World English Bible
- Now in the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, Hezekiah the son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign.
- He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Abi the daughter of Zechariah.
- He did that which was right in the LORD’s eyes, according to all that David his father had done.
- He removed the high places, broke the pillars, and cut down the Asherah. He also broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, because in those days the children of Israel burned incense to it; and he called it Nehushtan.
- He trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel, so that after him was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, nor among them that were before him.
- For he joined with the LORD. He didn’t depart from following him, but kept his commandments, which the LORD commanded Moses.
- The LORD was with him. Wherever he went, he prospered. He rebelled against the king of Assyria, and didn’t serve him.
- He struck the Philistines to Gaza and its borders, from the tower of the watchmen to the fortified city.
- In the fourth year of King Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against Samaria and besieged it.
- At the end of three years they took it. In the sixth year of Hezekiah, which was the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel, Samaria was taken.
- The king of Assyria carried Israel away to Assyria, and put them in Halah, and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes,
- because they didn’t obey the LORD their God’s voice, but transgressed his covenant, even all that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded, and would not hear it or do it.
- Now in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them.
- Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria at Lachish, saying, “I have offended you. Withdraw from me. That which you put on me, I will bear.” The king of Assyria appointed to Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.
- Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the LORD’s house and in the treasures of the king’s house.
- At that time, Hezekiah cut off the gold from the doors of the LORD’s temple, and from the pillars which Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid, and gave it to the king of Assyria.
- The king of Assyria sent Tartan, Rabsaris, and Rabshakeh from Lachish to King Hezekiah with a great army to Jerusalem. They went up and came to Jerusalem. When they had come up, they came and stood by the conduit of the upper pool, which is in the highway of the fuller’s field.
- When they had called to the king, Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebnah the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder came out to them.
- Rabshakeh said to them, “Say now to Hezekiah, ’The great king, the king of Assyria, says, “What confidence is this in which you trust?
- You say (but they are but vain words), ‘There is counsel and strength for war.’ Now on whom do you trust, that you have rebelled against me?
- Now, behold, you trust in the staff of this bruised reed, even in Egypt. If a man leans on it, it will go into his hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust on him.
- But if you tell me, ‘We trust in the LORD our God,’ isn’t that he whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away, and has said to Judah and to Jerusalem, ‘You shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem’?
- Now therefore, please give pledges to my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses if you are able on your part to set riders on them.
- How then can you turn away the face of one captain of the least of my master’s servants, and put your trust on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen?
- Have 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.’”’”
- Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, Shebnah, and Joah, said to Rabshakeh, “Please speak to your servants in the Syrian language, for we understand it. Don’t speak with us in the Jews’ language, in the hearing of the people who are on the wall.”
- But Rabshakeh said to them, “Has my master sent me to your master and to you, to speak these words? Hasn’t he sent me to the men who sit on the wall, to eat their own dung, and to drink their own urine with you?”
- Then Rabshakeh stood and cried with a loud voice in the Jews’ language, and spoke, saying, “Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria.
- The king says, ’Don’t let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you out of his hand.
- Don’t let Hezekiah make you trust in the LORD, saying, “The LORD will surely deliver us, and this city shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.”
- Don’t listen to Hezekiah.’ For the king of Assyria says, ’Make your peace with me, and come out to me; and everyone of you eat from his own vine, and everyone from his own fig tree, and everyone drink water from his own cistern;
- until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees and of honey, that you may live and not die. Don’t listen to Hezekiah when he persuades you, saying, “The LORD will deliver us.”
- Has any of the gods of the nations ever delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria?
- Where are the gods of Hamath and of Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivvah? Have they delivered Samaria out of my hand?
- Who are they among all the gods of the countries, that have delivered their country out of my hand, that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?’”
- But the people stayed quiet, and answered him not a word; for the king’s commandment was, “Don’t answer him.”
- Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, came with Shebna the scribe and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and told him Rabshakeh’s words.
2 Kings 18:1-8 (New International Version) introduces us to Hezekiah, son of Ahaz. Yesterday we watched Ahaz copy pagan altars and hollow out Judah’s faith. Today the pendulum swings hard the other way.
Hezekiah removed the high places, smashed the sacred stones, cut down the Asherah poles, and broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it (v. 4).
Key notes western readers may miss:
• “High places” were usually hilltop shrines thought to bring worshipers
closer to the heavens. They mixed Israel’s God with local Canaanite
practices. Hezekiah’s choice to shut them down was bold politically;
they were popular, economically useful, and long-standing.
• The name Nĕḥuštān (נְחֻשְׁתָּן) is a pun in
Hebrew—literally “a piece of bronze,” sounding like
nāḥāš (serpent). By calling Moses’ once-gifted symbol
just “bronze,” Hezekiah strips it of misplaced awe.
Cross-references for reflection
– Numbers 21:4-9 — the original bronze serpent
– John 3:14-15 — Jesus re-centers that symbol on Himself
– Deuteronomy 12:2-7 — the early command to destroy high places
Today’s question: What good thing from the past have I let harden into an idol?
