1And it came to pass in the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, that Hezekiah son of Ahaz king of Judah reigned.
2A son of twenty and five years was he when he reigned, and twenty and nine years he reigned in Jerusalem; and the name of his mother was Abi the daughter of Zechariah.
3And he did that which was right in the eyes of YHWH, according to all that David his father had done.
4He removed the high places, and broke the pillars, and cut down the Asherah; and he beat to pieces the serpent of bronze that Moses had made, for until those days the sons of Israel were burning incense to it; and one called it Nehushtan.
5In YHWH, the God of Israel, he trusted; and after him there was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor those who were before him.
6And he clung to YHWH; he did not turn aside from following him, but kept his commandments (mitzvot) which YHWH commanded (tzivvah) Moses.
7And YHWH was with him; wherever he went out he prospered; and he rebelled against the king of Assyria and did not serve (avad) him.
8He struck the Philistines as far as Gaza and its borders, from the tower of watchmen to the fortified city.
9And it came to pass in the fourth year of king Hezekiah—it was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel—Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against Samaria and besieged it.
10And they captured it at the end of three years; in the sixth year of Hezekiah—it was the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel—Samaria was captured.
11And the king of Assyria carried Israel away to Assyria, and settled them in Halah and in Habor, the river of Gozan, and the cities of the Medes;
12because they did not listen to the voice of YHWH their God, but transgressed his covenant (berit)—all that Moses the servant of YHWH commanded (tzivvah)—and they did not listen and did not do it.
13And in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and seized them.
14And Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria, to Lachish, saying, "I have sinned; turn back from me; that which you lay upon me I will bear." And the king of Assyria laid upon Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.
15And Hezekiah gave all the silver that was found in the house of YHWH and in the treasuries of the house of the king.
16At that time Hezekiah cut off the doors of the temple of YHWH, and the doorposts that Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid, and gave them to the king of Assyria.
17And the king of Assyria sent Tartan and Rab-saris and Rabshakeh from Lachish to king Hezekiah with a heavy army to Jerusalem. And they went up and came to Jerusalem; and they went up and came and stood by the conduit of the upper pool, which is on the highway of the launderer's field.
18And they called to the king, and there came out to them Eliakim son of Hilkiah who was over the house, and Shebnah the scribe, and Joah son of Asaph the recorder.
19And Rabshakeh said to them, "Say now to Hezekiah: Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: What is this confidence in which you trust?
20You have said—but it is only a word of the lips—there is counsel and might for the war. Now, on whom do you trust, that you have rebelled against me?
21Now behold, you trust for yourself upon the staff of this crushed reed, upon Egypt, on which if a man (ish) leans, it will go into his palm and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust upon him.
22And if you say to me, 'In YHWH our God we trust,' is it not he whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has removed, and has said to Judah and to Jerusalem, 'Before this altar you shall bow down in Jerusalem'?
23And now, make a wager, please, with my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able to set riders upon them.
24How then will you turn back the face of one governor of the least of my master's servants? And you trust for yourself upon Egypt for chariots and for horsemen.
25Now, is it without YHWH that I have come up against this place to destroy it? YHWH said to me, 'Go up against this land and destroy it.'"
26And Eliakim son of Hilkiah, and Shebnah, and Joah said to Rabshakeh, "Speak, please, to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it; and do not speak with us in the Judean language in the ears of the people who are on the wall."
27And Rabshakeh said to them, "Is it to your master and to you that my master sent me to speak these words? Is it not to the men (ish) who sit on the wall, to eat their own dung and to drink the water of their feet with you?"
28And Rabshakeh stood and called out with a loud voice in Judean, and spoke and said, "Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria!
29Thus says the king: Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he is not able to deliver you from his hand.
30And do not let Hezekiah make you trust in YHWH, saying, 'YHWH will surely deliver us, and this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.'
31Do not listen to Hezekiah, for thus says the king of Assyria: Make with me a blessing and come out to me, and eat each man (ish) of his own vine and each man (ish) of his own fig tree, and drink each man (ish) the waters of his own cistern,
32until I come and take you to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive oil and honey, that you may live and not die. And do not listen to Hezekiah, for he incites you, saying, 'YHWH will deliver us.'
33Have the gods of the nations ever delivered, each (ish) his own land, from the hand of the king of Assyria?
34Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah? For have they delivered Samaria from my hand?
35Who among all the gods of the lands are they who delivered their land from my hand, that YHWH should deliver Jerusalem from my hand?"
36But the people were silent and did not answer him a word, for it was the commandment (mitzvah) of the king, saying, "You shall not answer him."
37And Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was over the house, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah son of Asaph the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their garments torn, and they told him the words of Rabshakeh.