The In-Dept Study of the Bible
Kings 18
1 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 he reigned twentynine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s
name was Abi the daughter of Zechariah.
3 He did that which was right in Yahweh’s eyes, according to all that David his
father had done.
4 He removed the high places, broke the
pillars, and cut down the Asherah. He also
broke in pieces the bronze serpent that
Moses had made, because in those days the
children of Israel burned incense to it; and
he called it Nehushtan.
5 He trusted in Yahweh, the God of Israel, so that after him was no one like him
among all the kings of Judah, nor among
them that were before him.
6 For he joined with Yahweh. He
didn’t depart from following him, but kept his commandments, which Yahweh
commanded Moses.
7 Yahweh was with him. Wherever he
went, he prospered. He rebelled against
the king of Assyria, and didn’t serve him.
8 He struck the Philistines to Gaza and its
borders, from the tower of the watchmen
to the fortified city.
9 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 At the end of three years they took it.
In the sixth year of Hezekiah, which was
the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel,
Samaria was taken.
11The king of Assyria carriedIsrael 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 didn’t obey Yahweh their
God’s voice, buttransgressed his covenant,
even all that Moses the servant of Yahweh
commanded, and would not hear it or do
it.
13 Now in the fourteenth year of King
Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria
came up against all the fortified cities of
Judah and took them.
14 Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the
king of Assyria at Lachish, saying, “I have
offended you. Withdraw from me. That
which you put on me, I will bear.” The king
of Assyria appointed to Hezekiah king of
Judah three hundred talents of silver and
thirty talents† of gold.
15 Hezekiah gave him all the silver that
was found in Yahweh’s house and in the
treasures of the king’s house.
16 At that time, Hezekiah cut off the gold
from the doors of Yahweh’s temple, and
from the pillars which Hezekiah king of
Judah had overlaid, and gave it to the king
of Assyria.
17 The king of Assyria sent Tartan, Rabsaris, and Rabshakeh from Lachish to King
Hezekiah with a great army to Jerusalem.
They went up and came to Jerusalem.
When they had come up, they came and
stood by the conduit of the upper pool,
which is in the highway ofthe fuller’s field.
18 When they had called to the king, Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the
household, and Shebnah the scribe, and
Joah the son of Asaph the recorder came
out to them.
19 Rabshakeh said to them, “Say now
to Hezekiah, ‘The great king, the king of
Assyria, says, “What confidence is this in
which you trust?
20 You say (but they are but vain words),
‘There is counsel and strength for war.’
Now on whom do you trust, that you have
rebelled against me?
21 Now, behold, you trust in the staff of
this bruised reed, even in Egypt. If a man
leans on it, it will go into his hand and
pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all
who trust on him.
22 But if you tell me, ‘We trust in Yahweh our God,’ isn’t that he whose high
places and whose altars Hezekiah has
taken away, and has said to Judah and to
Jerusalem, ‘You shall worship before this
altar in Jerusalem’?
23 Now therefore, please give pledges to
my master the king of Assyria, and I will
give you two thousand horses if you are
able on your part to set riders on them.
24 How then can you turn away the face
of one captain of the least of my master’s
servants, and put your trust on Egypt for
chariots and for horsemen?
25 Have I now come up without Yahweh
against this place to destroy it? Yahweh
said to me, ‘Go up against this land, and
destroy it.
26 Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, Shebnah, and Joah, said to Rabshakeh, “Please
speak to your servants in the Syrian language, for we understand it. Don’t speak
with us in the Jews’ language, in 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? Hasn’t he sent me
to the men who sit on the wall, to eat their
own dung, and to drink their own urine
with you?”
28 Then Rabshakeh stood and cried with
a loud voice in the Jews’ language, and
spoke, saying, “Hear the word of the great
king, the king of Assyria.
29 The king says, ‘Don’t let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver
you out of his hand.
30 Don’t let Hezekiah make you trust in
Yahweh, saying, “Yahweh will surely deliver us, and this city shall not be given into
the hand of the king of Assyria.”
31 Don’t listen to Hezekiah.’ For the king
of Assyria says, ‘Make your peace with me,
and come out to me; and everyone of you
eat from his own vine, and everyone from
his own fig tree, and everyone drink water
from his own cistern;
32 until I come and take you away 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 of honey,
that you may live and not die. Don’t listen
to Hezekiah when he persuades you, saying, “Yahweh will deliver us.”
33 Has any of the gods of the nations ever
delivered his land out of the hand of the
king of Assyria?
34 Where are the gods of Hamath and
of Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivvah? Have they
delivered Samaria out of my hand?
35 Who are they among allthe gods ofthe
countries, that have delivered their country out of my hand, that Yahweh should
deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?’ ”
36 But the people stayed quiet, and answered him not a word; for the king’s commandment was, “Don’t answer him.”
37 Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah,
who was over the household, came with
Shebna the scribe and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder to Hezekiah with their
clothes torn, and told him Rabshakeh’s
words.