2 Kings 18:4-22

4He removed the high places, shattered the sacred pillars, and cut down the Asherah poles. He also demolished the bronze snake called Nehushtan1 that Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had burned incense to it.

5Hezekiah trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel. No king of Judah was like him, either before him or after him. 6He remained faithful to the LORD and did not turn from following Him; he kept the commandments that the LORD had given Moses.

7And the LORD was with Hezekiah, and he prospered wherever he went. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and refused to serve him. 8He defeated the Philistines as far as Gaza and its borders, from watchtower to fortified city.

9In the fourth year of Hezekiah’s reign, which was the seventh year of the reign of Hoshea son of Elah over Israel, Shalmaneser king of Assyria marched against Samaria and besieged it. 10And at the end of three years, the Assyrians captured it.

So Samaria was captured in the sixth year of Hezekiah, which was the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel. 11The king of Assyria exiled the Israelites to Assyria and settled them in Halah, in Gozan by the Habor River, and in the cities of the Medes. 12This happened because they did not listen to the voice of the LORD their God, but violated His covenant—all that Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded—and would neither listen nor obey.

13In the fourteenth year of Hezekiah’s reign, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked and captured all the fortified cities of Judah. 14So Hezekiah king of Judah sent word to the king of Assyria at Lachish, saying, “I have done wrong; withdraw from me, and I will pay whatever you demand from me.”

And the king of Assyria exacted from Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver2 and thirty talents of gold.3 15Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the house of the LORD and in the treasuries of the royal palace.

16At that time Hezekiah stripped the gold with which he had plated the doors and doorposts of the temple of the LORD, and he gave it to the king of Assyria.

17Nevertheless, the king of Assyria sent the Tartan,4 the Rabsaris,5 and the Rabshakeh,6 along with a great army, from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. They advanced up to Jerusalem and stationed themselves by the aqueduct of the upper pool, on the road to the Launderer’s Field. 18Then they called for the king. And Eliakim son of Hilkiah the palace administrator, Shebnah the scribe, and Joah son of Asaph the recorder, went out to them.

19The Rabshakeh said to them, “Tell Hezekiah that this is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says: What is the basis of this confidence of yours? 20You claim to have a strategy and strength for war, but these are empty words. In whom are you now trusting, that you have rebelled against me?

21Look now, you are trusting in Egypt, that splintered reed of a staff that will pierce the hand of anyone who leans on it. Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him. 22But if you say to me, ‘We trust in the LORD our God,’ is He not the One whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and Jerusalem: ‘You must worship before this altar in Jerusalem’?