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2 Kings 18:9-19:37
GOD’S WORD Translation
2 Kings 18:9-19:37
GOD’S WORD Translation
The Fall of Samaria
9 In Hezekiah’s fourth year as king (which was the seventh year in the reign of King Hoshea, son of Elah of Israel) King Shalmaneser of Assyria attacked Samaria, blockaded it, 10 and captured it at the end of three years. Samaria was taken in Hezekiah’s sixth year as king (which was Hoshea’s ninth year as king of Israel). 11 The king of Assyria took the Israelites to Assyria as captives. He put them in Halah, along the Habor River in Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes. 12 This happened because they refused to obey the Lord their God and disregarded the conditions of the promise [a] he made to them. They refused to obey everything that Moses, the Lord’s servant, had commanded.
The Lord Rescues Judah from the Assyrians(A)
13 In Hezekiah’s fourteenth year as king, King Sennacherib of Assyria attacked all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them. 14 Then King Hezekiah of Judah sent this message to the king of Assyria at Lachish: “I have done wrong. Go away, and leave me alone. I’ll pay whatever penalty you give me.”
So the king of Assyria demanded that King Hezekiah of Judah pay 22,500 pounds of silver and 2,250 pounds of gold. 15 Hezekiah gave him all the silver that could be found in the Lord’s temple and in the royal palace treasury. 16 At that time Hezekiah stripped ⌞the gold⌟ off the doors and doorposts of the Lord’s temple. (⌞Earlier⌟ Hezekiah had them covered ⌞with gold⌟.) He gave the gold to the king of Assyria.
17 Then the king of Assyria sent his commander-in-chief, his quartermaster, and his field commander with a large army from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. They came there and stood at the channel for the Upper Pool on the road to the Laundryman’s Field. 18 When they called for King Hezekiah, Eliakim, who was in charge of the palace and was the son of Hilkiah, Shebnah the scribe, and Joah, who was the royal historian and the son of Asaph, went out to the field commander.
19 The field commander said to them, “Tell Hezekiah, ‘This is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says: What makes you so confident? 20 You give useless advice about getting ready for war. Whom, then, do you trust for support in your rebellion against me? 21 Now, look! When you trust Egypt, you’re trusting a broken stick for a staff. If you lean on it, it stabs your hand and goes through it. This is what Pharaoh (the king of Egypt) is like for everyone who trusts him. 22 Suppose you tell me, “We’re trusting the Lord our God.” He’s the god whose places of worship and altars Hezekiah got rid of. He told Judah and Jerusalem, “Worship at this altar in Jerusalem.” ’
23 “Now, make a deal with my master, the king of Assyria. I’ll give you 2,000 horses if you can put riders on them. 24 How can you defeat my master’s lowest-ranking officers when you trust Egypt for chariots and horses?
25 “Have I come to destroy this place without the Lord on my side? The Lord said to me, ‘Attack this country, and destroy it.’ ”
26 Then Eliakim (son of Hilkiah), Shebnah, and Joah said to the field commander, “Speak to us in Aramaic, since we understand it. Don’t speak to us in the Judean language as long as there are people on the wall listening.”
27 But the field commander asked them, “Did my master send me to tell these things only to you and your master? Didn’t he send me to the men sitting on the wall who will have to eat their own excrement and drink their own urine with you?”
28 Then the field commander stood and shouted loudly in the Judean language, “Listen to the great king, the king of Assyria. 29 This is what the king says: Don’t let Hezekiah deceive you. He can’t rescue you from me. 30 Don’t let Hezekiah get you to trust the Lord by saying, ‘The Lord will certainly rescue us, and this city will not be put under the control of the king of Assyria.’ 31 Don’t listen to Hezekiah, because this is what the king of Assyria says: Make peace with me! Come out and give yourselves up to me! Everyone will eat from his own grapevine and fig tree and drink from his own cistern. 32 Then I will come and take you away to a country like your own. It’s a country with grain and new wine, a country with bread and vineyards, a country with olive trees, olive oil, and honey. Live! Don’t die! Don’t listen to Hezekiah when he tries to mislead you by saying to you, ‘The Lord will rescue us.’ 33 Did any of the gods of the nations rescue their countries from the king of Assyria? 34 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah? Did they rescue Samaria from my control? 35 Did the gods of those countries rescue them from my control? Could the Lord then rescue Jerusalem from my control?”
36 But the people were silent and didn’t say anything to him because the king commanded them not to answer him.
37 Then Eliakim, who was in charge of the palace and was the son of Hilkiah, Shebna the scribe, and Joah, who was the royal historian and the son of Asaph, went to Hezekiah with their clothes torn in grief. They told him the message from the field commander.
