2 Kings 17–18

Chapter 17

Hoshea Reigns over Israel

¹In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah, ^aHoshea the son of Elah became king over Israel in Samaria, and reigned nine years.

²He did evil in the sight of the Lord, only not as the kings of Israel who were before him.

^3aShalmaneser king of Assyria came up ^bagainst him, and Hoshea became his servant and paid him tribute.

⁴But the king of Assyria found conspiracy in Hoshea, who had sent messengers to So king of Egypt and had offered no tribute to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year; so the king of Assyria shut him up and bound him in prison.

⁵Then the king of Assyria invaded the whole land and went up to ^aSamaria and besieged it three years.

Israel Captive

⁶In the ninth year of Hoshea, ^athe king of Assyria captured Samaria and ^bcarried Israel away into exile to Assyria, and ^csettled them in Halah and Habor, on the river of ^dGozan, and ^ein the cities of the Medes.

Why Israel Fell

⁷Now ^athis came about because the sons of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, ^bwho had brought them up from the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, ^cand they had ¹feared other gods

⁸and ^awalked in the ¹customs of the nations whom the Lord had driven out before the sons of Israel, and in the customs ^bof the kings of Israel which they had ²introduced.

⁹The sons of Israel ¹did things secretly which were not right against the Lord their God. Moreover, they built for themselves high places in all their towns, from ^awatchtower to fortified city.

^10aThey set for themselves sacred pillars and ^1bAsherim on every high hill and under every green tree,

¹¹and there they burned incense on all the high places as the nations did which the Lord had carried away to exile before them; and they did evil things provoking the Lord.

¹²They served idols, ^aconcerning which the Lord had said to them, “You shall not do this thing.”

¹³Yet the ^aLord warned Israel and Judah ^bthrough all His prophets and ^cevery seer, saying, “^dTurn from your evil ways and keep My commandments, My statutes according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you through My servants the prophets.”

¹⁴However, they did not listen, but ^astiffened their neck ¹like their fathers, who did not believe in the Lord their God.

^15aThey rejected His statutes and ^bHis covenant which He made with their fathers and His warnings with which He warned them. And ^cthey followed vanity and ^dbecame vain, and went after the nations which surrounded them, concerning which the ^eLord had commanded them not to do like them.

¹⁶They forsook all the commandments of the Lord their God and made for themselves molten images, even ^atwo calves, and ^bmade an ¹Asherah and ^cworshiped all the host of heaven and ^dserved Baal.

¹⁷Then ^athey made their sons and their daughters pass through the fire, and ^bpracticed divination and enchantments, and ^csold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking Him.

¹⁸So the Lord was very angry with Israel and ^aremoved them from His ¹sight; ^bnone was left except the tribe of Judah.

¹⁹Also ^aJudah did not keep the commandments of the Lord their God, but ^bwalked in the ¹customs ²which Israel had ³introduced.

²⁰The Lord rejected all the ¹descendants of Israel and afflicted them and ^agave them into the hand of plunderers, until He had cast them ²out of His sight.

²¹When ^aHe had torn Israel from the house of David, ^bthey made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king. Then ^cJeroboam drove Israel away from following the Lord and made them ¹commit a great sin.

²²The sons of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did; they did not depart from them

^23auntil the Lord removed Israel from His sight, ^bas He spoke through all His servants the prophets. So Israel was carried away into exile from their own land to Assyria until this day.

Cities of Israel Filled with Strangers

^24aThe king of Assyria brought men from Babylon and from Cuthah and from ^1bAvva and from ^cHamath and Sephar-vaim, and settled them in the cities of Samaria in place of the sons of Israel. So they possessed Samaria and lived in its cities.

²⁵At the beginning of their living there, they ^adid not fear the Lord; therefore the Lord sent lions among them which killed some of them.

²⁶So they spoke to the king of Assyria, saying, “The nations whom you have carried away into exile in the cities of Samaria do not know the custom of the god of the land; so he has sent lions among them, and behold, they kill them because they do not know the custom of the god of the land.”

²⁷Then the king of Assyria commanded, saying, “Take there one of the priests whom you carried away into ¹exile and let ²him go and live there; and let him teach them the custom of the god of the land.”

