2 Kings 18

And it happened in the third year of Hosee son of Ela king of Israel that Ezekias son of Achaz king of Ioudas began to reign.

He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Ierousalem. And his mother's name was Abou, daughter of Zacharias.

And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that Dauid his father had done.

He removed the high places and broke in pieces all the pillars and utterly destroyed the sacred groves and the bronze serpent which Moses had made, because until those days the sons of Israel were burning incense to it; and he called it Neesthan.

In the Lord, the God of Israel, he hoped, and after him there was none like him among the kings of Ioudas, nor among those who were before him.

And he clung to the Lord; he did not depart from following him, and he kept his commandments, as many as he commanded Moses.

And the Lord was with him; in all that he did he had understanding. And he rebelled against the king of the Assyrians and did not serve him.

He struck the allophyles as far as Gaza and as far as its border, from the watchtower and as far as the fortified city.

And it happened in the fourth year of King Ezekias—that is the seventh year of Hosee son of Ela king of Israel—that Salamanassar king of the Assyrians came up against Samaria and besieged it.

And he captured it at the end of three years; in the sixth year of Ezekias—that is the ninth year of Hosee king of Israel—Samaria was taken.

And the king of the Assyrians deported Samaria to the Assyrians and placed them in Halae and in Habor, a river of Gozan, and the mountains of the Medes,

because they did not listen to the voice of the Lord their God and transgressed his covenant, all that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded; and they did not listen and did not do it.

And in the fourteenth year of King Ezekias, Sennacherim king of the Assyrians came up against the fortified cities of Ioudas and captured them.

And Ezekias king of Ioudas sent messengers to the king of the Assyrians at Lachis, saying, I have sinned; turn away from me. Whatever you lay upon me I will bear. And the king of the Assyrians laid upon Ezekias king of Ioudas three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.

And Ezekias gave all the silver that was found in the house of the Lord and in the treasuries of the house of the king.

At that time Ezekias cut off the doors of the temple of the Lord and the supports which Ezekias king of Ioudas had overlaid with gold, and he gave them to the king of the Assyrians.

And the king of the Assyrians sent Tharthan and Raphis and Rapsakes from Lachis to King Ezekias with a heavy force against Ierousalem; and they went up and came to Ierousalem and stood by the aqueduct of the upper pool, which is on the road of the fuller's field.

And they called out to Ezekias, and there came out to them Eliakim son of Chelkias the steward, and Somnas the scribe, and Ioas son of Asaph the recorder.

And Rapsakes said to them, Say now to Ezekias, Thus says the great king, the king of the Assyrians: What is this confidence in which you have trusted?

You said—but they are only words of the lips—counsel and power for war. Now then, in whom do you trust that you have rebelled against me?

Now behold, you have trusted in yourself upon this crushed reed staff, upon Egypt; if a man leans upon it, it will go into his hand and pierce it. So is Pharao king of Egypt to all who trust in him.

And if you say to me, We trust in the Lord God—is he not the very one whose high places and whose altars Ezekias removed, and said to Ioudas and to Ierousalem, Before this altar you shall bow down in Ierousalem?

And now make a wager with my lord the king of the Assyrians, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able to provide for yourself riders for them.

And how will you turn back the face of one governor among the least of my lord's servants? Yet you have put your hope upon Egypt for chariots and horsemen.

And now, is it without the Lord that we have come up against this place to destroy it? The Lord said to me, Go up against this land and destroy it.

And Eliakim son of Chelkias and Somnas and Ioas said to Rapsakes, Speak now to your servants in Syrian, for we understand it; and do not speak with us in Judean, and why do you speak in the ears of the people who are on the wall?

And Rapsakes said to them, Is it to your master and to you that my master sent me to speak these words? Is it not rather to the men who sit on the wall, to eat their own dung and drink their own urine along with you?

And Rapsakes stood and cried out with a loud voice in Judean and spoke and said, Hear the words of the great king of the Assyrians.

Thus says the king: Do not let Ezekias lift you up with words, for he will never be able to deliver you out of my hand.

And do not let Ezekias make you hope in the Lord, saying, The Lord will surely deliver us, and this city will not be given into the hand of the king of the Assyrians.

Do not listen to Hezekiah; for thus says the king of the Assyrians: Make a blessing with me and come out to me, and each man shall drink his own vine, and each man shall eat his own fig tree, and shall drink the water of his own cistern,

until I come and take you to a land like your own land, a land of grain and wine and bread and vineyards, a land of the olive of oil and of honey; and you shall live and shall not die. And do not listen to Hezekiah, for he deceives you, saying, The Lord will deliver us.

Have the gods of the nations ever truly delivered, each one his own country, out of the hand of the king of the Assyrians?

Where is the god of Hamath and of Arpad? Where is the god of Sepharvaim? And did they deliver Samaria out of my hand?

Who among all the gods of the lands is there that delivered their lands out of my hand, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?

And they kept silent and did not answer him a word, for the king's command said, You shall not answer him.

Then Eliakim son of Chelkias the steward, and Somnas the scribe, and Ioas son of Asaph the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their garments torn, and reported to him the words of Rapsakes.