2 Kings 18:1-19 ▼

1 And it came to pass in the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, that Hezekiah son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign.

2 He was a son of twenty-five years in his reigning, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. And the name of his mother was Abi daughter of Zechariah.

3 And he did right in the eyes of YHWH, according to all that David his father had done.

4 He turned aside the high places, and he shattered the pillars, and he cut down the Asherah pole, and he crushed the bronze serpent that Moses had made. For until those days the sons of Israel were burning incense to it and calling it Nehushtan.

5 He trusted in YHWH, God of Israel, and after him none was like him among all the kings of Judah, nor those who were before him.

6 And he clung to YHWH; he did not depart from after Him, and he kept His commandments that YHWH had commanded Moses.

7 And YHWH was with him; in every place where he went, he prospered. And he rebelled against the king of Assyria and did not serve him.

8 He struck the Philistines as far as Gaza and its border, from a tower of watchers to a fortified city.

9 And it came to pass in the fourth year of King Hezekiah—it was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel—that Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against Samaria and laid siege to it.

10 And they took it at the end of three years. In the sixth year of Hezekiah (it was the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel), Samaria was captured.

11 And the king of Assyria carried away Israel to Assyria, and he led them to Halah, and to Habor by the river of Gozan, and to the cities of the Medes,

12 because that they did not obey the voice of YHWH their God, and they transgressed His covenant and all that Moses the servant of YHWH had commanded, and they would not hear nor do it.

13 And in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah, and he seized them.

14 And Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria at Lachish, saying, “I have done wrong; turn away from me; that which you impose on me I will bear.” And the king of Assyria laid upon Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.

15 And Hezekiah gave him all the silver found in the house of YHWH and in the treasuries of the house of the king.

16 At that time Hezekiah cut off the doors of the temple of YHWH and the pillars that Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid, and he gave them to the king of Assyria.

17 And the king of Assyria sent the Tartan and the Rabsaris and the Rabshakeh from Lachish to King Hezekiah with a great army against Jerusalem. And they went up and came to Jerusalem. And they went up and came in and stood by the conduit of the upper pool that was on the highway to the Field of the Fuller.

18 And they called to the king, and there came out to them Eliakim son of Hilkiah who was over the house, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah son of Asaph the recorder.

19 And the Rabshakeh said to them, “Say now to Hezekiah: Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: What is this confidence in which you trust?