# 2 Kings 18 📖: Hezekiah Defies Assyria [[📚 Explore the Bible Books]] [[-2 Kings Overview]] | [[2 Kings 17]] | [[2 Kings 19]] > [!info] Table of Contents > [[#📜 Scripture Text (NET)]] > [[#📖 Verse-by-Verse Commentary]] > [[#🤔 Interesting Facts / Historical and Cultural Insights]] > [[#🧠 Chapter Summary]] > [[#✝️ Christ in This Chapter]] > [[#🔎 Key Principles / 🛟 Life Application]] > [[#💬 Discussion Questions]] > [[#✍️ Key Verses to Remember]] > [[#🔗 Related Passages/Cross Reference]] > [[#🙏 Devotional Reflection]] > [[#📂 Internal Notes]] ## 📜 Scripture Text (NET) (The NET Bible: New English Translation. Biblical Studies Press, 2005) ### Hezekiah Becomes King of Judah [[#Verse 01.]] In the third year of the reign of Israel’s King Hoshea son of Elah, Ahaz’s son Hezekiah became king over Judah. [[#Verse 02.]] He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother was Abi, the daughter of Zechariah.  [[#Verse 03.]] He did what the Lord approved, just as his ancestor David had done.  [[#Verse 04.]] He eliminated the high places, smashed the sacred pillars to bits, and cut down the Asherah pole. He also demolished the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been offering incense to it; it was called Nehushtan. [[#Verse 05.]] He trusted in the Lord God of Israel; in this regard there was none like him among the kings of Judah either before or after.  [[#Verse 06.]] He was loyal to the Lord and did not abandon him. He obeyed the commandments that the Lord had given to Moses.  [[#Verse 07.]] The Lord was with him; he succeeded in all his endeavors. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and refused to submit to him.  [[#Verse 08.]] He defeated the Philistines as far as Gaza and its territory, from watchtower to fortified city. [[#Verse 09.]] In the fourth year of King Hezekiah’s reign (it was the seventh year of the reign of Israel’s King Hoshea, son of Elah), King Shalmaneser of Assyria marched up against Samaria and besieged it.  [[#Verse 10.]] After three years he captured it (in the sixth year of Hezekiah’s reign); in the ninth year of King Hoshea’s reign over Israel, Samaria was captured. [[#Verse 11.]] The king of Assyria deported the people of Israel to Assyria. He settled them in Halah, along the Habor (the river of Gozan), and in the cities of the Medes.  [[#Verse 12.]] This happened because they did not obey the Lord their God and broke his covenant with them. They did not pay attention to and obey all that Moses, the Lord’s servant, had commanded. ### Sennacherib Invades Judah [[#Verse 13.]] In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah’s reign, King Sennacherib of Assyria marched up against all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them.  [[#Verse 14.]] King Hezekiah of Judah sent this message to the king of Assyria, who was at Lachish, “I have violated our treaty. If you leave, I will do whatever you demand.” So the king of Assyria demanded that King Hezekiah of Judah pay 300 talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.  [[#Verse 15.]] Hezekiah gave him all the silver in the Lord’s temple and in the treasuries of the royal palace.  [[#Verse 16.]] At that time King Hezekiah of Judah stripped the metal overlays from the doors of the Lord’s temple and from the posts that he had plated and gave them to the king of Assyria. [[#Verse 17.]] The king of Assyria sent his commanding general, the chief eunuch, and the chief adviser from Lachish to King Hezekiah in Jerusalem, along with a large army. They went up and arrived at Jerusalem. They went and stood at the conduit of the upper pool which is located on the road to the field where they wash and dry cloth.  [[#Verse 18.]] They summoned the king, so Eliakim son of Hilkiah, the palace supervisor, accompanied by Shebna, the scribe, and Joah son of Asaph, the secretary, went out to meet them. [[#Verse 19.]] The chief adviser said to them, “Tell Hezekiah: ‘This is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says: “What is your source of confidence? [[#Verse 20.]] Your claim to have a strategy and military strength is just empty talk. In whom are you trusting that you would dare to rebel against me? [[#Verse 21.]] Now look, you must be trusting in Egypt, that splintered reed staff. If a man leans for support on it, it punctures his hand and wounds him. That is what Pharaoh king of Egypt does to all who trust in him.  [[#Verse 22.]] Perhaps you will tell me, ‘We are trusting in the Lord our God.’ But Hezekiah is the one who eliminated his high places and altars and then told the people of Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You must worship at this altar in Jerusalem.’  [[#Verse 23.]] Now make a deal with my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you 2,000 horses, provided you can find enough riders for them. [[#Verse 24.]] Certainly you will not refuse one of my master’s minor officials and trust in Egypt for chariots and horsemen.  [[#Verse 25.]] Furthermore it was by the command of the Lord that I marched up against this place to destroy it. The Lord told me, ‘March up against this land and destroy it.’”’” [[#Verse 26.]] Eliakim son of Hilkiah, Shebna, and Joah said to the chief adviser, “Speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it. Don’t speak with us in the Judahite dialect in the hearing of the people who are on the wall.”  [[#Verse 27.]] But the chief adviser said to them, “My master did not send me to speak these words only to your master and to you. His message is also for the men who sit on the wall, for they will eat their own excrement and drink their own urine along with you.” [[#Verse 28.]] The chief adviser then stood there and called out loudly in the Judahite dialect, “Listen to the message of the great king, the king of Assyria.  [[#Verse 29.]] This is what the king says: ‘Don’t let Hezekiah mislead you, for he is not able to rescue you from my hand!  [[#Verse 30.]] Don’t let Hezekiah talk you into trusting in the Lord when he says, “The Lord will certainly rescue us; this city will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.”  [[#Verse 31.]] Don’t listen to Hezekiah!’ For this is what the king of Assyria says, ‘Send me a token of your submission and surrender to me. Then each of you may eat from his own vine and fig tree and drink water from his own cistern,  [[#Verse 32.]] until I come and take you to a land just like your own—a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive oil and honey. Then you will live and not die. Don’t listen to Hezekiah, for he is misleading you when he says, “The Lord will rescue us.”  [[#Verse 33.]] Have any of the gods of the nations actually rescued his land from the power of the king of Assyria?  [[#Verse 34.]] Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah? Indeed, did any gods rescue Samaria from my power?  [[#Verse 35.]] Who among all the gods of the lands has rescued their lands from my power? So how can the Lord rescue Jerusalem from my power?’”  [[#Verse 36.]] The people were silent and did not respond, for the king had ordered, “Don’t respond to him.” [[#Verse 37.]] Eliakim son of Hilkiah, the palace supervisor, accompanied by Shebna the scribe and Joah son of Asaph, the secretary, went to Hezekiah with their clothes torn and reported to him what the chief adviser had said. ## 📖 Verse-by-Verse Commentary ###### Overall. ###### Verse 01. ###### Verse 02. ###### Verse 03. ###### Verse 04. ###### Verse 05. ###### Verse 06. ###### Verse 07. ###### Verse 08. ###### Verse 09. ###### Verse 10. ###### Verse 11. ###### Verse 12. ###### Verse 13. ###### Verse 14. ###### Verse 15. ###### Verse 16. ###### Verse 17. ###### Verse 18. ###### Verse 19. ###### Verse 20. ###### Verse 21. ###### Verse 22. ###### Verse 23. ###### Verse 24. ###### Verse 25. ###### Verse 26. ###### Verse 27. ###### Verse 28. ###### Verse 29. ###### Verse 30. ###### Verse 31. ###### Verse 32. ###### Verse 33. ###### Verse 34. ###### Verse 35. ###### Verse 36. ###### Verse 37. ## 🤔 Interesting Facts / Historical and Cultural Insights 1. The bronze serpent Moses made (Numbers 21:8-9) was called Nehushtan (18:4). By Hezekiah's day it had become an object of worship. 2. Hezekiah is praised for trust like no other king of Judah (18:5), while Josiah is later praised for his wholehearted turning to the Lord (23:25). 3. Sennacherib's invasion of Judah (18:13) is dated to 701 BC. 4. Sennacherib's own annals claim he captured forty-six walled cities of Judah and shut Hezekiah up in Jerusalem "like a bird in a cage." 5. Stone carvings of Sennacherib's siege of Lachish lined his palace in Nineveh. They are now displayed in the British Museum. 6. Hezekiah paid thirty talents of gold (18:14), the same amount of gold recorded in Sennacherib's annals. 7. The Tartan, the Rabsaris, and the Rabshakeh (18:17) are Assyrian titles for high officials, not personal names. 8. The officials met at the conduit of the upper pool (18:17), the same place where Isaiah had met Ahaz years earlier (Isaiah 7:3). 9. Judah's officials asked the Assyrians to speak Aramaic, the language of diplomacy, instead of Hebrew so the people on the wall would not understand (18:26). 10. The account in 2 Kings 18:13 to 20:19 appears almost word for word in Isaiah 36-39. ## 🧠 Chapter Summary > [!note] 🌱 Still growing. This section is on its way. ## ✝️ Christ in This Chapter Christ is the One we can trust when every other support fails. Hezekiah trusted in the Lord (18:5) while the Assyrian officer mocked that trust (18:19-22). Jesus was also mocked for trusting God as He hung on the cross (Matthew 27:43). ## 🔎 Key Principles / 🛟 Life Application > [!note] 🌱 Still growing. This section is on its way. ## 💬 Discussion Questions 1. Hezekiah destroyed the bronze serpent because people had begun to worship it (18:4). What good things in our lives can turn into idols? 2. Hezekiah held fast to the Lord and the Lord was with him (18:5-7). What does it look like for you to hold fast to God this week? 3. The Assyrian officer tried to make the people doubt God (18:29-35). What voices try to shake your trust in the Lord, and how do you answer them? ## ✍️ Key Verses to Remember - 📖 verse 4: Hezekiah breaks the bronze serpent Moses had made, because the people burned incense to it. - 📖 verse 5: Hezekiah trusts in the Lord, and there was no king like him in Judah. - 📖 verse 7: The Lord is with Hezekiah, and he succeeds in everything he does. ## 🔗 Related Passages/Cross Reference - 🔗 [[Matthew 27#Verse 43.|Matthew 27:43]] - He trusts in God; let God rescue Him. - 🔗 [[Numbers 21#Verse 08.|Numbers 21:8-9]] - Moses makes the bronze serpent. - 🔗 [[John 03#Verse 14.|John 3:14-15]] - As Moses lifted up the serpent, so the Son of Man must be lifted up. - 🔗 [[Psalm 20#Verse 07.|Psalm 20:7]] - Some trust in chariots, but we trust in the Lord. - 🔗 [[Isaiah 36#Verse 01.|Isaiah 36:1]] - Isaiah's parallel account of Sennacherib's invasion. ## 🙏 Devotional Reflection 📝 SOAP: [[2 Kings 18 - SOAP|The Secret to Hezekiah’s Success]] ## 📂 Internal Notes