OET-RV 2KI Chapter 18

18 In the third year of Elah’s son King Hoshea’s reign over Israel, Ahaz’s son Hizkiyyah (Hezekiah) became king of Yehudah. 2 He was twenty-five when he became king and he reigned from Yerushalem for twenty-nine years. (His mother was Zekaryah’s daughter Abi.) 3 He did what Yahweh had said was correct behaviour like his ancestor King David had done. 4 He demolished the hilltop shrines and shattered their pillars, and he cut down the Asherah poles. He crushed the bronze serpent that Mosheh had made, because the Israelis had named it ‘Nehushtan’ and had been offering incense to it until then.[ref] 5 Hizkiyyah fully trusted in Israel’s God Yahweh, and no other king was like him among all the kings of Yehudah that either preceded or followed him. 6 He relied completely on Yahweh—not turning away from folowing him, and he obeyed the instructions that Yahweh had commanded Mosheh. 7 So Yahweh helped him and he was successful in everything he did. He rebelled against the Assyrian king and refused to submit to his demands. 8 He attacked and defeated the Philistines as far as Gaza and its borders—both the smaller towns and the fortified city.

9 Then in the fourth year of King Hizkiyyah’s reign (it was the seventh year of Elah’s son Hoshea’s reign over Israel), the Assyrian King Shalmaneser had attacked Shomron (Samaria) and besieged it. 10 They had finally captured the city after three years. That was the sixth year of Hizkiyyah’s reign over Yehudah and the ninth year of Hoshea’s reign over Israel. 11 So that was when the Assyrian king had exiled the people of the northern kingdom of Israel to Halah and to Havor along the Gozan River, and to the cities of the Medes. 12 That happened because they didn’t obey their God Yahweh, but instead they broke the agreement with him—everything that Yahweh’s servant Mosheh had commanded. They didn’t take notice of it and they didn’t obey it.

13 In the fourteenth year of King Hizkiyyah’s reign, Assyrian King Sanheriv attacked all the fortified cities in Yehudah and captured them. 14 So King Hizkiyyah of Yehudah sent messengers to the Assyrian king at Lakish, saying, “I apologise for my mistake. Stop attacking me and I’ll give you whatever you demand of us.” Then the Assyrian king demanded a tribute of ten tonnes of gold and ten tonnes of silver. 15 So Hizkiyyah gave him all the silver out of the temple and from the palace treasuries. 16 He cut the doors off Yahweh’s temple and the pillars that he’d overlaid gold onto, and gave them to the Assyrian king.

17 However, the Assyrian king still sent his general and some of his top officials from Lakish to King Hezekiah in Yerushalem. They arrived at Yerushalem with a large army and camped by the aquifer supplying the upper pool that was near the field where the people washed their clothes. 18 They called out to the king, and Hilkiyyah’s son Elyakim who was the palace manager, and the scribe Shebna, and Asaf’s son Yoah the secretary, went out to them.

19 Then the top Assyrian commander said to them, “Now, tell Hizkiyyah that the great Assyrian king asks him who he think’s he’s trusting in. 20 He claims to be powerful enough to fight us. Who is he trusting to help you all that gives you confidence to rebel against us? 21 Listen, your king’s trusting in a broken stick to lean on which will just splinter and pierce his hand. That’s what King Far-oh of Egypt is like to everyone who puts their trust in him. 22 Ah, but he might tell me that he’s trusting in your god Yahweh to help you all. If so, I’d ask him if he isn’t the one whose hilltop shrines King Hizkiyyah demolished when he told you people in Yerushalem and all Yehudah that you have to worship at the altar there?

23 “So now ask your king if he’ll make a deal with my master, the king of Assyria: He’ll give you two thousand horses, on the condition that you can supply two thousand horsemen who can ride them. 24 If you can’t do that, how could you all possibly repel even one of our army units? Haha, but of course you trust in Egypt to supply chariots and horsemen. 25 Do you think that we have come here to destroy this place without Yahweh’s permission? No, no, it was Yahweh himself who told us to attack and destroy you.”

26 But Elyakim and Shebna and Yoah asked the Assyrian commander, “Please speak Aramaic to your servants because we understand it. Don’t speak our language because our people on the nearby city wall will be able to understand it.”

27 “Ha ha, do you think my master sent this message just to you three and your king?” he replied. “No, don’t you think that this message is also for the hungry people sitting on the wall who’ll soon have to eat their own dung and drink their own urine along with you?”

28 Then he stood up and called out loudly in Hebrew, “Everyone listen to what the great king from Assyria says: 29 He’s warning you all not to let Hizkiyyah deceive you, because he unable to save you all from our army. 30 And don’t let him force you all to trust in Yahweh thinking that we won’t capture your city and that Yahweh will somehow rescue you all. 31 Don’t listen to Hizkiyyah because the Assyrian king is offering you all a chance to come out of the city and surrender. In exchange for saving me some trouble, you’ll be able to drink fresh water again and enjoy the fruit off your own trees out here 32 until he comes here. Then he’ll take you to another country like your own—with grain and wine, and bread and vineyards, olive oil and honey. That way you’ll live and not die of starvation. So don’t listen to Hizkiyyah when he misleads you saying that Yahweh will rescue you all.” 33 Did the gods of any of the other countries rescue their people from the power of the Assyrian king? 34 Where were the gods of Hamat and Arpad? Where were the gods of Sefarvayim, Hena, and Ivvah? Were they able to save Shomron from the king’s power? 35 From all the other countries, which of their gods was able to save their people, that might give confidence that Yahweh might be able to rescue Yerushalem from the king’s power?”

36 But the people on the wall listening remained silent—they didn’t say a word because the king had already ordered them not to answer the Assyrians. 37 Then Hilkiyyah’s son Elyakim the palace manager, Shebna the scribe and Asaf’s son Yoah the secretary went back in the city to Hizkiyyah, tearing their clothes as they went, and they relayed the words of the chief commander to him.