Hezekiah Turns Judah Back to Our Father
Hezekiah trusts our Father as no other king of Judah did, and smashes even Moses' bronze snake. Assyria takes the fortified cities anyway. At the wall an officer taunts Jerusalem in Hebrew, deliberately: no nation's god has saved anyone, so why would yours? The people say nothing.
18 1In Hoshea son of Elah, king of Israel's third year, Hezekiah son of Ahaz became king of Judah. 2Twenty-five when he became king, he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother: Abijah, daughter of Zechariah. 3He did what was right in our Father's eyes, as his father David had done. 4He removed the high places, smashed the sacred pillars, cut down the Asherah, and broke into pieces 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. 5He trusted our Father, the God of Israel; no king of Judah matched him, before or after. 6He clung to our Father, never stopped following him, and kept the commands our Father gave Moses. 7He thrived wherever he went out, for our Father was with him. He rebelled against Assyria's king, refusing to serve him. 8He struck down the Philistines as far as Gaza and its borders, from watchtower to fortified city.
9Hezekiah's fourth year—Hoshea son of Elah, Israel's king, seventh—Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against Samaria and besieged it. 10Three years later they captured it—Hezekiah's sixth year, Hoshea king of Israel's ninth—Samaria was captured. 11Assyria's king exiled Israel to Assyria, settling them in Halah, on the Habor River of Gozan, and in Medes' cities, 12because 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
13In King Hezekiah's fourteenth year, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all Judah's fortified cities and captured them. 14Then 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. 15Hezekiah gave him all the silver found in the house of our Father, and in the royal storerooms. 16At 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.
17The 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. 18They 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. 19The field commander said to them, "Tell Hezekiah: The great king, the king of Assyria, says: What's this trust you're trusting in? 20You say: strategy and strength for war—mere talk. Now, whom are you trusting, that you rebelled against me? 21Look, 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. 22But 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'? 23Make a bet with my master the king of Assyria: I'll give you 2,000 horses if you can mount riders on them. 24How can you turn back one officer among my master's least servants, trusting Egypt for chariots and horsemen? 25Did I go up against this place to destroy it without the LORD? The LORD told me: Go up against this land, destroy it."
26Eliakim 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."
27The 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?"
28Then the field commander stood and shouted loudly in Hebrew: "Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria! 29The king says: Don't let Hezekiah fool you, for he can't rescue you from his hand. 30Don'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.' 31Don'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, 32until 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 when he says, 'The LORD will rescue us.' 33Has any of the nations' gods rescued his land from the hand of Assyria's king? 34Where are Hamath's and Arpad's gods? Where are Sepharvaim's, Hena's, and Ivvah's gods? Did they save Samaria from my hand? 35Which of all these lands' gods saved his land from my hand, that the LORD should save Jerusalem from my hand?"
36But the people remained silent and answered him not a word, since the king had ordered, "Don't answer him." 37Eliakim 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.
