^18:1In the third year of the reign of Israel’s King Hoshea son of Elah, Ahaz’s son Hezekiah became king over Judah. ^18:2He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem.¹ His mother² was Abi,³ the daughter of Zechariah. ^18:3He did what the Lord approved, just as his ancestor David had done.⁴^18:4He eliminated the high places, smashed the sacred pillars to bits, and cut down the Asherah pole.⁵ He also demolished the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for up to that time⁶ the Israelites had been offering incense to it; it was called Nehushtan.⁷^18:5He trusted in the Lord God of Israel; in this regard there was none like him among the kings of Judah either before or after.⁸^18:6He was loyal to⁹ the Lord and did not abandon him.¹⁰ He obeyed the commandments which the Lord had given to¹¹ Moses. ^18:7The Lord was with him; he succeeded in all his endeavors.¹² He rebelled against the king of Assyria and refused to submit to him.¹³^18:8He defeated the Philistines as far as Gaza and its territory, from the watchtower to the city fortress.¹⁴

^18:9In the fourth year of King Hezekiah’s reign (it was the seventh year of the reign of Israel’s King Hoshea, son of Elah), King Shalmaneser of Assyria marched¹⁵ up against Samaria¹⁶ and besieged it. ^18:10After three years he captured it (in the sixth year of Hezekiah’s reign); in the ninth year of King Hoshea’s reign over Israel Samaria was captured. ^18:11The king of Assyria deported the people of Israel¹⁷ to Assyria. He settled them in Halah, along the Habor (the river of Gozan), and in the cities of the Medes. ^18:12This happened because they did not obey¹⁸ the Lord their God and broke his agreement with them.¹⁹ They did not pay attention to and obey all that Moses, the Lord’s servant, had commanded.²⁰

Sennacherib Invades Judah

^18:13In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah’s reign, King Sennacherib of Assyria marched up against all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them. ^18:14King Hezekiah of Judah sent this message to the king of Assyria, who was at Lachish, “I have violated our treaty.²¹ If you leave, I will do whatever you demand.”²² So the king of Assyria demanded that King Hezekiah of Judah pay three hundred talents²³ of silver and thirty talents of gold. ^18:15Hezekiah gave him all the silver in²⁴ the Lord’s temple and in the treasuries of the royal palace. ^18:16At that time King Hezekiah of Judah stripped the metal overlays from the doors of the Lord’s temple and from the posts which he had plated²⁵ and gave them to the king of Assyria.

^18:17The king of Assyria sent his commanding general, the chief eunuch, and the chief adviser²⁶ from Lachish to King Hezekiah in Jerusalem,²⁷ along with a large army. They went up and arrived at Jerusalem. They went²⁸ and stood at the conduit of the upper pool which is located on the road to the field where they wash and dry cloth.²⁹^18:18They summoned the king, so Eliakim son of Hilkiah, the palace supervisor, accompanied by Shebna the scribe and Joah son of Asaph, the secretary, went out to meet them.

^18:19The chief adviser said to them, “Tell Hezekiah: ‘This is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says: “What is your source of confidence?³⁰^18:20Your claim to have a strategy and military strength is just empty talk.³¹ In whom are you trusting that you would dare to rebel against me? ^18:21Now look, you must be trusting in Egypt, that splintered reed staff. If a man leans for support on it, it punctures his hand and wounds him. That is what Pharaoh king of Egypt does to all who trust in him. ^18:22Perhaps you will tell me, ‘We are trusting in the Lord our God.’ But Hezekiah is the one who eliminated his high places and altars and then told the people of Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You must worship at this altar in Jerusalem.’ ^18:23Now make a deal³² with my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, provided you can find enough riders for them. ^18:24Certainly you will not refuse one of my master’s minor officials and trust in Egypt for chariots and horsemen.³³^18:25Furthermore it was by the command of the Lord that I marched up against this place to destroy it. The Lord told me, ‘March³⁴ up against this land and destroy it.’ ” ’ ”³⁵

^18:26Eliakim son of Hilkiah, Shebna, and Joah said to the chief adviser, “Speak to your servants in Aramaic,³⁶ for we understand it. Don’t speak with us in the Judahite dialect³⁷ in the hearing of the people who are on the wall.” ^18:27But the chief adviser said to them, “My master did not send me to speak these words only to your master and to you.³⁸ His message is also for the men who sit on the wall, for they will eat their own excrement and drink their own urine along with you.”³⁹

