HH.
The reign of Hezekiah over Judah
2 Kings 18:1—20:21
1.
Hezekiah's prosperity
18:1-8
2 Kings 18
:1
18:1
aAnd in the third year of
bHoshea the son of Elah, the king of Israel, Hezekiah the son of Ahaz, the king of Judah, began to reign.
2 Kings 18
:2
18:2
He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Abi, the daughter of Zechariah.
2 Kings 18
:3
18:3
And he did what was right in the sight of Jehovah, according to all that David his father had done.
2 Kings 18
:4
18:4
He aremoved the high places and broke down the pillars and cut down the Asherah and broke in pieces the bronze
bserpent that Moses had made, for until those days the children of Israel had burned incense to it; and he called it
1Nehushtan.
2 Kings 18
:5
18:5
He trusted in Jehovah the God of Israel, so that after him there was
ano one like him among all the kings of Judah, nor
any among those who were before him.
2 Kings 18
:6
18:6
And he clung to Jehovah; he did not turn away from following after Him but kept His commandments, which Jehovah commanded Moses.
2 Kings 18
:7
18:7
And Jehovah was with him; everywhere he went, he prospered. And he rebelled against the king of Assyria and would not serve him.
2 Kings 18
:8
18:8
He struck the Philistines as far as Gaza and its borders, from the watchmen’s tower to the fortified city.
2.
The invasion of the Assyrians
18:9—19:37
a.
The invasion under Shalmaneser the king of Assyria
18:9-12
2 Kings 18
:9
18:9
aAnd in the fourth year of King Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hoshea the son of Elah, the king of Israel, Shalmaneser the king of Assyria came up against Samaria and besieged it.
2 Kings 18
:10
18:10
And at the end of three years they took it; in the sixth year of Hezekiah, that is, the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Israel, Samaria was taken.
2 Kings 18
:11
18:11
And the king of Assyria carried Israel away captive to Assyria and settled them in Halah and by the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes;
2 Kings 18
:12
18:12
For they would not listen to the voice of Jehovah their God but transgressed His covenant,
that is, all that Moses the servant of Jehovah had commanded; and they would not listen to
it nor do
it.
b.
The attacking and challenging of Sennacherib the king of Assyria with insult and blasphemy
18:13—19:37
2 Kings 18
:13
18:13
1aAnd in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib the king of Assyria went up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them.
2 Kings 18
:14
18:14
And Hezekiah the king of Judah sent
word to the king of Assyria at Lachish, saying, I have sinned; withdraw from me. I will bear whatever you impose upon me. And the king of Assyria imposed upon Hezekiah the king of Judah
a levy of three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.
2 Kings 18
:15
18:15
And Hezekiah gave all the silver that was found in the
ahouse of Jehovah and in the treasuries of the king’s house.
2 Kings 18
:16
18:16
At that time Hezekiah stripped
the gold sheathings from the doors of the temple of Jehovah and the posts that Hezekiah the king of Judah had overlaid, and he gave them to the king of Assyria.
2 Kings 18
:17
18:17
And the king of Assyria sent the Tartan and the Rab-saris and the Rab-shakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem to King Hezekiah with a great force. And they went up and came to Jerusalem. And when they came up, they came and stood by the conduit of the upper pool, which is on the road to the Fuller’s Field.
2 Kings 18
:18
18:18
And they called out to the king. And
aEliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and
bShebnah the scribe and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came out to them.
2 Kings 18
:19
18:19
And the Rab-shakeh said to them, Say now to Hezekiah, Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: What is this confidence in which you trust?
2 Kings 18
:20
18:20
You say (but it is a vain word), There is counsel and strength for war. Now in whom do you trust, that you rebel against me?
2 Kings 18
:21
18:21
You now have put your trust in the staff of this broken reed, in
aEgypt, in that which, if a man should lean on
it, it will go into his hand and pierce it; so is Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, to all who trust in him.
2 Kings 18
:22
18:22
And if you say to me, We trust in Jehovah our God; is it not He whose high places and altars Hezekiah has taken away and has said to Judah and Jerusalem, You shall worship
only before this altar in Jerusalem?
2 Kings 18
:23
18:23
Now therefore give pledges to my master, the king of Assyria; and I will give you two thousand horses, if
indeed you are able to set the riders on them.
2 Kings 18
:24
18:24
How then can you refuse one official of the least of my master’s servants and put your trust in Egypt for chariots and horsemen?
2 Kings 18
:25
18:25
Have I now come up apart from Jehovah against this place to destroy it? Jehovah said to me, Go up against this land and destroy it.
2 Kings 18
:26
18:26
And Eliakim the son of Hilkiah and Shebnah and Joah said to the Rab-shakeh, Please speak to your servants in
1aAramaic, because we understand
it; and do not speak with us in the
2Jews’ language in the hearing of the people who are upon the wall.
2 Kings 18
:27
18:27
But the Rab-shakeh said to them, Has my master sent me
only to your master and to you to speak these words,
and not to the men who sit on the wall, that they may eat their own dung and drink their own urine with you?
2 Kings 18
:28
18:28
And the Rab-shakeh stood and cried with a loud voice in the Jews’ language and spoke and said, Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria:
2 Kings 18
:29
18:29
Thus says the king, Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, because he is not able to deliver you out of
1my hand.
2 Kings 18
:30
18:30
Neither let Hezekiah cause you to trust in Jehovah, saying, Jehovah will surely deliver us, and this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.
2 Kings 18
:31
18:31
Do not listen to Hezekiah; for thus says the king of Assyria, Make
1your peace with me, and come out to me; and let each eat from his own
avine and each from his own fig tree, and let each drink the waters of his own cistern,
2 Kings 18
:32
18:32
Until I come and take you away to a land like your
aland, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees and honey, that you may live and not die. So do not listen to Hezekiah when he tries to persuade you, saying, Jehovah will deliver us.
2 Kings 18
:33
18:33
aHave any of the gods of the nations delivered at all their land out of the hand of the king of Assyria?
2 Kings 18
:34
18:34
Where are the gods of Hamath and of Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah? And have they delivered Samaria out of my hand?
2 Kings 18
:35
18:35
Who among all the gods of
these lands have delivered their land out of my hand, that Jehovah should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?
2 Kings 18
:36
18:36
But the people were silent and did not answer him a word, because of the commandment of the king that said, You shall not answer him.
2 Kings 18
:37
18:37
Then aEliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn and told him the words of the Rab-shakeh.
