2 Kings 18:1-20

1In the third year of Israel’s King Hoshea son of Elah, Hezekiah son of Ahaz became king of Judah.

2He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Abi daughter of Zechariah.

3He did what was right in the Lord’s sight just as his ancestor David had done.

4He removed the high places, shattered the sacred pillars, and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke into pieces the bronze snake that Moses made, for until then the Israelites were burning incense to it. It was called Nehushtan.

5Hezekiah relied on the Lord God of Israel; not one of the kings of Judah was like him, either before him or after him.

6He remained faithful to the Lord and did not turn from following him but kept the commands the Lord had commanded Moses.

7The Lord was with him, and wherever he went he prospered. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and did not serve him.

8He defeated the Philistines as far as Gaza and its borders, from watchtower to fortified city.

9In the fourth year of King Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Israel’s King Hoshea son of Elah, Assyria’s King Shalmaneser marched against Samaria and besieged it.

10The Assyrians captured it at the end of three years. In the sixth year of Hezekiah, which was the ninth year of Israel’s King Hoshea, Samaria was captured.

11The king of Assyria deported the Israelites to Assyria and put them in Halah, along the Habor (Gozan’s river), and in the cities of the Medes,

12because they did not listen to the Lord their God but violated his covenant — all he had commanded Moses the servant of the Lord. They did not listen, and they did not obey.

13In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Assyria’s King Sennacherib attacked all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them.

14So King Hezekiah of Judah sent word to the king of Assyria at Lachish: “I have done wrong; withdraw from me. Whatever you demand from me, I will pay.” The king of Assyria demanded eleven tons of silver and one ton of gold from King Hezekiah of Judah.

15So Hezekiah gave him all the silver found in the Lord’s temple and in the treasuries of the king’s palace.

16At that time Hezekiah stripped the gold from the doors of the Lord’s sanctuary and from the doorposts he had overlaid and gave it to the king of Assyria.

17Then the king of Assyria sent the field marshal, the chief of staff, and his royal spokesman, along with a massive army, from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. They advanced and came to Jerusalem, and they took their position by the aqueduct of the upper pool, by the road to the Launderer’s Field.

18They called for the king, but Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was in charge of the palace, Shebnah the court secretary, and Joah son of Asaph, the court historian, came out to them.

19Then the royal spokesman said to them, “Tell Hezekiah this is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says: ‘What are you relying on?

20You think mere words are strategy and strength for war. Who are you now relying on so that you have rebelled against me?