2 Kings 18:1 ←
Now in the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, Hezekiah the son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign.
2 Kings 18:2 ←
He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Abi the daughter of Zechariah.
2 Kings 18:3 ←
He did that which was right in Yahweh’s eyes, according to all that David his father had done.
2 Kings 18:4 ←
He removed the high places, broke the pillars, and cut down the Asherah. He also broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, because in those days the children of Israel burned incense to it; and he called it Nehushtan.
2 Kings 18:5 ←
He trusted in Yahweh, the God of Israel, so that after him was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, nor among them that were before him.
2 Kings 18:6 ←
For he joined with Yahweh. He didn’t depart from following him, but kept his commandments, which Yahweh commanded Moses.
2 Kings 18:7 ←
Yahweh was with him. Wherever he went, he prospered. He rebelled against the king of Assyria, and didn’t serve him.
2 Kings 18:8 ←
He struck the Philistines to Gaza and its borders, from the tower of the watchmen to the fortified city.
2 Kings 18:9 ←
In the fourth year of king Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against Samaria and besieged it.
2 Kings 18:10 ←
At the end of three years they took it. In the sixth year of Hezekiah, which was the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel, Samaria was taken.
2 Kings 18:11 ←
The king of Assyria carried Israel away to Assyria, and put them in Halah, and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes,
2 Kings 18:12 ←
because they didn’t obey Yahweh their God’s voice, but transgressed his covenant, even all that Moses the servant of Yahweh commanded, and would not hear it or do it.
2 Kings 18:13 ←
Now in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them.
2 Kings 18:14 ←
Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria at Lachish, saying, “I have offended you. Withdraw from me. That which you put on me, I will bear.” The king of Assyria appointed to Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.
2 Kings 18:15 ←
Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in Yahweh’s house and in the treasures of the king’s house.
2 Kings 18:16 ←
At that time, Hezekiah cut off the gold from the doors of Yahweh’s temple, and from the pillars which Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid, and gave it to the king of Assyria.
2 Kings 18:17 ←
The king of Assyria sent Tartan, Rabsaris, and Rabshakeh from Lachish to king Hezekiah with a great army to Jerusalem. They went up and came to Jerusalem. When they had come up, they came and stood by the conduit of the upper pool, which is in the highway of the fuller’s field.
2 Kings 18:18 ←
When they had called to the king, Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebnah the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder came out to them.
2 Kings 18:19 ←
Rabshakeh said to them, “Say now to Hezekiah, ‘The great king, the king of Assyria, says, “What confidence is this in which you trust?
2 Kings 18:20 ←
You say (but they are but vain words), ‘There is counsel and strength for war.’ Now on whom do you trust, that you have rebelled against me?
2 Kings 18:21 ←
Now, behold, you trust in the staff of this bruised reed, even in Egypt. If a man leans on it, it will go into his hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust on him.
2 Kings 18:22 ←
But if you tell me, ‘We trust in Yahweh our God,’ isn’t that he whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away, and has said to Judah and to Jerusalem, ‘You shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem?’
2 Kings 18:23 ←
Now therefore, please give pledges to my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses if you are able on your part to set riders on them.
2 Kings 18:24 ←
How then can you turn away the face of one captain of the least of my master’s servants, and put your trust on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen?
2 Kings 18:25 ←
Have I now come up without Yahweh against this place to destroy it? Yahweh said to me, ‘Go up against this land, and destroy it.’ ” ’ ”
2 Kings 18:26 ←
Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, Shebnah, and Joah, said to Rabshakeh, “Please speak to your servants in the Syrian language, for we understand it. Don’t speak with us in the Jews’ language, in the hearing of the people who are on the wall.”
2 Kings 18:27 ←
But Rabshakeh said to them, “Has my master sent me to your master and to you, to speak these words? Hasn’t he sent me to the men who sit on the wall, to eat their own dung, and to drink their own urine with you?”
2 Kings 18:28 ←
Then Rabshakeh stood and cried with a loud voice in the Jews’ language, and spoke, saying, “Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria.
2 Kings 18:29 ←
The king says, ‘Don’t let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you out of his hand.
2 Kings 18:30 ←
Don’t let Hezekiah make you trust in Yahweh, saying, “Yahweh will surely deliver us, and this city shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.”
2 Kings 18:31 ←
Don’t listen to Hezekiah.’ For the king of Assyria says, ‘Make your peace with me, and come out to me; and everyone of you eat from his own vine, and everyone from his own fig tree, and everyone drink water from his own cistern;
2 Kings 18:32 ←
until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees and of honey, that you may live and not die. Don’t listen to Hezekiah when he persuades you, saying, “Yahweh will deliver us.”
2 Kings 18:33 ←
Has any of the gods of the nations ever delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria?
2 Kings 18:34 ←
Where are the gods of Hamath and of Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivvah? Have they delivered Samaria out of my hand?
2 Kings 18:35 ←
Who are they among all the gods of the countries, that have delivered their country out of my hand, that Yahweh should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?’ ”
2 Kings 18:36 ←
But the people stayed quiet, and answered him not a word; for the king’s commandment was, “Don’t answer him.”
2 Kings 18:37 ←
Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, came with Shebna the scribe and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and told him Rabshakeh’s words.
Public Domain