CINXE.COM

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width; initial-scale=1.0; maximum-scale=1.0; user-scalable=0;"/><title>2 Kings 18 New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="/chapnew2.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/print.css" type="text/css" media="Print" /></head><body><div id="fx"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx2"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="30" scrolling="no" src="../cmenus/2_kings/18.htm" align="left" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div><div id="blnk"></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable"><tr><td><div id="fx5"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx6"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="245" scrolling="no" src="/bmcc/2_kings/18-1.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable3"><tr><td><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" id="announce"><tr><td><div id="l1"><div id="breadcrumbs"><a href="http://biblehub.com/catholic">Bible</a> > <a href="../">NRSVCE</a> > 2 Kings 18</div><div id="anc"><iframe src="/anc.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></div><div id="anc2"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><iframe src="/anc2.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></div></td></tr></table><div id="movebox2"><table border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><div id="topheading"><a href="../2_kings/17.htm" title="2 Kings 17">◄</a> 2 Kings 18 <a href="../2_kings/19.htm" title="2 Kings 19">►</a></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center" class="maintable2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><div id="leftbox"><div class="padleft"><div class="vheading"><table width="100%"><tr><td width="99%" valign="top">New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition</td><td width="1%" valign="top"></td></tr></table></div><div class="chap"><div class="text-html"> <h3><span id="en" class="text">Hezekiah’s Reign over Judah</span></h3><p class="chapter-2"><span class="text"><span class="versenum">1</span>In the third year of King Hoshea son of Elah of Israel, Hezekiah son of King Ahaz of Judah began to reign. </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">2</span>He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign; he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Abi daughter of Zechariah. </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">3</span>He did what was right in the sight of the <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span> just as his ancestor David had done. </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">4</span>He removed the high places, broke down the pillars, and cut down the sacred pole.<span data-fn='#fen' class='footnote' data-link='[<a href="#fen-NRSVCE-10029a" title="See footnote a">a</a>]'>[<a href="#fen" xtitle="See footnote a">a</a>]</span> He broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the people of Israel had made offerings to it; it was called Nehushtan. </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">5</span>He trusted in the <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span> the God of Israel; so that there was no one like him among all the kings of Judah after him, or among those who were before him. </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">6</span>For he held fast to the <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span>; he did not depart from following him but kept the commandments that the <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span> commanded Moses. </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">7</span>The <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span> was with him; wherever he went, he prospered. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and would not serve him. </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">8</span>He attacked the Philistines as far as Gaza and its territory, from watchtower to fortified city.</span></p> <p><span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">9</span>In the fourth year of King Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of King Hoshea son of Elah of Israel, King Shalmaneser of Assyria came up against Samaria, besieged it, </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">10</span>and at the end of three years, took it. In the sixth year of Hezekiah, which was the ninth year of King Hoshea of Israel, Samaria was taken. </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">11</span>The king of Assyria carried the Israelites away to Assyria, settled them in Halah, on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes, </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">12</span>because they did not obey the voice of the <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span> their God but transgressed his covenant—all that Moses the servant of the <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span> had commanded; they neither listened nor obeyed.</span></p> <h3><span id="en" class="text">Sennacherib Invades Judah</span></h3><p><span class="text"><span class="versenum">13</span>In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, King Sennacherib of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them. </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">14</span>King Hezekiah of Judah sent to the king of Assyria at Lachish, saying, “I have done wrong; withdraw from me; whatever you impose on me I will bear.” The king of Assyria demanded of King Hezekiah of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold. </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">15</span>Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the house of the <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span> and in the treasuries of the king’s house. </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">16</span>At that time Hezekiah stripped the gold from the doors of the temple of the <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span>, and from the doorposts that King Hezekiah of Judah had overlaid and gave it to the king of Assyria. </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">17</span>The king of Assyria sent the Tartan, the Rabsaris, and the Rabshakeh with a great army from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. They went up and came to Jerusalem. When they arrived, they came and stood by the conduit of the upper pool, which is on the highway to the Fuller’s Field. </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">18</span>When they called for the king, there came out to them Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was in charge of the palace, and Shebnah the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph, the recorder.