²⁸So one of the priests whom they had carried away into exile from Samaria came and lived at Bethel, and taught them how they should fear the Lord.

²⁹But every nation still made gods of its own and put them ^ain the houses of the high places which the people of Samaria had made, every nation in their cities in which they lived.

^30aThe men of Babylon made Succoth-benoth, the men of Cuth made Nergal, the men of Hamath made Ashima,

³¹and the Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak; and ^athe Sepharvites burned their children in the fire to ^bAdrammelech and Anammelech the gods of ^cSepharvaim.

^32aThey also feared the Lord and ^1bappointed from among themselves priests of the high places, who acted for them in the houses of the high places.

³³They feared the Lord and served their own gods according to the custom of the nations from among whom they had been carried away into exile.

³⁴To this day they do according to the earlier customs: they do not fear the Lord, nor do they ¹follow their statutes or their ordinances or the law, or the commandments which the Lord commanded the sons of Jacob, ^awhom He named Israel;

³⁵with whom the Lord made a covenant and commanded them, saying, “^aYou shall not fear other gods, nor ^bbow down yourselves to them nor ^cserve them nor sacrifice to them.

³⁶“But the Lord, ^awho brought you up from the land of Egypt with great power and with ^ban outstretched arm, ^cHim you shall fear, and to Him you shall bow yourselves down, and to Him you shall sacrifice.

³⁷“The statutes and the ordinances and the law and the commandment which He wrote for you, ^ayou shall observe to do forever; and you shall not fear other gods.

³⁸“The covenant that I have made with you, ^ayou shall not forget, nor shall you fear other gods.

³⁹“But the Lord your God you shall fear; and He will deliver you from the hand of all your enemies.”

⁴⁰However, they did not listen, but they did according to their earlier custom.

^41aSo while these nations feared the Lord, they also served their ¹idols; their children likewise and their grandchildren, as their fathers did, so they do to this day.

Chapter 18

Hezekiah Reigns over Judah

¹Now it came about ^ain the third year of Hoshea, the son of Elah king of Israel, that ^bHezekiah the son of Ahaz king of Judah became king.

²He was ^atwenty-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.

^3aHe did right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father David had done.

^4aHe removed the high places and broke down the sacred pillars and cut down the ¹Asherah. He also broke in pieces ^bthe bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the sons of Israel burned incense to it; and it was called ²Nehushtan.

^5aHe trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel; ^bso that after him there was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor among those who were before him.

⁶For he ^aclung to the Lord; he did not depart from following Him, but kept His commandments, which the Lord had commanded Moses.

Hezekiah Victorious

^7aAnd the Lord was with him; wherever he went he prospered. And ^bhe rebelled against the king of Assyria and did not serve him.

^8aHe ¹defeated the Philistines as far as Gaza and its territory, from ^bwatchtower to fortified city.

⁹Now in the fourth year of King Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, ^aShalmaneser king of Assyria came up against Samaria and besieged it.

¹⁰At the end of three years they captured it; in the sixth year of Hezekiah, which was ^athe ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel, Samaria was captured.

¹¹Then the king of Assyria carried Israel away into exile to Assyria, and put them in ^aHalah and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes,

¹²because they ^adid not obey the voice of the Lord their God, but transgressed His covenant, even all that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded; they would neither listen nor do it.

Invasion of Judah

^13aNow in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and seized them.

¹⁴Then Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria at Lachish, saying, “^aI have done wrong. ¹Withdraw from me; whatever you ²impose on me I will bear.” So the king of Assyria ³required of Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.

^15aHezekiah gave him all the silver which was found in the house of the Lord, and in the treasuries of the king’s house.

¹⁶At that time Hezekiah cut off the gold from the doors of the temple of the Lord, and from the doorposts which Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid, and gave it to the king of Assyria.

¹⁷Then the king of Assyria sent ^aTartan and Rab-saris and Rabshakeh from Lachish to King Hezekiah with a large army to Jerusalem. So they went up and came to Jerusalem. And when they went up, they came and stood by the ^bconduit of the upper pool, which is on the highway of the ¹fuller’s field.

¹⁸When they called to the king, ^aEliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and ^bShebnah the scribe and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder, came out to them.

¹⁹Then Rabshakeh said to them, “Say now to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the great king, the…