Second Book of Kings 18

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

² He was twenty-five years old when he came to the throne, and he reigned for twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Abijah daughter of Zechariah.

³ He did what is pleasing to Yahweh, just as his ancestor David had done.

⁴ It was he who abolished the high places, broke the pillars, cut down the sacred poles and smashed the bronze serpent that Moses had made; for up to that time the Israelites had offered sacrifice to it; it was called Nehushtan.

⁵ He put his trust in the God of Israel. No king of Judah after him could be compared with him – nor any of those before him.

⁶ He was devoted to Yahweh, never turning from him, but keeping the commandments that Yahweh had laid down for Moses.

⁷ And so Yahweh was with him, and he was successful in all that he undertook. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and refused to serve him.

⁸ It was he who harassed the Philistines as far as Gaza, laying their territory waste from watchtower to fortified town.

⁹ In the fourth year of Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah, king of Israel, Shalmaneser king of Assyria made war on Samaria and laid siege to it. He captured it after three years.

¹⁰ Samaria fell in the sixth year of Hezekiah, which was the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel.

¹¹ The king of Assyria deported the Israelites to Assyria and settled them in Halah on the Habor, a river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.

¹² This happened because they had not obeyed the voice of Yahweh their God and had broken his covenant, violating all that Moses the servant of Yahweh had laid down. They neither listened to it nor put it into practice.

¹³ In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked the fortified towns of Judah and captured them.

¹⁴ Then Hezekiah king of Judah sent this message to the king of Assyria at Lachish, ‘I have been at fault. Call off the attack, and I will submit myself to whatever you impose on me.’ The king of Assyria exacted three hundreds talents of silver and thirty talents of gold from Hezekiah king of Judah,

¹⁵ and Hezekiah gave him all the silver in the Temple of Yahweh and in the treasury of the royal palace.

¹⁶ It was then that Hezekiah stripped the facing from the leaves and jambs of the doors of the Temple of Yahweh, which . . . king of Judah had plated, and gave it to the king of Assyria.

¹⁷ From Lachish the king of Assyria sent the cupbearer-in-chief with a large force to King Hezekiah in Jerusalem. He went up to Jerusalem, and when he arrived, he took a position near the conduit of the upper pool which is on the road to the Fuller’s Field.

¹⁸ He summoned the king. The master of the palace, Eliakim son of Hilkiah, Shebnah the secretary and the herald Joah son of Asaph went out to him.

¹⁹ The cupbearer-in-chief said to them, ‘Say to Hezekiah, “Thus speaks the great king, the king of Assyria: What makes you so confident?

²⁰ Do you think empty words are as good as strategy and military strength? Who are you relying on, to dare to rebel against me?

²¹ We know you are relying on that broken reed Egypt, which pricks and pierces the hand of the man who leans on it. – That is what Pharaoh king of Egypt is like to all who rely on him. –

²² You may say to me: We rely on Yahweh our God, but are they not his high places and altars that Hezekiah has suppressed, saying to the people of Judah and Jerusalem: This in Jerusalem, is the altar, before which you must worship?

²³ Come, make a wager with my lord the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses if you can find horsemen to ride them.

²⁴ How could you repulse a single one of the least of my master’s servants? And yet you have relied on Egypt for chariots and horsemen.

²⁵ And lastly, have I come up against this place to lay it waste without warrant from Yahweh? Yahweh himself said to me: March against this country and lay it waste.”‘

²⁶ Eliakim, Shebnah and Joah said to the cupbearer-in-chief, ‘Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it; do not speak to us in the Judaean language within earshot of the people on the ramparts’.

²⁷ But the cupbearer-in-chief said, ‘Do you think my lord sent me here to say these things to your master or to you? On the contrary, it was to the people sitting on the ramparts who, like you, are doomed to eat their own dung and drink their own urine.

²⁸ Then the cupbearer-in-chief stood erect and, shouting loudly in the Judaean language, called out, ‘Listen to the word of the great king, the king of Assyria.

²⁹ Thus the king speaks: “Do not let Hezekiah delude you. He will be powerless to save you from my hands.

³⁰ Do not let Hezekiah persuade you to rely on Yahweh by saying: Yahweh is sure to save us; this city will not fall into the power of the king of Assyria.

³¹ Do not listen to Hezekiah, for the king of Assyria says this: Make peace with me, surrender to me, and every one of you will eat the fruit of his own vine and of his own fig tree and drink the water of his own cistern

³² until I come and deport you to a country like your own, a land of corn and good wine, a land of bread and of vineyards, a land of oil and of honey, so that you may not die but live. Do not listen to Hezekiah who is deluding you when he says: Yahweh will save us.

³³ Has any god of any nation saved his country from the power of the king of Assyria?

³⁴ Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim and Hena and Ivvah? Where are the gods of the land of Samaria? Did they save Samaria from me?

³⁵ Tell me which, of all the gods of any country, have saved their countries from my hands, for Yahweh to be able to save Jerusalem?”‘

³⁶ They kept silence and said nothing in reply, since such was the king’s order: ‘Do not answer him’ he had said.

³⁷ The master of the palace, Eliakim son of Hilkiah, Shebnah the secretary and the herald Joah son of Asaph, with their garments torn, went to Hezekiah and reported what the cupbearer-in-chief had said.