19 When King Hezekiah heard the message, he tore his clothes in grief, covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the Lord’s temple. 2 Then he sent Eliakim, who was in charge of the palace, Shebna the scribe, and the leaders of the priests, clothed in sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah, son of Amoz.
3 They said to him, “This is what Hezekiah says: Today is a day filled with misery, punishment, and disgrace. We are like a woman who is about to give birth but doesn’t have the strength to do it. 4 The Lord your God may have heard all the words of the field commander. His master, the king of Assyria, sent him to defy the living God. The Lord your God may punish him because of the message that the Lord your God heard. Pray for the few people who are left.”
5 So King Hezekiah’s men went to Isaiah. 6 Isaiah answered them, “Say this to your master, ‘This is what the Lord says: Don’t be afraid of the message that you heard when the Assyrian king’s assistants slandered me. 7 I’m going to put a spirit in him so that he will hear a rumor and return to his own country. I’ll have him assassinated in his own country.’ ”
8 The field commander returned and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah. He had heard that the king left Lachish. 9 Now, Sennacherib heard that King Tirhakah of Sudan was coming to fight him.
Sennacherib sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, 10 “Tell King Hezekiah of Judah, ‘Don’t let the god whom you trust deceive you by saying that Jerusalem will not be put under the control of the king of Assyria. 11 You heard what the kings of Assyria did to all countries, how they totally destroyed them. Will you be rescued? 12 Did the gods of the nations which my ancestors destroyed rescue Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden who were in Telassar? 13 Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, and the king of the cities of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?’ ”
14 Hezekiah took the letters from the messengers, read them, and went to the Lord’s temple. He spread them out in front of the Lord 15 and prayed to the Lord, “Lord of Armies, God of Israel, you are enthroned over the angels.[b] You alone are God of all the kingdoms of the world. You made heaven and earth. 16 Turn your ear toward me, Lord, and listen. Open your eyes, Lord, and see. Listen to the message that Sennacherib sent to defy the living God. 17 It is true, Lord, that the kings of Assyria have leveled nations.[c] 18 They have thrown the gods from these countries into fires because these gods aren’t real gods. They’re only wooden and stone statues made by human hands. So the Assyrians have destroyed them. 19 Now, Lord our God, rescue us from Assyria’s control so that all the kingdoms on earth will know that you alone are the Lord God.”
Isaiah’s Prophecy against King Sennacherib of Assyria(B)
20 Then Isaiah, son of Amoz, sent a message to Hezekiah, “This is what the Lord God of Israel says: You prayed to me about King Sennacherib of Assyria. I have heard you. 21 This is the message that the Lord speaks to him,
‘My dear people in Zion despise you and laugh at you.
My people in Jerusalem shake their heads behind your back.
22 Whom are you defying and slandering?
Against whom are you shouting?
Who are you looking at so arrogantly?
It is the Holy One of Israel!
23 Through your servants [d] you defy the Lord and say,
“With my many chariots I’ll ride up the high mountains,
up the slopes of Lebanon.
I’ll cut down its tallest cedars and its finest cypresses.
I’ll come to its most distant borders
and its most fertile forests.
24 I’ll dig wells and drink foreign water.
I’ll dry up all the streams of Egypt
with the trampling of my feet.”
25 “ ‘Haven’t you heard? I did this long ago.
I planned it in the distant past.
Now I make it happen so that you will turn fortified cities
into piles of rubble.
26 Those who live in these cities are weak, discouraged, and ashamed.
They will be like plants in the field,
like fresh, green grass on the roofs,
scorched before it sprouted.
27 I know when you ⌞get up⌟ and sit down,
when you go out and come in,
and how you rage against me.
28 Since you rage against me and your boasting has reached my ears,
I will put my hook in your nose
and my bridle in your mouth.
I will make you go back the way you came.
29 “ ‘And this will be a sign for you, Hezekiah: You will eat what grows by itself this year and next year. But in the third year you will plant and harvest, plant vineyards, and eat what is produced. 30 Those few people from the nation of Judah who escape will again take root and produce crops. 31 Those few people will go out from Jerusalem, and those who escape will go out of Mount Zion. The Lord is determined to do this.’
32 “This is what the Lord says about the king of Assyria:
He will never come into this city,
shoot an arrow here,
hold a shield in front of it,
or put up dirt ramps to attack it.
33 He will go back the way he came,
and he won’t come into this city,”
declares the Lord of Armies.
34 “I will shield this city to rescue it for my sake
and for the sake of my servant David.”
