2 Kings 18:13–19

SENNACHERIB’S INVASION

¹³In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Assyria’s King Sennacherib attacked all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them.^{u 14}So King Hezekiah of Judah sent word to the king of Assyria at Lachish:^v “I have done wrong;^w withdraw from me. Whatever you demand from me, I will pay.” The king of Assyria demanded eleven tons^C of silver and one ton^D of gold from King Hezekiah of Judah. ¹⁵So Hezekiah gave him all the silver found in the Lord’s temple and in the treasuries of the king’s palace.

¹⁶At that time Hezekiah stripped the gold from the doors of the Lord’s sanctuary and from the doorposts he had overlaid and gave it to the king of Assyria.^x

¹⁷Then the king of Assyria sent the field marshal,^y the chief of staff, and his royal spokesman, along with a massive army, from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem.^z They advanced and came to Jerusalem, and^A they took their position by the aqueduct of the upper pool, by the road to the Launderer’s Field.^{aa 18}They called for the king, but Eliakim^ab son of Hilkiah, who was in charge of the palace, Shebnah^ac the court secretary, and Joah son of Asaph, the court historian, came out to them.^ad

THE ROYAL SPOKESMAN’S SPEECH

¹⁹Then^ae the royal spokesman said to them, “Tell Hezekiah this is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says: ‘What are you relying on?^Baf