2 Kings 18:5-15

5 1He trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel, 2so that there was none like him among all the kings of Judah after him, nor among those who were before him.
6 3For he held fast to the LORD. He did not depart from following him, but kept the commandments that the LORD commanded Moses.
7 4And the LORD was with him; wherever he went out, 5he prospered. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and would not serve him.
8 6He struck down the Philistines as far as Gaza and its territory, 7from watchtower to fortified city.
9 In the fourth year of King Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah, king of Israel, 8Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against Samaria and besieged it,
10 and at the end of three years he took it. In the sixth year of Hezekiah, which was the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel, Samaria was taken.
11 The king of Assyria carried the Israelites away to Assyria and put them in 9Halah, and on the 10Habor, 11the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes,
12 because they did not obey the voice of the LORD their God but transgressed his covenant, even all that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded. They neither listened nor obeyed.

Sennacherib Attacks Judah

13 12In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them.
14 And Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria at Lachish, saying, "I have done wrong; withdraw from me. Whatever you impose on me I will bear."13And the king of Assyria required of Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents[a] of silver and thirty talents of gold.
15 And Hezekiah 14gave him all the silver that was found in the house of the LORD and in the treasuries of the king's house.

2 Kings 18:5-15 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO 2 KINGS 18

This chapter begins with the good reign of Hezekiah king of Judah, the reformation he made in the kingdom, and the prosperity that attended him when Israel was carried captive, 2Ki 18:1-12 and gives an account of the siege of Jerusalem by the king of Assyria, and of the distress Hezekiah was in, and the hard measures he was obliged to submit unto, 2Ki 18:13-18 and of the reviling and blasphemous speech of Rabshakeh, one of the generals of the king of Assyria, urging the Jews to a revolt from their king, 2Ki 18:19-37.

Cross References 14

  • 1. 2 Kings 19:10
  • 2. 2 Kings 23:25
  • 3. [Deuteronomy 10:20; Joshua 23:8]
  • 4. 2 Chronicles 15:2
  • 5. [2 Kings 16:7]
  • 6. [Isaiah 14:29]
  • 7. 2 Kings 17:9
  • 8. For ver. 9-12, see 2 Kings 17:3-7
  • 9. 2 Kings 17:6; 1 Chronicles 5:26
  • 10. 2 Kings 17:6; 1 Chronicles 5:26
  • 11. 2 Kings 17:6; 1 Chronicles 5:26
  • 12. For ver. 13-37, see 2 Chronicles 32:1-20; Isaiah 36:1-22
  • 13. [2 Kings 23:33]
  • 14. [2 Kings 12:18; 2 Kings 16:8]

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. A talent was about 75 pounds or 34 kilograms
The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.