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2 Kings 18
New American Standard Bible

Hezekiah Reigns over Judah

18 Now it came about (A)in the third year of Hoshea, the son of Elah king of Israel, that (B)Hezekiah the son of Ahaz king of Judah became king. 2 He was (C)twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned for twenty-nine years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Abi the daughter of Zechariah. 3 (D)He did what was right in the sight of the Lord, in accordance with everything that his father David had done. 4 (E)He removed the high places and smashed the memorial stones to pieces, and cut down the [a]Asherah. He also crushed to pieces (F)the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the sons of Israel had been burning incense to it; and it was called [b]Nehushtan. 5 (G)He trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel; and (H)after him there was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, nor among those who came before him. 6 For he (I)clung to the Lord; he did not desist from following Him, but kept His commandments, which the Lord had commanded Moses.

Hezekiah Victorious

7 (J)And the Lord was with him; wherever he went he was successful. And (K)he revolted against the king of Assyria and did not serve him. 8 (L)He [c]defeated the Philistines as far as Gaza and its territory, from (M)watchtower to fortified city.

9 Now in the fourth year of King Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, (N)Shalmaneser king of Assyria marched against Samaria and besieged it. 10 And at the end of three years they captured it; in the sixth year of Hezekiah, which was (O)the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel, Samaria was captured. 11 Then the king of Assyria led Israel into exile to Assyria, and put them in (P)Halah and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes. 12 This happened because they (Q)did not obey the voice of the Lord their God, but violated His covenant, all that Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded; they would neither listen nor do it.

Invasion of Judah

13 (R)Now in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria marched against all the fortified cities of Judah and seized them. 14 Then Hezekiah king of Judah sent messengers to the king of Assyria at Lachish, saying, “(S)I have done wrong. [d]Withdraw from me; whatever you impose on me I will endure.” So the king of Assyria imposed on Hezekiah king of Judah the payment of three hundred [e]talents of silver and thirty talents of gold. 15 (T)Hezekiah then gave him all the silver that was found in the house of the Lord, and in the treasuries of the king’s house. 16 At that time Hezekiah cut off the gold from the doors of the temple of the Lord, and from the doorposts, which Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid, and he gave it to the king of Assyria.

17 Then the king of Assyria sent (U)Tartan, Rab-saris, and Rabshakeh from Lachish to King Hezekiah with a large army to Jerusalem. So they went up and came to Jerusalem. And when they went up, they came and stood by the (V)conduit of the upper pool, which is on the road of the [f]fuller’s field. 18 Then they called to the king, and (W)Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was in charge of the household, (X)Shebnah the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph the secretary, went out to them.

19 And Rabshakeh said to them, “Say now to Hezekiah, ‘This is what the great king, the king of Assyria says: “(Y)What is this confidence that you [g]have? 20 You say—but they are only [h]empty words—‘I have a plan and strength for the war.’ Now on whom have you relied, (Z)that you have revolted against me? 21 Now behold, you have [i](AA)relied on the [j]support of this broken reed, on Egypt; on which if a man leans, it will go into his [k]hand and pierce it. That is how Pharaoh king of Egypt is to all who rely on him. 22 However, if you say to me, ‘We have trusted in the Lord our God,’ is it not He whose high places and (AB)whose altars Hezekiah has removed, and has said to Judah and to Jerusalem, ‘You shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem’? 23 Now then, [l]come make a wager with my master the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to put riders on them! 24 How then can you drive back even [m]one [n]official of the least of my master’s servants, and [o]rely on Egypt for chariots and horsemen? 25 Have I now come up without [p]the Lord’s approval against this place to destroy it? The Lord said to me, ‘Go up against this land and destroy it.’”’”

26 Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, Shebnah, and Joah, said to Rabshakeh, “Speak now to your servants in Aramaic, because we [q]understand it; and do not speak with us in [r](AC)Judean [s]so that the people who are on the wall hear you.” 27 But Rabshakeh said to them, “Has my master sent me only to your master and to you to speak these words? Has he not also sent me to the men who sit on the wall, doomed to eat their own dung and drink their own urine with you?”

