2 Kings 18
Contemporary English Version
King Hezekiah of Judah
(2 Chronicles 29.1,2; 31.1)
18 Hezekiah son of Ahaz became king of Judah in the third year of Hoshea's rule in Israel. 2 Hezekiah was 25 years old when he became king, and he ruled 29 years from Jerusalem. His mother Abi was the daughter of Zechariah.
3 Hezekiah obeyed the Lord, just as his ancestor David had done. 4 (A) He destroyed the local shrines, then tore down the images of foreign gods and cut down the sacred pole for worshiping the goddess Asherah. He also smashed the bronze snake Moses had made. The people had named it Nehushtan[a] and had been offering sacrifices to it.
5 Hezekiah trusted the Lord God of Israel. No other king of Judah was like Hezekiah, either before or after him. 6 He was completely faithful to the Lord and obeyed the laws the Lord had given to Moses for the people. 7 The Lord helped Hezekiah, so he was successful in everything he did. He even rebelled against the king of Assyria, refusing to be his servant. 8 Hezekiah defeated the Philistine towns as far away as Gaza—from the smallest towns to the large, walled cities.
9 During the fourth year of Hezekiah's rule, which was the seventh year of Hoshea's rule in Israel, King Shalmaneser of Assyria led his troops to Samaria, the capital city of Israel. They attacked 10 and captured it three years later,[b] in the sixth year of Hezekiah's rule and the ninth year of Hoshea's rule. 11 The king of Assyria[c] took the Israelites away as prisoners; he forced some of them to live in the town of Halah, others to live near the Habor River in the territory of Gozan, and still others to live in towns where the Median people lived. 12 All of that happened because the people of Israel had not obeyed the Lord their God. They rejected the solemn agreement he had made with them, and they ignored everything that the Lord's servant Moses had told them.
King Sennacherib of Assyria Invades Judah
(2 Chronicles 32.1-19; Isaiah 36.1-22)
13 (B) In the fourteenth year of Hezekiah's rule in Judah, King Sennacherib of Assyria invaded the country and captured every walled city,[d] except Jerusalem. 14 Hezekiah sent this message to Sennacherib, who was in the town of Lachish: “I know I am guilty of rebellion. But I will pay you whatever you want, if you stop your attack.”
Sennacherib told Hezekiah to pay ten tons of silver and one ton of gold. 15 So Hezekiah collected all the silver from the Lord's temple and the royal treasury. 16 He even stripped the gold that he had used to cover the doors and doorposts[e] in the temple. He gave it all to Sennacherib.
17 The king of Assyria ordered his three highest military officers to leave Lachish and take a large army to Jerusalem. When they arrived, the officers stood on the road near the cloth makers' shops along the canal from the upper pool. 18 They called out to Hezekiah, and three of his highest officials came out to meet them. One of them was Hilkiah's son Eliakim, who was the prime minister. The other two were Shebna, assistant to the prime minister, and Joah son of Asaph, keeper of the government records.
19 One of the Assyrian commanders told them:
I have a message for Hezekiah from the great king of Assyria. Ask Hezekiah why he feels so sure of himself. 20 Does he think he can plan and win a war with nothing but words? Who is going to help him, now that he has turned against the king of Assyria? 21 Is he depending on Egypt and its king? That's the same as leaning on a broken stick, and it will go right through his hand.
22 Is Hezekiah now depending on the Lord your God? Didn't Hezekiah tear down all except one of the Lord's altars and places of worship?[f] Didn't he tell the people of Jerusalem and Judah to worship at that one place?
23 The king of Assyria wants to make a bet with you people. He will give you 2,000 horses, if you have enough troops to ride them. 24 How could you even defeat our lowest ranking officer, when you have to depend on Egypt for chariots and cavalry? 25 Don't forget that it was the Lord who sent me here with orders to destroy your nation!
26 Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said, “Sir, we don't want the people listening from the city wall to understand what you are saying. So please speak to us in Aramaic instead of Hebrew.”
