2 Kings 18

Hezekiah Destroys Idolatry in Judah

(2 Chronicles 29:1–2)

1 In the third year of the reign of Hoshea son of Elah over Israel, Hezekiah son of Ahaz became king of Judah. ‡ 2Ch 28:271Ch 3:13Mat 1:9-102Ki 16:202Ki 15:302Ki 16:22Ki 18:9 2 He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-nine years. His mother’s name was Abi, ¹ the daughter of Zechariah. ‡ 2Ch 29:1-2 3 And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, just as his father David had done. ‡ 2Ki 20:31Ki 11:381Ki 11:41Ki 15:111Ki 15:51Ki 3:142Ch 29:22Ch 31:20-21 +74 He removed the high places, shattered the sacred pillars, and cut down the Asherah poles. He also demolished the bronze snake called Nehushtan ²that Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had burned incense to it. ‡ 2Ch 31:1Num 21:8-92Ki 18:221Ki 15:12-141Ki 22:431Ki 3:2-32Ki 12:3Deu 12:2-3 +15

5 Hezekiah trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel. No king of Judah was like him, either before him or after him. ‡ 2Ki 23:252Ki 19:10Mat 27:43Eph 1:122Ch 32:7-8Job 13:15Psa 13:5Psa 146:5-6 +96 He remained faithful to the LORD and did not turn from following Him; he kept the commandments that the LORD had given Moses. ‡ Deu 10:20Jos 23:8Jhn 14:15Act 11:231Jn 5:32Ki 17:13Jhn 15:142Ki 17:16 +4

7 And the LORD was with Hezekiah, and he prospered wherever he went. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and refused to serve him. ‡ 2Ki 16:7Gen 39:2-3Psa 60:12Rom 8:311Sa 18:142Ch 31:212Ch 32:30Mat 28:20 +108 He defeated the Philistines as far as Gaza and its borders, from watchtower to fortified city. ‡ 2Ki 17:9Isa 14:292Ch 28:181Ch 4:412Ch 26:10Isa 5:2

9 In the fourth year of Hezekiah’s reign, which was the seventh year of the reign of Hoshea son of Elah over Israel, Shalmaneser king of Assyria marched against Samaria and besieged it. ‡ Hos 10:142Ki 17:3-232Ki 18:1 10 And at the end of three years, the Assyrians captured it. ‡ Amo 3:11Amo 6:7Amo 9:1-4Hos 13:16Mic 1:6-9Mic 6:16Mic 7:13

So Samaria was captured in the sixth year of Hezekiah, which was the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel. 11 The king of Assyria exiled the Israelites to Assyria and settled them in Halah, in Gozan by the Habor River, and in the cities of the Medes. ‡ 1Ch 5:262Ki 17:6Isa 37:122Ki 19:11Act 7:43Amo 5:1-3Amo 5:25-27Amo 5:6 +712 This happened because they did not listen to the voice of the LORD their God, but violated His covenant—all that Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded—and would neither listen nor obey. ‡ 1Ki 9:61Pe 2:81Pe 4:172Ki 17:7-232Th 1:82Ti 2:24Dan 9:6-11Deu 11:28 +14

Sennacherib Invades Judah

(2 Chronicles 32:1–8; Psalms 46:1–11)

13 In the fourteenth year of Hezekiah’s reign, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked and captured all the fortified cities of Judah. ‡ Isa 36:1-222Ch 32:1-23Hos 12:1-2Isa 10:5Isa 7:17-25Isa 8:7-8 14 So Hezekiah king of Judah sent word to the king of Assyria at Lachish, saying, “I have done wrong; withdraw from me, and I will pay whatever you demand from me.” ‡ 2Ki 18:71Ki 20:4Luk 14:32Pro 29:25

And the king of Assyria exacted from Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver ³and thirty talents of gold. ⁴ 15 Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the house of the LORD and in the treasuries of the royal palace. ‡ 1Ki 15:18-192Ki 16:82Ch 16:22Ki 12:181Ki 15:15

16 At that time Hezekiah stripped the gold with which he had plated the doors and doorposts of the temple of the LORD, and he gave it to the king of Assyria. ‡ 1Ki 6:31-352Ch 29:3

Sennacherib Threatens Jerusalem

(2 Chronicles 32:9–19; Isaiah 36:1–22)

17 Nevertheless, the king of Assyria sent the Tartan, ⁵ the Rabsaris, ⁶ and the Rabshakeh, ⁷ along with a great army, from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. They advanced up to Jerusalem and stationed themselves by the aqueduct of the upper pool, on the road to the Launderer’s Field. ‡ 2Ki 20:20Isa 20:1Isa 7:3Isa 36:22Ch 32:9Isa 22:9-11 18 Then they called for the king; and Eliakim son of Hilkiah the palace administrator, Shebnah the scribe, and Joah son of Asaph the recorder, went out to them. ‡ 2Ki 19:21Ki 4:32Ch 34:82Sa 20:242Sa 8:16-17Isa 22:15-24Isa 36:22Isa 36:3 +1

