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2 Kings 18:1-20:21

HEZEKIAH king of Judah. (725 BCE) (2Kgs.18.1-12)

18¹In the third year of Hoshea son of Elah, king of Israel, Hezekiah son of Ahaz became king of Judah. ²He 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. ³He did what Yahweh regards as right, just as his ancestor David had done. ⁴He abolished the high places, broke the pillars, cut down the sacred poles and smashed the bronze serpent which Moses had made; for up to that time the Israelites had offered sacrifices to it; it was called Nehushtan. ⁵He put his trust in Yahweh, God of Israel. No king of Judah after him could be compared with him—nor any of those before him. ⁶He was devoted to Yahweh, never turning from him, but keeping the commandments which Yahweh had laid down for Moses. ⁷And 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. ⁸He beat the Philistines back to Gaza, laying their territory waste from watchtower to fortified town. ⁹In the fourth year of Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah, king of Israel, Shalmaneser king of Assyria marched on Samaria and laid siege to it. ¹⁰He captured it after three years. Samaria fell in the sixth year of Hezekiah, which was the ninth year of Hosea king of Israel. ¹¹The 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. ¹²This happened because they had not obeyed the voice of Yahweh their God and had broken his covenant, everything that Moses servant of Yahweh had laid down. They neither listened to it nor put it into practice.

The Assyrians threaten Jerusalem. (2Kgs.18.13-36)

¹³In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria advanced on all the fortified towns of Judah and captured them. ¹⁴Then 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 to whatever you impose on me.' The king of Assyria exacted three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold from Hezekiah king of Judah, ¹⁵and Hezekiah gave him all the silver in the Temple of Yahweh and in the palace treasury. ¹⁶At which time, Hezekiah stripped the facing from the leaves and jambs of the doors of the Temple of Yahweh, which an earlier king of Judah had put on, and gave it to the king of Assyria. ¹⁷From Lachish the king of Assyria sent the cupbearer-in-chief with a large force to King Hezekiah in Jerusalem. He marched on Jerusalem and, on his arrival, took up position near the conduit of the upper pool which is on the road to the Fuller's Field. ¹⁸He 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. ¹⁹The cupbearer-in-chief said to them, 'Say to Hezekiah, 'The great king, the king of Assyria, says this: What makes you so confident? ²⁰Do you think empty words are as good as strategy and military strength? Who are you relying on, to dare to rebel against me? ²¹There you are, relying on that broken reed Egypt, which pricks and pierces the hand of whoever leans on it. That is what Pharaoh king of Egypt is like to all who rely on him. ²²You may say to me: We rely on Yahweh our God. But have his high places and altars not been suppressed by Hezekiah who told Judah and Jerusalem: Here, in Jerusalem, is the altar before which you must worship? ²³Very well, then, 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. ²⁴How could you repel a single one of the least of my master's soldiers? And yet you have relied on Egypt for chariots and horsemen. ²⁵And lastly, have I marched on this place to lay it waste without warrant from Yahweh? Yahweh himself said to me: March on this country and lay it waste.' ' ²⁶Eliakim, 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.' ²⁷But 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.' ²⁸The cupbearer-in-chief then drew himself up and shouted loudly in the Judaean language, 'Listen to the word of the great king, the king of Assyria. ²⁹The king says this, 'Do not let Hezekiah delude you. He will be powerless to save you from my clutches. ³⁰Do not let Hezekiah persuade you to rely on Yahweh by saying: Yahweh is sure to save us; this city will not fall into the king of Assyria's clutches. ³¹Do not listen to Hezekiah, for the king of Assyria says this: Make peace with me, surrender to me, and every one of you will be free to eat the fruit of his own vine and of his own fig tree and to drink the water of his own storage-well ³²until I come and take you away to a country like your own, a land of corn and good wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of oil and honey: and so you will survive and not die. Do not listen to Hezekiah; he is deluding you when he says: Yahweh will save us. ³³Has any god of any nation been able to save his country from the king of Assyria's clutches? ³⁴Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim and Hena and Ivvah? Where are the local gods of Samaria? Did they save Samaria from my clutches? ³⁵Of all the local gods, which ones have saved their countries from my clutches, for Yahweh to be able to save Jerusalem from my clutches?' ' ³⁶The people, however, kept quiet and said nothing in reply, since the king had given the order, 'You are not to answer him.' ³⁷The master of the palace, Eliakim son of Hilkiah, Shebnah the secretary and the herald Joah son of Asaph, with their clothes torn, went to Hezekiah and reported what the cupbearer-in-chief had said.