27 The Assyrian army commander answered, “My king sent me to speak to everyone, not just to you leaders. These people will soon have to eat their own body waste and drink their own urine! And so will the three of you.”
28 Then, in a voice loud enough for everyone to hear, he shouted in Hebrew:
Listen to what the great king of Assyria says! 29 Don't be fooled by Hezekiah. He can't save you. 30 Don't trust him when he tells you that the Lord will protect you from the king of Assyria. 31 Stop listening to Hezekiah! Pay attention to my king. Surrender to him. He will let you keep your own vineyards, fig trees, and cisterns 32 for a while. Then he will come and take you away to a country just like yours, where you can plant vineyards, raise your own grain, and have plenty of olive oil and honey. Believe me, you won't starve there.
Hezekiah claims the Lord will save you. But don't be fooled by him. 33 Were any other gods able to defend their land against the king of Assyria? 34 What happened to the gods of Hamath and Arpad? What about the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah? Were the gods of Samaria able to protect their land against the Assyrian forces? 35 None of these gods kept their people safe from the king of Assyria. Do you think the Lord your God can do any better?
36-37 Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah had been warned by King Hezekiah not to answer the Assyrian commander. So they tore their clothes in sorrow and reported to Hezekiah everything the commander had said.
Footnotes
- 18.4 the bronze snake … Nehushtan: See Numbers 21.8,9. “Nehushtan” is a nickname that sounds like the Hebrew words for “snake” and “bronze.”
- 18.10 three years later: When the Israelites measured time, part of a year could be counted as a whole year.
- 18.11 The king of Assyria: Probably Sargon, Shalmaneser's successor (see the note at 17.6).
- 18.13 King Sennacherib … walled city: Sennacherib ruled Assyria 705–681 b.c., and this event probably took place in 701 b.c.
- 18.16 doorposts: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
- 18.22 worship: Hezekiah actually had torn down the places where idols were worshiped, and he had told the people to worship the Lord at the one place of worship in Jerusalem. But the Assyrian leader was confused and thought these were also places where the Lord was supposed to be worshiped.
2 Kings 18
New Catholic Bible
Kingdom of Judah after 721 B.C.
Chapter 18
Hezekiah.[a] 1 Hezekiah, the son of Ahaz, the king of Judah began to reign during the third year of the reign of Hoshea, the son of Elah, the king of Israel. 2 He began to reign when he was twenty-five years old, and he reigned for twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Abi, and she was the daughter of Zechariah.
3 He did what was right in the sight of the Lord, just as his father David had done. 4 He eliminated the high places and he broke down the pillars. He cut down the Asherah and he broke into pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for up to those days the Israelites had burned incense to it and they called it Nehushtan. 5 He trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel, so much that there was no one like him among all of the kings of Judah who followed him or who preceded him. 6 He held fast to the Lord, and he did not depart from following after him. He kept the commandments that the Lord had given to Moses. 7 The Lord was with him whenever he went forth and he prospered.
He rebelled against the king of Assyria and he refused to serve him. 8 He struck down the Philistines as far as Gaza and its territory, from its watchtower to its fortified city.
9 [b]In the fourth year of the reign of King Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of the reign of Hoshea, the son of Elah, the king of Israel, Shalmaneser, the king of Assyria, attacked Samaria and besieged it. 10 At the end of three years he captured it. It was in the sixth year of the reign of Hezekiah, which was the ninth year of the reign of Hoshea, the king of Israel, that Samaria was captured.
11 The king of Assyria deported Israel to Assyria. He settled them in Halah, on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes. 12 This happened because they did not listen to the voice of the Lord, their God. They transgressed his covenant, everything that Moses, the servant of the Lord, had commanded. They would not listen nor would they obey.
13 Invasion of Sennacherib. Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, came up against all of the fortified cities of Judah, and he captured them during the fourteenth year of the reign of King Hezekiah. 14 Hezekiah, the king of Judah, sent a message to the king of Assyria at Lachish saying, “I am guilty; withdraw from me and I will pay any penalty you decide.” The king of Assyria required Hezekiah, the king of Judah, to pay three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold. 15 Hezekiah gave him all of the silver that was to be found in the temple of the Lord and the treasury of the royal palace.
