Melachim Bais 18:1-8

1 8 Now it came to pass in the third year of Hoshea Ben Elah Melech Yisroel, that Chizkiyah Ben Achaz Melech Yehudah began to reign.
2 Twenty and five years old was he when he began to reign; and he reigned twenty and nine shanah in Yerushalayim. Shem immo also was Avi Bat Zecharyah.
3 And he did that which was yashar in the sight of Hashem, according to all that Dovid Aviv did.
4 He removed the [idolatrous] high places and smashed the matzevot, and cut down the Asherah, and broke in pieces the nachash nechoshet that Moshe had made; for up to those yamim the Bnei Yisroel did burn ketoret to it; and it was called Nechushtan.
5 He trusted in Hashem Elohei Yisroel; so that after him was none like him among all the Melachim of Yehudah, nor any that were before him.
6 For his deveykus was to Hashem, he departed not from following Him, but was shomer over His mitzvot Hashem commanded Moshe.
7 And Hashem was with him; he prospered whithersoever he went forth; he rebelled against Melech Ashur, and served him not.
8 He struck down the Pelishtim, even unto Azah (Gaza), and the territories thereof, from the migdal notzrim to the fortified city.

Melachim Bais 18:1-8 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.

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