2 Kings · 37 verses
2 Kings 18
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The chapter
What happens here
Atlas's own reading, written from this chapter and nothing else, and published only once a person has approved it. Each scene names the verses it covers; the names inside it link to the people and places they name.
Hezekiah paid the king of Assyria to withdraw, stripping silver from the temple and gold from its doors; nevertheless, the Assyrian army came on to Jerusalem, as though the invoice had been mistaken for an invitation.
A reforming king and a falling kingdomvv. 1–8
Hezekiah begins with an unusually polished reputation: he does what is right, trusts the LORD, keeps the commandments given through Moses, and prospers wherever he goes. His reform is not merely decorative. He removes the high places, breaks the sacred pillars, cuts down the Asherah poles, and demolishes the bronze snake Moses made, because Israelites had been burning incense to it. Then he rebels against Assyria and defeats the Philistines as far as Gaza—a brisk opening, with no shortage of broken objects or defeated enemies.
The payment that bought nothingvv. 9–16
While Hezekiah reigns in Judah, Shalmaneser besieges Samaria and takes it after three years; the Israelites are exiled to Assyria. Later, Sennacherib captures the fortified cities of Judah. Hezekiah sends word from Lachish, admits his wrong, and promises to pay whatever is demanded. The demand is three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold, drawn from the temple and the royal treasuries. Even the gold on the temple doors and doorposts is stripped away. It is a magnificent payment, and it does not stop the next movement of the story.
The speech at the wallvv. 17–37
The Tartan, Rab-saris, and Rabshakeh bring a great army from Lachish to Jerusalem and station themselves by the upper pool. Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah come out to meet them. Rabshakeh asks what Hezekiah is relying on, dismisses Egypt as a splintered reed, and offers two thousand horses on the splendid condition that Jerusalem can find riders for them. When the officials ask him to speak in Aramaic, he declines with a particularly vile forecast for the people on the wall, then raises his voice in Hebrew. He tells the city not to trust Hezekiah or the LORD, offers vines, fig trees, cisterns, grain, wine, bread, vineyards, olive trees, and honey, and finally asks whether any god has delivered a land from the king of Assyria. The people say nothing, because Hezekiah has commanded silence. The officials return with torn clothes and report the words.
The text
Read it
Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Names the Hebrew and Greek put in the verse link to the person, place or people they name; the address beside each verse is a link to that verse, which is what a reader copies and shares.
2 Kgs 18:1In the third year of the reign of Hoshea son of Elah over Israel, Hezekiah son of Ahaz became king of Judah.
2 Kgs 18:2He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-nine years. His mother’s name was Abi, the daughter of Zechariah.
2 Kgs 18:3And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, just as his father David had done.
2 Kgs 18:4He removed the high places, shattered the sacred pillars, and cut down the Asherah poles. He also demolished the bronze snake called Nehushtan that Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had burned incense to it.
2 Kgs 18:5Hezekiah trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel. No king of Judah was like him, either before him or after him.
2 Kgs 18:6He remained faithful to the LORD and did not turn from following Him; he kept the commandments that the LORD had given Moses.
2 Kgs 18:7And the LORD was with Hezekiah, and he prospered wherever he went. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and refused to serve him.
2 Kgs 18:8He defeated the Philistines as far as Gaza and its borders, from watchtower to fortified city.
2 Kgs 18:9In the fourth year of Hezekiah’s reign, which was the seventh year of the reign of Hoshea son of Elah over Israel, Shalmaneser king of Assyria marched against Samaria and besieged it.
2 Kgs 18:10And at the end of three years, the Assyrians captured it. So Samaria was captured in the sixth year of Hezekiah, which was the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel.
2 Kgs 18:11The king of Assyria exiled the Israelites to Assyria and settled them in Halah, in Gozan by the Habor River, and in the cities of the Medes.
2 Kgs 18:12This happened because they did not listen to the voice of the LORD their God, but violated His covenant—all that Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded—and would neither listen nor obey.
2 Kgs 18:13In the fourteenth year of Hezekiah’s reign, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked and captured all the fortified cities of Judah.
2 Kgs 18:14So Hezekiah king of Judah sent word to the king of Assyria at Lachish, saying, “I have done wrong; withdraw from me, and I will pay whatever you demand from me.” And the king of Assyria exacted from Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.
2 Kgs 18:15Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the house of the LORD and in the treasuries of the royal palace.
2 Kgs 18:16At that time Hezekiah stripped the gold with which he had plated the doors and doorposts of the temple of the LORD, and he gave it to the king of Assyria.
2 Kgs 18:17Nevertheless, the king of Assyria sent the Tartan, the Rabsaris, and the Rabshakeh, along with a great army, from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. They advanced up to Jerusalem and stationed themselves by the aqueduct of the upper pool, on the road to the Launderer’s Field.
2 Kgs 18:18Then they called for the king. And Eliakim son of Hilkiah the palace administrator, Shebnah the scribe, and Joah son of Asaph the recorder, went out to them.
2 Kgs 18:19The Rabshakeh said to them, “Tell Hezekiah that this is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says: What is the basis of this confidence of yours?
2 Kgs 18:20You claim to have a strategy and strength for war, but these are empty words. In whom are you now trusting, that you have rebelled against me?
2 Kgs 18:21Look now, you are trusting in Egypt, that splintered reed of a staff that will pierce the hand of anyone who leans on it. Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him.
