2 Kings 18–19

King Hezekiah of Judah

18In the third year of the reign of Hoshea son of Elah as king of Israel, Hezekiah son of Ahaz became king of Judah ²at the age of 25, and he ruled in Jerusalem for 29 years. His mother was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah. ³Following the example of his ancestor King David, he did what was pleasing to the Lord. ^4*He destroyed the pagan places of worship, broke the stone pillars, and cut down the images of the goddess Asherah. He also broke in pieces the bronze snake that Moses had made, which was called Nehushtan. Up to that time the people of Israel had burnt incense in its honour. ⁵Hezekiah trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel; Judah never had another king like him, either before or after his time. ⁶He was faithful to the Lord and never disobeyed him, but carefully kept all the commands that the Lord had given Moses. ⁷So the Lord was with him, and he was successful in everything he did. He rebelled against the emperor of Assyria and refused to submit to him. ⁸He defeated the Philistines, and raided their settlements, from the smallest village to the largest city, including Gaza and its surrounding territory.

⁹In the fourth year of Hezekiah’s reign—which was the seventh year of King Hoshea’s reign over Israel—Emperor Shalmaneser of Assyria invaded Israel and besieged Samaria. ¹⁰In the third year of the siege, Samaria fell; this was the sixth year of Hezekiah’s reign, and the ninth year of Hoshea’s reign. ¹¹The Assyrian emperor^q took the Israelites to Assyria as prisoners and settled some of them in the city of Halah, some near the River Habor in the district of Gozan, and some in the cities of Media.

¹²Samaria fell because the Israelites did not obey the Lord their God, but broke the covenant he had made with them and disobeyed all the laws given by Moses, the servant of the Lord. They would not listen and they would not obey.

The Assyrians Threaten Jerusalem

¹³In the fourteenth year of the reign of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib, the emperor of Assyria, attacked the fortified cities of Judah and conquered them. ¹⁴Hezekiah sent a message to Sennacherib, who was in Lachish: “I have done wrong; please stop your attack, and I will pay whatever you demand.” The emperor’s answer was that Hezekiah should send him 10,000 kilogrammes of silver and a thousand kilogrammes of gold. ¹⁵Hezekiah sent him all the silver in the Temple and in the palace treasury; ¹⁶he also stripped the gold from the temple doors and the gold with which he himself had covered the doorposts, and he sent it all to Sennacherib. ¹⁷The Assyrian emperor sent a large army from Lachish to attack Hezekiah at Jerusalem; it was commanded by his three highest officials. When they arrived at Jerusalem, they occupied the road where the clothmakers work, by the ditch that brings water from the upper pond. ¹⁸Then they sent for King Hezekiah, and three of his officials went out to meet them: Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was in charge of the palace; Shebna, the court secretary; and Joah son of Asaph, who was in charge of the records. ¹⁹One of the Assyrian officials told them that the emperor wanted to know what made King Hezekiah so confident. ²⁰He demanded, “Do you think that words can take the place of military skill and might? Who do you think will help you rebel against Assyria? ²¹You are expecting Egypt to help you, but that would be like using a reed as a walking stick—it would break and jab your hand. That is what the king of Egypt is like when anyone relies on him.”

²²The Assyrian official went on, “Or will you tell me that you are relying on the Lord your God? It was the Lord’s shrines and altars that Hezekiah destroyed, when he told the people of Judah and Jerusalem to worship only at the altar in Jerusalem. ²³I will make a bargain with you in the name of the emperor. I will give you two thousand horses if you can find that many men to ride them! ²⁴You are no match for even the lowest ranking Assyrian official, and yet you expect the Egyptians to send you chariots and horsemen! ²⁵Do you think I have attacked your country and destroyed it without the Lord’s help? The Lord himself told me to attack it and destroy it.”

²⁶Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah told the official, “Speak Aramaic to us, sir. We understand it. Don’t speak Hebrew; all the people on the wall are listening.”

²⁷He replied, “Do you think you and the king are the only ones the emperor sent me to say all these things to? No, I am also talking to the people who are sitting on the wall, who will have to eat their excrement and drink their urine, just as you will.”

