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the third year of the reign of Hoshea son of Elah, king of Israel, Hezekiah son of Ahaz became king of Judah. 2 He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-nine years. His mother’s name was Abi daughter of Zechariah. 3 He did what was right in the sight of the Lord, just as his father David had done. 4 He removed the high places, broke down the sacred pillars, and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke into pieces the bronze serpent that Moses made, for the Israelites had been burning incense to it up until that time; it was called Nehushtan.
5 Hezekiah trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel. None of the other kings of Judah were like him, either before him, or after him. 6 He held fast to the Lord, and did not turn away from following Him, but kept the commandments which the Lord had commanded Moses. 7 The Lord was with him, and he was successful wherever he turned. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and would not serve him. 8 He defeated the Philistines as far as Gaza and its territory, from watchtower to fortified city.
9 In the fourth year of the reign of King Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of the reign of Hoshea son of Elah, king of Israel, Shalmaneser king of Assyria marched against Samaria and laid siege to it. 10 Then at the end of three years the Assyrians captured it. In the sixth year of the reign of Hezekiah, which was the ninth year of the reign of Hoshea king of Israel, Samaria was captured. 11 The king of Assyria deported all the Israelites to Assyria, and resettled them in Halah, by the Habor River in Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes. 12 This happened because they did not obey the voice of the Lord their God. Instead they violated His covenant—all that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded. They would not listen, nor would they obey.
13 In the fourteenth year of the reign of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them. 14 So Hezekiah king of Judah sent this message to the king of Assyria at Lachish:
“I have done wrong. Withdraw from me, and whatever you demand from me I will pay.”
So the king of Assyria exacted from Hezekiah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold. 15 So Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the House of the Lord, and in the treasuries of the king’s palace.
16 At that time Hezekiah stripped the gold from the doors of the Temple of the Lord, and from the doorposts that Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid, and gave all of it to the king of Assyria.
17 Then the king of Assyria sent the Tartan, the Rabsaris, and the Rabshakeh with a large army, from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. They marched up to Jerusalem, and took up their positions at the conduit of the upper pool, by the road to the Fuller’s Field. 18 Then they 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 recorder, went out to them.
19 The Rabshakeh said to them, “Tell Hezekiah: ‘This is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says:
“On what do you base this confidence you have? 20 You say you have strategy and strength for war, but they are only empty words. On whom do you rely, that you have rebelled against me? 21 Look, you are now depending on Egypt, that splintered reed of a staff, which if a man leans on it, it will go into his hand and pierce it. Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who rely on him. 22 But if you say to me, ‘We trust in the Lord our God’, isn’t He the One whose high places and altars Hezekiah removed? Then Hezekiah told Judah and Jerusalem: ‘You must worship before this altar in Jerusalem’!” ’
23 “Come now, make a bargain with my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to put riders on them. 24 How then will you turn away a single officer from the least of my master’s servants, when you are relying on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen? 25 Moreover, have I now come to attack this place and destroy it without the Lord’s approval? The Lord Himself said to me: ‘Go up against this land and destroy it’.”
26 Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, Shebnah, and Joah said to the Rabshakeh, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, since we understand it; but do not speak to us using the Hebrew language in the hearing of the people on the wall.”
27 But the Rabshakeh said to them, “Has my master only sent me to your master and to you to speak these words? Was it not also to the men sitting on the wall that we were sent? For they too will have to eat their own dung and drink their own urine along with you.”
28 Then the Rabshakeh stood and called out in a loud voice in the Hebrew language, “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria. 29 This is what the king says,
‘Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he cannot deliver you from my hand. 30 Do not let Hezekiah persuade you to trust in the Lord by saying: “The Lord will certainly deliver us! This city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria” ’.
31 “Do not listen to Hezekiah, for this is what the king of Assyria says:
‘Make your peace with me and come out to me. Then every one of you will eat from his own vine, and every one will eat from his own fig tree, and every one of you will 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 fields and vineyards, a land of olive trees and honey, so that you may live and not die.
‘Do not listen to Hezekiah, for he misleads you by proclaiming, “The Lord will deliver us”. 33 Has any of the gods of the nations ever delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria? 34 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah? Have they rescued Samaria from my hand? 35 Who among all the gods of those countries delivered his land from my hand? So how then is the Lord able to deliver Jerusalem from my hand?’ ”
36 But the people kept silent; they did not offer a word in reply, because the king had commanded, “Do not answer him.” 37 Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was in charge of the palace, Shebnah the court secretary, and Joah son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn and told him what the Rabshakeh had said.