2 Kings 18:5-17

New International Version

⁵ Hezekiah trusted^(A) in the Lord, the God of Israel. There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before him or after him. ⁶ He held fast^(B) to the Lord and did not stop following him; he kept the commands the Lord had given Moses. ⁷ And the Lord was with him; he was successful^(C) in whatever he undertook. He rebelled^(D) against the king of Assyria and did not serve him. ⁸ From watchtower to fortified city,^(E) he defeated the Philistines, as far as Gaza and its territory.

⁹ In King Hezekiah’s fourth year,^(F) which was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, Shalmaneser king of Assyria marched against Samaria and laid siege to it. ¹⁰ At the end of three years the Assyrians took it. So Samaria was captured in Hezekiah’s sixth year, which was the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel. ¹¹ The king^(G) of Assyria deported Israel to Assyria and settled them in Halah, in Gozan on the Habor River and in towns of the Medes.^{(H) 12} This happened because they had not obeyed the Lord their God, but had violated his covenant^(I)—all that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded.^(J) They neither listened to the commands^(K) nor carried them out.

¹³ In the fourteenth year^(L) of King Hezekiah’s reign, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all the fortified cities of Judah^(M) and captured them. ¹⁴ So Hezekiah king of Judah sent this message to the king of Assyria at Lachish:^(N) “I have done wrong.^(O) Withdraw from me, and I will pay whatever you demand of me.” The king of Assyria exacted from Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents^[a] of silver and thirty talents^[b] of gold. ¹⁵ So Hezekiah gave^(P) him all the silver that was found in the temple of the Lord and in the treasuries of the royal palace.

¹⁶ At this time Hezekiah king of Judah stripped off the gold with which he had covered the doors^(Q) and doorposts of the temple of the Lord, and gave it to the king of Assyria.

Sennacherib Threatens Jerusalem^(R)(S)

¹⁷ The king of Assyria sent his supreme commander,^(T) his chief officer and his field commander with a large army, from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. They came up to Jerusalem and stopped at the aqueduct of the Upper Pool,^(U) on the road to the Washerman’s Field.