2 Kings 18

1

In the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel,

Hezekiah son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign.

2

He was twenty-five years old when he became king,

and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-nine years.

His mother's name was Abijah daughter of Zechariah.

3

He did waht was right in the eyes of the LORD,

just as his father David had done.

4

He removed the high places, smashed the sacred stones

and cut down the Asherah poles. He 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.)

5

Hezekiah trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel.

There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah,

etither before him or after him.

6

He held fast to the LORD and did not cease to follow him; he kept the commands

the LORD had given Moses.

7

And the LORD was with him; he was successful in whatever he undertook. He

rebelled against the king of Assyria and did nor serve him.

8

From watchtower to fortified city, he defeated the Philstines, as far as Gaza and

its territory.

9

In King Hezakiah's fourth year, which was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah

king of Israel, Shalmaneser king of Assyria marched against Samaria and laid siege

to it.

10

At the end of three years the Assyrians took it. So Samaria was captured in

Hezekiah's sixth year, which was the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel.

11

The king of Assyria deported Israel to Assyria and settled them in Halah,

in Gozan on tjhe Harbor River and in towns of the Medes.

12

This happened because they had not obeyed the LORD their God, but had

violated his covenant - all that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded.

They neither listened to the commands nor carried them out.

13

In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah's reign, Sennacherib king of Assyria

attacked all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them.

14

So Hezekiah king of Judah sent this message to the king of Assyria at Lachish:

"I have done wrong. Withdraw from me, and I will pay whatever you demand

of me." The king of Assyria exacted from Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred

talentd of silver and thirty talents of gold.

15

So Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the temple of the

LORD and in the treasuries of the royal palace.

16

At this time Hezekiah king of Judah stripped off the gold with which he had

covered the doors and doorposts of the temple of the LORD, and gave it to

the king of Assyria.

17

The king of Assyria sent his supreme commander, his chief officer and his field

commander with a large army, from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem,

They came up toJerusalem and stopped at the aqueduct of the Upper Pool,

on the road to the Washerman's Field.

18

They called for the king; and Eliakim son of Hilkiah the palace administrator,

Shebna the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph, the recorder went out to them.

19

The field commander said to them, "Tell Hezekiah: " 'This is what the great king,

the king of Assyria, says: On what are you basing this confidence of yours?

20

You say you have strategy and military strength - but you speak only empty

words. On whom are you depending, that you rebel against me?

21

Look now, you are depending on Egypt, that splintered reed of a staff, which

pierces a man's hand and wounds him if he jeans on it. Such is Pharaoh king

of Egypt to all wo depend on him.

22

And if you say to me, "We are depending on the LORD our God" - isn't he the

one whose high places and altars Hezekiah removed, saying to Judah and Jerusalem,

"You must worship before this altar in Jerusalem"?

23

" 'Come now, make a bargain with my master, the king of Assyria: I will give you

two thousand horses - if you can put riders on them!

24

How can you repulse one officer of the least of my master's officials, even though

you are depending on Egypt for chariots and horsemen?

25

Furthermore, have I come to attack and destroy this place without word from the LORD?

The LORD himself told me to march against this country and destroy it.' "

26

Then Eliakim son of Hilkia, and Shebna and Joah said to the field commander,

"Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, since we understand it. Don't speak

to us in Hebrew in the hearing of the people on the wall."

27

But the commander replied, "Was it only to your master and you that my master

sent me to say these things, and not to the men sitting on the wall - who, like you,

will have to eat their own filth and drink their own urine?"

28

Then the commander stood and called out in Hebrew: "Hear the word of the

great king, the king of Assyria!

29

This is what the king sats: Do not let Hezekiah deceive you. He cannot deliver

you from my hand.

30

Do not let Hezekiah persuade you to trust in the LORD when he says, 'The LORD

will surely deliver us; this city will not begiven into the hand of the king of Assyria.'

31

"Do not listen to Hezekiah. 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

fig tree and drink water from his own cistern,

32

until 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. Choose life and

not death! "Do not listen to Hezekiah, for he is misleading you when he says,

'The LORD will deliver us.'

33

Has the god of any nation ever delivered his land from the hand of the king of

Assyria?

34

Where are the gods og Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim,

Hena and Ivvah? Have they rescued Samaria from my hand?

35

Who of all the gods of those countries has been able to save his land from me?

How then can the LORD deliver Jerusalrm from my hand?"

36

But the people remained silent and said nothing in reply, because the king had

commanded, "Do not answer him."

37

Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah the palace administrator, Sheba the secretary and

Joah son of Asaph the recorder went to Hezekiah, with their clothes torn, and

told him what the field commander had said.