Verses 5-8 summarize Hezekiah’s life motto: “He trusted (Hebrew bataḥ) in the LORD… not one of the kings of Judah was like him.”
Archaeology lights this up:
• Hezekiah’s bulla (seal), found in Jerusalem in
2015, reads “Belonging to Hezekiah, son of Ahaz, king of Judah,”
surrounded by a two-winged sun and ankhs—symbols of life. A small object
whispering a large truth: real faith leaves real marks in real
clay.
• The Siloam Tunnel under the City of David, dug to
secure water during the coming siege, still carries spring water. An
inscription halfway through records two teams digging toward one
another—an image of determined faith meeting provision.
Hezekiah married common sense (build a tunnel) with covenant faith (seek the Lord). Mature faith is never passive.
Verses 9-16 telescope the timeline. The northern kingdom (Israel) falls to Assyria (722 BC)—just as we covered on Devotion 17. Only Judah remains. Eight years later, Assyria turns south. Hezekiah first tries diplomacy, offering Sennacherib 300 talents of silver and 30 talents of gold (v. 14); he even strips the temple doors he had once overlaid.
The Bible neither praises nor condemns this payment; it simply reports. Some church fathers (Jerome, Chrysostom) see it as a lapse, others (Calvin) as a prudent delay to ready the city. What we can say: faith can waver, yet God stays on course.
Modern parallels: when pressure rises—health bills, legal threats, layoffs—our first move may be to “buy time.” God can work even through partial or imperfect strategies, but He will always circle us back to trust.
Verses 17-37 zoom in on one long afternoon outside Jerusalem’s walls. Three Assyrian officials—the field commander (Rab-shaqeh in Hebrew, literally “chief cup-bearer,” now a military spokesman), the chief eunuch, and the supreme officer—stand at the conduit of the Upper Pool (same spot where Ahaz once doubted, Isaiah 7:3). They shout in polished Judahite Hebrew, not Aramaic, so every common soldier can hear.
Literary artistry: the speech is loaded with repeated taunts—
“On what are you basing this confidence?” (vv. 19, 24, 29).
Irony: Assyria uses the same line God used on Ahaz a generation
earlier—“If you do not stand firm in faith, you will not stand at all”
(Isaiah 7:9). The battlefield is as much in the ear and heart as in
stone walls.
Key claims the enemy makes:
1. Egypt is “a broken reed” (v. 21).
2. The LORD Himself sent Assyria (v. 25).
3. No other god has saved any nation (vv. 33-35).
All half-truths, all designed to drain hope. Notice how often today’s news, ads, or inner fears use the same logic: “No one else has won, so why try?”
The royal officials silence themselves (v. 36). In Hebrew culture a well-timed silence can be stronger than counter-argument (cf. Ecclesiastes 3:7). Sometimes the most faithful reply to taunt is to refuse the debate.
Theological themes
• Exclusive worship — Hezekiah’s purge echoes the first
commandment, paving the way for later reforms under Josiah.
• Faith under siege — Foreshadows the New Testament
church facing ridicule and power (Acts 4-5).
• True King vs. counterfeit power — The Assyrian king
boasts, but Yahweh will soon “put a hook in his nose” (19:28).
Revelation will echo that final reversal.
Voices through history
• Augustine saw in Hezekiah a type of Christ who broke the power of the
serpent.
• Luther read Rab-shaqeh’s speech as a picture of Satan’s accusations;
“A Mighty Fortress” grows from that insight:
“The prince of darkness grim, we tremble not for him…”
Suggested hymn for meditation: “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.” Sing or read it slowly, imagining the Assyrian spokesman at the wall and the quiet trust inside the city.
Questions for personal retreat
1. What “high place” might God be asking me to tear down—something
socially accepted yet spiritually compromising?
2. Where have I tried to “buy time” instead of first seeking the
Lord?
3. Which voice shapes my inner narrative—the taunts from the wall or the
promises of God?
Small group prompt
Walk through Isaiah 36-37 (parallel account) and list every action
Hezekiah takes. Rank them not by success but by faith expression.
Family/household idea
Run water in the sink and read aloud the Siloam Tunnel inscription
(easily found online). Invite everyone to thank God for unseen streams
of provision He is digging toward them right now.
Tomorrow chapter 19 will reveal God’s answer—an overnight victory no sword could win. For now, the story rests on a sharp edge: a king who has done everything he knows, and a city listening for God in the hush after enemy laughter.
Hold that tension through the day. It mirrors many of our own unfinished prayers.
Lord of Hosts,
You are our steady place when the world shouts and walls shake.
Search our hearts for hidden high places; give us courage to tear them
down.
Root our trust deeper than silver or strategy.
Guard our ears from lies, and fill our silence with Your sure
word.
As You carved water through rock for Hezekiah, carve living streams
through our hard places today.
Through Jesus, the Serpent-Crusher and King forever.
Amen.