2 Kings Chapter 18
Hezekiah Rules in Judah
1 In the third year of Hoshea, Hezekiah Ben-Ahaz became king in Judah. 2 He was 25 and ruled for 29 years in Jerusalem. His mother was Abi Bat-Zechariah. 3 He did what was right like David did. 4 He removed the high places, broke down the sacred pillars, cut down the Asherah poles, and broke in pieces the bronze “serpent” Moses had made, because the Israelites had been burning incense to it; they called it Nehushtan. 5 He trusted in Yahveh God of Israel so that no king in Judah was like him before or after. 6 He held to Yahveh and kept the commandments he gave Moses. 7 Yahveh was with him and he prospered wherever he went. He revolted against the king of Assyria 8 and defeated the Philistines all the way to Gaza and its territory, from outpost to fortified city.
9 In the fourth year of King Hezekiah (seventh year of Hoshea), Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, came up and laid siege to Samaria. 10 At the end of three years, he captured it (sixth year of Hezekiah, ninth year of Hoshea). 11 He exiled Israel to Assyria and put them in Halah, on the Habor, the Gozan River, and in towns of the Medes. 12 He did it because they wouldn’t obey Yahveh their God. They sinned against his covenant in everything Moses commanded.
2 Kg 18:1-12
13 In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib, king of Assyria, attacked the fortified towns in Judah and took them. 14 Hezekiah sent to the king of Assyria at Lachish, “I’ve done wrong. Withdraw from me; whatever you impose I’ll bear.” The king of Assyria required 11⅓ lbs 300 talents of silver and 1¼ tons 30 talents of gold. 15 He gave him all the silver in Yahveh’s Temple and the treasuries in the king’s house. 16Hezekiah cut the gold off the doors of the Temple and the doorposts he’d overlaid and gave it to him. 2 Kg 18:13-16
Sennacherib Threatens Jerusalem
17 Then the king of Assyria sent the Tartan, the Rabsaris, and the Rabshakeh from Lachish with a large army. They went up to Jerusalem and stood by the conduit of the upper pool, on the highway to the Fuller’s Field. 18 When they called to the king, Eliakim Ben-Hilkiah, who managed the palace; Shebnah the secretary, and Joah Ben-Asah the recorder came out to them. 19 The Rabshakeh said,
“Tell Hezekiah the great king of Assyria says, ‘What’s this confidence you have? 20 Your advice and strength for war are empty words. Who are you relying on that you’ve rebelled against me? 21 You’re relying on Egypt that crushed reed as a staff. If anyone leans on it, it will pierce their hand. That’s the way Pharaoh is to everybody that relies on him. 22 But if you tell me you’re trusting in Yahveh your God, isn’t he the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah has taken away and told Judah and Jerusalem to worship at this altar in Jerusalem?’ 23 Come now, make a deal with my master, and I’ll give you 2,000 horses if you can put riders on them. 24 How can you drive off even one of my master’s least officers and rely on Egypt for chariots and cavalry? 25 Haven’t I come up with Yahveh’s approval to destroy this place? He told me to attack this country and destroy it.”
2 Kg 18:17-25
26 Then Eliakim, Shebnah, and Joah told the Rabshakeh, “Speak to us in Aramaic; we understand it. Don’t speak to us in Hebrew in front of the people on the wall.”
27 But he shouted in Hebrew,
“Has my master sent me just to you and your master to say this? Hasn’t he sent me to the people sitting on the wall, doomed to eat their own feces and drink their own urine with you?”
28 “The great king of Assyria says, 29 ‘Don’t let Hezekiah deceive you; he can’t deliver you. 30 Don’t let him make you trust in Yahveh, “Yahveh will deliver us. This city won’t be delivered to the king of Assyria.” 31 Don’t listen to him. Surrender and come out to me. Eat from your own grapevines and fig trees, and drink water from your own cisterns, 32 till I come and take you away to a land like yours, with grain and new wine, bread and vineyards, olive trees and honey so you won’t die. 33 Have any nation’s gods delivered its people from the king of Assyria? 34 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad, of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah? Have they delivered Samaria from me? 35 Who among the gods of the countries have delivered them from me, that Yahveh should deliver Jerusalem from me?’”
36 The people didn’t respond; the king told them not to answer him. 37 Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah went to Hezekiah with clothes torn and told him what the Rabshakeh had said. 2 Kg 18:26-37