2 Kings 18

1In the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, Hezekiah son of Ahaz king of Judah became king.

2He was twenty-five years old when he became king and ruled twenty-nine years in Jerusalem; his mother's name was Abi, daughter of Zechariah.

3He did what was right in Yahweh's eyes, as his father David had done everything.

4He did away with the high places, smashed the pillars, chopped down the Asherah, and crushed the bronze serpent that Moses had made—for until those days the Israelites had been burning incense to it—and he called it Nehushtan.

5He trusted in Yahweh, God of Israel; after him there was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, nor among those who were before him.

6He held fast to Yahweh, never turning aside from following him, but kept his commandments, which Yahweh commanded Moses.

7Yahweh was with him; he succeeded wherever he went, and he rebelled against the king of Assyria and did not serve him.

8He struck the Philistines all the way to Gaza and its borders, from the watchmen's tower to the fortress city.

9In the fourth year of King Hezekiah—the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah, king of Israel—Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, marched against Samaria and besieged it.

10They captured it at the end of three years—in the sixth year of Hezekiah, which was the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel—when Samaria was captured.

11The king of Assyria exiled Israel to Assyria and settled them in Halah, in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.

12because they did not heed the voice of Yahweh their God, but violated his covenant and everything Moses, Yahweh's servant, commanded, neither listening nor carrying it out.

13In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them.

14Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria at Lachish, saying, "I have sinned; return from me. Whatever you impose on me, I will bear." The king of Assyria imposed on Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.

15Hezekiah gave all the silver present in the house of Yahweh and in the treasuries of the king's house.

16At that time Hezekiah stripped the gold from Yahweh's temple doors and the pillars that Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid, and gave it to Assyria's king.

17The king of Assyria sent Tartan, Rabsaris, and Rabshakeh from Lachish to King Hezekiah with a large army to Jerusalem. They ascended and arrived at Jerusalem, advanced further to the conduit of the upper pool along the fuller's field highway, and stood there.

18They called to the king, and Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, went out to them with Shebna the scribe and Joah son of Asaph the recorder.

19Rabshakeh said to them, “Say now to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria, “What confidence is this in which you trust?”’”

20You claim counsel and might for war, but that is mere words of lips. Now on whom do you trust, that you have rebelled against me?

21Now, look—you trust in the staff of this crushed reed, Egypt, on which if a man leans it enters his palm and pierces it; so Pharaoh king of Egypt is to all who trust in him.

22But if you say to me, “We trust in Yahweh our God”—isn't he the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah removed, commanding Judah and Jerusalem, “You must bow down before this altar in Jerusalem”?

23Now then, please exchange pledges with my lord the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses if you are able to set riders upon them.

24How can you repel one captain of the lowliest servants of my master and rely on Egypt for chariots and horsemen?

25Have I now come up against this place to destroy it without Yahweh? Yahweh said to me, "Go up against this land and destroy it."

26Eliakim son of Hilkiah, Shebna, and Joah said to Rabshakeh, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it; do not speak with us in Judean, in the ears of the people on the wall.”

27Rabshakeh said to them, "Has my lord sent me to your lords and to you to speak these words? Hasn't he sent me to the men sitting on the wall to eat their dung and excrement and to drink their urine, the waters of their feet, with you?"

28Rabshakeh stood and called out loudly in Judean, spoke, and said, "Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria."

29The king says this: Do not let Hezekiah mislead you, for he cannot rescue you from his hand.

30Do not let Hezekiah lead you to rely on Yahweh by saying, "Yahweh will certainly rescue us, and this city will not be handed over to the king of Assyria."

31Do not heed Hezekiah, for thus says the king of Assyria: Make a blessing with me, and come out to me; and every man eat of his vine, and every man of his fig tree, and every man drink the waters of his cistern.

32until I come and take you to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olives and oil and honey, so you live and do not die; do not listen to Hezekiah when he persuades you, saying, “Yahweh will deliver us.”

33Has any of the gods of the nations at all delivered his 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 Ivah? Have they rescued Samaria from my hand?

35Who among all the gods of the lands have delivered their land from my hand, that Yahweh should deliver Jerusalem from my hand?

37Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah son of Asaph the recorder came to Hezekiah with torn garments and reported to him the words of Rabshakeh.