1In the third year for Husha, son of Elah King of Israel, Hezekiah, son of Akhaz, was made King of Yehuda. 2He was a son of twenty and five years when he became king, and he reigned twenty and nine years in Jerusalem, and the name of his mother was Aki, daughter of Zechariah. 3And he did what is beautiful before LORD JEHOVAH, like what David his father did. 4And he removed the high places and he shattered monuments and cut down idols and cut down the serpent of brass that Moshe had made, because the children of Israel had strayed after it and they were setting incense for it until those days, and they called it Nekheshtan. 5And he hoped in LORD JEHOVAH, God of Israel, and after him there was none like him among all the Kings of Yehuda, neither among those who were before him. 6And he cleaved to LORD JEHOVAH and he did not turn aside from following after him, and he kept his commandments, according to what LORD JEHOVAH commanded Moshe.

7And LORD JEHOVAH was with him, and wherever he was going he was conquering, and he rebelled against the King of Assyria, and he did not serve him. 8And he struck the Philistines unto Aza and its borders, from the tower of the guard and unto the city fortress.

9And in the fourth year for King Hezekiah, which was the seventh year for Husha, son of Elah, King of Israel, Shalmanesar King of Assyria went up against Samaria, and he encamped against it. 10And he defeated it after three years, in the sixth year for Hezekiah, the King of Yehuda; this is the ninth year for Husha, King of Israel, when Samaria was subjugated. 11And the King of Assyria led Israel captive to Assyria, and he encamped them in Khalakh and at Khabar, the River of Gawzan, cities of Media 12Because they did not listen to the voice of LORD JEHOVAH their God, and they violated his covenant, and they did not listen to neither did they do all that Moshe the Servant of LORD JEHOVAH had commanded them.

13And in year fourteen of King Hezekiah, Sennakherib, King of Assyria, went up against all the fortress cities of Yehuda and he seized them. 14And Hezekiah King of Yehuda sent to the King of Assyria at Lakish and said to him: “I have sinned! Return from me, and anything that you lay on me, I am bearing.” And the King of Assyria laid on Hezekiah, King of Yehuda, three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold. 15And Hezekiah gave all the silver that was found in the house of LORD JEHOVAH and in the treasury of the house of the King. 16In that time Hezekiah stripped the doors of the temple of LORD JEHOVAH and the door posts which Hezekiah, King of Yehuda, had overlaid, and he gave them to the King of Assyria.

17And returning, the King of Assyria sent Tartan and Rab Siseq and Rab Shakeh from Lakish to Hezekiah the King with a powerful army to Jerusalem, and they came up to Jerusalem and they stood at the ascent of the Upper Lake that is on the road of the Field of the Fortress. 18And they called to the King, and Eliakim, son of Khelqia, the Steward, and Shebna the Scribe, and Yuakh, son of Asaph, the Chronicler went out to them.

19And Rab Shaqeh said to them: “Say to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the great King, the King of Assyria: what is this trust that you have trusted? 20And you have said that speech of the lips is in you, and counsel and might for battle! Now, on whom is it you have trusted, that you have rebelled against me? 21Behold, you have trusted on a support of a broken reed, on an Egyptian, upon which a man having leaned, it went into his hand and pierced him. So is Pharaoh, King of Egypt, to all whoever trust upon him. 22And if you say to me: “Upon LORD JEHOVAH our God we trust”, was it not Hezekiah who removed the high places and the altars, and he said to Yehuda and to Jerusalem: “You shall worship before one altar in Jerusalem!” 23And now the Assyrians are mixed with my Lord the King, and I shall give you two thousand horses, if you have horsemen whom you will set upon them! 24And how do you turn the face of one of the little Nobles, the Servants of my Lord, and are confident yourself upon an Egyptian to give you chariots and horsemen? 25And now, lest you think that I went up against this land for its destruction apart from LORD JEHOVAH, LORD JEHOVAH himself said to me: ‘Go up against this land, and I shall destroy it!’”

26And Eliakim, son of Khelqia, and Shebna and Yuakh said to Rab Shakeh .”Speak with your Servants in Aramaic, because we hear, and do not speak with us in Judean before the people who stand on the wall.” 27And Rab Shakeh said to them.”It was not to you and to your Lord that my Lord has sent me to say these words, but to the men sitting on the wall, that they would not eat their own dung and would not drink their urine with you.”

28And Rab Shakeh stood and he called in a loud voice in Judean, and he said: ”Hear the statement of the great King, the King of Assyria. 29Thus says the King: let not Hezekiah deceive you, for he cannot save you from my hands! 30And do not let Hezekiah cause you to trust on LORD JEHOVAH, and he will say: ’Surely LORD JEHOVAH will deliver us and this city is not delivered into the hands of the King of Assyria!’ 31You will not hear Hezekiah, for thus says the King of Assyria: “Make a blessing with me and go out with me, and a man will eat his grapes and a man his figs, and a man will drink the waters of his well. 32Until I come and I bring you to a land like your land, a land of varieties and produce, a land of grain and of vineyards, a land of olives and of fertility and of honey, and live, and you shall not die; and you should not hear Hezekiah, and do not let Hezekiah deceive you and say to you:”LORD JEHOVAH delivers us!” 33Are the gods of the nations able to save the God of his land from the hands of the King of Assyria? 34Where are the gods of Khamath and of Raphad, and where are the gods of Sapharvim and Dana and of Iva? Have they delivered Samaria from my hands? 35Who of all the gods of these lands has delivered his land from my hands, that LORD JEHOVAH will deliver Jerusalem from my hands?”

36And the people kept silent and they did not give him an answer, because the King commanded and said: “Do not give him an answer!” 37And Eliakim son of Khelqia the Steward came, and Shebna the Scribe and Yuakh son of Asaph the Chronicler to Hezekiah while their clothes were torn, and they told him the words of Rab Shakeh.