2 Kings 18

Hezekiah King of Judah

1In the third year of Hoshea son of Elah, king of Israel, Hezekiah son of Ahaz, king of Judah, began to reign. 2He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Abi, daughter of Zechariah. 3He did what was right in Yahweh’s eyes, just as David his father had done. 4He removed the high places, smashed the sacred pillars, and cut down the Asherah pole. He also broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it; it was called Nehushtan. 5He trusted in Yahweh, God of Israel; there was no one like him among all the kings of Judah who came after him, nor among those before him. 6He held fast to Yahweh and did not turn from following him; he kept the commandments Yahweh had given Moses. 7Yahweh was with him, and he prospered in everything he undertook. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and would not serve him. 8He struck down the Philistines as far as Gaza and its territory, from watchtower to fortified city. 9In the fourth year of king Hezekiah — the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah, king of Israel — Shalmaneser king of Assyria marched against Samaria and besieged it. 10At the end of three years they captured it. Samaria fell in the sixth year of Hezekiah, which was the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel. 11The king of Assyria deported Israel to Assyria and settled them in Halah, in Gozan on the Habor River, and in the towns of the Medes, 12because they had not listened to the voice of Yahweh their God but had violated his covenant — everything Moses, the servant of Yahweh, had commanded. They would not listen, and they would not obey.

Sennacherib Invades Judah

13In the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria marched against all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them. 14Hezekiah king of Judah sent word to the king of Assyria at Lachish: “I have done wrong. Withdraw from me, and I will pay whatever you demand.” So the king of Assyria imposed on Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold. 15Hezekiah gave him all the silver found in the house of Yahweh and in the treasuries of the king’s house. 16At that time Hezekiah stripped the gold from the doors and doorposts of the temple of Yahweh, which he himself had overlaid, and gave it to the king of Assyria.

The Rabshakeh’s Taunt

17The king of Assyria sent the Tartan, the Rabsaris, and the Rabshakeh, with a great army, from Lachish to king Hezekiah at Jerusalem. They went up, and when they arrived at Jerusalem, they stopped at the conduit of the Upper Pool, on the road to the Launderer’s Field. 18They called for the king, and Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was over the palace, came out to them, along with Shebna the scribe and Joah son of Asaph, the recorder. 19The Rabshakeh said to them, “Tell Hezekiah this: The great king, the king of Assyria, says — What is this confidence of yours? 20You claim to have strategy and strength for war — but that is empty talk. Whom are you relying on, that you have rebelled against me? 21Look now, you are relying on Egypt, that splintered reed of a staff — lean on it, and it will pierce your hand and run right through it. That is what Pharaoh king of Egypt is to everyone who relies on him. 22And if you tell me, ‘We are relying on Yahweh our God’ — is he not the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah tore down, telling Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You must worship before this altar in Jerusalem’? 23Now then, make a bargain with my master the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses, if you can put riders on them. 24How could you turn back even one officer among the least of my master’s servants, when you are relying on Egypt for chariots and horsemen? 25Besides, have I come up against this place to destroy it without Yahweh? Yahweh himself told me, ‘Go up against this land and destroy it.’” 26Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, Shebna, and Joah said to the Rabshakeh, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, since we understand it; do not speak to us in the language of Judah within earshot of the people on the wall.” 27But the Rabshakeh answered, “Has my master sent me to say these words only to your master and to you, and not to the men sitting on the wall, who will soon be eating their own dung and drinking their own urine along with you?” 28Then the Rabshakeh stood and called out loudly in the language of Judah: “Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria! 29This is what the king says: Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he cannot deliver you from my hand. 30Do not let Hezekiah make you trust in Yahweh by saying, Yahweh will surely deliver us, and this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. 31Do not listen to Hezekiah, for this is what the king of Assyria says: Make peace with me and come out to me. Then every one of you will eat from his own vine and his own fig tree, and drink water from his own cistern, 32until I come and take you to a land like your own — a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees and honey — so that you may live and not die. Do not listen to Hezekiah, for he is misleading you when he says, Yahweh will deliver us. 33Has any god of any nation ever delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria? 34Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah? Did they deliver Samaria from my hand? 35Which of all the gods of these lands has delivered his land from my hand, that Yahweh should deliver Jerusalem from my hand?” 36But the people stayed silent and did not answer him a word, for the king had commanded, “Do not answer him.” 37Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was over the palace, Shebna the scribe, and Joah son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and reported to him the words of the Rabshakeh.