28 Then Rabshakeh stood up and shouted with a loud voice in Judean, [t]saying, “Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria! 29 This is what the king says: ‘(AD)Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to save you from [u]my hand. 30 And do not let Hezekiah lead you to trust in the Lord by saying, “The Lord will certainly save us, and this city will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.” 31 Do not listen to Hezekiah, for this is what the king of Assyria says: “Make [v]your peace with me and come out to me, and eat, (AE)each one, from his vine and each from his fig tree, and drink, each one, the waters of his own cistern, 32 until I come and take you (AF)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 producing oil, and of honey, so that you will live and not die.” But do not listen to Hezekiah, because he misleads you by saying, “The Lord will save us.” 33 (AG)Has any of the gods of the nations actually saved his land from the hand of the king of Assyria? 34 (AH)Where are the gods of Hamath and (AI)Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and [w](AJ)Ivvah? Have they saved Samaria from my hand? 35 Who among all the gods of the lands are there who have saved their land from my hand, (AK)that the Lord would save Jerusalem from my hand?’”

36 But the people were silent and did not answer him with even a word, because it was the king’s [x]command: “Do not answer him.” 37 Then (AL)Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was in charge of the household, and Shebna the scribe and Joah the son of Asaph, the secretary, came to Hezekiah (AM)with their clothes torn, and they reported to him the words of Rabshakeh.

Footnotes

  1. 2 Kings 18:4 I.e., a wooden symbol of a female deity
  2. 2 Kings 18:4 I.e., a bronze sculpture
  3. 2 Kings 18:8 Lit struck
  4. 2 Kings 18:14 Lit Turn back
  5. 2 Kings 18:14 A talent was about 75 lb. or 34 kg
  6. 2 Kings 18:17 I.e., launderer’s
  7. 2 Kings 18:19 Lit trust
  8. 2 Kings 18:20 Lit a word of lips
  9. 2 Kings 18:21 Lit relied for yourself
  10. 2 Kings 18:21 Or staff
  11. 2 Kings 18:21 Lit palm
  12. 2 Kings 18:23 Lit please exchange pledges
  13. 2 Kings 18:24 Lit the face of one
  14. 2 Kings 18:24 Or governor
  15. 2 Kings 18:24 Lit rely for yourself
  16. 2 Kings 18:25 Lit the Lord
  17. 2 Kings 18:26 Lit hear
  18. 2 Kings 18:26 I.e., Hebrew
  19. 2 Kings 18:26 Lit in the ears of...wall
  20. 2 Kings 18:28 Lit and spoke, saying,
  21. 2 Kings 18:29 MT his
  22. 2 Kings 18:31 Lit with me a blessing
  23. 2 Kings 18:34 In 2 Kin 17:24, Avva
  24. 2 Kings 18:36 Lit command, saying
Close NLT

2 Kings 18
New Living Translation

Hezekiah Rules in Judah

18 Hezekiah son of Ahaz began to rule over Judah in the third year of King Hoshea’s reign in Israel. 2 He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-nine years. His mother was Abijah,[a] the daughter of Zechariah. 3 He did what was pleasing in the Lord’s sight, just as his ancestor David had done. 4 He removed the pagan shrines, smashed the sacred pillars, and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke up the bronze serpent that Moses had made, because the people of Israel had been offering sacrifices to it. The bronze serpent was called Nehushtan.[b]

5 Hezekiah trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel. There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before or after his time. 6 He remained faithful to the Lord in everything, and he carefully obeyed all the commands the Lord had given Moses. 7 So the Lord was with him, and Hezekiah was successful in everything he did. He revolted against the king of Assyria and refused to pay him tribute. 8 He also conquered the Philistines as far distant as Gaza and its territory, from their smallest outpost to their largest walled city.

9 During the fourth year of Hezekiah’s reign, which was the seventh year of King Hoshea’s reign in Israel, King Shalmaneser of Assyria attacked the city of Samaria and began a siege against it. 10 Three years later, during the sixth year of King Hezekiah’s reign and the ninth year of King Hoshea’s reign in Israel, Samaria fell. 11 At that time the king of Assyria exiled the Israelites to Assyria and placed them in colonies in Halah, along the banks of the Habor River in Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes. 12 For they refused to listen to the Lord their God and obey him. Instead, they violated his covenant—all the laws that Moses the Lord’s servant had commanded them to obey.

Assyria Invades Judah

13 In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah’s reign,[c] King Sennacherib of Assyria came to attack the fortified towns of Judah and conquered them. 14 King Hezekiah sent this message to the king of Assyria at Lachish: “I have done wrong. I will pay whatever tribute money you demand if you will only withdraw.” The king of Assyria then demanded a settlement of more than eleven tons of silver and one ton of gold.[d] 15 To gather this amount, King Hezekiah used all the silver stored in the Temple of the Lord and in the palace treasury. 16 Hezekiah even stripped the gold from the doors of the Lord’s Temple and from the doorposts he had overlaid with gold, and he gave it all to the Assyrian king.

