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          DASV: 2 Kings 18    

1 Hezekiah the son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign in
the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel.
2 He was twenty-five years old when he became king and he
reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother's
name was Abi the daughter of Zechariah.
3 He did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, just as
David his father had done.
4 He removed the high places, broke down the sacred
pillars, and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke in
pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made because
up to that time the Israelites had burned incense
to it, and it was called Nehushtan.
5 He trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel, so that
after him there was no one like him among all the
kings of Judah, or among those who were before him.
6 For he remained loyal to the LORD. He did not
depart from following him, but kept the commandments
the LORD had given Moses.
v 7 So the LORD was with him. He was successful in
everything he attempted. He rebelled against the
king of Assyria, and refused to serve him.
8 He defeated the Philistines as far as Gaza and
its borders, from the watchtower to the fortified city.
9 In the fourth year of king Hezekiah, which was
the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel,
Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against Samaria
and besieged it.
10 At the end of three years they captured it. In
the sixth year of Hezekiah, which was the ninth year
of Hoshea king of Israel, Samaria was captured.
11 The king of Assyria deported Israel to Assyria,
and put them in Halah, and along the Habor River,
the river by Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.
12 This happened because they had not obeyed the voice
of the LORD their God, but violated his covenant,
even all that Moses the servant of the LORD had
commanded. They refused to listen to or obey it.

13 Now in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah,
Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all
the fortified cities of Judah, and captured them.
14 Hezekiah king of Judah sent a message to the king
of Assyria at Lachish, saying, "I have done wrong.
Withdraw from me and whatever you impose on me I
will pay it." The king of Assyria demanded from
Hezekiah king of Judah eleven tons of silver
and one ton of gold.
15 Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found
in the house of the LORD and in the treasuries
of the king's palace.
16 At that time Hezekiah stripped off the gold
from the doors of the temple of the LORD, and
from the pillars that Hezekiah king of Judah
had overlaid, and gave it to the king of Assyria.

17 The king of Assyria sent his commander-in-chief,
his field commander and his chief adviser with
a great army from Lachish to king Hezekiah in
Jerusalem. They came up to Jerusalem and stood
by the aqueduct of the Upper Pool, which is
by road to the field where clothes are washed.
18 When they had summoned king Hezekiah,
Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the
palace, Shebnah the scribe and Joah the son
of Asaph the recorder came out to meet them.
19 The chief adviser said to them, "Tell
Hezekiah, 'This is what the great king,
the king of Assyria says, "What is the
source of your confidence?
20 Do you think that you have a strategy
or strength for war? In whom are you
trusting, that you have rebelled against me?
21 Now look, you are depending on Egypt that
staff that splinters like a reed whenever
someone leans on it. Its splinters pierce
into one's hand. This is what Pharaoh king
of Egypt is like to anyone who trusts on him.
22 But if you tell me, 'We trust in the LORD
our God.' Isn't he the one whose high places
and whose altars Hezekiah has torn down, and
told Judah and Jerusalem, 'You must worship
before this altar in Jerusalem'?
23 Now therefore, strike a deal with my master
the king of Assyria: I will give you two
thousand horses, if you are even able to find
enough riders for them.
24 How then can you repulse a single captain
who is the least of my master's officials, and
put your trust in Egypt for chariots and horsemen?
25 Furthermore, am I not attacking this place
to destroy it without LORD's direction? The
LORD told me, 'Go up against this land, and
destroy it.'"'"

26 Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, Shebnah,
and Joah, said to the chief adviser, "Please
speak, to your servants in Aramaic for we
understand it. Do not speak to us in Hebrew,
within the hearing of the people who are on
the wall."
27 But the chief adviser said to them, "Has my
master sent me just to speak these words to
you and your master? Has he not sent me to
the people who sit on the wall, who are
doomed with you to eat their own excrement
and to drink their own urine?"
28 Then the chief adviser stood, and cried
with a loud voice in Hebrew, saying, "Listen
to the word of the great king, the king of
Assyria.
29 This is what the king says, 'Let not
Hezekiah deceive you for he will not be able
to rescue you from my hand.
30 Do not let Hezekiah convince you to trust
in the LORD, by saying, "The LORD will surely
rescue us, and this city will not be given
into the hand of the king of Assyria."
31 Don't listen to Hezekiah. For this is
what the king of Assyria says, 'Make your
peace with me, and surrender to me then
everyone will eat from his own vine, and from
his own fig tree, and will drink from the
waters of his own cistern.
32 Then I will come and take you away to a
land like your own land, a land of grain and
new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a
land of olive trees and of honey, so that
you may live, and not die. Do not listen
to Hezekiah, when he tries to persuade you,
saying, "The LORD will rescue us."
33 Have any of the gods of the other nations
ever rescued their land out of the hand of
the king of Assyria?
34 Where are the gods of Hamath and of Arpad?
Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena and
Ivvah? Have they rescued Samaria out of my
hand?
35 Who among all the gods of the various
countries has rescued their country out of
my hand, that the LORD should be able to
rescue Jerusalem out of my hand?'"

36 But the people were silent, and did not
answer him a word for the king had ordered,
"Do not answer him."
37 Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was
in charge of the palace, and Shebna the
scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder,
returned to Hezekiah with their clothes torn,
and told him the words of the Assyrian chief
adviser.

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