2 Kings 18

KJV · Chapter 18/25

¹Now it came to pass in the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, that Hezekiah the son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign.

²Twenty and five years old was he when he began to reign; and he reigned twenty and nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name also was Abi, the daughter of Zachariah.

³And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that David his father did.

⁴He removed the high places, and brake the images, and cut down the groves, and brake in pieces the brasen serpent that Moses had made: for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it: and he called it Nehushtan.

⁵He trusted in the Lord God of Israel; so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor any that were before him.

⁶For he clave to the Lord, and departed not from following him, but kept his commandments, which the Lord commanded Moses.

⁷And the Lord was with him; and he prospered whithersoever he went forth: and he rebelled against the king of Assyria, and served him not.

⁸He smote the Philistines, even unto Gaza, and the borders thereof, from the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city.

⁹And it came to pass in the fourth year of king Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, that Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against Samaria, and besieged it.

¹⁰And at the end of three years they took it: even in the sixth year of Hezekiah, that is the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel, Samaria was taken.

¹¹And the king of Assyria did carry away Israel unto Assyria, and put them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes:

¹²Because they obeyed not the voice of the Lord their God, but transgressed his covenant, and all that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded, and would not hear them, nor do them.

¹³Now in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah did Sennacherib king of Assyria come up against all the fenced cities of Judah, and took them.

¹⁴And Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria to Lachish, saying, I have offended; return from me: that which thou puttest on me will I bear. And the king of Assyria appointed unto Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.

¹⁵And Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the house of the Lord, and in the treasures of the king’s house.

¹⁶At that time did Hezekiah cut off the gold from the doors of the temple of the Lord, and from the pillars which Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid, and gave it to the king of Assyria.

¹⁷And the king of Assyria sent Tartan and Rabsaris and Rab–shakeh from Lachish to king Hezekiah with a great host against Jerusalem. And they went up and came to Jerusalem. And when they were come up, they came and stood by the conduit of the upper pool, which is in the highway of the fuller’s field.

¹⁸And when they had called to the king, there came out to them Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, which was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder.

¹⁹And Rab–shakeh said unto them, Speak ye now to Hezekiah, Thus saith the great king, the king of Assyria, What confidence is this wherein thou trustest?

²⁰Thou sayest, (but they are but vain words,) I have counsel and strength for the war. Now on whom dost thou trust, that thou rebellest against me?

²¹Now, behold, thou trustest upon the staff of this bruised reed, even upon Egypt, on which if a man lean, it will go into his hand, and pierce it: so is Pharaoh king of Egypt unto all that trust on him.

²²But if ye say unto me, We trust in the Lord our God: is not that he, whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah hath taken away, and hath said to Judah and Jerusalem, Ye shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem?

²³Now therefore, I pray thee, give pledges to my lord the king of Assyria, and I will deliver thee two thousand horses, if thou be able on thy part to set riders upon them.

²⁴How then wilt thou turn away the face of one captain of the least of my master’s servants, and put thy trust on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen?

²⁵Am I now come up without the Lord against this place to destroy it? The Lord said to me, Go up against this land, and destroy it.

²⁶Then said Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, and Shebna, and Joah, unto Rab–shakeh, Speak, I pray thee, to thy servants in the Syrian language; for we understand it: and talk not with us in the Jews’ language in the ears of the people that are on the wall.

²⁷But Rab–shakeh said unto them, Hath my master sent me to thy master, and to thee, to speak these words? hath he not sent me to the men which sit on the wall, that they may eat their own dung, and drink their own piss with you?

²⁸Then Rab–shakeh stood and cried with a loud voice in the Jews’ language, and spake, saying, Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria:

²⁹Thus saith the king, Let not Hezekiah deceive you: for he shall not be able to deliver you out of his hand:

³⁰Neither let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord, saying, The Lord will surely deliver us, and this city shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria.

³¹Hearken not to Hezekiah: for thus saith the king of Assyria, Make an agreement with me by a present, and come out to me, and then eat ye every man of his own vine, and every one of his fig tree, and drink ye every one the waters of his cistern:

³²Until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of corn and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of oil olive and of honey, that ye may live, and not die: and hearken not unto Hezekiah, when he persuadeth you, saying, The Lord will deliver us.