</span></p> <p><span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">19</span>The Rabshakeh said to them, “Say to Hezekiah: Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: On what do you base this confidence of yours? </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">20</span>Do you think that mere words are strategy and power for war? On whom do you now rely, that you have rebelled against me? </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">21</span>See, you are relying now on Egypt, that broken reed of a staff, which will pierce the hand of anyone who leans on it. Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who rely on him. </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">22</span>But if you say to me, ‘We rely on the <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span> our God,’ is it not he whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and to Jerusalem, ‘You shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem’? </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">23</span>Come now, make a wager with my master the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to set riders on them. </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">24</span>How then can you repulse a single captain among the least of my master’s servants, when you rely on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen? </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">25</span>Moreover, is it without the <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span> that I have come up against this place to destroy it? The <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span> said to me, Go up against this land, and destroy it.”</span></p> <p><span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">26</span>Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, and Shebnah, and Joah said to the Rabshakeh, “Please speak to your servants in the Aramaic language, for we understand it; do not speak to us in the language of Judah within the hearing of the people who are on the wall.” </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">27</span>But the Rabshakeh said to them, “Has my master sent me to speak these words to your master and to you, and not to the people sitting on the wall, who are doomed with you to eat their own dung and to drink their own urine?”</span></p> <p><span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">28</span>Then the Rabshakeh stood and called out in a loud voice in the language of Judah, “Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria! </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">29</span>Thus says the king: ‘Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you out of my hand. </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">30</span>Do not let Hezekiah make you rely on the <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span> by saying, The <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span> will surely deliver us, and this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.’ </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">31</span>Do not listen to Hezekiah; for thus says the king of Assyria: ‘Make your peace with me and come out to me; then every one of you will eat from your own vine and your own fig tree, and drink water from your own cistern, </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">32</span>until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive oil and honey, that you may live and not die. Do not listen to Hezekiah when he misleads you by saying, The <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span> will deliver us. </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">33</span>Has any of the gods of the nations ever delivered its land out of the hand of the king of Assyria? </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">34</span>Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah? Have they delivered Samaria out of my hand? </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">35</span>Who among all the gods of the countries have delivered their countries out of my hand, that the <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span> should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?’”</span></p> <p><span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">36</span>But the people were silent and answered him not a word, for the king’s command was, “Do not answer him.” </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">37</span>Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was in charge of the palace, and Shebna the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn and told him the words of the Rabshakeh.</span></p> <A name="fen"></a><div class="footnotes"><h4>Footnotes</h4><ol><li id="fen"><a hlef="#en" xtitle="Go to 2 Kings 18:4">2 Kings 18:4</a> <span class='footnote-text'>Heb <i>Asherah</i></span></li></ol></div> </div></div></div></div></div> </div> </div><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center">Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="p"><br /><br /></span><a href="/">Bible Hub</a><span class="p"><br /><br /></span></div></div></div></div></td></tr></table></div><div id="left"><a href="../2_kings/17.htm" onmouseover='lft.src="/leftgif.png"' onmouseout='lft.src="/left.png"' title="2 Kings 17"><img src="/left.png" name="lft" border="0" alt="2 Kings 17" /></a></div><div id="right"><a href="../2_kings/19.htm" onmouseover='rght.src="/rightgif.png"' onmouseout='rght.src="/right.png"' title="2 Kings 19"><img src="/right.png" name="rght" border="0" alt="2 Kings 19" /></a></div><div id="botleft"><a href="#" onmouseover='botleft.src="/botleftgif.png"' onmouseout='botleft.src="/botleft.png"' title="Top of Page"><img src="/botleft.png" name="botleft" border="0" alt="Top of Page" /></a></div><div id="botright"><a href="#" onmouseover='botright.src="/botrightgif.png"' onmouseout='botright.src="/botright.png"' title="Top of Page"><img src="/botright.png" name="botright" border="0" alt="Top of Page" /></a></div><div id="bot"><iframe width="100%" height="1500" scrolling="no" src="/botmenubhchap.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></div></td></tr></table></div></body></html>