17 Nevertheless, the king of Assyria sent his commander in chief, his field commander, and his chief of staff[e] from Lachish with a huge army to confront King Hezekiah in Jerusalem. The Assyrians took up a position beside the aqueduct that feeds water into the upper pool, near the road leading to the field where cloth is washed.[f] 18 They summoned King Hezekiah, but the king sent these officials to meet with them: Eliakim son of Hilkiah, the palace administrator; Shebna the court secretary; and Joah son of Asaph, the royal historian.

Sennacherib Threatens Jerusalem

19 Then the Assyrian king’s chief of staff told them to give this message to Hezekiah:

“This is what the great king of Assyria says: What are you trusting in that makes you so confident? 20 Do you think that mere words can substitute for military skill and strength? Who are you counting on, that you have rebelled against me? 21 On Egypt? If you lean on Egypt, it will be like a reed that splinters beneath your weight and pierces your hand. Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, is completely unreliable!

22 “But perhaps you will say to me, ‘We are trusting in the Lord our God!’ But isn’t he the one who was insulted by Hezekiah? Didn’t Hezekiah tear down his shrines and altars and make everyone in Judah and Jerusalem worship only at the altar here in Jerusalem?

23 “I’ll tell you what! Strike a bargain with my master, the king of Assyria. I will give you 2,000 horses if you can find that many men to ride on them! 24 With your tiny army, how can you think of challenging even the weakest contingent of my master’s troops, even with the help of Egypt’s chariots and charioteers? 25 What’s more, do you think we have invaded your land without the Lord’s direction? The Lord himself told us, ‘Attack this land and destroy it!’”

26 Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, Shebna, and Joah said to the Assyrian chief of staff, “Please speak to us in Aramaic, for we understand it well. Don’t speak in Hebrew,[g] for the people on the wall will hear.”

27 But Sennacherib’s chief of staff replied, “Do you think my master sent this message only to you and your master? He wants all the people to hear it, for when we put this city under siege, they will suffer along with you. They will be so hungry and thirsty that they will eat their own dung and drink their own urine.”

28 Then the chief of staff stood and shouted in Hebrew to the people on the wall, “Listen to this message from the great king of Assyria! 29 This is what the king says: Don’t let Hezekiah deceive you. He will never be able to rescue you from my power. 30 Don’t let him fool you into trusting in the Lord by saying, ‘The Lord will surely rescue us. This city will never fall into the hands of the Assyrian king!’

31 “Don’t listen to Hezekiah! These are the terms the king of Assyria is offering: Make peace with me—open the gates and come out. Then each of you can continue eating from your own grapevine and fig tree and drinking from your own well. 32 Then I will arrange to take you to another land like this one—a land of grain and new wine, bread and vineyards, olive groves and honey. Choose life instead of death!

“Don’t listen to Hezekiah when he tries to mislead you by saying, ‘The Lord will rescue us!’ 33 Have the gods of any other nations ever saved their people from the king of Assyria? 34 What happened to the gods of Hamath and Arpad? And what about the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah? Did any god rescue Samaria from my power? 35 What god of any nation has ever been able to save its people from my power? So what makes you think that the Lord can rescue Jerusalem from me?”

36 But the people were silent and did not utter a word because Hezekiah had commanded them, “Do not answer him.”

37 Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, the palace administrator; Shebna the court secretary; and Joah son of Asaph, the royal historian, went back to Hezekiah. They tore their clothes in despair, and they went in to see the king and told him what the Assyrian chief of staff had said.

Footnotes

  1. 18:2 As in parallel text at 2 Chr 29:1; Hebrew reads Abi, a variant spelling of Abijah.
  2. 18:4 Nehushtan sounds like the Hebrew terms that mean “snake,” “bronze,” and “unclean thing.”
  3. 18:13 The fourteenth year of Hezekiah’s reign was 701 B.c.
  4. 18:14 Hebrew 300 talents [10 metric tons] of silver and 30 talents [1 metric ton] of gold.
  5. 18:17a Or the rabshakeh; also in 18:19, 26, 27, 28, 37.
  6. 18:17b Or bleached.
  7. 18:26 Hebrew in the dialect of Judah; also in 18:28.
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New American Standard Bible (NASB)

New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. All rights reserved.

New American Standard Bible is made available by The Lockman Foundation
New Living Translation (NLT)

Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.