³³Hath any of the gods of the nations delivered at all his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria?

³⁴Where are the gods of Hamath, and of Arpad? where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah? have they delivered Samaria out of mine hand?

³⁵Who are they among all the gods of the countries, that have delivered their country out of mine hand, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of mine hand?

³⁶But the people held their peace, and answered him not a word: for the king’s commandment was, saying, Answer him not.

³⁷Then came Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, which was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder, to Hezekiah with their clothes rent, and told him the words of Rab–shakeh.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

Hezekiah becomes one of the most faithful kings of Judah, removing idolatry and trusting fully in God. When the powerful Assyrian king Sennacherib invades Judah and besieges Jerusalem, his commander the Rabshakeh publicly mocks Hezekiah's trust in God, trying to demoralize the people before their surrender.

Explanation

Hezekiah represents a rare moment of genuine and deep religious reform in Judah, including the destruction of Moses' bronze serpent, which had become an object of idolatry — showing that even symbols legitimately instituted by God can become corrupted over time if not properly kept in context. The Rabshakeh's arrogant speech, comparing the God of Israel to the defeated gods of other nations, sets up the dramatic climax that will be resolved in the following chapters, directly testing Hezekiah's faith under intense psychological pressure.

Fun facts

The bronze serpent destroyed by Hezekiah was the very object made by Moses in Numbers 21:8-9 as an instrument of healing; the fact that it had become, generations later, an idol called 'Nehushtan' shows how even sacred objects can turn into idolatry when separated from their original purpose.
Sennacherib's siege of Jerusalem is mentioned in Assyrian records (the Sennacherib Prism), which describes Hezekiah as being shut up 'like a bird in a cage' in Jerusalem, but tellingly does not claim to have conquered the city — consistent with the biblical account that Jerusalem did not fall.

