18 ¶ Now it came to pass in the third year of Hosea, son of Elah, king of Israel, that Hezekiah, the son of Ahaz, king of Judah, began to reign.

² He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name also was Abi, the daughter of Zachariah.

³ And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that David, his father, did.

⁴ He removed the high places and broke the images and cut down the groves and broke in pieces the brasen serpent that Moses had made; for unto those days, the sons of Israel burned incense to it; and he called it Nehushtan. {Heb. a thing of brass}

⁵ He trusted in the LORD God of Israel; so that neither after him nor before was there any like him among all the kings of Judah.

⁶ For he cleaved unto the LORD and did not depart from following him, but kept his commandments which the LORD commanded Moses.

⁷ And the LORD was with him, and he prospered in all things in which he went forth; and he rebelled against the king of Assyria and did not serve him.

⁸ He smote the Philistines, even unto Gaza and the borders thereof, from the towers of the watchmen to the fenced city.

⁹ ¶ And in the fourth year of king Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hosea, son of Elah, king of Israel, Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, came up against Samaria and besieged it.

¹⁰ And at the end of three years, they took it; even in the sixth year of Hezekiah, that is the ninth year of Hosea, king of Israel, Samaria was taken.

¹¹ And the king of Assyria carried away Israel unto Assyria and put them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan and in the cities of the Medes:

¹² because they had not hearkened unto the voice of the LORD their God, but had broken his covenant and all that Moses, the slave of the LORD, commanded and would not hear them nor do them.

¹³ Now in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib, king of Assyria, came up against all the fenced cities of Judah and took them.

¹⁴ And Hezekiah, king of Judah, sent unto the king of Assyria to Lachish, saying, I have sinned; return from me; that which thou puttest on me I will bear. Then the king of Assyria appointed unto Hezekiah, king of Judah, three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.

¹⁵ And Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the house of the LORD and in the treasury of the king’s house.

¹⁶ At that time Hezekiah cut off the gold from the doors of the temple of the LORD and from the hinges which Hezekiah, king of Judah, had overlaid and gave it to the king of Assyria.

¹⁷ ¶ And the king of Assyria sent Tartan and Rabsaris and Rabshakeh from Lachish to King Hezekiah with a great host against Jerusalem. And they went up and came to Jerusalem. And when they were come up, they came and stood by the conduit of the upper pool, which is in the highway of the washer’s field.

¹⁸ And they called the king, and Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna, the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, the writer of chronicles went out to them.

¹⁹ And Rabshakeh said unto them, Speak ye now to Hezekiah, Thus saith the great king, the king of Assyria, What confidence is this in which thou dost trust?

²⁰ Thou sayest (but they are but vain words), I have counsel and strength for the war. Now on whom dost thou trust, that thou hast rebelled against me?

²¹ Now, behold, thou dost trust upon the staff of this bruised reed, even upon Egypt, on which if a man leans, it will go into his hand and pierce it; so is Pharaoh, king of Egypt unto all that trust in him.

²² But if ye say unto me, We trust in the LORD our God: is he not the one whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away and has said to Judah and Jerusalem, Ye shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem?

²³ Now therefore, I pray thee, give hostages unto my lord, the king of Assyria, and I will deliver thee two thousand horses, if thou art able on thy part to set riders upon them.

²⁴ How then wilt thou turn away the face of one captain of the least of my master’s slaves, even though thou dost trust in Egypt for chariots and for horsemen?

²⁵ Furthermore, Have I now come up without the LORD against this place to destroy it? The LORD said to me, Go up against this land and destroy it.

²⁶ Then said Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, and Shebna and Joah unto Rabshakeh, Speak, I pray thee, to thy slaves in the Syrian language, for we understand it, and do not talk with us in the Jews’ language in the ears of the people that are on the wall.

²⁷ But Rabshakeh said unto them, Has my master sent me to thy master and to thee, to speak these words and not rather to the men who sit on the wall, that they may eat their own dung and drink their own piss with you?

²⁸ Then Rabshakeh stood and cried with a loud voice in the Jews’ language and spoke, saying, Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria.

²⁹ Thus hath the king said, Let not Hezekiah deceive you, for he shall not be able to deliver you out of my hand.

³⁰ Neither let Hezekiah make you trust in the LORD, saying, The LORD will surely deliver us, and this city shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria.

³¹ Do not hearken unto Hezekiah, for thus saith the king of Assyria, Give me a blessing and come out to me, and then each one of you shall eat of their own vine and of their own fig tree, and each one shall drink the waters of their own well,

³² until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olives, of oil, and of honey, that ye may live, and not die. Do not hearken unto Hezekiah, for he deceives you, saying, The LORD will deliver us.

³³ Peradventure have any of the gods of the Gentiles delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria?

³⁴ Where is the god of Hamath and of Arpad? Where is the god of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and of Ivah? Have they delivered Samaria out of my hand?

³⁵ What god out of all the gods of the lands has delivered their land out of my hand that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?

³⁶ But the people remained silent and did not answer him a word, for the king had commanded, saying, Do not answer him.

³⁷ Then Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna, the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, the writer of chronicles, came to Hezekiah with their clothes rent and told him the words of Rabshakeh.