2 Kings 18:1-20

Hezekiah Reigns over Judah

1 Now it came about ¹in the third year of Hoshea, the son of Elah king of Israel, that ²Hezekiah the son of Ahaz king of Judah became king.

2 He was ³twenty-five * years old when he became king, and he reigned twenty-nine * years in Jerusalem; and his mother's name was Abi the daughter of Zechariah.

3 ⁴He did right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his father David had done.

4 ⁵He removed the high places and broke down the sacred pillars and cut down the Asherah. He also broke in pieces ⁶the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the sons of Israel burned incense to it; and it was called Nehushtan.

5 ⁷He trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel; ⁸so that after him there was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor among those who were before him.

6 For he ⁹clung to the LORD; he did not depart from following Him, but kept His commandments, which the LORD had commanded Moses.

Hezekiah Victorious

7 ¹⁰And the LORD was with him; wherever * he went he prospered. And ¹¹he rebelled against the king of Assyria and did not serve him.

8 ¹²He defeated the Philistines as far as Gaza and its territory, from ¹³watchtower to fortified city.

9 Now in the fourth year of King Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, ¹⁴Shalmaneser 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 ¹⁵the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel, Samaria was captured.

11 Then the king of Assyria carried Israel away into exile to Assyria, and put them in ¹⁶Halah and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes,

12 because * they ¹⁷did not obey the voice of the LORD their God, but transgressed His covenant, even all that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded; they would neither listen nor do it.

Invasion of Judah

13 ¹⁸Now in the fourteenth * year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and seized them.

14 Then Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria at Lachish, saying, "¹⁹I have done wrong. Withdraw from me; whatever you impose on me I will bear." So the king of Assyria required of Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.

15 ²⁰Hezekiah gave him all the silver which was found in the house of the LORD, and in the treasuries of the king's house.

16 At that time Hezekiah cut off the gold from the doors of the temple of the LORD, and from the doorposts which Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid, and gave it to the king of Assyria.

17 Then the king of Assyria sent ²¹Tartan and Rab-saris and Rabshakeh from Lachish to King Hezekiah with a large army to Jerusalem. So they went up and came to Jerusalem. And when they went up, they came and stood by the ²²conduit of the upper pool, which is on the highway of the fuller's field.

18 When they called to the king, ²³Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and ²⁴Shebnah the scribe and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder, came out to them.

19 Then Rabshakeh said to them, "Say now to Hezekiah, 'Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria, "²⁵What is this confidence that you have?

20 "You say (but they are only empty words ), 'I have counsel and strength for the war.' Now on whom do you rely, ²⁶that you have rebelled against me?

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2 Kings 18:1-20 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.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Cross References 26

1. 2 Kings 16:2; 2 Kings 17:1
2. 2 Chronicles 28:27
3. 2 Chronicles 29:1, 2
4. 2 Kings 20:3; 2 Chronicles 31:20
5. 2 Kings 18:22; 2 Chronicles 31:1
6. Numbers 21:8, 9
7. 2 Kings 19:10
8. 2 Kings 23:25
9. Deuteronomy 10:20; Joshua 23:8
10. Genesis 39:2, 3; 1 Samuel 18:14
11. 2 Kings 16:7
12. 2 Chronicles 28:18; Isaiah 14:29
13. 2 Kings 17:9
14. 2 Kings 17:3-7
15. 2 Kings 17:6
16. 1 Chronicles 5:26
17. 1 Kings 9:6; Daniel 9:6, 10
18. 2 Chronicles 32:1; Is 36:1-39:8
19. 2 Kings 18:7
20. 1 Kings 15:18, 19; 2 Kings 12:18; 2 Kings 16:8
21. Isaiah 20:1
22. 2 Kings 20:20; Isaiah 7:3
23. 2 Kings 19:2; Isaiah 22:20
24. Isaiah 22:15
25. 2 Chronicles 32:10
26. 2 Kings 18:7

Footnotes 9

[a]. I.e. a wooden symbol of a female deity
[b]. I.e. a piece of bronze
[c]. Lit "smote"
[d]. Lit "Return"
[e]. Lit "give"
[f]. Lit "put on"
[g]. I.e. launderer's
[h]. Lit "trust"
[i]. Lit "a word of the lips"