II Kings Chapter 18

II Kings 18 — English translation

Translation: THE JPS TANAKH: Gender-Sensitive Edition. Verse numbers match the Hebrew text below.

1. 1In the third year of King Hoshea son of Elah of Israel, Hezekiah son of King Ahaz of Judah became king.
2. 2He 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. 3He did what was pleasing to G OD , just as his forefather David had done.
4. 4He abolished the shrines and smashed the pillars and cut down the sacred post. He also broke into pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until that time the Israelites had been offering sacrifices to it; it was called Nehushtan.
5. 5He trusted only in the E TERNAL the God of Israel; there was none like him among all the kings of Judah after him, nor among those before him.
6. 6He clung to G OD ; he did not hesitate to be directed, but kept the commandments that G OD had given to Moses.
7. 7And G OD was always with him; he was successful wherever he turned. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and would not serve him.
8. 8He overran Philistia as far as Gaza and its border areas, from watchtower to fortified town.
9. 9In the fourth year of King Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of King Hoshea son of Elah of Israel, King Shalmaneser of Assyria marched against Samaria and besieged it,
10. 10and he captured it at the end of three years. In the sixth year of Hezekiah, which was the ninth year of King Hoshea of Israel, Samaria was captured;
11. 11and the king of Assyria deported the Israelites to Assyria. He settled them in Halah, along the Habor [and] the River Gozan, and in the towns of Media.
12. 12[This happened] because they did not obey the E TERNAL their God; they transgressed God’s covenant—all that Moses the servant of G OD had commanded. They did not obey and they did not fulfill it.
13. 13In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, King Sennacherib of Assyria marched against all the fortified towns of Judah and seized them.
14. 14King Hezekiah sent this message to the king of Assyria at Lachish: “I have done wrong; withdraw from me; and I shall bear whatever you impose on me.” So the king of Assyria imposed upon King Hezekiah of Judah a payment of three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.
15. 15Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was on hand in the House of G OD and in the treasuries of the palace.
16. 16At that time Hezekiah cut down the doors and the doorposts of the Temple of G OD , which King Hezekiah had overlaid [with gold], and gave them to the king of Assyria.
17. 17But the king of Assyria sent the Tartan, the Rabsaris, and the Rabshakeh from Lachish with a large force to King Hezekiah in Jerusalem. They marched up to Jerusalem; and when they arrived, they took up a position near the conduit of the Upper Pool, by the road of the Fuller’s Field.
18. 18They summoned the king; and Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was in charge of the palace, Shebna the scribe, and Joah son of Asaph the recorder went out to them.
19. 19The Rabshakeh said to them, “You tell Hezekiah: Thus said the Great King, the King of Assyria: What makes you so confident?
20. 20You must think that mere talk is counsel and valor for war! Look, on whom are you relying, that you have rebelled against me?
21. 21You rely, of all things, on Egypt, that splintered reed of a staff, which enters and punctures the palm of anyone who leans on it! That’s what Pharaoh king of Egypt is like to all who rely on him.
22. 22And if you tell me that you are relying on the E TERNAL your God: is this not the very one whose shrines and altars Hezekiah did away with, telling Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You must worship only at this altar in Jerusalem’?
23. 23Come now, make this wager with my master, the king of Assyria: I’ll give you two thousand horses if you can produce riders to mount them.
24. 24So how could you refuse anything even to the deputy of one of my master’s lesser servants, relying on Egypt for chariots and riders?
25. 25And do you think I have marched against this land to destroy it without G OD ? It was G OD who told me: Go up against that land and destroy it.”
26. 26Eliakim son of Hilkiah, Shebna, and Joah replied to the Rabshakeh, “Please, speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it; do not speak to us in Judean in the hearing of the people on the wall.”
27. 27But the Rabshakeh answered them, “Was it to your master and to you that my master sent me to speak those words? It was precisely to the men who are sitting on the wall—who will have to eat their dung and drink their urine with you.”
28. 28And the Rabshakeh stood and called out in a loud voice in Judean: “Hear the words of the Great King, the King of Assyria.
29. 29Thus said the king: Don’t let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you from my hands.
30. 30Don’t let Hezekiah make you rely on G OD , saying: G OD will surely save us: this city will not fall into the hands of the king of Assyria.
31. 31Don’t listen to Hezekiah. For thus said the king of Assyria: Make your peace with me and come out to me, so that you may all eat from your vines and your fig trees and drink water from your cisterns,
32. 32until I come and take you away to a land like your own, a land of grain [fields] and vineyards, of bread and wine, of olive oil and honey, so that you may live and not die. Don’t listen to Hezekiah, who misleads you by saying, ‘G OD will save us.’
33. 33Did any of the gods of other nations save their land from the king of Assyria?
34. 34Where were the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where were the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah? [And] did they save Samaria from me?
35. 35Which among all the gods of [those] countries saved their countries from me, that G OD should save Jerusalem from me?”
36. 36But the people were silent and did not say a word in reply; for the king’s order was: “Do not answer him.”
37. 37And so Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was in charge of the palace, Shebna the scribe, and Joah son of Asaph the recorder came to Hezekiah with their clothes rent, and they reported to him what the Rabshakeh had said.

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