19 The Rabshakeh said to them, “Tell Hezekiah that this is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says: What is the basis of this confidence of yours? ‡ Isa 36:42Ki 19:10Isa 10:8-142Ch 32:10-112Ch 32:14-162Ch 32:7-82Ki 18:222Ki 18:29-30 +520 You claim to have a strategy and strength for war, but these are empty words. In whom are you now trusting, that you have rebelled against me? ‡ Pro 21:30-31

21 Look now, you are trusting in Egypt, that splintered reed of a staff that will pierce the hand of anyone who leans on it. Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him. ‡ Isa 30:7Ezk 29:6-7Isa 30:2-32Ki 17:4Isa 31:1-3Isa 36:6Jer 46:17 22 But if you say to me, ‘We trust in the LORD our God,’ is He not the One whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and Jerusalem: ‘You must worship before this altar in Jerusalem’? ‡ 2Ch 31:11Co 2:152Ch 32:122Ki 18:4-5Dan 3:15Isa 36:7Mat 27:43

23 Now, therefore, make a bargain with my master, the king of Assyria. I will give you two thousand horses—if you can put riders on them! ‡ 1Ki 20:101Ki 20:181Sa 17:421Sa 17:44Isa 10:13-14Isa 36:8-9Neh 4:2-5Psa 123:3-4 24 For how can you repel a single officer among the least of my master’s servants when you depend on Egypt for chariots and horsemen? ‡ Isa 10:82Ki 18:21Dan 2:37-38Dan 4:22Dan 4:37Deu 17:16Ezk 17:15Ezk 17:17 +725 So now, was it apart from the LORD that I have come up against this place to destroy it? The LORD Himself said to me, ‘Go up against this land and destroy it.’” ‡ 2Ki 19:61Ki 13:182Ch 35:212Ki 19:22-37Amo 3:6Isa 10:5-6Jhn 19:10-11

26 Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, along with Shebnah and Joah, said to the Rabshakeh, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, since we understand it. Do not speak with us in Hebrew ⁸in the hearing of the people on the wall.” ‡ Ezr 4:7Dan 2:4Isa 36:11-122Ki 18:18

27 But the Rabshakeh replied, “Has my master sent me to speak these words only to you and your master, and not to the men sitting on the wall, who are destined with you to eat their own dung and drink their own urine?” ‡ 2Ki 6:25Deu 28:53-57Ezk 4:13Ezk 4:15Lam 4:5Psa 73:8

28 Then the Rabshakeh stood and called out loudly in Hebrew: “Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria! ‡ Isa 36:13-182Ch 32:182Ki 18:19Ezk 29:3Ezk 31:3-10Ezr 7:12Isa 10:8-13Psa 47:2 +129 This is what the king says: Do not let Hezekiah deceive you; he cannot deliver you from my hand. ‡ 2Ch 32:152Ch 32:112Th 2:42Th 2:8Dan 3:15-17Dan 6:16Jhn 19:10-11Psa 73:8-9 30 Do not let Hezekiah persuade you to trust in the LORD when he says, ‘The LORD will surely deliver us; this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.’ ‡ 2Ki 19:102Ki 19:222Ki 19:32-34Luk 23:35Mat 27:43Psa 11:1Psa 125:1-2Psa 22:7-8 +3

31 Do not listen to Hezekiah, for this is what the king of Assyria says: Make peace with me ⁹and come out to me. Then every one of you will eat from his own vine and his own fig tree, and drink water from his own cistern, ‡ 1Ki 4:251Ki 4:20Zec 3:10Pro 18:16Gen 32:20Gen 33:11 32 until I come and take you away to a land like your own—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. But do not listen to Hezekiah, for he misleads you when he says, ‘The LORD will deliver us.’ ‡ Deu 8:7-9Deu 11:12Exo 3:82Ki 17:232Ki 17:62Ki 18:112Ki 24:14-162Ki 25:11 +3

33 Has the god of any nation ever delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria? ‡ Isa 10:10-112Ch 32:14-172Ch 32:192Ki 19:12-132Ki 19:17-18Isa 36:18-20 34 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah? Have they delivered Samaria from my hand? ‡ Isa 10:92Ki 17:23-332Ki 17:62Ki 19:12-132Sa 8:9Isa 36:18-19Isa 37:11-12Isa 37:18-19 +235 Who among all the gods of these lands has delivered his land from my hand? How then can the LORD deliver Jerusalem from my hand?” ‡ Dan 3:152Ch 32:152Ki 19:17Exo 5:2Isa 10:15Isa 37:23-29Job 15:25-26Psa 2:1-2

36 But the people remained silent and did not answer a word, for Hezekiah had commanded, “Do not answer him.” ‡ Amo 5:13Mat 7:6Pro 26:4Pro 9:7Psa 38:13-14Psa 39:1

37 Then Hilkiah’s son Eliakim the palace administrator, Shebna the scribe, and Asaph’s son Joah the recorder came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and they relayed to him the words of the Rabshakeh. ‡ 2Ki 18:262Ki 22:112Ki 22:192Ki 5:72Ki 6:30Gen 37:29Gen 37:34Isa 33:7 +4