2 Kings, Chapter 18:

Verses from 2 Kings, Chapter 18 of the book of 2 Kings of the Bible.

Hezekiah is king of Judah

• 1. In the third year of the reign of Hosea son of Elah as king of Israel, Hezekiah son of Ahaz began to reign in Judah.
• 2. He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Abia, daughter of Zechariah.
• 3. Hezekiah did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his predecessor David had done.
• 4. He removed the idolatrous altars, broke the sacred pillars, and tore down the sacred poles. He also destroyed the bronze serpent that Moses had made, because until that moment the Israelites had burned it as a sacrifice. She was called Neustã.
• 5. Hezekiah trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel, and there was no king like him, before or after him, in Judah.
• 6. He held fast to the Lord and did not deviate from his commandments; He observed everything that the Lord had commanded Moses.
• 7. And the Lord was with him; he prospered in all his endeavors. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and no longer served him.
• 8. He defeated the Philistines, from the watchtowers to the fortified cities, including Gaza and its territory.
• 9. In the fourth year of the reign of Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of the reign of Hosea son of Elah, king of Israel, the king of Assyria, Shalmaneser, attacked Samaria and besieged it.
• 10. After three years, they took the city. It was conquered in the sixth year of the reign of Hezekiah, in the ninth year of the reign of Hosea, king of Israel.
• 11. The king of Assyria took the Israelites captive to Assyria, placing them in Hala, in Gozan, by the river Habor, and in the cities of the Medes.
• 12. This happened because the Israelites did not obey the Lord their God and violated their covenant. They did not listen to or obey everything that Moses, the servant of the Lord, had commanded.
• 13. In the fourteenth year of Hezekiah's reign, Sennacherib king of Assyria marched against all the fortified cities of Judah and conquered them.
• 14. Then Hezekiah king of Judah sent a message to the king of Assyria at Lachish, saying: “I have sinned! Get away from me. Whatever you impose on me, I will pay.” Hezekiah gave the king of Assyria three hundred tons of silver and thirty tons of gold.
• 15. Hezekiah handed over all the money that was in the temple of the Lord and in the treasuries of the royal palace.
• 16. At that time Hezekiah removed the gold from the doors and doorposts of the temple of the Lord and gave it to the king of Assyria.

Sennacherib threatens Jerusalem

• 17. The king of Assyria sent his commander-in-chief, his commander, and his secretary with a large army to Jerusalem. They went up and stopped at the upper aqueduct, on the way to Campo do Lavador.
• 18. They called for the king, and they went out to meet them Eliakim son of Hilkiah, administrator of the palace, Shebna the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph, the royal archivist.
• 19. The commander-in-chief said to them, “Say to Hezekiah: This is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says: In what are you trusting?
• 20. Do you think that mere words are strategy and power for war? Who, then, are you trusting to rebel against me?
• 21. You are trusting in Egypt, that crushed reed staff, which pierces the hand of those who lean on it! Such is Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to all who trust in him.
• 22. You may ask me: Are we trusting in the Lord, our God! But was it not Hezekiah himself who removed the altars and the holy poles, saying to Judah and Jerusalem, “You must worship only before this altar in Jerusalem”?
• 23. Now make a deal with my lord the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses, provided you can place riders for them!
• 24. Then how could you repel a single captain from among my lord's lesser officers? But you are trusting Egypt for chariots and horsemen.
• 25. Have I come to attack and destroy this land without the command of the Lord? It was the Lord himself who told me: March against this land and destroy it!”
• 26. Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, Shebna and Joah said to the commander, “Speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand that language. Do not speak to us in Hebrew, because the people on the wall are listening.”
• 27. But the commander replied: “It was to your servants and to you that my lord sent me to say these words, and not to the people on the wall, who, together with you, will eat their own dung and drink their own urine ”.
• 28. Then the commander gave a loud shout in Hebrew: “Listen to the words of the great king, the king of Assyria!
• 29. This is what the king says: Do not let Hezekiah deceive you! He will not be able to deliver them from my hands!
• 30. And let not Hezekiah make them trust in the Lord, saying, Surely the Lord will deliver us; This city will not be handed over to the king of Assyria!
• 31. Don't listen to Hezekiah. This is what the king of Assyria says: Make peace with me and leave the city, and each of you will eat from his own vineyard and his own fig tree, and drink water from his own well,
• 32. until I come and take them to a land like yours, a land of wheat and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees and honey. Choose life, not death! Do not listen to Hezekiah, for he deceives you, saying: The Lord will deliver us!
• 33. Has any of the gods of the nations delivered their land from the hand of the king of Assyria?
• 34. Where are the gods of Hamath and Harpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena and Iva? Have they delivered Samaria out of my hand?
• 35. Which god among all the gods of these nations has delivered their land out of my hand? How then can the Lord deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?”
• 36. The people, however, remained silent and did not respond, because the king had ordered them not to respond to him.
• 37. Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, the administrator of the palace, Shebna the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph, the royal archivist, returned to Hezekiah with their clothes torn and told him what the commander had said.

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