Hezekiah Turns Judah Back to Our Father
18 1 In Hoshea son of Elah, king of Israel's third year, Hezekiah son of Ahaz became king of Judah. 2 Twenty-five when he became king, he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother: Abijah, daughter of Zechariah. 3 He did what was right in our Father's eyes, as his father David had done. 4 He removed the high places, smashed the pillars, cut down the Asherah, and broke the bronze snake Moses made — until then Israelites had been burning incense to it, called Nehushtan. a a v4 Nehushtan means "bronze thing" — a dismissive name for the bronze idol the serpent had become, once a true sign from our Father but now wrongly worshiped. 5 He trusted our Father, the God of Israel; no king of Judah matched him, before or after. 6 He clung to our Father, never stopped following him, and kept the commands our Father gave Moses. 7 He thrived wherever he went out, for our Father was with him. He rebelled against Assyria's king, refusing to serve him. 8 He struck down the Philistines as far as Gaza and its borders, from watchtower to fortified city.
9 Hezekiah's fourth year—Hoshea son of Elah, Israel's king, seventh—Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against Samaria and besieged it. 10 Three years later they captured it — Hezekiah's sixth year, Hoshea king of Israel's ninth — Samaria was captured. 11 Assyria's king exiled Israel to Assyria, settling them in Halah, on the Habor River of Gozan, and in Medes' cities. 12 because they ignored our Father's voice and broke his covenant — all Moses, our Father's servant, commanded — neither hearing nor doing it.
Assyria Comes Against Judah
13 In King Hezekiah's fourteenth year, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all Judah's fortified cities and captured them. 14 Then Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria at Lachish, "I have sinned; withdraw, and I will bear whatever you impose on me." The king of Assyria imposed on Hezekiah king of Judah about eleven tons of silver and one ton of gold. 15 Hezekiah gave him all the silver found in the house of our Father, and in the royal storerooms. 16 At that time Hezekiah stripped gold from our Father's temple doors and doorposts Hezekiah king of Judah had covered, and gave it to Assyria's king.
17 The king of Assyria sent his supreme commander, chief officer, and field commander with a large army from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. They came up to Jerusalem and stood by the upper pool's aqueduct, on the road to the Washerman's Field. 18 They called for the king, and Eliakim son of Hilkiah, palace overseer, came out to them with Shebnah the secretary and Joah son of Asaph the recorder. 19 The field commander said, "Tell Hezekiah: The great king of Assyria says: What's this trust you're trusting in? 20 You say: strategy and strength for war—mere talk. Now, whom are you trusting, that you rebelled against me? 21 Look, you trust Egypt, that splintered-reed staff piercing the hand of anyone leaning on it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust him. 22 But if you say, 'We trust in the LORD our God,' isn't he the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah removed, telling Judah and Jerusalem, 'Worship before this altar in Jerusalem'? 23 Make a bet with my master the king of Assyria: I'll give you two thousand horses if you can mount riders on them. 24 How can you turn back one officer among my master's least servants, trusting Egypt for chariots and horsemen? 25 Did I go up against this place to destroy it without the LORD? The LORD told me: Go up against this land, destroy it.
26 Eliakim son of Hilkiah, Shebnah, and Joah said to the field commander, "Please speak Aramaic to us your servants—we understand it. Don't speak Hebrew, with the people on the wall listening."
27 The field commander replied, "Did my master send me to say this only to your master and you, and not to the men on the wall, who will eat their dung and drink their urine with you?"
28 Then the field commander shouted loudly in Hebrew: 'Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria!' 29 The king says: Don't let Hezekiah fool you, for he can't rescue you from my hand. 30 Don't let Hezekiah make you trust in the LORD, saying, 'The LORD will surely rescue us; this city won't fall to Assyria's king.' 31 Don't listen to Hezekiah. The king of Assyria says: make peace with me and come out to me — each of you will eat from your vine and fig tree, and drink from your cistern. 32 until I take you to a land like yours — grain, new wine, bread, vineyards, olive trees, honey — so you live, not die. Don't listen to Hezekiah; he's misleading you, saying the LORD will rescue us. 33 Has any of the nations' gods rescued his land from the hand of Assyria's king? 34 Where are Hamath's and Arpad's gods? Where are Sepharvaim's, Hena's, and Ivvah's gods? Did they save Samaria from my hand? 35 Which of all these lands' gods saved his land from me, that the LORD saves Jerusalem from me?
36 But the people said nothing, since the king had ordered, "Don't answer him." 37 Eliakim son of Hilkiah, palace steward, Shebna the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph the recorder came to Hezekiah, clothes torn, and reported the field commander's words.
