2 Kings 18:1-19

Hezekiah Becomes King of Judah

18:1 In the third year of the reign of Israel’s King Hoshea son of Elah, Ahaz’s son Hezekiah became king over Judah. 18:2 He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. ¹  His mother ²  was Abi, ³  the daughter of Zechariah. 18:3 He did what the Lord approved, just as his ancestor David had done. ⁴  18:4 He eliminated the high places, smashed the sacred pillars to bits, and cut down the Asherah pole. ⁵  He also demolished the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for up to that time ⁶  the Israelites had been offering incense to it; it was called Nehushtan. ⁷  18:5 He trusted in the Lord God of Israel; in this regard there was none like him among the kings of Judah either before or after. ⁸  18:6 He was loyal to ⁹  the Lord and did not abandon him. ¹⁰  He obeyed the commandments which the Lord had given to ¹¹  Moses. 18:7 The Lord was with him; he succeeded in all his endeavors. ¹²  He rebelled against the king of Assyria and refused to submit to him. ¹³  18:8 He defeated the Philistines as far as Gaza and its territory, from the watchtower to the city fortress. ¹⁴ 

18:9 In the fourth year of King Hezekiah’s reign (it was the seventh year of the reign of Israel’s King Hoshea, son of Elah), King Shalmaneser of Assyria marched ¹⁵  up against Samaria ¹⁶  and besieged it. 18:10 After three years he captured it (in the sixth year of Hezekiah’s reign); in the ninth year of King Hoshea’s reign over Israel Samaria was captured. 18:11 The king of Assyria deported the people of Israel ¹⁷  to Assyria. He settled them in Halah, along the Habor (the river of Gozan), and in the cities of the Medes. 18:12 This happened because they did not obey ¹⁸  the Lord their God and broke his agreement with them. ¹⁹  They did not pay attention to and obey all that Moses, the Lord’s servant, had commanded. ²⁰ 

Sennacherib Invades Judah

18:13 In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah’s reign, King Sennacherib of Assyria marched up against all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them. 18:14 King Hezekiah of Judah sent this message to the king of Assyria, who was at Lachish, “I have violated our treaty. ²¹  If you leave, I will do whatever you demand.” ²²  So the king of Assyria demanded that King Hezekiah of Judah pay three hundred talents ²³  of silver and thirty talents of gold. 18:15 Hezekiah gave him all the silver in ²⁴  the Lord’s temple and in the treasuries of the royal palace. 18:16 At that time King Hezekiah of Judah stripped the metal overlays from the doors of the Lord’s temple and from the posts which he had plated ²⁵  and gave them to the king of Assyria.

18:17 The king of Assyria sent his commanding general, the chief eunuch, and the chief adviser ²⁶  from Lachish to King Hezekiah in Jerusalem, ²⁷  along with a large army. They went up and arrived at Jerusalem. They went ²⁸  and stood at the conduit of the upper pool which is located on the road to the field where they wash and dry cloth. ²⁹  18:18 They summoned the king, so Eliakim son of Hilkiah, the palace supervisor, accompanied by Shebna the scribe and Joah son of Asaph, the secretary, went out to meet them.

18:19 The chief adviser said to them, “Tell Hezekiah: ‘This is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says: “What is your source of confidence? ³⁰ 

[18:2]  ¹ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[18:2]  ² tn Heb “the name of his mother.”

[18:2]  ³ tn The parallel passage in 2 Chr 29:1 has “Abijah.”

[18:3]  ⁴ tn Heb “he did what was proper in the eyes of the Lord, according to all which David his father had done.”

[18:4]  ⁵ tn The term is singular in the MT but plural in the LXX and other ancient versions. It is also possible to regard the singular as a collective singular, especially in the context of other plural items.

[18:4]  ⁶ tn Heb “until those days.”

[18:4]  ⁷ tn In Hebrew the name sounds like the phrase נְחַשׁ הַנְּחֹשֶׁת (nÿkhash hannÿkhoshet), “bronze serpent.”

[18:5]  ⁸ tn Heb “and after him there was none like him among all the kings of Judah, and those who were before him.”

[18:6]  ⁹ tn Heb “he hugged.”

[18:6]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and did not turn aside from after him.”

[18:6]  ¹¹ tn Heb “had commanded.”

[18:7]  ¹² tn Heb “in all which he went out [to do], he was successful.”

[18:7]  ¹³ tn Heb “and did not serve him.”

[18:8]  ¹⁴ sn See the note at 2 Kgs 17:9.

[18:9]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “went” (also in v. 13).

[18:9]  ¹⁶ map For location see Map2 B1; Map4 D3; Map5 E2; Map6 A4; Map7 C1.

[18:11]  ¹⁷ tn The Hebrew text has simply “Israel” as the object of the verb.

[18:12]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “listen to the voice of.”

[18:12]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “his covenant.”

[18:12]  ²⁰ tn Heb “all that Moses, the Lord’s servant, had commanded, and they did not listen and they did not act.”

[18:14]  ²¹ tn Or “I have done wrong.”

[18:14]  ²² tn Heb “Return from upon me; what you place upon me, I will carry.”

[18:14]  ²³ tn The Hebrew term כִּכָּר (kikkar, “circle”) refers generally to something that is round. When used of metals it can refer to a disk-shaped weight made of the metal or to a standard unit of weight, generally regarded as a talent. Since the accepted weight for a talent of metal is about 75 pounds, this would have amounted to about 22,500 pounds of silver and 2,250 pounds of gold.

[18:15]  ²⁴ tn Heb “that was found.”

[18:16]  ²⁵ tn Heb “At that time Hezekiah stripped the doors of the Lord’s temple, and the posts which Hezekiah king of Judah had plated.”

[18:17]  ²⁶ sn For a discussion of these titles see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 229-30.

[18:17]  ²⁷ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[18:17]  ²⁸ tn Heb “and they went up and came.”

[18:17]  ²⁹ tn Heb “the field of the washer.”

[18:19]  ³⁰ tn Heb “What is this object of trust in which you are trusting?”