16 It was at this time that Hezekiah stripped the gold from the doors to the temple of the Lord and from the doorposts that Hezekiah, the king of Judah, had overlaid. He gave it to the king of Assyria.
17 The king of Assyria sent the general, the lord chamberlain, and the commander along with a large army from Lachish to King Hezekiah in Jerusalem. They went up and came to Jerusalem. When they arrived, they stood by the conduit of the upper pool that is on the highway in the Fuller’s Field. 18 They called out for the king, and Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, the major-domo, Shebna, the scribe, Joah, the son of Asaph, who kept the archives, came out to them.
19 The commander said to them, “Say this to Hezekiah: ‘Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: What is the source of your hope in which you trust? 20 You say (but they are only empty words), “I have counsel and strength for war!” Now, on whom do you rely that makes you willing to rebel against me? 21 Behold, you have placed your confidence upon the staff of this bruised reed, you trust in Egypt, which, if someone were to lean on it, it would pierce his hand, going through it. That is what Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, is to all who trust in him. 22 But if you say to me, “We trust in the Lord, our God,” is he not the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah has eliminated, for he said to Judah and Jerusalem, “You will worship before this altar in Jerusalem.” ’
23 “Therefore, give your pledge to my lord, the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able to put riders on them. 24 How could you repulse the least important of my master’s servants even though you are trusting Egypt for chariots and horsemen? 25 Was it apart from the Lord I have now come up to destroy this place? The Lord said to me, ‘Go up to attack this land and destroy it.’ ”
26 Then Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, Shebna, and Joah said to the commander, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it. Please do not speak to us in Hebrew when the people who are upon the wall can hear it.”[c]
27 But the commander said to them, “My master has not sent me just to you and your master to say these things, but to the men sitting on the wall who may have to eat their own dung and drink their own urine like you.”
28 The commander then stood and cried out in a loud voice in Hebrew, “Hear the word of the great king of Assyria! 29 Thus says the king: Do not let Hezekiah deceive you. He cannot deliver you out of my hands. 30 Do not let Hezekiah convince you to trust in the Lord, saying, ‘The Lord will surely deliver us; this city will not be delivered over into the hands of the king of Assyria.’ 31 Do not listen to Hezekiah, for thus says the king of Assyria: Make peace with me by paying tribute. Then, come out and eat from your own vines and from your own fig trees and drink water from your own cistern 32 until I take you away to a land which is like your own, a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive oil and honey. Live, do not die.
“Do not listen to Hezekiah when he tries to convince you saying, ‘The Lord will deliver us.’ 33 Have the gods of any of the nations delivered their land out of the hands of the king of Assyria? 34 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Shepharvaim, Henah, and Ivvah? Did they rescue Samaria from out of my hands?
35 “Which of the gods from any of the nations has delivered their land from out of my hands? How could the Lord deliver Jerusalem out of my hands?”
36 But the people remained silent and they did not say a word to him, for the king had commanded them, “You are not to answer him.”
37 Then Eliakim, the major-domo, Shebna the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, who kept the archives, went to Hezekiah with their torn clothes, and they told him what the commander had said.
Footnotes
- 2 Kings 18:1 Hezekiah’s coming inaugurates a reign full of promise, for the new king is a true son of David, wholly devoted to the Lord. He is given four chapters (2 Chr 29–32) in Second Chronicles.
- 2 Kings 18:9 Hezekiah is forced to pay tribute to Sennacherib, the powerful king of Assyria (704–681 B.C.). The conqueror from the east is not satisfied with this, however, and becomes threatening and overbearing. The section from 18:13 to 20:19 is repeated, with some variations in Isa 36–39. Isaiah is the prophet who strengthens Hezekiah’s steadfastness and trust in God.
- 2 Kings 18:26 Aramaic was beginning to be the language of international relations in the Middle East. The people understood only the Jewish language, that is, the Hebrew spoken in Jerusalem.
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