Hezekiah Destroys Idolatry in Judah
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 25 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned 29 years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Abi the daughter of Zechariah.
3 He did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that David his father had done. 4 He removed the high places and broke the pillars and cut down the Asherah. He also shattered the bronze serpent that Moses had made, because in those days the Israelites burned incense to it, and he called it Nehushtan. 5 He trusted in the Lord, 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 the Lord. He did not depart from following him, but kept his commandments which the Lord commanded Moses.
7 The Lord was with him. Wherever he went he prospered. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and did not serve him. 8 He struck the Philistines to Gaza and its borders, from the watchtower 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 overtook it. In the sixth year of Hezekiah, which was the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel, Samaria was overtaken. 11 The king of Assyria deported the Israelites 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, all that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded, and would not hear it or do it.
Sennacherib Invades Judah
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 to Lachish, saying, “I have offended you. Withdraw from me, and whatever you impose on me, I will bear.”
The king of Assyria required of Hezekiah king of Judah, eleven tons of silver and 2,300 pounds of gold. 15 Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the house of the Lord and in the treasures of the king’s house. 16 At that time, Hezekiah cut the gold off of the doors of the temple of the Lord and off of the pillars which Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid, and gave it to the king of Assyria.
Sennacherib Threatens Jerusalem
17 The king of Assyria sent Tartan and 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 of the 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 just empty words), ‘There is counsel and strength for war.’ Now on whom do you trust, that you have rebelled against me? 21 Now, hear this, you trust in the staff of this bruised reed, 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 in him. 22 But if you tell me, ‘We trust in the Lord 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 2,000 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 in Egypt for chariots and for horsemen? 25 Have I now come up without the Lord against 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, 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 Hebrew, 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 Hebrew 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 cannot deliver you out of my hand. 30 Don’t let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord by saying: The Lord 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 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: The Lord will deliver us.
33 Have 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 all the gods of the countries, that have delivered their country out of my hand, that the Lord 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, “Do not 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.