Verse-by-verse explanation

2 Kings 18:1Hezekiah, son of Ahaz, begins to reign over Judah (the southern kingdom) in the third year of Hoshea of Israel (the north), right in the final years before the fall of the northern kingdom.
2 Kings 18:2Hezekiah was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and stayed twenty-nine years in Jerusalem; his mother’s name was Abi, daughter of Zachariah.
2 Kings 18:3Hezekiah does what is right, compared directly to David — one of the highest compliments given to any king in the whole book.
2 Kings 18:4This bronze object, made by Moses centuries earlier to heal snakebites in the wilderness, had become an object of worship in its own right, to the point of getting its own name. Hezekiah destroys it precisely because the people had come to idolize the object instead of remembering what it stood for.
2 Kings 18:5Hezekiah trusts the Lord so completely that the text states there was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, neither before nor after — the highest praise in the whole book of Kings.
2 Kings 18:6Hezekiah clings to the Lord without turning away, keeping the commandments God had given to Moses.
2 Kings 18:7The Lord is with Hezekiah, who prospers in everything he does, and he even rebels against the king of Assyria, refusing to remain a vassal — a risky political and religious decision.
2 Kings 18:8Hezekiah strikes the Philistines as far as Gaza and its territory, from the small towns to the fortified ones.
2 Kings 18:9In Hezekiah’s fourth year (Hoshea’s seventh), Shalmaneser of Assyria comes up against Samaria and besieges it — the beginning of the end for the northern kingdom.
2 Kings 18:10After three years under siege, Samaria falls in Hezekiah’s sixth year (Hoshea’s ninth) — the exact date of Israel’s fall.
2 Kings 18:11The Assyrian king deports the people of Israel (the north) to Halah, Habor, the river of Gozan, and the cities of the Medes — the final exile of the northern kingdom.
2 Kings 18:12The reason given is always the same: they did not obey the voice of the Lord, broke the covenant, and ignored everything Moses had commanded.
2 Kings 18:13Facing Sennacherib’s invasion, Hezekiah tries to buy off the Assyrian withdrawal, even stripping the gold off the temple’s own doors. It shows how even a religiously praised king fell back on the same tactic of buying peace used by earlier kings.
2 Kings 18:14Hezekiah sends a message to the king of Assyria admitting the mistake of rebelling and offering to pay whatever is demanded; Assyria asks for three hundred talents of silver and thirty of gold.
2 Kings 18:15Hezekiah hands over all the silver he can gather from the treasures of the temple and the palace to pay the ransom.
2 Kings 18:16Hezekiah goes so far as to strip off the gold he himself had put on the temple’s doors and doorposts, handing it all over to the Assyrian king — a desperate measure.
2 Kings 18:17The Assyrian envoy deliberately speaks in the local language, ignoring the request from Hezekiah’s officials to use the diplomatic language of the day. The idea was for the people on the walls to hear the threat directly and panic — a psychological tactic of war.
2 Kings 18:18Summoned by the king of Assyria, three officials of Hezekiah go out to negotiate: Eliakim, the palace administrator, Shebna, the scribe, and Joah, the recorder.
2 Kings 18:19The Assyrian spokesman, Rabshakeh, sends this question to Hezekiah: what exactly is he trusting in to rebel against so powerful a king?
2 Kings 18:20Rabshakeh mocks Hezekiah’s military strategy, calling it empty talk, and questions where he gets so much confidence to rebel.
2 Kings 18:21He compares the alliance with Egypt to leaning on a splintered reed that pierces the hand of anyone who leans on it — an ally that betrays those who trust it too much.
2 Kings 18:22Rabshakeh twists the facts, hinting that trusting the Lord makes no sense since Hezekiah himself tore down the high places and altars and centralized worship in Jerusalem alone — an attempt at psychological warfare.
2 Kings 18:23Rabshakeh mocks by even offering two thousand horses, knowing Judah does not even have enough riders to mount them — a jab at the kingdom’s military weakness.
2 Kings 18:24He argues that Judah could not turn back even the least of Assyria’s officers, despite all its confidence in Egyptian chariots and horsemen.
2 Kings 18:25Rabshakeh even claims, falsely, that the Lord Himself sent Assyria to destroy that land — twisting theology into a weapon of psychological warfare.
2 Kings 18:26The officials of Judah ask Rabshakeh to speak in Aramaic, the diplomatic language, instead of Hebrew, so the people listening from the top of the wall will not understand and panic.
2 Kings 18:27Rabshakeh refuses on purpose, saying his message is meant exactly for the common people on the wall, with a raw threat about the misery the siege will bring.
2 Kings 18:28Rabshakeh stands up and shouts loudly in Hebrew, speaking directly to the people on the wall, ignoring the officials who tried to act as go-betweens.
2 Kings 18:29He warns the people not to let Hezekiah deceive them, since the king of Judah would have no way to deliver them from the hand of Assyria.
2 Kings 18:30He also warns them not to trust Hezekiah’s promise that the Lord will deliver them and that the city will not fall.
2 Kings 18:31The promise of eating from one’s own vine and fig tree before a future deportation is classic Assyrian rhetoric used to convince besieged populations to surrender without a fight. It promised a stable life elsewhere in the empire instead of immediate destruction.
2 Kings 18:32Rabshakeh offers a tempting alternative: surrender and live in peace until you are taken to a land as good as your own, insisting they should not believe the Lord will save them.
2 Kings 18:33He argues that no god of any nation has managed to deliver its people from the hand of the king of Assyria — trying to lump the Lord in with all the defeated gods.
2 Kings 18:34He names specific gods of already-conquered nations — Hamath, Arpad, Sepharvaim — as proof that no god has withstood Assyria, not even the god of Samaria.
2 Kings 18:35Rabshakeh closes with the ultimate challenge: if no god of any land has delivered its people, why would the Lord deliver Jerusalem?
2 Kings 18:36The people remain completely silent, answering nothing, because Hezekiah himself had ordered that no one respond to the taunt.
2 Kings 18:37The three officials return to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, a sign of distress, and report Rabshakeh’s threat word for word.