35 It happened that night. The Lord’s angel went out and killed 185,000 ⌞soldiers⌟ in the Assyrian camp. When the Judeans got up early in the morning, they saw all the corpses.
36 Then King Sennacherib of Assyria left. He went home to Nineveh and stayed there. 37 While he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, Adrammelech and Sharezer assassinated him and escaped to the land of Ararat. His son Esarhaddon succeeded him as king.
Footnotes
- 18:12 Or “covenant.”
- 19:15 Or “cherubim.”
- 19:17 Greek; Masoretic Text “nations and their country.”
- 19:23 Isaiah 37:24; Masoretic Text “kings.”
2 Kings 18:9-19:37
New International Version
2 Kings 18:9-19:37
New International Version
9 In King Hezekiah’s fourth year,(A) 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. 10 At 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. 11 The king(B) of Assyria deported Israel to Assyria and settled them in Halah, in Gozan on the Habor River and in towns of the Medes.(C) 12 This happened because they had not obeyed the Lord their God, but had violated his covenant(D)—all that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded.(E) They neither listened to the commands(F) nor carried them out.
13 In the fourteenth year(G) of King Hezekiah’s reign, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all the fortified cities of Judah(H) and captured them. 14 So Hezekiah king of Judah sent this message to the king of Assyria at Lachish:(I) “I have done wrong.(J) 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[a] of silver and thirty talents[b] of gold. 15 So Hezekiah gave(K) him all the silver that was found in the temple of the Lord and in the treasuries of the royal palace.
16 At this time Hezekiah king of Judah stripped off the gold with which he had covered the doors(L) and doorposts of the temple of the Lord, and gave it to the king of Assyria.
Sennacherib Threatens Jerusalem(M)(N)
17 The king of Assyria sent his supreme commander,(O) 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,(P) on the road to the Washerman’s Field. 18 They called for the king; and Eliakim(Q) son of Hilkiah the palace administrator, Shebna(R) the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph the recorder went out to them.
19 The 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(S) of yours? 20 You 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? 21 Look, I know you are depending on Egypt,(T) that splintered reed of a staff,(U) which pierces the hand of anyone who leans on it! Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who depend on him. 22 But 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”?
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! 24 How can you repulse one officer(V) of the least of my master’s officials, even though you are depending on Egypt for chariots and horsemen[c]? 25 Furthermore, have I come to attack and destroy this place without word from the Lord?(W) The Lord himself told me to march against this country and destroy it.’”
26 Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, and Shebna and Joah said to the field commander, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic,(X) since we understand it. Don’t speak to us in Hebrew in the hearing of the people on the wall.”
27 But 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?”
28 Then the commander stood and called out in Hebrew, “Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria! 29 This is what the king says: Do not let Hezekiah deceive(Y) you. He cannot deliver you from my hand. 30 Do 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.’
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(Z) and drink water from your own cistern,(AA) 32 until 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(AB) and not death!
“Do not listen to Hezekiah, for he is misleading you when he says, ‘The Lord will deliver us.’ 33 Has the god(AC) of any nation ever delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria? 34 Where are the gods of Hamath(AD) and Arpad?(AE) Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena and Ivvah? Have they rescued Samaria from my hand? 35 Who 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?”(AF)
36 But the people remained silent and said nothing in reply, because the king had commanded, “Do not answer him.”
37 Then Eliakim(AG) son of Hilkiah the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph the recorder went to Hezekiah, with their clothes torn,(AH) and told him what the field commander had said.
Jerusalem’s Deliverance Foretold(AI)
19 When King Hezekiah heard this, he tore(AJ) his clothes and put on sackcloth and went into the temple of the Lord. 2 He sent Eliakim(AK) the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary and the leading priests,(AL) all wearing sackcloth,(AM) to the prophet Isaiah(AN) son of Amoz. 3 They told him, “This is what Hezekiah says: This day is a day of distress and rebuke and disgrace, as when children come to the moment(AO) of birth and there is no strength to deliver them. 4 It may be that the Lord your God will hear all the words of the field commander, whom his master, the king of Assyria, has sent to ridicule(AP) the living God, and that he will rebuke(AQ) him for the words the Lord your God has heard. Therefore pray for the remnant(AR) that still survives.”
