2 Kings 18–19

Hezekiah Reigns in Judah

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

⁹It happened in the fourth year of King Hezekiah, that is, the seventh year of Hoshea the son of Elah king of Israel, Shalmaneser king of Assyria came against Samaria and laid siege against her. ¹⁰At the end of three years, he captured it in the sixth year of Hezekiah, that is, the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel; Samaria was captured. ¹¹Then the king of Assyria deported Israel to Assyria and settled them in Halah, in Habor, in the river regions of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes, ¹²because they did not listen to the voice of Yahweh their God, and they transgressed his covenant; all that he had commanded Moses, the servant of Yahweh, they did not listen to nor did they obey.

Sennacherib of Assyria Invades Judah

¹³In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all of the fortified cities of Judah and captured them. ¹⁴So Hezekiah king of Judah sent word to the king of Assyria at Lachish, saying, “I have done wrong. Withdraw from me. What you impose on me I will bear.” So the king of Assyria imposed on Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold. ¹⁵Then Hezekiah gave all of the silver found in the temple of Yahweh and in the storerooms of the house of the king. ¹⁶At that time, Hezekiah cut off the doors of the temple of Yahweh and the doorposts which Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid, and he gave them to the king of Assyria. ¹⁷So the king of Assyria sent the commander in chief, the chief eunuch, and the chief advisor^d from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem with a heavy army. They went up and came to Jerusalem, then they went up and came and stood at the aqueduct of the upper pool which is on the main road of the washer’s^e field. ¹⁸Then they called to the king, so Eliakim the son of Hilkiah who was over the palace, Shebna the secretary, and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder, came out to them.

Assyrians Advise against Trust in Yahweh

¹⁹Then the chief advisor said to them, “Please say to Hezekiah: ‘Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: “What is this confidence that you trust? ²⁰You think only a word of lips, ‘I have advice and power for the war.’ Now, on whom do you trust that you have rebelled against me? ²¹Now, look! You rely^f on the staff of this broken reed, on Egypt, which when a man leans on it, it goes into his hand and pierces it! So is Pharaoh the king of Egypt for all who are trusting on him! ²²But if you say to me, ‘On Yahweh our God we trust,’ is it not he whose high places and altars Hezekiah removed, and he had said to Judah and to Jerusalem, ‘In the presence of this altar you shall bow down only in Jerusalem?’ ²³So then, please make a wager with my lord, with the king of Assyria, and I will give to you a thousand horses if you are able on your part to put riders on them.^{g 24}How can you repulse a single captain among the least of the servants of my master^h? Yet you rely for yourself on Egypt for chariots and horsemen! ²⁵Have I now come up against this place without Yahweh to destroy it? Yahweh has said to me, ‘Go up against this land and destroy it!’ ” ’ ”

²⁶Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah and Shebna and Joah said to the chief commander, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we are understanding, but you must not speak Judean with us in the ears of the people who are on the wall.” ²⁷The chief commander said to them, “Is it solely to your master and to you my master has sent me to speak these words? Is it not for the men who sit on the wall to eat their feces and to drink their urine with you?”

²⁸Then the chief commander stood and called with a great voice in Judean, and he spoke and said, “Hear the word of the king, the great king of Assyria! ²⁹Thus says the king, ‘Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to rescue you from myⁱ hand. ³⁰Do not let Hezekiah make you trust in Yahweh, saying, “Certainly Yahweh will rescue us, and this city shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria!” ’ ³¹Do not listen to Hezekiah; for thus says the king of Assyria, ‘Make with me a treaty of peace and come out to me that each may eat from his vine and each from his fig tree, and each may drink water from his cistern! ³²Until I come and take you to a land like your land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees, olive oil, and honey, that you may live and not die! You must not listen to Hezekiah, for he has misled you by saying, “Yahweh will deliver us!” ³³Did the gods of each of the nations ever rescue the land from the hand of the king of Assyria? ³⁴Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah? For did they rescue Samaria from my hand? ³⁵Who among all of the gods of the countries have rescued their countries from my hand that Yahweh should rescue Jerusalem from my hand?’ ”

³⁶The people were silent, and they did not answer him a word, for the command of that king was saying, “You shall not answer him.” ³⁷Eliakim the son of Hilkiah who was over the palace, and Shebna the secretary, and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder came to Hezekiah with torn clothes, and they told him the words of the chief commander.

Isaiah Sends Encouragement to Hezekiah

19It happened that when King Hezekiah heard, he tore his clothes and covered himself with sackcloth and went to the temple of Yahweh. ²He sent Eliakim who was over the palace, Shebna the secretary, the elders, and the priests, all clothed in sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz. ³They said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah, ‘A day of distress, rebuke, and disgrace is this day, for the children are about to be born,^a but there is no strength to bear them. ⁴Perhaps Yahweh your God will hear all of the words of the chief commander whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to insult the living God, and he will rebuke the words that Yahweh your God has heard. Therefore lift up a prayer for the remainder who are left.’ ” ⁵So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah, ⁶and Isaiah said to them, “Thus you must say to your master, ‘Thus says Yahweh, “You must not be afraid because the face of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have reviled me. ⁷Look, I am putting in him a spirit. He will hear a rumor and return to his land. Then I will cause him to fall by the sword in his land.” ’ ”

The Assyrians Defy God

⁸When the chief commander returned, he found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah, for he had heard that he had departed from Lachish. ⁹He heard about Tirhakah, the king of Cush, saying, “Look, he has set out to fight with you,” so he again sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, ¹⁰“Thus you shall say to Hezekiah the king of Judah, ‘Let not your God whom you are trusting deceive you, by his saying, “Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria!” ¹¹Look, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands, by utterly destroying them, and shall you be delivered? ¹²Did the gods of the nations that my predecessors^b destroyed deliver them? Not Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, nor the children of Eden who were in Tel Assar. ¹³Where are the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?’ ”

Hezekiah Prays to Yahweh

¹⁴Hezekiah took the letters from the hand of the messengers and read them. Then he went up to the temple of Yahweh, and Hezekiah spread them out before the presence of Yahweh. ¹⁵Then Hezekiah prayed before the face of Yahweh and said, “O Yahweh, God of Israel who lives above the cherubim. You are God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the world; you have made the heavens and the earth. ¹⁶Incline your ears and hear; open, O Yahweh, your eyes and see and hear the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to insult the living God. ¹⁷Truly, O Yahweh, the kings of Assyria have utterly destroyed the nations and their land. ¹⁸He has hurled their gods in the fire because they are not gods, but the work of the hands of a human made of wood and stone, so they destroyed them. ¹⁹So then, O Yahweh our God, rescue us, please, from his hand, that all of the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, O Yahweh, you alone are God!”

Isaiah Brings a Prophetic Response

²⁰Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says Yahweh the God of Israel, ‘What you have prayed to me about Sennacherib king of Assyria I have heard. ²¹This is the word that Yahweh has spoken concerning him:

She despises you, she scorns you,

the virgin daughter of Zion.

Behind you the daughter of Jerusalem

shakes her head.

²²Whom have you mocked and reviled?

And against whom have you have raised your voice

and have haughtily lifted your eyes?

Against the Holy One of Israel!

²³By the hand of your messengers you have mocked the Lord,

and you have…