2 Kings 18:1-29

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  18:20 Your claim to have a strategy and military strength is just empty talk. ³¹  In whom are you trusting that you would dare to rebel against me? 18:21 Now look, you must be trusting in Egypt, that splintered reed staff. If a man leans for support on it, it punctures his hand and wounds him. That is what Pharaoh king of Egypt does to all who trust in him. 18:22 Perhaps you will tell me, ‘We are trusting in the Lord our God.’ But Hezekiah is the one who eliminated his high places and altars and then told the people of Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You must worship at this altar in Jerusalem.’ 18:23 Now make a deal ³²  with my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, provided you can find enough riders for them. 18:24 Certainly you will not refuse one of my master’s minor officials and trust in Egypt for chariots and horsemen. ³³  18:25 Furthermore it was by the command of the Lord that I marched up against this place to destroy it. The Lord told me, ‘March ³⁴  up against this land and destroy it.’”’” ³⁵ 

18:26 Eliakim son of Hilkiah, Shebna, and Joah said to the chief adviser, “Speak to your servants in Aramaic, ³⁶  for we understand it. Don’t speak with us in the Judahite dialect ³⁷  in the hearing of the people who are on the wall.” 18:27 But the chief adviser said to them, “My master did not send me to speak these words only to your master and to you. ³⁸  His message is also for the men who sit on the wall, for they will eat their own excrement and drink their own urine along with you.” ³⁹ 

18:28 The chief adviser then stood there and called out loudly in the Judahite dialect, ⁴⁰  “Listen to the message of the great king, the king of Assyria. 18:29 This is what the king says: ‘Don’t let Hezekiah mislead you, for he is not able to rescue you from my hand! ⁴¹ 

[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?”

[18:20]  ³¹ tn Heb “you say only a word of lips, counsel and might for battle.” Sennacherib’s message appears to be in broken Hebrew at this point. The phrase “word of lips” refers to mere or empty talk in Prov 14:23.

[18:23]  ³² tn Heb “exchange pledges.”

[18:24]  ³³ tn Heb “How can you turn back the face of an official [from among] the least of my master’s servants and trust in Egypt for chariots and horsemen?” In vv. 23-24 the chief adviser develops further the argument begun in v. 21. His reasoning seems to be as follows: “In your weakened condition you obviously need military strength. Agree to the king’s terms and I will personally give you more horses than you are capable of outfitting. If I, a mere minor official, am capable of giving you such military might, just think what power the king has. There is no way the Egyptians can match our strength. It makes much better sense to deal with us.”

[18:25]  ³⁴ tn Heb “Go.”

[18:25]  ³⁵ sn In v. 25 the chief adviser develops further the argument begun in v. 22. He claims that Hezekiah has offended the Lord and that the Lord has commissioned Assyria as his instrument of discipline and judgment.

[18:26]  ³⁶ sn Aramaic was the diplomatic language of the empire.

[18:26]  ³⁷ tn Or “Hebrew.”

[18:27]  ³⁸ tn Heb “To your master and to you did my master send me to speak these words?” The rhetorical question expects a negative answer.

[18:27]  ³⁹ tn Heb “[Is it] not [also] to the men…?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Yes, it is.”

[18:28]  ⁴⁰ tn The Hebrew text also has, “and he spoke and said.”

[18:29]  ⁴¹ tc The MT has “his hand,” but this is due to graphic confusion of vav (ו) and yod (י). The translation reads “my hand,” along with many medieval Hebrew mss, the LXX, Syriac Peshitta, Targum, and Vulgate.