Previous Chapter Full Page Full Page Next Chapter

2 Kings 18 :: New International Version (NIV)

Hezekiah King of Judah

(2Ch 29:1, 2; 31:1 )

2Ki 18:1

2Ki 18:1In the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, Hezekiah son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign.

2Ki 18:2

2Ki 18:2He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-nine years. His mother’s name was Abijah[fn] daughter of Zechariah.

2Ki 18:3

2Ki 18:3He did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, just as his father David had done.

2Ki 18:4

2Ki 18:4He removed the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it. (It was called Nehushtan.[fn])

2Ki 18:5

2Ki 18:5Hezekiah trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel. There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before him or after him.

2Ki 18:6

2Ki 18:6He held fast to the LORD and did not stop following him; he kept the commands the LORD had given Moses.

2Ki 18:7

2Ki 18:7And the LORD was with him; he was successful in whatever he undertook. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and did not serve him.

2Ki 18:8

2Ki 18:8From watchtower to fortified city, he defeated the Philistines, as far as Gaza and its territory.

2Ki 18:9

2Ki 18:9In King Hezekiah’s fourth year, which was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, Shalmaneser king of Assyria marched against Samaria and laid siege to it.

2Ki 18:10

2Ki 18:10At the end of three years the Assyrians took it. So Samaria was captured in Hezekiah’s sixth year, which was the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel.

2Ki 18:11

2Ki 18:11The king of Assyria deported Israel to Assyria and settled them in Halah, in Gozan on the Habor River and in towns of the Medes.

2Ki 18:12

2Ki 18:12This happened because they had not obeyed the LORD their God, but had violated his covenant—all that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded. They neither listened to the commands nor carried them out.

2Ki 18:13

2Ki 18:13In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah’s reign, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them.

2Ki 18:14

2Ki 18:14So Hezekiah king of Judah sent this message to the king of Assyria at Lachish: “I have done wrong. Withdraw from me, and I will pay whatever you demand of me.” The king of Assyria exacted from Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents[fn] of silver and thirty talents[fn] of gold.

2Ki 18:15

2Ki 18:15So Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the temple of the LORD and in the treasuries of the royal palace.

2Ki 18:16

2Ki 18:16At this time Hezekiah king of Judah stripped off the gold with which he had covered the doors and doorposts of the temple of the LORD, and gave it to the king of Assyria.

Sennacherib Threatens Jerusalem

(Isa 36:2–22; 2Ch 32:9–15 )

2Ki 18:17

2Ki 18:17The king of Assyria sent his supreme commander, his chief officer and his field commander with a large army, from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. They came up to Jerusalem and stopped at the aqueduct of the Upper Pool, on the road to the Washerman’s Field.

2Ki 18:18

2Ki 18:18They called for the king; and Eliakim son of Hilkiah the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph the recorder went out to them.

2Ki 18:19

2Ki 18:19The field commander said to them, “Tell Hezekiah: “ ‘This is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says: On what are you basing this confidence of yours?

2Ki 18:20

2Ki 18:20You say you have the counsel and the might for war—but you speak only empty words. On whom are you depending, that you rebel against me?

2Ki 18:21

2Ki 18:21Look, I know you are depending on Egypt, that splintered reed of a staff, which pierces the hand of anyone who leans on it! Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who depend on him.

2Ki 18:22

2Ki 18:22But if you say to me, “We are depending on the LORD our God”—isn’t he the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah removed, saying to Judah and Jerusalem, “You must worship before this altar in Jerusalem”?

2Ki 18:23

2Ki 18:23“ ‘Come now, make a bargain with my master, the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses—if you can put riders on them!

2Ki 18:24

2Ki 18:24How can you repulse one officer of the least of my master’s officials, even though you are depending on Egypt for chariots and horsemen[fn]?

2Ki 18:25

2Ki 18:25Furthermore, have I come to attack and destroy this place without word from the LORD? The LORD himself told me to march against this country and destroy it.’ ”

2Ki 18:26

2Ki 18:26Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, and Shebna and Joah said to the field commander, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, since we understand it. Don’t speak to us in Hebrew in the hearing of the people on the wall.”

2Ki 18:27

2Ki 18:27But the commander replied, “Was it only to your master and you that my master sent me to say these things, and not to the people sitting on the wall—who, like you, will have to eat their own excrement and drink their own urine?”

2Ki 18:28

2Ki 18:28Then the commander stood and called out in Hebrew, “Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria!

2Ki 18:29

2Ki 18:29This is what the king says: Do not let Hezekiah deceive you. He cannot deliver you from my hand.

2Ki 18:30

2Ki 18:30Do not let Hezekiah persuade you to trust in the LORD when he says, ‘The LORD will surely deliver us; this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.’

2Ki 18:31

2Ki 18:31“Do not listen to Hezekiah. This is what the king of Assyria says: Make peace with me and come out to me. Then each of you will eat fruit from your own vine and fig tree and drink water from your own cistern,

2Ki 18:32

2Ki 18:32until I come and take you to a land like your own—a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees and honey. Choose life and not death! “Do not listen to Hezekiah, for he is misleading you when he says, ‘The LORD will deliver us.’

2Ki 18:33

2Ki 18:33Has the god of any nation ever delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria?

2Ki 18:34

2Ki 18:34Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena and Ivvah? Have they rescued Samaria from my hand?

2Ki 18:35

2Ki 18:35Who of all the gods of these countries has been able to save his land from me? How then can the LORD deliver Jerusalem from my hand?”

2Ki 18:36

2Ki 18:36But the people remained silent and said nothing in reply, because the king had commanded, “Do not answer him.”

2Ki 18:37

2Ki 18:37Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph the recorder went to Hezekiah, with their clothes torn, and told him what the field commander had said.
See the NIV Preface (Especially for Parenthesis, Brackets, & Asterisks).
NIV Footnotes
Hebrew Abi, a variant of Abijah
Nehushtan sounds like the Hebrew for both bronze and snake.
That is, about 11 tons or about 10 metric tons
That is, about 1 ton or about 1 metric ton
Or charioteers
Translation Copyright Logo

THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV®
Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.®
Used by Permission of Biblica, Inc.® All rights reserved worldwide.


See detailed copyright information.

For more information on this translation, see the NIV Preface.

2 Kings Chapter 18 — Additional Translations:

King James Version New King James Version New Living Translation English Standard Version Christian Standard Bible New American Standard Bible 2020 New American Standard Bible 1995 Legacy Standard Bible Amplified Bible New English Translation Revised Standard Version American Standard Version Young's Literal Translation Darby Translation Webster's Bible Hebrew Names Version Latin Vulgate Westminster Leningrad Codex Septuagint Smith Van Dyck Arabic Bible Open New Arabic Version Brenton's English Septuagint Reina Valera 1909 Reina-Valera 1960 Bible in Basic English Chinese Traditional Union Espanol Moderno Korean Holy Bible Louis Segond German Luther Russian Synodal Translation Sagradas Escrituras

Did You Know BLB Is User Supported?

Your partnership makes all we do possible. Would you prayerfully consider a gift of support today?

Remind Me
Dismiss