²⁸Then the official stood up and shouted in Hebrew, “Listen to what the emperor of Assyria is telling you! ²⁹He warns you not to let Hezekiah deceive you. Hezekiah can’t save you. ³⁰And don’t let him persuade you to rely on the Lord. Don’t think that the Lord will save you, and that he will stop our Assyrian army from capturing your city. ³¹Don’t listen to Hezekiah. The emperor of Assyria commands you to come out of the city and surrender. You will all be allowed to eat grapes from your own vines, and figs from your own trees, and to drink water from your own wells- ³²until the emperor resettles you in a country much like your own, where there are vineyards to give wine and there is corn for making bread; it is a land of olives, olive oil, and honey. If you do what he commands, you will not die, but live. Don’t let Hezekiah fool you into thinking that the Lord will rescue you. ³³Did the gods of any other nations save their countries from the emperor of Assyria? ³⁴Where are they now, the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah? Did anyone save Samaria? ³⁵When did any of the gods of all these countries ever save their country from our emperor? Then what makes you think the Lord can save Jerusalem?”

³⁶The people kept quiet, just as King Hezekiah had told them to; they did not say a word. ³⁷Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah tore their clothes in grief, and went and reported to the king what the Assyrian official had said.

The King Asks Isaiah’s Advice

19As soon as King Hezekiah heard their report, he tore his clothes in grief, put on sackcloth, and went to the Temple of the Lord. ²He sent Eliakim, the official in charge of the palace, Shebna, the court secretary, and the senior priests to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz. They also were wearing sackcloth. ³This is the message which he told them to give Isaiah: “Today is a day of suffering; we are being punished and are in disgrace. We are like a woman who is ready to give birth, but is too weak to do it. ⁴The Assyrian emperor has sent his chief official to insult the living God. May the Lord your God hear these insults and punish those who spoke them. So pray to God for those of our people who survive.”

⁵When Isaiah received King Hezekiah’s message, ⁶he sent back this answer: “The Lord tells you not to let the Assyrians frighten you with their claims that he cannot save you. ⁷The Lord will cause the emperor to hear a rumour that will make him go back to his own country, and the Lord will have him killed there.”

The Assyrians Send Another Threat

⁸The Assyrian official learnt that the emperor had left Lachish and was fighting against the nearby city of Libnah; so he went there to consult him. ⁹Word reached the Assyrians that the Egyptian army, led by King Tirhakah of Ethiopia,^r was coming to attack them. When the emperor heard this, he sent letter to King Hezekiah of Judah ¹⁰to say to him, “The god you are trusting in has told you that you will not fall into my hands, but don’t let that deceive you. ¹¹You have heard what an Assyrian emperor does to any country he decides to destroy. Do you think that you can escape? ¹²My ancestors destroyed the cities of Gozan, Haran, and Rezeph, and killed the people of Betheden who lived in Telassar, and none of their gods could save them. ¹³Where are the kings of the cities of Hamath, Arpad, Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?”

¹⁴King Hezekiah took the letter from the messengers and read it. Then he went to the Temple, placed the letter there in the presence of the Lord, ^15*and prayed, “O Lord, the God of Israel, enthroned above the winged creatures, you alone are God, ruling all the kingdoms of the world. You created the earth and the sky. ¹⁶Now, Lord, look at what is happening to us. Listen to all the things that Sennacherib is saying to insult you, the living God. ¹⁷We all know, Lord, that the emperors of Assyria have destroyed many nations, made their lands desolate, ¹⁸and burnt up their gods—which were no gods at all, only images of wood and stone made by human hands. ¹⁹Now, Lord our God, rescue us from the Assyrians, so that all the nations of the world will know that only you, O Lord, are God.”

Isaiah’s Message to the King

²⁰Then Isaiah sent a message telling King Hezekiah that in answer to the king’s prayer ²¹the Lord had said, “The city of Jerusalem laughs at you, Sennacherib, and despises you. ²²Whom do you think you have been insulting and ridiculing? You have been disrespectful to me, the holy God of Israel. ²³You sent your messengers to boast to me that with all your chariots you had conquered the highest mountains of Lebanon. You boasted that there you cut down the tallest cedars and the finest cypress trees and that you reached the deepest parts of the forests. ²⁴You boasted that you dug wells and drank water in foreign lands and that the feet of your soldiers tramped the River Nile dry.

²⁵“Have you never heard that I planned all this long ago? And now I have carried it out. I gave you the power to turn fortified cities into piles of rubble. ²⁶The people who lived there were powerless; they were frightened and stunned. They were like grass in a field or weeds growing on a roof when the hot east wind blasts them.^s

²⁷“But I know everything about you, what you do and where you go. I know how you rage against me. ²⁸I have received the report of that rage and that pride of yours, and now…