2 Kings 18

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1. 1Hezekiah son of Ahaz became king of Judah during the 3rd year of King Hoshea son of Elah's reign over Israel.
2. 2He was 25 years old when he became king, and he ruled in Jerusalem for 29 years. His mother was Abi, the daughter of Zachariah.
3. 3He did what was right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that David his father did.
4. 4He tore down the hilltop shrines, smashed the sacred pillars, and chopped down the Asherah poles. He even broke apart the bronze serpent that Moses had made, because the people of Israel had been burning incense to it all that time. He called it Nehushtan.
5. 5He trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel. No king of Judah before or after him could compare to him.
6. 6He held tightly to the LORD and never turned away from following him. He obeyed the commandments that the LORD had given through Moses.
7. 7The LORD was with him, and he succeeded in everything he did. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and refused to serve him.
8. 8He defeated the Philistines all the way to Gaza and its surrounding territory, from the watchtower to the fortified city.
9. 9In the 4th year of King Hezekiah's reign — which was the 7th year of King Hoshea son of Elah of Israel — King Shalmaneser of Assyria marched against Samaria and laid siege to it.
10. 10After 3 years, the Assyrians captured it. Samaria fell in the 6th year of Hezekiah's reign, which was the 9th year of King Hoshea of Israel.
11. 11The king of Assyria deported the Israelites to Assyria, resettling them in Halah, along the Habor River in Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.
12. 12This happened because they refused to obey the LORD their God. They violated his covenant and ignored everything that Moses, the servant of the LORD, had commanded. They wouldn't listen, and they wouldn't obey.
13. 13In the 14th year of King Hezekiah's reign, King Sennacherib of Assyria attacked all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them.
14. 14Hezekiah king of Judah sent a message to the king of Assyria at Lachish, saying, "I have offended; withdraw from me, and I will bear whatever you impose." The king of Assyria required Hezekiah to pay 300 talents of silver and 30 talents of gold.
15. 15So Hezekiah handed over all the silver found in the LORD's temple and in the royal treasury.
16. 16At that time, Hezekiah stripped the gold from the doors of the temple of the LORD and from the pillars that Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid, and gave it to the king of Assyria.
17. 17The king of Assyria sent Tartan, Rabsaris, and Rabshakeh from Lachish to King Hezekiah with a large army against Jerusalem. They went up to Jerusalem and stood by the channel of the upper pool, which is on the road to the washerman's field.
18. 18When they called for the king, Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, came out to them, along with Shebna the scribe and Joah son of Asaph, the recorder.
19. 19Rabshakeh told them, "Deliver this message to Hezekiah: 'The great king, the king of Assyria, asks: What exactly are you putting your confidence in?
20. 20You claim you have strategy and military strength — but those are empty words. Who are you really counting on, that you dare rebel against me?
21. 21Look at you — leaning on Egypt for support! Egypt is nothing but a splintered reed. If you lean on it, it stabs right through your hand. That's exactly what Pharaoh king of Egypt is to everyone who trusts him.
22. 22And if you say to me, 'We trust in the LORD our God'—isn't he the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah removed, telling Judah and Jerusalem, 'You shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem'?
23. 23Now then, I ask you, make a wager with my master, the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to provide riders for them.
24. 24How then can you turn away even one captain of the least of my master's servants, and yet put your trust on Egypt for chariots and horsemen?
25. 25And do you think I came here without the LORD's backing? The LORD himself told me, 'March against this land and destroy it.'"
26. 26Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, Shebna, and Joah said to Rabshakeh, "Please speak to us in Aramaic — we understand it. Don't speak to us in Hebrew where the people on the wall can hear you."
27. 27But Rabshakeh replied, "Did my master send me to your master and to you to speak these words? Didn't he send me to the men sitting on the wall, who will eat their own dung and drink their own urine with you?"
28. 28Then Rabshakeh stood up and shouted in Hebrew so everyone could hear: "Listen to the message of the great king, the king of Assyria!
29. 29The king says: 'Don't let Hezekiah fool you. He can't save you from my power.
30. 30Don't let Hezekiah make you trust in the LORD by saying, 'The LORD will surely deliver us, and this city will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.'
31. 31Stop listening to Hezekiah!' The king of Assyria says: 'Make peace with me and surrender. Then each of you will eat from your own grapevine and your own fig tree, and drink water from your own well,
32. 32until I come and take you to a land like your own, a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive oil and honey, so that you may live and not die. Do not listen to Hezekiah when he persuades you, saying, The LORD will deliver us.
33. 33Has any god of any nation ever rescued his land from the king of Assyria?
34. 34Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah? Did they rescue Samaria from my hand?
35. 35Who among all the gods of these nations has delivered their country from my hand, that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem from my hand?
36. 36The people stayed completely silent and didn't say a word in response, because King Hezekiah had ordered them, "Don't answer him."
37. 37Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, along with Shebna the scribe and Joah son of Asaph the recorder, went to Hezekiah with their clothes torn and told him the words of Rabshakeh.