^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?

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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.