2 Kings 18:13-18

Sennacherib's Invasion

13 In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them.^[a]

14 So Hezekiah king of Judah sent word to the king of Assyria at Lachish, saying, "I have done wrong. Withdraw from me. Whatever you demand from me, I will pay." The king of Assyria demanded from King Hezekiah of Judah 11 tons^[b] of silver and one ton^[c] of gold.

15 So Hezekiah gave [him] all the silver found in the Lord's temple and in the treasuries of the king's palace.

16 At that time Hezekiah stripped [the gold from] the doors of the Lord's sanctuary and from the doorposts he had overlaid and gave it to the king of Assyria.^[d]

17 Then the king of Assyria sent the Tartan, the Rab-saris, and the Rabshakeh,^[e] along with a massive army, from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem.^[f] They advanced and came to Jerusalem, and^[g] they took their position by the aqueduct of the upper pool, which is by the highway to the Fuller's Field.^[h]

18 Then they called for the king, but Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was in charge of the palace, Shebnah the court secretary, and Joah son of Asaph, the court historian, came out to them.^[i]

2 Kings 18:13-18 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.

Footnotes

• [a]. 2 Ch 32:1; Isa 36:1
• [b]. Lit 300 talents
• [c]. Lit 30 talents
• [d]. 2 Kg 12:18; 16:8; 2 Ch 16:2
• [e]. Assyrian military titles
• [f]. 2 Ch 32:9
• [g]. LXX, Syr, Vg; MT reads and came and
• [h]. Isa 7:3
• [i]. Isa 36:2-3