Through My Bible Yr 01 – November 18

Hezekiah Son of Ahaz, King of Judah

2 Kings 18

¹ In the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, Hezekiah son of Ahaz king of Judah, became king. ² He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he ruled for twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Abi ^[1] daughter of Zechariah. ³ He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, like everything that his father David had done. ⁴ He removed the high places, smashed the sacred memorial stones, cut down the Asherah poles, and broke into pieces the bronze serpent which Moses had made, because until those days the people of Israel had been burning incense to it. They called it Nehushtan. ^[2]

⁵ He trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel, and there was no one like him among the kings of Judah, before him or after him. ⁶ He held fast to the Lord. He did not turn aside from following him, but he kept the command which the Lord commanded Moses. ⁷ The Lord was with him. Wherever he went, the Lord gave him success. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and did not serve him. ⁸ He struck down the Philistines all the way to Gaza and its territory, from watchtower to fortified city.

Assyrian Invasions

⁹ In Hezekiah’s fourth year, which was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, Shalmaneser king of Assyria went up against Samaria and laid siege to it. ¹⁰ They captured it at the end of three years. In the sixth year, which was the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel, Samaria was captured. ¹¹ Then the king of Assyria exiled Israel to Assyria. He settled them in Halah and on the Habur River, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes. ¹² This was because they did not listen to the voice of the Lord their God, but they abandoned his covenant and all that Moses, the servant of the Lord, commanded. They did not listen to it or obey it.

¹³ In King Hezekiah’s fourteenth year, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and seized them. ¹⁴ Then Hezekiah king of Judah sent a message to the king of Assyria at Lachish: “I have done wrong. Withdraw from me. Whatever you impose on me I will pay.” Then the king of Assyria imposed on Hezekiah a penalty of three hundred talents ^[3] of silver and thirty talents ^[4] of gold. ¹⁵ So Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the Lord’s house and in the treasuries of the king’s house. ¹⁶ At this time, Hezekiah stripped the gold off the doors of the temple of the Lord and off the doorposts, which Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid with gold, and he gave it to the king of Assyria.

The Assyrian Commander Taunts Hezekiah

¹⁷ Then the king of Assyria sent the field commander, the chief of staff, and the herald ^[5] from Lachish with a large army against King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. They came up to Jerusalem and stood by the watercourse from the upper pool, which is on the way to the washerman’s field. ¹⁸ They summoned the king, so Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was the palace administrator, Shebna, who was the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph, who was the recorder, went out to meet them.

¹⁹ The herald said to him, “Tell Hezekiah what the great king, the king of Assyria, says.”

The Taunt

²⁶ Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, along with Shebna and Joah, said to the herald, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it. But don’t speak with us in Hebrew in the hearing of the people who are on the wall.”

²⁷ Then the herald said to them:

²⁸ Then the herald stood up and called out in a loud voice in Hebrew and said the following:

³⁶ But the people were silent. They did not answer him a word because the king had commanded them not to speak or answer. ³⁷ Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was the palace administrator, Shebna who was the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph, who was the recorder, went to Hezekiah with their robes torn and told him the words of the herald.

Isaiah’s Message to Hezekiah

2 Kings 19

¹ When King Hezekiah heard this, he tore his clothes and put on sackcloth. Then he went into the House of the Lord. ² He sent Eliakim the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and the elders of the priests, dressed in sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz.

³ They said to him, “This is what Hezekiah says. Today is a day of distress and rebuke and humiliation because children have come to the point of birth, but there is no strength to deliver them. ⁴ Perhaps the Lord your God will hear all the words of the herald, ^[7] whom his lord, the king of Assyria, sent to mock the living God, and he will rebuke him for the words which the Lord your God has heard, and you will lift up a prayer on behalf of the remnant who are left.”

⁵ When the servants of King Hezekiah went to Isaiah, ⁶ Isaiah said to them, “Say this to your lord: This is what the Lord says. Do not be afraid of these words which you heard, with which the lackeys ^[8] of the king of Assyria blasphemed me. ⁷ See, I am going to put him into such a frame of mind that when he hears a certain report, he will return to his country, and I will make him fall by the sword in his own land.”