^18:28The chief adviser then stood there and called out loudly in the Judahite dialect,⁴⁰ “Listen to the message of the great king, the king of Assyria. ^18:29This is what the king says: ‘Don’t let Hezekiah mislead you, for he is not able to rescue you from my hand!⁴¹^18:30Don’t let Hezekiah talk you into trusting in the Lord when he says, “The Lord will certainly rescue us; this city will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.” ^18:31Don’t listen to Hezekiah!’ For this is what the king of Assyria says, ‘Send me a token of your submission and surrender to me.⁴² Then each of you may eat from his own vine and fig tree and drink water from his own cistern, ^18:32until I come and take you to a land just like your own—a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees and honey. Then you will live and not die. Don’t listen to Hezekiah, for he is misleading you when he says, “The Lord will rescue us.” ^18:33Have any of the gods of the nations actually rescued his land from the power of the king of Assyria?⁴³^18:34Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?⁴⁴ Indeed, did any gods rescue Samaria⁴⁵ from my power?⁴⁶^18:35Who among all the gods of the lands has rescued their lands from my power? So how can the Lord rescue Jerusalem from my power?’ ”⁴⁷^18:36The people were silent and did not respond, for the king had ordered, “Don’t respond to him.”

^18:37Eliakim son of Hilkiah, the palace supervisor, accompanied by Shebna the scribe and Joah son of Asaph, the secretary, went to Hezekiah with their clothes torn⁴⁸ and reported to him what the chief adviser had said. ^19:1When King Hezekiah heard this, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, and went to the Lord’s temple. ^19:2He sent Eliakim the palace supervisor, Shebna the scribe, and the leading priests,¹ clothed in sackcloth, with this message to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz: ^19:3“This is what Hezekiah says:² ‘This is a day of distress, insults,³ and humiliation,⁴ as when a baby is ready to leave the birth canal, but the mother lacks the strength to push it through.⁵^19:4Perhaps the Lord your God will hear all these things the chief adviser has spoken on behalf of his master, the king of Assyria, who sent him to taunt the living God.⁶ When the Lord your God hears, perhaps he will punish him for the things he has said.⁷ So pray for this remnant that remains.’ ”⁸

^19:5When King Hezekiah’s servants came to Isaiah, ^19:6Isaiah said to them, “Tell your master this: ‘This is what the Lord says: “Don’t be afraid because of the things you have heard—these insults the king of Assyria’s servants have hurled against me.⁹^19:7Look, I will take control of his mind;¹⁰ he will receive¹¹ a report and return to his own land. I will cut him down¹² with a sword in his own land.” ’ ”

^19:8When the chief adviser heard the king of Assyria had departed from Lachish, he left and went to Libnah, where the king was campaigning.¹³^19:9The king¹⁴ heard that King Tirhakah of Ethiopia was marching out to fight him.¹⁵ He again sent messengers to Hezekiah, ordering them: ^19:10“Tell King Hezekiah of Judah this: ‘Don’t let your God in whom you trust mislead you when he says, “Jerusalem will not be handed over¹⁶ to the king of Assyria.” ^19:11Certainly you have heard how the kings of Assyria have annihilated all lands.¹⁷ Do you really think you will be rescued?¹⁸^19:12Were the nations whom my ancestors destroyed—the nations of Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden in Telassar—rescued by their gods?¹⁹^19:13Where are the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, and the king of Lair,²⁰ Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?’ ”

^19:14Hezekiah took the letter²¹ from the messengers and read it.²² Then Hezekiah went up to the Lord’s temple and spread it out before the Lord. ^19:15Hezekiah prayed before the Lord: “Lord God of Israel, who is enthroned on the cherubs!²³ You alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You made the sky²⁴ and the earth. ^19:16Pay attention, Lord, and hear! Open your eyes, Lord, and observe! Listen to the message Sennacherib sent and how he taunts the living God!²⁵^19:17It is true, Lord, that the kings of Assyria have destroyed the nations and their lands. ^19:18They have burned the gods of the nations,²⁶ for they are not really gods, but only the product of human hands manufactured from wood and stone. That is why the Assyrians could destroy them.²⁷^19:19Now, O Lord our God, rescue us from his power, so that all the kingdoms of the earth will know that you, Lord, are the only God.”

