2 Kings 18

Revised Geneva Translation

18 Now in the third year of Hoshea, son of Elah, king of Israel, Hezekiah, the son of Ahaz, king of Judah, began to reign.

² He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign and reigned for twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. Also, his mother’s name was Abi, the daughter of Zechariah.

³ And he did uprightly in the sight of the LORD, according to all that David, his father, had done.

⁴ He took away the high places and broke the images and cut down the groves and broke the bronze serpent that Moses had made into pieces. For until those days, the children of Israel had burnt incense to it. And he called it “Nehushtan”.

⁵ He trusted in the LORD God of Israel. There has been no one like him among all the kings of Judah since. Nor was there any like him before.

⁶ For he clung to the LORD, not departing from Him but keeping His Commandments (which the LORD had commanded Moses).

⁷ So the LORD was with him. He prospered wherever he went. Also, he rebelled against the king of Assyria and did not serve him.

⁸ He struck the Philistines to Gaza and its territories, from the watchtower to the defensed city.

⁹ And in the fourth year of King Hezekiah (which was the seventh year of Hoshea, son of Elah, king of Israel) Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, came up against Samaria and besieged it.

¹⁰ And after three years, they took it, in the sixth year of Hezekiah. That is, in the ninth year of Hoshea, king of Israel, Samaria was taken.

¹¹ Then, the king of Assyria carried away Israel to Assyria and put them in Halah, and in Habor, by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes,

¹² because they would not obey the Voice of the LORD their God, but transgressed His Covenant—all that Moses, the servant of the LORD, had commanded—and would neither obey nor do them.

¹³ Moreover, in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib, king of Assyria, came up against all the strong cities of Judah and took them.

¹⁴ Then Hezekiah, king of Judah, sent to the king of Assyria, to Lachish, saying, “I have offended. Depart from me, and whatever you lay upon me I will bear.” And the king of Assyria assessed Hezekiah, king of Judah, three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.

¹⁵ Therefore, Hezekiah gave all the silver that was found in the House of the LORD, and in the treasures of the king’s house.

¹⁶ In the same season, Hezekiah pulled off the plating of the doors of the Temple of the LORD, and the pillars (which said Hezekiah, king of Judah, had covered over) and gave them to the king of Assyria.

¹⁷ And the king of Assyria sent Tartan and Rabsaris and Rabshakeh from Lachish to King Hezekiah, with a great army, against Jerusalem. And they went up and came to Jerusalem. And when they had come up, they stood by the conduit of the upper pool, which is by the path of the fuller’s field,

¹⁸ and called to the king. Then Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah (who was steward of the house), came out to them, and Shebna the chancellor, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder.

¹⁹ And Rabshakeh said to them, “Please tell Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the great king, the great king of Assyria, “What confidence is this in which you trust?

²⁰ Do you think, ‘Surely, I have eloquence, counsel and strength for the war?’ In whom then do you trust that you rebel against me?

²¹ “Lo, now you trust in this broken staff of reed, on Egypt, upon which if a man leans, it will go into his hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to all who trust in him.

²² “But if you say to me, ‘We trust in the LORD our God,’ is not that He whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away, and has said to Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You shall worship before this Altar in Jerusalem?’”

²³ ‘Now, therefore, give hostages to my lord, the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able to set riders upon them.

²⁴ ‘For how can you repel any captain of the least of my master’s servants, and put your trust on Egypt for chariots and horsemen?

²⁵ ‘Have I now come up without the LORD to this place, to destroy it? The LORD said to me, “Go up against this land, and destroy it.”’”

²⁶ Then Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, and Shebna, and Joah said to Rabshakeh, “Please speak to your servants in the Aramites’ language. For we understand it. And do not talk to us in the Jews’ tongue in the audience of the people who are on the wall.

²⁷ But Rabshakeh said to them, “Has my master only sent me to your master, and to you, to speak these words, and not to the men who sit on the wall, who will eat their own dung and drink their own urine with you?”

²⁸ So Rabshakeh stood, and spoke, saying, “Hear the words of the great king, of the king of Assyria!

²⁹ “Thus says the king, ‘Do not let Hezekiah deceive you! For he shall not be able to deliver you out of my hand!

³⁰ ‘And do not let Hezekiah make you to trust in the LORD, saying, “The LORD will surely deliver us! And this city shall not be given over into the hand of the king of Assyria!”

³¹ ‘Do not listen to Hezekiah! For thus says the king of Assyria, “Make peace with me! And come out to me, so that every man may eat of his own vine, and every man of his own fig tree, and drink every man of the water of his own well,

³² “until I come and bring you to a land like your own land, a land of wheat and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive oil and honey, so that you may live and not die!” And do not obey Hezekiah, for he deceives you, saying, “The LORD will deliver us!”

³³ ‘Have any of the gods of the nations delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria?

³⁴ ‘Where is the god of Hamath, and of Arpad? Where is the god of Sepharvaim, Hena and Ivah? How have they delivered Samaria out of my hand?

³⁵ ‘Who are they among all the gods of the nations, that have delivered their land out of my hand, that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?’”

³⁶ But the people held their peace and did not answer him a word. For the king’s commandment was, saying, “Do not answer him.”

³⁷ Then Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, who was steward of the house, and Shebna the chancellor, and Joah, the son of Asaph the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn and told him the words of Rabshakeh.