2 Kings 18:13-37

Invasion of Judah

13 ¹Now 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, "²I 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 ³Hezekiah 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 ⁴Tartan 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 ⁵conduit of the upper pool, which is on the highway of the fuller's field.

18 When they called to the king, ⁶Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and ⁷Shebnah 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, "⁸What 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, ⁹that you have rebelled against me?

21 "Now behold, you ¹⁰rely on the staff of this crushed reed, even on Egypt; on which if a man leans, it will go into his hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who rely on him.

22 "But if you say to me, 'We trust in the LORD our God,' is it not He whose high places and ¹¹whose 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.' ""'

26 Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, and Shebnah and Joah, said to Rabshakeh, "Speak now to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it; and do not speak with us in ¹²Judean in the hearing of the people who are on the wall."

27 But Rabshakeh said to them, "Has my master sent me only to your master and to you to speak these words, and not to the men who sit on the wall, doomed to eat their own dung and drink their own urine with you?"

28 Then Rabshakeh stood and cried with a loud voice in Judean, saying *, "Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria.

29 "Thus says the king, '¹³Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you from my hand;

30 nor let Hezekiah make you trust in the LORD, saying, "The LORD will surely deliver us, and this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria."

31 'Do not listen to Hezekiah, for thus says the king of Assyria, "Make your peace with me and come out to me, and eat ¹⁴each of his vine and each of his fig tree and drink each of the waters of his own cistern,

32 until I come and take you away ¹⁵to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees and honey, that you may live and not die." But do not listen to Hezekiah when he misleads you, saying, "The LORD will deliver us."

33 '¹⁶Has any one of the gods of the nations delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria?

34 '¹⁷Where are the gods of Hamath and ¹⁸Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena and ¹⁹Ivvah? Have they delivered Samaria from my hand?

35 'Who among all the gods of the lands have delivered their land from my hand, ²⁰that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem from my hand?' "

36 But the people were silent and answered him not a word, for the king's commandment was, "Do not answer him."

37 Then ²¹Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah ²²with their clothes torn and told him the words of Rabshakeh.

2 Kings 18:13-37 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 Chronicles 32:1; Is 36:1-39:8
• 2. 2 Kings 18:7
• 3. 1 Kings 15:18, 19; 2 Kings 12:18; 2 Kings 16:8
• 4. Isaiah 20:1
• 5. 2 Kings 20:20; Isaiah 7:3
• 6. 2 Kings 19:2; Isaiah 22:20
• 7. Isaiah 22:15
• 8. 2 Chronicles 32:10
• 9. 2 Kings 18:7
• 10. Is 30:2, 3, 7; Ezekiel 29:6, 7
• 11. 2 Kings 18:4; 2 Chronicles 31:1
• 12. Ezra 4:7; Daniel 2:4
• 13. 2 Chronicles 32:15
• 14. 1 Kings 4:20, 25
• 15. Deuteronomy 8:7-9; Deuteronomy 11:12
• 16. 2 Kings 19:12; Isaiah 10:10, 11
• 17. 2 Kings 19:13
• 18. Isaiah 10:9
• 19. 2 Kings 17:24
• 20. Psalms 2:1-3; Psalms 59:7
• 21. 2 Kings 18:26
• 22. 2 Kings 6:30

Footnotes

• [a]. Lit "Return"
• [b]. Lit "give"
• [c]. Lit "put on"
• [d]. I.e. launderer's
• [e]. Lit "trust"
• [f]. Lit "a word of the lips"
• [g]. Lit "rely for yourself"
• [h]. Lit "palm"
• [i]. Lit "please exchange pledges"
• [j]. Lit "turn away the face of"
• [k]. Or "governor"
• [l]. Lit "rely for yourself"
• [m]. Lit "without the LORD
• [n]. Lit "hear"
• [o]. I.e. Hebrew
• [p]. Lit "and spoke, saying,"
• [q]. Heb "his"
• [r]. Lit "Make with me a blessing"
• [s]. In 2 Kin 17:24, "Avva"
• [t]. Lit "who have"