5 When King Hezekiah’s officials came to Isaiah, 6 Isaiah said to them, “Tell your master, ‘This is what the Lord says: Do not be afraid(AS) of what you have heard—those words with which the underlings of the king of Assyria have blasphemed(AT) me. 7 Listen! When he hears a certain report,(AU) I will make him want to return to his own country, and there I will have him cut down with the sword.(AV)’”
8 When the field commander heard that the king of Assyria had left Lachish,(AW) he withdrew and found the king fighting against Libnah.(AX)
9 Now Sennacherib received a report that Tirhakah, the king of Cush,[d] was marching out to fight against him. So he again sent messengers to Hezekiah with this word: 10 “Say to Hezekiah king of Judah: Do not let the god you depend(AY) on deceive(AZ) you when he says, ‘Jerusalem will not be given into the hands of the king of Assyria.’ 11 Surely you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the countries, destroying them completely. And will you be delivered? 12 Did the gods of the nations that were destroyed by my predecessors deliver(BA) them—the gods of Gozan,(BB) Harran,(BC) Rezeph and the people of Eden who were in Tel Assar? 13 Where is the king of Hamath or the king of Arpad? Where are the kings of Lair, Sepharvaim, Hena and Ivvah?”(BD)
Hezekiah’s Prayer(BE)
14 Hezekiah received the letter(BF) from the messengers and read it. Then he went up to the temple of the Lord and spread it out before the Lord. 15 And Hezekiah prayed to the Lord: “Lord, the God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim,(BG) you alone(BH) are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. 16 Give ear,(BI) Lord, and hear;(BJ) open your eyes,(BK) Lord, and see; listen to the words Sennacherib has sent to ridicule the living God.
17 “It is true, Lord, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste these nations and their lands. 18 They have thrown their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods(BL) but only wood and stone, fashioned by human hands.(BM) 19 Now, Lord our God, deliver(BN) us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms(BO) of the earth may know(BP) that you alone, Lord, are God.”
Isaiah Prophesies Sennacherib’s Fall(BQ)(BR)
20 Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent a message to Hezekiah: “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I have heard(BS) your prayer concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria. 21 This is the word that the Lord has spoken against(BT) him:
“‘Virgin Daughter(BU) Zion
despises(BV) you and mocks(BW) you.
Daughter Jerusalem
tosses her head(BX) as you flee.
22 Who is it you have ridiculed and blasphemed?(BY)
Against whom have you raised your voice
and lifted your eyes in pride?
Against the Holy One(BZ) of Israel!
23 By your messengers
you have ridiculed the Lord.
And you have said,(CA)
“With my many chariots(CB)
I have ascended the heights of the mountains,
the utmost heights of Lebanon.
I have cut down(CC) its tallest cedars,
the choicest of its junipers.
I have reached its remotest parts,
the finest of its forests.
24 I have dug wells in foreign lands
and drunk the water there.
With the soles of my feet
I have dried up all the streams of Egypt.”
25 “‘Have you not heard?(CD)
Long ago I ordained it.
In days of old I planned(CE) it;
now I have brought it to pass,
that you have turned fortified cities
into piles of stone.(CF)
26 Their people, drained of power,(CG)
are dismayed(CH) and put to shame.
They are like plants in the field,
like tender green shoots,(CI)
like grass sprouting on the roof,
scorched(CJ) before it grows up.
27 “‘But I know(CK) where you are
and when you come and go
and how you rage against me.
28 Because you rage against me
and because your insolence has reached my ears,
I will put my hook(CL) in your nose
and my bit(CM) in your mouth,
and I will make you return(CN)
by the way you came.’
29 “This will be the sign(CO) for you, Hezekiah:
“This year you will eat what grows by itself,(CP)
and the second year what springs from that.
But in the third year sow and reap,
plant vineyards(CQ) and eat their fruit.
30 Once more a remnant(CR) of the kingdom of Judah
will take root(CS) below and bear fruit above.
31 For out of Jerusalem will come a remnant,(CT)
and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors.(CU)
“The zeal(CV) of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.
32 “Therefore this is what the Lord says concerning the king of Assyria:
“‘He will not enter this city
or shoot an arrow here.
He will not come before it with shield
or build a siege ramp against it.
33 By the way that he came he will return;(CW)
he will not enter this city,
declares the Lord.
34 I will defend(CX) this city and save it,
for my sake and for the sake of David(CY) my servant.’”
35 That night the angel of the Lord(CZ) went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning—there were all the dead bodies!(DA) 36 So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew.(DB) He returned to Nineveh(DC) and stayed there.
37 One day, while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisrok, his sons Adrammelek(DD) and Sharezer killed him with the sword,(DE) and they escaped to the land of Ararat.(DF) And Esarhaddon(DG) his son succeeded him as king.
Footnotes
- 2 Kings 18:14 That is, about 11 tons or about 10 metric tons
- 2 Kings 18:14 That is, about 1 ton or about 1 metric ton
- 2 Kings 18:24 Or charioteers
- 2 Kings 19:9 That is, the upper Nile region
GOD’S WORD Translation (GW)
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