to turn against them and send them into exile in the land of their enemies. At last, when your descendants are humbled and they have paid the penalty for their sin and rebellion,

"When there is famine in the land or an epidemic or the crops are destroyed by scorching winds or swarms of locusts, or when your people are attacked by their enemies, or when there is disease or sickness among them,

hear their prayer. Listen to them in your home in heaven, forgive them, and help them. You alone know the thoughts of the human heart. Deal with each person as he deserves,

Whenever he killed some of them, the rest would turn to him; they would repent and pray earnestly to him.

They remembered that God was their protector, that the Almighty came to their aid.

People of Israel, the LORD has spoken! Be humble and listen to him.

The LORD said to me, "Tell the king and his mother to come down from their thrones, because their beautiful crowns have fallen from their heads.

But to this day you have not humbled yourselves. You have not honored me or lived according to all the laws that I gave you and your ancestors.

"But you, his son, have not humbled yourself, even though you knew all this.

"I will abandon my people until they have suffered enough for their sins and come looking for me. Perhaps in their suffering they will try to find me."

I tell you," said Jesus, "the tax collector, and not the Pharisee, was in the right with God when he went home. For those who make themselves great will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be made great."

But the grace that God gives is even stronger. As the scripture says, "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble."

Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

The king sent for Moses and Aaron and said, "This time I have sinned; the LORD is in the right, and my people and I are in the wrong.

Adonibezek said, "Seventy kings with their thumbs and big toes cut off have picked up scraps under my table. God has now done to me what I did to them." He was taken to Jerusalem, where he died.

Each one will say in public, "I have sinned. I have not done right, but God spared me.

But the LORD, the righteous one, has freed me from slavery."

"But the LORD is just, for I have disobeyed him. Listen to me, people everywhere; look at me in my pain. My young men and women have been taken away captive.

You, O LORD our God, were prepared to punish us, and you did, because you always do what is right, and we did not listen to you.

They have not known the way in which God puts people right with himself, and instead, they have tried to set up their own way; and so they did not submit themselves to God's way of putting people right.