Fluent Translation · Read & Reflect
2 Kings 18
Hezekiah Reigns in Judah
In the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, Hezekiah son of Ahaz king of Judah became king. He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Abi daughter of Zechariah. He did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, according to all that David his ancestor had done. He removed the high places, shattered the pillars, cut down the Asherah, and crushed the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the children of Israel had been burning incense to it. It was called Nehushtan. He trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel, so that after him there was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor among people who were before him. He clung to the LORD. He did not turn away from following him but kept his commandments that the LORD commanded Moses. The LORD was with him. Wherever he went out, he acted wisely. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and did not serve him. He struck the Philistines as far as Gaza and its territory, from watchtower to fortified city.
The Fall of Samaria Is Recalled
And it happened in the fourth year of King Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, that Shalmaneser king of Assyria went up against Samaria and besieged it. 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. The king of Assyria carried Israel into exile to Assyria and settled them in Halah and by the Habor, river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes, because they did not listen to the voice of the LORD their God but transgressed his covenant—all that Moses servant of the LORD commanded. They did not listen and did not do it.
Sennacherib Invades Judah
In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria went up against all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them. Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria at Lachish, saying, “I have sinned. Turn away from me. Whatever you impose upon me I will bear.” The king of Assyria imposed upon Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold. So Hezekiah gave all the silver that was found in the house of the LORD and in the treasuries of the king’s house. At that time Hezekiah cut off the doors of the temple of the LORD and the doorposts that Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid, and gave them to the king of Assyria.
The Rabshakeh Challenges Hezekiah
Then the king of Assyria sent the Tartan, the Rab-Saris, and the Rabshakeh from Lachish to King Hezekiah with a heavy force to Jerusalem. They went up and came to Jerusalem. They went up and came and stood by the conduit of the upper pool, which is on the highway of the Washer’s Field. They called to the king. Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, Shebnah the scribe, and Joah son of Asaph the recorder went out to them. The Rabshakeh said to them, “Please say to Hezekiah: Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: What is this confidence in which you trust? You say—but it is only a word of lips—‘There is counsel and strength for war.’ And now, upon whom do you trust that you have rebelled against me? Now look, you trust upon the staff of this broken reed, upon Egypt, which, if a man leans upon it, goes into his palm and pierces it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to everyone who trust upon him. But if you say to me, ‘We trust in the LORD our God,’ is he not the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah removed and said to Judah and Jerusalem, ‘Before this altar in Jerusalem you will bow down’? And now, please make a wager with my lord the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to put riders upon them. How then can you turn back the face of one governor among the least of my lord’s servants while you trust in Egypt for chariots and horsemen? And now, have I come up without the LORD against this place to destroy it? The LORD said to me, ‘Go up against this land and destroy it.’”
The Rabshakeh Speaks in Judean
Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, Shebnah, and Joah said to the 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 who are upon the wall.” But the Rabshakeh said to them, “Has my lord sent me to speak these words to your lord and to you? Is it not to the men sitting upon the wall, who will eat their own dung and drink their own urine with you?” Then the Rabshakeh stood and called with a loud voice in Judean and spoke and said, “Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria! Thus says the king: Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he is not able to rescue you from my hand. Do not let Hezekiah make you trust in the LORD, saying, ‘The LORD will surely rescue us, and this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.’ Do not listen to Hezekiah, for thus says the king of Assyria: Make peace with me and come out to me. Then each of you will eat from his own vine and each from his own fig tree, and each will drink water from his own cistern, 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 and honey, so that you may live and not die. Do not listen to Hezekiah when he misleads you, saying, ‘The LORD will rescue us.’ Have any of the gods of the nations ever rescued his land from the hand of the king of Assyria? Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah? Have they rescued Samaria from my hand? Who among all the gods of the lands have rescued their land from my hand, that the LORD should rescue Jerusalem from my hand?” But the people were silent and did not answer him a word, for the king’s command was, “You will not answer him.” Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, Shebna the scribe, and Joah son of Asaph the recorder came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn and told him the words of the Rabshakeh.