2 Kings 18:4-22

41He removed the high places and broke down the sacred pillars and cut down the 2Asherah. He also broke in pieces 3the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the sons of Israel burned incense to it; and it was called 4Nehushtan. 55He trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel; 6so that after him there was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor among those who were before him. 6For he 7clung to the Lord; he did not depart from following Him, but kept His commandments, which the Lord had commanded Moses. 78And the Lord was with him; wherever he went he prospered. And 9he rebelled against the king of Assyria and did not serve him. 810He 11defeated the Philistines as far as Gaza and its territory, from 12watchtower to fortified city.

9Now in the fourth year of King Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, 13Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against Samaria and besieged it. 10At the end of three years they captured it; in the sixth year of Hezekiah, which was 14the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel, Samaria was captured. 11Then the king of Assyria carried Israel away into exile to Assyria, and put them in 15Halah and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes, 12because they 16did not obey the voice of the Lord their God, but transgressed His covenant, even all that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded; they would neither listen nor do it.

1317Now in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and seized them. 14Then Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria at Lachish, saying, “18I have done wrong. 19Withdraw from me; whatever you 20impose on me I will bear.” So the king of Assyria 21required of Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold. 1522Hezekiah gave him all the silver which was found in the house of the Lord, and in the treasuries of the king’s house. 16At that time Hezekiah cut off the gold from the doors of the temple of the Lord, and from the doorposts which Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid, and gave it to the king of Assyria.

17Then the king of Assyria sent 23Tartan and Rab-saris and Rabshakeh from Lachish to King Hezekiah with a large army to Jerusalem. So they went up and came to Jerusalem. And when they went up, they came and stood by the 24conduit of the upper pool, which is on the highway of the 25fuller’s field. 18When they called to the king, 26Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and 27Shebnah the scribe and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder, came out to them.

19Then Rabshakeh said to them, “Say now to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria, “28What is this confidence that you 29have? 20You say (but they are 30only empty words), ‘I have counsel and strength for the war.’ Now on whom do you rely, 31that you have rebelled against me? 21Now behold, you 3233rely on the staff of this crushed reed, even on Egypt; on which if a man leans, it will go into his 34hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who rely on him. 22But if you say to me, ‘We trust in the Lord our God,’ is it not He whose high places and 35whose altars Hezekiah has taken away, and has said to Judah and to Jerusalem, ‘You shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem’?