^19:20Isaiah son of Amoz sent this message to Hezekiah: “This is what the Lord God of Israel says: ‘I have heard your prayer concerning King Sennacherib of Assyria.²⁸^19:21This is what the Lord says about him:²⁹

“The virgin daughter Zion³⁰

despises you, she makes fun of you;

Daughter Jerusalem

shakes her head after you.³¹

^19:22Whom have you taunted and hurled insults at?

At whom have you shouted,³²

and looked so arrogantly?³³

At the Holy One of Israel!³⁴

^19:23Through your messengers you taunted the sovereign master,³⁵

‘With my many chariots³⁶

I climbed up the high mountains,

the slopes of Lebanon.

I cut down its…

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Footnotes

1 For location see ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; .
2 Heb “the name of his mother.”
3 The parallel passage in 2 Chr 29:1 has “Abijah.”
4 Heb “he did what was proper in the eyes of the Lord, according to all which David his father had done.”
5 The term is singular in the but plural in the and other ancient versions. It is also possible to regard the singular as a collective singular, especially in the context of other plural items. Asherah was a leading deity of the Canaanite pantheon, wife/sister of El and goddess of fertility. She was commonly worshiped at shrines in or near groves of evergreen trees, or, failing that, at places marked by wooden poles. These were to be burned or cut down (Deut 12:3; 16:21; Judg 6:25, 28, 30; 2 Kgs 18:4).
6 Heb “until those days.”
7 In Hebrew the name sounds like the phrase נְחַשׁ הַנְּחֹשֶׁת (nékhash hannékhoshet), “bronze serpent.”
8 Heb “and after him there was none like him among all the kings of Judah, and those who were before him.”
9 Heb “he hugged.”
10 Heb “and did not turn aside from after him.”
11 Heb “had commanded.”
12 Heb “in all which he went out [to do], he was successful.”
13 Heb “and did not serve him.”
14 See the note at .
15 Heb “went” (also in v. 13).
16 For location see ; ; ; ; .
17 The Hebrew text has simply “Israel” as the object of the verb.
18 Heb “listen to the voice of.”
19 Heb “his covenant.”
20 Heb “all that Moses, the Lord’s servant, had commanded, and they did not listen and they did not act.”
21 Or “I have done wrong.”
22 Heb “Return from upon me; what you place upon me, I will carry.”
23 The Hebrew term כִּכָּר (kikkar, “circle”) refers generally to something that is round. When used of metals it can refer to a disk-shaped weight made of the metal or to a standard unit of weight, generally regarded as a talent. Since the accepted weight for a talent of metal is about 75 pounds, this would have amounted to about 22,500 pounds of silver and 2,250 pounds of gold.
24 Heb “that was found.”
25 Heb “At that time Hezekiah stripped the doors of the Lord’s temple, and the posts which Hezekiah king of Judah had plated.”
26 For a discussion of these titles see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (), .
27 For location see ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; .
28 Heb “and they went up and came.”
29 Heb “the field of the washer.”
30 Heb “What is this object of trust in which you are trusting?”
31 Heb “you say only a word of lips, counsel and might for battle.” Sennacherib’s message appears to be in broken Hebrew at this point. The phrase “word of lips” refers to mere or empty talk in Prov 14:23.
32 Heb “exchange pledges.”
33 Heb “How can you turn back the face of an official [from among] the least of my master’s servants and trust in Egypt for chariots and horsemen?” In vv. 23–24 the chief adviser develops further the argument begun in v. 21. His reasoning seems to be as follows: “In your weakened condition you obviously need military strength. Agree to the king’s terms and I will personally give you more horses than you are capable of outfitting. If I, a mere minor official, am capable of giving you such military might, just think what power the king has. There is no way the Egyptians can match our strength. It makes much better sense to deal with us.”
34 Heb “Go.”
35 In v. 25 the chief adviser develops further the argument begun in v. 22. He claims that Hezekiah has offended the Lord and that the Lord has commissioned Assyria as his instrument of discipline and judgment.
36 Aramaic was the diplomatic language of the empire.
37 Or “Hebrew.”
38 Heb “To your master and to you did my master send me to speak these words?” The rhetorical question expects a negative answer.
39 Heb “[Is it] not [also] to the men …?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Yes, it is.” The chief adviser alludes to the horrible reality of siege warfare, when the starving people in the besieged city would resort to eating and drinking anything to stay alive.
40 The Hebrew text also has, “and he spoke and said.”