Hezekiah seeks advice from the prophet Isaiah. (2Kgs.19.1-7)

19¹On hearing this, King Hezekiah tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and went to the Temple of Yahweh. ²He sent Eliakim master of the palace, Shebnah the secretary and the elders of the priests, wearing sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz. ³They said to him, 'This is what Hezekiah says, 'Today is a day of suffering, of punishment, of disgrace. Children come to birth, and there is no strength to bring them forth. ⁴May Yahweh your God hear the words of the cupbearer-in-chief whom his master, the king of Assyria, has sent to insult the living God, and may Yahweh your God punish the words he has heard. Offer your prayer for the remnant still remaining.' ' ⁵King Hezekiah's ministers went to Isaiah, ⁶and Isaiah said to them, 'Say to your master, 'Yahweh says this: Do not be afraid of the words which you have heard or the blasphemies which the king of Assyria's minions have uttered against me. ⁷Look, I am going to put a spirit in him and, on the strength of a rumour, he will go back to his own country, and in that country I shall make him fall by the sword.' '

The Assyrians send a further threat. (2Kgs.19.8-19)

⁸The cupbearer turned about and rejoined the king of Assyria, who was then attacking Libnah, as the cupbearer had learnt that the king had already left Lachish ⁹on hearing that Tirhakah king of Cush was on his way to attack him. ¹⁰Sennacherib again sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, 'Tell Hezekiah king of Judah this, 'Do not let your God on whom you are relying deceive you with the promise: Jerusalem will not fall into the king of Assyria's clutches. ¹¹You have learnt by now what the kings of Assyria have done to all the other countries, devoting them to destruction. Are you likely to be saved? ¹²Did the gods of the nations whom my ancestors devastated save them-Gozan, Haran, Rezeph and the Edenites who were in Tel Basar? ¹³Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of Lair, of Sepharvaim, of Hena, of Ivvah?' ' ¹⁴Hezekiah took the letter from the messengers' hands and read it; he then went up to the Temple of Yahweh and spread it out before Yahweh. ¹⁵Hezekiah said this prayer in the presence of Yahweh, 'Yahweh Sabaoth, God of Israel, enthroned on the winged creatures, you alone are God of all the kingdoms of the world, you made heaven and earth. ¹⁶Give ear, Yahweh, and listen; open your eyes, Yahweh, and see! Hear the words of Sennacherib, who has sent to insult the living God. ¹⁷It is true, Yahweh, that the kings of Assyria have destroyed the nations, ¹⁸they have thrown their gods on the fire, for these were not gods but human artefacts—wood and stone—and hence they have destroyed them. ¹⁹But now, Yahweh our God, save us from his clutches, I beg you, and let all the kingdoms of the world know that you alone are God, Yahweh.'

Isaiah's message to king Hezekiah. (2Kgs.19.20-37)

²⁰Isaiah son of Amoz then sent the following message to Hezekiah, 'Yahweh, God of Israel, says this, 'I have heard the prayer which you have addressed to me about Sennacherib king of Assyria.' ²¹Here is the pronouncement which Yahweh has made about him: 'She despises you, she scorns you, the virgin daughter of Zion; she tosses her head at you, the daughter of Jerusalem! ²²Whom have you insulted, whom have you blasphemed? Against whom raised your voice and lifted your haughty eyes? Against the Holy One of Israel! ²³Through your envoys you have insulted the Lord, thinking: With my many chariots I have climbed the mountain-tops, the utmost peaks of Lebanon. I have felled its mighty cedars, its finest cypresses, have reached its furthest recesses, its forest garden. ²⁴Yes, I have dug and drunk of foreign waters; under the soles of my feet I have dried up all Egypt's rivers. ²⁵'Do you hear? Long ago I prepared this, from days of old I actually planned it, now I carry it out. You were to lay walled cities in heaps of ruins; ²⁶that was why their inhabitants, feeble of hand, were dismayed and discomfited, were weak as grass, were frail as plants, were like grass of housetop and meadow under the east wind. ²⁷But whether you stand up or you sit down, whether you go out or you come in, I know it. ²⁸Because you have raved against me, and your arrogance has reached my ears, I shall put a hook through your nostrils and a muzzle on your lips, and make you return by the road by which you came. ²⁹'And this will be the sign for you: this year will be eaten the self-sown grain, next year what sprouts in the fallow; but in the third year sow and reap, plant vineyards and eat their fruit. ³⁰The surviving remnant of the House of Judah will bring forth new roots below and fruits above; ³¹for a remnant will issue from Jerusalem, and survivors from Mount Zion. Yahweh Sabaoth's jealous love will accomplish this. ³²'This, then, is what Yahweh says about the king of Assyria: 'He will not enter this city, will shoot no arrow at it, confront it with no shield, throw up no earthwork against it. ³³By the road by which he came, by that he will return; he will not enter this city, declares Yahweh. ³⁴I shall protect this city and save it for my sake and my servant David's sake.' ' ³⁵That same night the angel of Yahweh went out and struck down a hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp. In the early morning when it was time to get up, there they lay, so many corpses. ³⁶Sennacherib struck camp and left; he returned home and stayed in Nineveh. ³⁷One day when he was worshipping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him down with the sword and escaped into the territory of Ararat. His son Esarhaddon succeeded him.

