2 Kings 18
Hezekiah Becomes King of Judah
18:1 In the third year of the reign of Israel’s King Hoshea son of Elah, Ahaz’s son Hezekiah became king over Judah.
18:2 He 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.
18:3 He did what the
18:9 In 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.
18:10 After 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.
18:11 The 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.
18:12 This happened because they did not obey18 the
Sennacherib Invades Judah
18:13 In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah’s reign, King Sennacherib of Assyria marched up against all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them.
18:14 King 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.
18:15 Hezekiah gave him all the silver in24 the
18:17 The 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 18:18 They 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.
18:19 The 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
18:20 Your 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?
18:21 Now 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.
18:22 Perhaps you will tell me, ‘We are trusting in the
18:26 Eliakim 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.” 18:27 But 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
18:28 The 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.
18:29 This is what the king says: ‘Don’t let Hezekiah mislead you, for he is not able to rescue you from my hand!41
18:30 Don’t let Hezekiah talk you into trusting in the