SECOND KINGS

 

2 Kings Chapter 18

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

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

3 And he did what was right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that David his ancestor had done.

4 He removed the high places, and broke the images, and cut down the groves, and broke in pieces the brass serpent that Moses had made: for up to that time the children of Israel burned incense to it: and they called it Nehushtan.

5 He trusted in the LORD God of Israel; so that there was none like him among all the kings of Judah, before him or after him.

6 For he held fast to the LORD, and did not depart from following him, but kept his commandments, as the LORD commanded Moses.

7 And the LORD was with him; and he prospered wherever he went: and he rebelled against the king of Assyria, and refused to serve him.

8 He conquered the Philistines, even to Gaza, and its borders, from the tower of the watchmen to the fortified city.

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

10 And after three years they took it: Samaria was taken during the sixth year of Hezekiah, which was the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel.

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

12 Because they did not obey the voice of the LORD their God, but transgressed his covenant, and all that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded, and would not hear them, nor do them.

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

14 Then Hezekiah the king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria to Lachish, saying, I have done wrong; withdraw from me: I will bear whatever you impose on me. And the king of Assyria demanded three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold from Hezekiah king of Judah.

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

16 At that time Hezekiah cut the gold off of the doors of the temple of the LORD, and off the pillars which Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid, and gave it to the king of Assyria.

17 ¶ Then the king of Assyria sent Tartan and Rabsaris and Rabshakeh with a great army from Lachish to king Hezekiah at Jerusalem. And they went up and came to Jerusalem. And when they arrived, they came and stood by the conduit of the upper pool, which is in the highway to the fuller’s field.

18 And when they called for the king, Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the kings household, Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder came out to them.

19 And Rabshakeh said to them, Say to Hezekiah, Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria, On what do you rest this confidence of yours?

20 You say, (but they are empty words,) I have counsel and strength for the war. Now in whom do you trust, that you rebel against me?

21 Now, you can see that when you trust in Egypt you are trusting in a staff that is like a broken reed, which will pierce the hand of a man if he leans on it: so is Pharaoh the king of Egypt to all who trust in him.

22 But if you say to me, We trust in the LORD our God: is it not 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 Come now, 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 on them.

24 How then can you turn back the attack of one of the least of my master's officers, as long as you put your trust in Egypt for chariots and for horsemen?

25 Now did I attack this place to destroy it without the consent of the LORD? 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 Syrian language; for we understand it: and do not talk not with us in the Hebrew language within the hearing of the people who are on the wall.

27 But Rabshakeh said to them, Has my master sent me to your master, and to you, to speak these words? has he not sent me to the men who sit on the wall, that they may eat their own dung, and drink their own piss with you?

28 Then Rabshakeh stood and shouted with a loud voice in the Hebrew language, saying, Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria:

29 Thus says the king, Do not allow Hezekiah to deceive you: for he will not be able to deliver you out of my hand:

30 Nor let Hezekiah lead you to trust in the LORD, saying, The LORD will surely deliver us, and this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.

31 Do not listen to Hezekiah: for the king of Assyria says this, Make your peace with me, and surrender to me, and then every one of you will eat from his own vine, and every one from his own fig tree, and every one of you will drink water from his own cistern:

32 Until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of corn and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of oil olive and honey, that you may live, and not die: and do not listen to Hezekiah, when he urges you, saying, The LORD will deliver us.

33 Have any of the gods of the nations ever delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria?

34 Where are the gods of Hamath, and of Arpad? where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah? have they delivered Samaria from my hand?

35 Who of all the gods of the countries, have delivered their country out of my hand, that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem from my hand?

36 But the people held their peace, and did not say a word in reply: for the king’s order was, Do not answer him.

37 Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the king’s household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder, returned to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and told him what Rabshakeh had said.