Hezekiah Reigns in Judah

18 It happened in the third year of Hoshea the son of Elah king of Israel, that Hezekiah the son of Ahaz king of Judah became king. ² He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. The name of his mother was Abi, the daughter of Zechariah. ³ He did right in the eyes of Yahweh according to all that David his ancestor^[a] had done. ⁴ He removed the high places, and he smashed the stone pillars; he cut down the poles of Asherah worship and demolished the bronze serpent which Moses had made, for up to those days the Israelites^[b] were offering incense to it and called it Nehushtan. ⁵ He trusted in Yahweh the God of Israel; there was no one like him, before or after, among all the kings of Judah. ⁶ He held on to Yahweh; he did not depart from following him, and he kept his commands that Yahweh had commanded Moses. ⁷ Yahweh was with him; everywhere he went, he succeeded. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and did not serve him. ⁸ He attacked the Philistines up to Gaza and its territory from the watchtower up to the fortified city.