2 Kings 18:22-25

22 "But if you say to me, 'We trust in the LORD our God,' is it not He whose high places and ¹whose altars Hezekiah has taken away, and has said to Judah and to Jerusalem, 'You shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem '?

23 "Now therefore, come, make a bargain with my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to set riders on them.

24 "How then can you repulse * one official of the least of my master's servants, and rely on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen?

25 "Have I now come up without the LORD'S approval against this place to destroy it? The LORD said to me, 'Go up against this land and destroy it.' ""'

2 Kings 18:22-25 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

• 1. 2 Kings 18:4; 2 Chronicles 31:1

Footnotes

• [a]. Lit "please exchange pledges"
• [b]. Lit "turn away the face of"
• [c]. Or "governor"
• [d]. Lit "rely for yourself"
• [e]. Lit "without the LORD