Hezekiah's illness & recovery. (2Kgs.20.1-19)

20¹About then Hezekiah fell ill and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz came and said to him, 'Yahweh says this, 'Put your affairs in order, for you are going to die, you will not live.' ' ²Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and addressed this prayer to Yahweh, ³'Ah, Yahweh, remember, I beg you, that I have behaved faithfully and with sincerity of heart in your presence and done what you regard as right.' And Hezekiah shed many tears. ⁴Isaiah had not left the middle court, before the word of Yahweh came to him, ⁵'Go back and say to Hezekiah, prince of my people, 'Yahweh, the God of your ancestor David, says this: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears. I shall cure you: in three days' time you will go up to the Temple of Yahweh. ⁶I shall add fifteen years to your life. I shall save you and this city from the king of Assyria's clutches and defend this city for my sake and my servant David's sake.' ' ⁷'Bring a fig poultice,' Isaiah said; they brought one, applied it to the ulcer, and the king recovered. ⁸Hezekiah said to Isaiah, 'What is the sign to tell me that Yahweh will cure me and that I shall be going up to the Temple of Yahweh in three days' time?' ⁹'Here', Isaiah replied, 'is the sign from Yahweh that he will do what he has said; would you like the shadow to go forward ten steps, or to go back ten steps?' ¹⁰'It is easy for the shadow to lengthen ten steps,' Hezekiah replied. 'No, I would rather the shadow went back ten steps.' ¹¹The prophet Isaiah then called on Yahweh, who made the shadow cast by the declining sun on the steps—the steps to Ahaz's roof-room—go back ten steps. ¹²At that time the king of Babylon, Merodach-Baladan son of Baladan, sent letters and a gift to Hezekiah, for he had heard of his illness and his recovery. ¹³Hezekiah was delighted at this and showed the ambassadors his entire treasury, the silver, gold, spices, precious oil, his armoury too, and everything to be seen in his storehouses. There was nothing in his palace or in his whole domain that Hezekiah did not show them. ¹⁴The prophet Isaiah then came to King Hezekiah and asked him, 'What have these men said, and where have they come from?' Hezekiah answered, 'They have come from a distant country, from Babylon.' ¹⁵Isaiah said, 'What have they seen in your palace?' 'They have seen everything in my palace,' Hezekiah answered. 'There is nothing in my storehouses that I have not shown them.' ¹⁶Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, 'Listen to the word of Yahweh, ¹⁷'The days are coming when everything in your palace, everything that your ancestors have amassed until now, will be carried off to Babylon. Not a thing will be left,' Yahweh says. ¹⁸'Sons sprung from you, sons fathered by you, will be abducted to be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.' ' ¹⁹Hezekiah said to Isaiah, 'This word of Yahweh that you announce is reassuring,' for he was thinking, 'And why not? So long as there is peace and security during my lifetime.'

Hezekiah - conclusion of his reign. (2Kgs.20.20-21)

²⁰The rest of the history of Hezekiah, all his prowess, how he constructed the pool and the conduit to bring water into the city, is this not recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Judah? ²¹Then Hezekiah fell asleep with his ancestors; his son Manasseh succeeded him.