41 The has “his hand,” but this is due to graphic confusion of vav (ו) and yod (י). The translation reads “my hand,” along with many medieval Hebrew , the , , , and .
42 Heb “make with me a blessing and come out to me.”
43 Heb “Have the gods of the nations really rescued, each his land, from the hand of the king of Assyria?” The infinitive absolute lends emphasis to the main verb. The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Of course not!”
44 The parallel passage in Isa 36:19 omits “Hena and Ivvah.” The rhetorical questions in v. 34a suggest the answer, “Nowhere, they seem to have disappeared in the face of Assyria’s might.”
45 For location see ; ; ; ; .
46 Heb “that they rescued Samaria from my hand?” But this gives the impression that the gods of Sepharvaim were responsible for protecting Samaria, which is obviously not the case. The implied subject of the plural verb “rescued” must be the generic “gods of the nations/lands” (vv. 33, 35).
47 Heb “that the Lord might rescue Jerusalem from my hand?” The logic runs as follows: Since no god has ever been able to withstand the Assyrian onslaught, how can the people of Jerusalem possibly think the Lord will rescue them?
48 As a sign of grief and mourning.
1 Heb “elders of the priests.”
2 In the Hebrew text this verse begins with “they said to him.”
3 Or “rebuke,” “correction.”
4 Or “contempt.”
5 Heb “when sons come to the cervical opening and there is no strength to give birth.”
6 Heb “all the words of the chief adviser whom his master, the king of Assyria, sent to taunt the living God.”
7 Heb “and rebuke the words which the Lord your God hears.”
8 Heb “and lift up a prayer on behalf of the remnant that is found.”
9 Heb “by which the servants of the king of Assyria have insulted me.”
10 Heb “I will put in him a spirit.” The precise sense of רוּחַ (ruakh), “spirit,” is uncertain in this context. It may refer to a spiritual being who will take control of his mind (see 1 Kgs 22:19), or it could refer to a disposition of concern and fear. In either case the Lord’s sovereignty over the king is apparent.
11 Heb “hear.”
12 Heb “cause him to fall,” that is, “kill him.”
13 Heb “and the chief adviser returned and he found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah, for he heard that he had departed from Lachish.”
14 Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
15 Heb “heard concerning Tirhakah king of Cush, ‘Look, he has come out to fight with you.’ ”
16 Heb “will not be given.”
17 Heb “Look, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands, annihilating them.”
18 Heb “and will you be rescued?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “No, of course not!”
19 Heb “Did the gods of the nations whom my fathers destroyed rescue them—Gozan and Haran, and Rezeph and the sons of Eden who are in Telassar?”
20 Lair is a city located in northeastern Babylon. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (), .
21 The has the plural, “letters,” but the final mem is probably dittographic (note the initial mem on the form that immediately follows). Some Greek and Aramaic witnesses have the singular.
22 The has the plural suffix, “them,” but this probably reflects a later harmonization to the preceding textual corruption (of “letter” to “letters”). The parallel passage in Isa 37:14 has the singular suffix.
23 This refers to the cherub images that were above the ark of the covenant.
24 Or “the heavens.”
25 Heb “Hear the words of Sennacherib which he sent to taunt the living God.”
26 Heb “and they put their gods in the fire.”
27 Heb “so they destroyed them.”
28 Heb “That which you prayed to me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria I have heard.” The verb “I have heard” does not appear in the parallel passage in Isa 37:21, where אֲשֶׁר (’asher) probably has a causal sense, “because.”
29 Heb “this is the word which the Lord has spoken about him.”
30 Zion (Jerusalem) is pictured here as a young, vulnerable daughter whose purity is being threatened by the would-be Assyrian rapist. The personification hints at the reality which the young girls of the city would face if the Assyrians conquer it.
31 Shaking the head was a mocking gesture of derision.
32 Heb “have you raised a voice.”
33 Heb “and lifted your eyes on high?”
34 This divine title pictures the Lord as the sovereign king who rules over his covenant people and exercises moral authority over them.
35 The word is אֲדֹנָי (’adonai), “lord,” but some Hebrew have יְהוָה (yehvah), “Lord.”
36 The consonantal text (Kethib) has בְּרֶכֶב (bérekhev), but this must be dittographic (note the following רִכְבִּי [rikhbi], “my chariots”). The marginal reading (Qere) בְּרֹב (bérov), “with many,” is supported by many Hebrew and ancient versions, as well as the parallel passage in Isa 37:24.