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2 Kings 18
Legacy Standard Bible

Hezekiah Reigns over Judah

18 Now it happened (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 twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Abi, the daughter of Zechariah. 3 (D)And he did what was right in the sight of Yahweh, according to all that David his father had done. 4 (E)He took away the high places and shattered the sacred pillars and cut down the [a]Asherah. And he broke in pieces (F)the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the sons of Israel were burning incense to it; and it was called [b]Nehushtan. 5 (G)He trusted in Yahweh, the God of Israel; (H)so that after him there was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor among those who were before him. 6 So he (I)clung to Yahweh; he did not turn away from following Him, but kept His commandments, which Yahweh had commanded Moses.

Hezekiah Prospers

7 (J)And Yahweh was with him; wherever he went he prospered. And (K)he rebelled against the king of Assyria and did not serve him. 8 (L)He struck 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 came up 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 took Israel away 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 because they (Q)did not listen to the voice of Yahweh their God, but trespassed against His covenant, even all that Moses the servant of Yahweh commanded; they would neither listen nor do it.

Sennacherib Comes Up Against Judah

13 (R)Now in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and seized them. 14 Then Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria at Lachish, saying, “(S)I have done wrong. Turn away from me; whatever penalty you give to me I will bear.” So the king of Assyria set a penalty on Hezekiah king of Judah [c]three hundred talents of silver and [d]thirty talents of gold. 15 (T)Thus Hezekiah gave him all the silver which was found in the house of Yahweh 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 Yahweh and from the doorposts, which Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid, and gave it to the king of Assyria.

17 Then the king of Assyria sent (U)Tartan and Rab-saris and Rabshakeh from Lachish to King Hezekiah with a heavy military force 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 highway of the [e]fuller’s field. 18 Then they called to the king, and (W)Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and (X)Shebnah the scribe and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder, came out to them.

19 Then Rabshakeh said to them, “Say now to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria, “(Y)What is this trust that you have? 20 You say (but they are [f]only empty words), ‘I have counsel and might for the war.’ Now on whom do you trust, (Z)that you have rebelled against me? 21 Now behold, you [g](AA)trust in the staff of this crushed reed, even on Egypt; on which if a man leans, it will go into his [h]hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him. 22 But if you say to me, ‘We trust in Yahweh our God,’ is it not He whose high places and (AB)whose altars Hezekiah has taken away, and has said to Judah and to Jerusalem, ‘You shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem’? 23 So now, [i]come, make a bargain with my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to give riders for them. 24 How then can you [j]turn away one [k]official of the least of my master’s servants, and trust in Egypt for chariots and for horsemen? 25 So now, have I come up [l]without the approval of Yahweh against this place to make it a ruin? Yahweh said to me, ‘Go up against this land and make it a ruin.’”’”

26 Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, and Shebnah and Joah, said to Rabshakeh, “Speak now to your servants in Aramaic, for we [m]understand it; and do not speak with us in [n](AC)Judean in the hearing of the people who are on the wall.” 27 But Rabshakeh said to them, “Has my master sent me only to your master and to you to speak these words, and not 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 and cried with a loud voice in Judean, [o]saying, “Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria. 29 Thus says the king, ‘(AD)Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you from [p]his hand; 30 and do not let Hezekiah make you trust in Yahweh, saying, “Yahweh will surely deliver us, and this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.” 31 Do not listen to Hezekiah, for thus says the king of Assyria, “[q]Make your peace with me and come out to me, and eat (AE)each of his vine and each of his fig tree and drink each of the waters of his own cistern, 32 until I come and take you away (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 oil and honey, that you may live and not die.” But do not listen to Hezekiah when he misleads you, saying, “Yahweh will deliver us.” 33 (AG)Has any one of the gods of the nations delivered 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 [r](AJ)Ivvah? When have they delivered Samaria from my hand? 35 Who among all the gods of the lands [s]have delivered their land from my hand, (AK)that Yahweh would deliver Jerusalem from my hand?’”

36 But the people were silent and answered him not a word, for the king’s commandment was, “Do not answer him.” 37 Then (AL)Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah (AM)with their clothes torn and told him the words of Rabshakeh.

Footnotes

  1. 2 Kings 18:4 A wooden symbol of a female deity
  2. 2 Kings 18:4 Lit a piece of bronze
  3. 2 Kings 18:14 Approx. 11.25 tons or 10.2 metric tons, a talent was approx. 75 lb. or 34 kg
  4. 2 Kings 18:14 Approx. 1.13 tons or 1 metric ton
  5. 2 Kings 18:17 Or launderer’s
  6. 2 Kings 18:20 Lit a word of the lips
  7. 2 Kings 18:21 Lit rely for yourself
  8. 2 Kings 18:21 Lit palm
  9. 2 Kings 18:23 Lit please exchange pledges
  10. 2 Kings 18:24 Lit turn away the face of
  11. 2 Kings 18:24 Or governor
  12. 2 Kings 18:25 Lit without Yahweh
  13. 2 Kings 18:26 Lit hear
  14. 2 Kings 18:26 Hebrew
  15. 2 Kings 18:28 Lit and spoke, saying,
  16. 2 Kings 18:29 Ancient versions my
  17. 2 Kings 18:31 Lit Make with me a blessing
  18. 2 Kings 18:34 In 2 Kin 17:24, Avva
  19. 2 Kings 18:35 Lit who have
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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