2 Kgs 18:22But if you say to me, ‘We trust in the LORD our God,’ is He not the One whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and Jerusalem: ‘You must worship before this altar in Jerusalem’?
2 Kgs 18:23Now, therefore, make a bargain with my master, the king of Assyria. I will give you two thousand horses—if you can put riders on them!
2 Kgs 18:24For how can you repel a single officer among the least of my master’s servants when you depend on Egypt for chariots and horsemen?
2 Kgs 18:25So now, was it apart from the LORD that I have come up against this place to destroy it? The LORD Himself said to me, ‘Go up against this land and destroy it.’”
2 Kgs 18:26Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, along with Shebnah and Joah, said to the Rabshakeh, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, since we understand it. Do not speak with us in Hebrew in the hearing of the people on the wall.”
2 Kgs 18:27But the Rabshakeh replied, “Has my master sent me to speak these words only to you and your master, and not to the men sitting on the wall, who are destined with you to eat their own dung and drink their own urine?”
2 Kgs 18:28Then the Rabshakeh stood and called out loudly in Hebrew: “Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria!
2 Kgs 18:29This is what the king says: Do not let Hezekiah deceive you; he cannot deliver you from my hand.
2 Kgs 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.’
2 Kgs 18:31Do not listen to Hezekiah, for this is what the king of Assyria says: Make peace with me and come out to me. Then every one of you will eat from his own vine and his own fig tree and drink water from his own cistern,
2 Kgs 18:32until I come and take you away 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—so that you may live and not die. But do not listen to Hezekiah, for he misleads you when he says, ‘The LORD will deliver us.’
2 Kgs 18:33Has the god of any nation ever delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria?
2 Kgs 18:34Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah? Have they delivered Samaria from my hand?
2 Kgs 18:35Who among all the gods of these lands has delivered his land from my hand? How then can the LORD deliver Jerusalem from my hand?”
2 Kgs 18:36But the people remained silent and did not answer a word, for Hezekiah had commanded, “Do not answer him.”
2 Kgs 18:37Then Hilkiah’s son Eliakim the palace administrator, Shebna the scribe, and Asaph’s son Joah the recorder came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and they relayed to him the words of the Rabshakeh.
01 — Also here
Who else the chapter reaches
Names written in the English are linked in the text above. These are the ones that are not: an entity the Hebrew or Greek names under a spelling the translation does not use, or one reached only by an assertion about a verse of this chapter.
Named in the Hebrew or Greek somewhere in this chapter, under a form the English renders differently — the registry's Ludim against the translation's Ludites — so there is no word in the sentence to hang the link on.
Reached by an assertion Atlas extracted from a verse of this chapter rather than by a name written in it — a pronoun, a title, or a participant the sentence carries without naming. This layer is model-read and measured at 88.6–90.3% precision, and it is kept separate from the names above for that reason.
02 — Read alongside
Where this is echoed
Readers' own connections, from OpenBible's crowd-voted cross-references — agreement about relevance, and not scholarly confidence. 333 passages were voted onto 37 verses of this chapter; the 16 shown lead on votes, and each is listed at the verse it was voted onto most strongly.
- 52 Kings 23:25Neither before nor after Josiah was there any king like him, who turned to the LORD with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his strength, according to all the Law of Moses.
- 6Joshua 23:8Instead, you shall hold fast to the LORD your God, as you have done to this day.
- 6Deuteronomy 10:20You are to fear the LORD your God and serve Him. Hold fast to Him and take your oaths in His name.
- 42 Chronicles 31:1When all this had ended, the Israelites in attendance went out to the cities of Judah and broke up the sacred pillars, chopped down the Asherah poles, and tore down the high places and altars throughout Judah and Benjamin, as well as in Ephraim and Manasseh, until they had utterly destroyed them all. Then all the Israelites returned to their cities, each to his own property.
- 52 Kings 19:10“Give this message to Hezekiah king of Judah: ‘Do not let your God, in whom you trust, deceive you by saying that Jerusalem will not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria.
- 4Numbers 21:8–9Then the LORD said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and mount it on a pole. When anyone who is bitten looks at it, he will live.”
- 6John 14:15If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.
- 311 Kings 4:25Throughout the days of Solomon, Judah and Israel dwelt securely from Dan to Beersheba, each man under his own vine and his own fig tree.
- 5Matthew 27:43He trusts in God. Let God deliver Him now if He wants Him. For He said, ‘I am the Son of God.’”
- 7Psalms 60:12With God we will perform with valor, and He will trample our enemies.
- 72 Kings 16:7So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, saying, “I am your servant and your son. Come up and save me from the hands of the kings of Aram and Israel, who are rising up against me.”
- 7Genesis 39:2–3And the LORD was with Joseph, and he became a successful man, serving in the household of his Egyptian master.
- 7Romans 8:31What then shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
- 32Deuteronomy 8:7–9For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks and fountains and springs that flow through the valleys and hills;
- 12 Chronicles 28:27–1And Ahaz rested with his fathers and was buried in the city of Jerusalem, but he was not placed in the tombs of the kings of Israel. And his son Hezekiah reigned in his place.
- 32 Kings 20:3“Please, O LORD, remember how I have walked before You faithfully and with wholehearted devotion; I have done what is good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.
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