King Hezekiah started to rule Judah

18 After King Hoshea had been ruling Israel for almost three years, Hezekiah, the son of Ahaz, began to rule Judah. 2 He was 25 years old when he became the king of Judah and he ruled from Jerusalem for 29 years. His mother was Abijah, the daughter of a man whose name was Zechariah. 3 Hezekiah did things that Yahweh considered to be right, like his ancestor King David had done. 4 He destroyed the places where people worshiped Yahweh on the tops of hills, and he broke into pieces the stone pillars for worshiping the goddess Asherah. He also broke into pieces the bronze replica/statue of a snake that Moses had made. He did that because the people had named it Nehushtan, and they were burning incense in front of it to honor it.

5 Hezekiah trusted in Yahweh, the God whom the Israelis worshiped. There was no king who ruled Judah before him or after him who was as devoted to Yahweh as he was. 6 He remained loyal to Yahweh and never disobeyed him. He carefully obeyed all the commandments that Yahweh had given to Moses. 7 Yahweh always ◄helped/was with► him. He was successful in everything that he did. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and refused to ◄pay taxes to him/do what the king of Assyria wanted him to do►. 8 His army defeated the soldiers of Philistia as far south as Gaza city and the nearby villages. They conquered the entire area, from the smallest watchtower to the largest cities surrounded by walls.

9 After King Hezekiah had been ruling Judah for almost four years, and when King Hoshea had been ruling Israel for almost seven years, the army of King Shalmaneser of Assyria invaded Israel and surrounded Samaria city. 10 In the third year they captured the city. That was when Hezekiah has been ruling Judah for almost six years, and when Hoshea had been ruling Israel for almost nine years. 11 The king of Assyria commanded that the people of Israel be taken to Assyria. Some of them were taken to Halah town, some were taken to a place near the Habor River in the Gozan region, and some were taken to cities where the Mede people-group live. 12 That happened because the Israelis did not obey Yahweh their God. They disobeyed the agreement that Yahweh had made with their ancestors, and all the laws that Moses, the man who served Yahweh very well, had told them to obey. They would not obey those laws; they would not even listen to them.