18:1 Now it came about in the third year of Hoshea, the son of Elah king of Israel, that Hezekiah the son of Ahaz king of Judah became king.
18:2 He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned for twenty-nine years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Abi the daughter of Zechariah.
18:3 He did what was right in the sight of the LORD, in accordance with everything that his father David had done.
18:4 He removed the high places and smashed the memorial stones to pieces, and cut down the ①Asherah. He also crushed to pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the sons of Israel had been burning incense to it; and it was called ②Nehushtan.
▷ ①I.e., a wooden symbol of a female deity ②I.e., a bronze sculpture
18:5 He trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel; and after him there was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, nor among those who came before him.
18:6 For he clung to the LORD; he did not desist from following Him, but kept His commandments, which the LORD had commanded Moses.
18:7 And the LORD was with him; wherever he went he was successful. And he revolted against the king of Assyria and did not serve him.
18:8 He ①defeated the Philistines as far as Gaza and its territory, from watchtower to fortified city.
▷ ①Lit struck
18:9 Now in the fourth year of King Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, Shalmaneser king of Assyria marched against Samaria and besieged it.
18:10 And at the end of three years they captured it; in the sixth year of Hezekiah, which was the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel, Samaria was captured.
18:11 Then the king of Assyria led Israel into exile to Assyria, and put them in Halah and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.
18:12 This happened because they did not obey the voice of the LORD their God, but violated His covenant, all that Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded; they would neither listen nor do it.
18:13 Now in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria marched against all the fortified cities of Judah and seized them.
18:14 Then Hezekiah king of Judah sent messengers to the king of Assyria at Lachish, saying, “I have done wrong. ①Withdraw from me; whatever you impose on me I will endure.” So the king of Assyria imposed on Hezekiah king of Judah the payment of three hundred ②talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.
▷ ①Lit Turn back ②A talent was about 75 lb. or 34 kg
18:15 Hezekiah then gave him all the silver that was found in the house of the LORD, and in the treasuries of the king’s house.
18:16 At that time Hezekiah cut off the gold from the doors of the temple of the LORD, and from the doorposts, which Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid, and he gave it to the king of Assyria.
18:17 Then the king of Assyria sent Tartan, Rab-saris, and Rabshakeh from Lachish to King Hezekiah with a large army to Jerusalem. So they went up and came to Jerusalem. And when they went up, they came and stood by the conduit of the upper pool, which is on the road of the ①fuller’s field.
▷ ①I.e., launderer’s
18:18 Then they called to the king, and Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was in charge of the household, Shebnah the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph the secretary, went out to them.
18:19 And Rabshakeh said to them, “Say now to Hezekiah, ‘This is what the great king, the king of Assyria says: “What is this confidence that you ①have?
▷ ①Lit trust
18:20 You say—but they are only ①empty words—‘I have a plan and strength for the war.’ Now on whom have you relied, that you have revolted against me?
▷ ①Lit a word of lips
18:21 Now behold, you have ①relied on the ②support of this broken reed, on Egypt; on which if a man leans, it will go into his ③hand and pierce it. That is how Pharaoh king of Egypt is to all who rely on him.
▷ ①Lit relied for yourself ②Or staff ③Lit palm
18:22 However, if you say to me, ‘We have trusted in the LORD our God,’ is it not He whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has removed, and has said to Judah and to Jerusalem, ‘You shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem’?
18:23 Now then, ①come 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 put riders on them!
▷ ①Lit please exchange pledges
18:24 How then can you drive back even ①one ②official of the least of my master’s servants, and ③rely on Egypt for chariots and horsemen?
▷ ①Lit the face of one ②Or governor ③Lit rely for yourself
18:25 Have I now come up without ①the LORD’S approval against this place to destroy it? The LORD said to me, ‘Go up against this land and destroy it.’ ” ’ ”
▷ ①Lit the LORD
18:26 Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, Shebnah, and Joah, said to Rabshakeh, “Speak now to your servants in Aramaic, because we ①understand it; and do not speak with us in ②Judean ③so that the people who are on the wall hear you.”
▷ ①Lit hear ②I.e., Hebrew ③Lit in the ears of...wall
18:27 But Rabshakeh said to them, “Has my master sent me only to your master and to you to speak these words? Has he not also sent me to the men who sit on the wall, doomed to eat their own dung and drink their own urine with you?”
18:28 Then Rabshakeh stood up and shouted with a loud voice in Judean, ①saying, “Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria!
▷ ①Lit and spoke, saying,
18:29 This is what the king says: ‘Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to save you from ①my hand.
▷ ①MT his
18:30 And do not let Hezekiah lead you to trust in the LORD by saying, “The LORD will certainly save us, and this city will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.”
18:31 Do not listen to Hezekiah, for this is what the king of Assyria says: “Make ①your peace with me and come out to me, and eat, each one, from his vine and each from his fig tree, and drink, each one, the waters of his own cistern,
▷ ①Lit with me a blessing
18:32 until 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 olive trees producing oil, and of honey, so that you will live and not die.” But do not listen to Hezekiah, because he misleads you by saying, “The LORD will save us.”
18:33 Has any of the gods of the nations actually saved his land from the hand of the king of Assyria?
18:34 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and ①Ivvah? Have they saved Samaria from my hand?
▷ ①In 2 Kin 17:24, Avva
18:35 Who among all the gods of the lands are there who have saved their land from my hand, that the LORD would save Jerusalem from my hand?’ ”
18:36 But the people were silent and did not answer him with even a word, because it was the king’s ①command: “Do not answer him.”
▷ ①Lit command, saying
18:37 Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was in charge of the household, and Shebna the scribe and Joah the son of Asaph, the secretary, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and they reported to him the words of Rabshakeh.