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Selected Verse: 2 Kings 18:13 - Strong Concordance

Verse	Translation	Text
2Ki 18:13	Strong Concordance	Now in the fourteenth [0702] [06240] year [08141] of king [04428] Hezekiah [02396] did Sennacherib [05576] king [04428] of Assyria [0804] come up [05927] against all the fenced [01219] cities [05892] of Judah [03063], and took [08610] them.
	King James	Now in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah did Sennacherib king of Assyria come up against all the fenced cities of Judah, and took them.

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A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882]
Sennacherib--the son and successor of Shalmaneser. all the fenced cities of Judah--not absolutely all of them; for, besides the capital, some strong fortresses held out against the invader (Kg2 18:17; Kg2 19:8). The following account of Sennacherib's invasion of Judah and the remarkable destruction of his army, is repeated almost verbatim in 2Ch. 32:1-33 and Isa. 36:1-37:38. The expedition seems to have been directed against Egypt, the conquest of which was long a leading object of ambition with the Assyrian monarchs. But the invasion of Judah necessarily preceded, that country being the key to Egypt, the highway through which the conquerors from Upper Asia had to pass. Judah had also at this time formed a league of mutual defense with Egypt (Kg2 18:24). Moreover, it was now laid completely open by the transplantation of Israel to Assyria. Overrunning Palestine, Sennacherib laid siege to the fortress of Lachish, which lay seven Roman miles from Eleutheropolis, and therefore southwest of Jerusalem on the way to Egypt [ROBINSON]. Among the interesting illustrations of sacred history furnished by the recent Assyrian excavations, is a series of bas-reliefs, representing the siege of a town, which the inscription on the sculpture shows to be Lachish, and the figure of a king, whose name is given, on the same inscription, as Sennacherib. The legend, sculptured over the head of the king, runs thus: "Sennacherib, the mighty king, king of the country of Assyria, sitting on the throne of judgment before the city of Lachish [Lakhisha], I give permission for its slaughter" [Nineveh and Babylon]. This minute confirmation of the truth of the Bible narrative is given not only by the name Lachish, which is contained in the inscription, but from the physiognomy of the captives brought before the king, which is unmistakably Jewish.

A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882]

Sennacherib--the son and successor of Shalmaneser.

all the fenced cities of Judah--not absolutely all of them; for, besides the capital, some strong fortresses held out against the invader (Kg2 18:17; Kg2 19:8). The following account of Sennacherib's invasion of Judah and the remarkable destruction of his army, is repeated almost verbatim in 2Ch. 32:1-33 and Isa. 36:1-37:38. The expedition seems to have been directed against Egypt, the conquest of which was long a leading object of ambition with the Assyrian monarchs. But the invasion of Judah necessarily preceded, that country being the key to Egypt, the highway through which the conquerors from Upper Asia had to pass. Judah had also at this time formed a league of mutual defense with Egypt (Kg2 18:24). Moreover, it was now laid completely open by the transplantation of Israel to Assyria. Overrunning Palestine, Sennacherib laid siege to the fortress of Lachish, which lay seven Roman miles from Eleutheropolis, and therefore southwest of Jerusalem on the way to Egypt [ROBINSON]. Among the interesting illustrations of sacred history furnished by the recent Assyrian excavations, is a series of bas-reliefs, representing the siege of a town, which the inscription on the sculpture shows to be Lachish, and the figure of a king, whose name is given, on the same inscription, as Sennacherib. The legend, sculptured over the head of the king, runs thus: "Sennacherib, the mighty king, king of the country of Assyria, sitting on the throne of judgment before the city of Lachish [Lakhisha], I give permission for its slaughter" [Nineveh and Babylon]. This minute confirmation of the truth of the Bible narrative is given not only by the name Lachish, which is contained in the inscription, but from the physiognomy of the captives brought before the king, which is unmistakably Jewish.

Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834]
In the fourteenth year - This note of time, which places the invasion of Sennacherib eight years only after the capture of Samaria, is hopelessly at variance with the Assyrian dates for the two events, the first of which falls into the first of Sargon, and the second into the fourth of Sennacherib, twenty-one years later. We have therefore to choose between an entire rejection of the Assyrian chronological data, and an emendation of the present passage. Of the emendations proposed the simplest is to remove the note of time altogether, regarding it as having crept in from the margin. Sennacherib - This is the Greek form of the Sinakhirib of the inscriptions, the son of Sargon, and his immediate successor in the monarchy. The death of Sargon (705 B.C.) had been followed by a number of revolts. Hezekiah also rebelled, invaded Philistia, and helped the national party in that country to throw off the Assyrian yoke. From Sennacherib's inscriptions we learn that, having reduced Phoenicia, recovered Ascalon, and defeated an army of Egyptians and Ethiopians at Ekron, he marched against Jerusalem. The fenced cities - Sennacherib reckons the number taken by him at "forty-six." He seems to have captured on his way to the holy city a vast number of small towns and villages, whose inhabitants he carried off to the number of 200, 000. Compare Isa 24:1-12. The ground occupied by his main host outside the modern Damascus gate was thenceforth known to the Jews as "the camp of the Assyrians." Details connected with the siege may be gathered from Isa. 22 and Chronicles (marginal reference "s"). After a while Hezekiah resolved on submission. Sennacherib Kg2 18:14 had left his army to continue the siege, and gone in person to Lachish. The Jewish monarch sent his embassy to that town.

Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78]
Sennacherib invades Judah and threatens Jerusalem. (Note: We have a parallel and elaborate account of this campaign of Sennacherib and his defeat (2 Kings 18:13-19:37), and also of Hezekiah's sickness and recovery and the arrival of the Babylonian embassy in Jerusalem (2 Kings 20:1-19), in Isa 36-39, and a brief extract, with certain not unimportant supplements, in 2 Chron 32. These three narratives, as is now generally admitted, are drawn independently of one another from a collection of the prophecies of Isaiah, which was received into the annals of the kingdom (Ch2 32:32), and serve to confirm and complete one another.) - Sennacherib, סנחריב (Sanchērı̄bh), Σενναχηρίμ (lxx), Σεναχήριβος (Joseph.), Σαναχάριβος (Herodot.), whose name has not yet been deciphered with certainty upon the Assyrian monuments or clearly explained (see J. Brandis uber den histor. Gewinn aus der Entzifferung der assyr. Inschriften, pp. 103ff., and M. v. Niebuhr, Gesch. Assurs, p. 37), was the successor of Salmanasar (Sargina according to the monuments). He is called βασιλεὺς Ἀραβίων τε καὶ Ἀσσυρίων by Herodotus (ii. 141), and reigned, according to Berosus, eighteen years. He took all the fortified cities in Judah (יפּשׂם, with the masculine suffix instead of the feminine: cf. Ewald, 184, c.). The כּל, all, is not to be pressed; for, beside the strongly fortified capital Jerusalem, he had not yet taken the fortified cities of Lachish and Libnah (Kg2 18:17 and Kg2 19:8) at the time, when, according to Kg2 18:14., he sent a division of his army against Jerusalem, and summoned Hezekiah to surrender that city. According to Herodotus (l.c.), the real object of his campaign was Egypt, which is also apparent from Kg2 19:24, and is confirmed by Isa 10:24; for which reason Tirhaka marched against him (Kg2 19:8; cf. M. v. Niebuhr, Gesch. Assurs, pp. 171, 172). Kg2 18:14-16 On the report of Sennacherib's approach, Hezekiah made provision at once for the safety of Jerusalem. He had the city fortified more strongly, and the fountain of the upper Gihon and the brook near the city stopped up (see at Kg2 18:17), to cut off the supply of water from the besiegers, as is stated in Ch2 32:2-8, and confirmed by Isa 22:8-11. In the meantime Sennacherib had pressed forward to Lachish, i.e., Um Lakis, in the plain of Judah, on the south-west of Jerusalem, seven hours to the west of Eleutheropolis on the road to Egypt (see at Jos 10:3); so that Hezekiah, having doubts as to the possibility of a successful resistance, sent ambassadors to negotiate with him, and promised to pay him as much tribute as he might demand if he would withdraw. The confession "I have sinned" is not to be pressed, inasmuch as it was forced from Hezekiah by the pressure of distress. Since Asshur had made Judah tributary by faithless conduct on the part of Tiglath-pileser towards Ahaz, there was nothing really wrong in the shaking off of this yoke by the refusal to pay any further tribute. But Hezekiah certainly did wrong, when, after taking the first step, he was alarmed at the disastrous consequences, and sought to purchase once more the peace which he himself had broken, by a fresh submission and renewal of the payment of tribute. This false step on the part of the pious king, which arose from a temporary weakness of faith, was nevertheless turned into a blessing through the pride of Sennacherib and the covenant-faithfulness of the Lord towards him and his kingdom. Sennacherib demanded the enormous sum of three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold (more than two and a half million thalers, or 375,000); and Hezekiah not only gave him all the gold and silver found in the treasures of the temple and palace, but had the gold plates with which he had covered the doors and doorposts of the temple (Ch2 29:3) removed, to send them to the king of Assyria. האמנות, lit., the supports, i.e., the posts, of the doors. These negotiations with Sennacherib on the part of Hezekiah are passed over both in the book of Isaiah and also in the Chronicles, because they had no further influence upon the future progress of the war. Kg2 18:17 For though Sennacherib did indeed take the money, he did not depart, as he had no doubt promised, but, emboldened still further by this submissiveness, sent a detachment of his army against Jerusalem, and summoned Hezekiah to surrender the capital. "He sent Tartan, Rabsaris, and Rabshakeh." Rabshakeh only is mentioned in Isaiah, as the chief speaker in the negotiations which follow, although in Isa 37:6 and Isa 37:24 allusion is evidently made to the other two. Tartan had no doubt the chief command, since he is not only mentioned first here, but conducted the siege of Ashdod, according to Isa 20:1. The three names are probably only official names, or titles of the offices held by the persons mentioned. For רב־סריס means princeps eunuchorum, and רבשׁקה chief cup-bearer. תּרתּן is explained by Hitzig on Isa 20:1 as derived from the Persian tr-tan, "high person or vertex of the body," and in Jer 39:3 as "body-guard;" but this is hardly correct, as the other two titles are Semitic. These generals took up their station with their army "at the conduit of the upper pool, which ran by the road of the fuller's field," i.e., the conduit which flowed from the upper pool - according to Ch2 32:30, the basin of the upper Gihon (Birket el Mamilla) - into the lower pool (Birket es Sultn: see at Kg1 1:33). According to Isa 7:3, this conduit was in existence as early as the time of Ahaz. The "end" of it is probably the locality in which the conduit began at the upper pool or Gihon, or where it first issued from it. This conduit which led from the upper Gihon into the lower, and which is called in Ch2 32:30 "the outflow of the upper Gihon," Hezekiah stopped up, and conducted the water downwards, i.e., the underground, towards the west into the city of David; that is to say, he conducted the water of the upper Gihon, which had previously flowed along the western side of the city outside the wall into the lower Gihon and so away down the valley of Ben-hinnom, into the city itself by means of a subterranean channel, (Note: We may get some idea of the works connected with this aqueduct from the description of the "sealed fountain" of the Solomon's pool at Ain Saleh in Tobler, Topogr. v. Jerus. ii. pp. 857ff., Dritte Wanderung.) that he might retain this water for the use of the city in the event of a siege of Jerusalem, and keep it from the besiegers. This water was probably collected in the cistern (הבּרכה) which Hezekiah made, i.e., order to be constructed (Kg2 20:20), or the reservoir "between the two walls for the waters of the old pool," mentioned in Isa 22:11, i.e., most probably the reservoir still existing at some distance to the east of the Joppa gate on the western side of the road which leads to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the so-called "pool of Hezekiah," which the natives call Birket el Hamman, "Bathing-pool," because it supplies a bath in the neighbourhood, or B. el Batrak, "Patriarch's pool" (see Robinson, Pal. i. p. 487, and Fresh Researches into the Topography of Jerusalem, pp. 111ff.), since this is still fed by a conduit from the Mamilla pool (see E. G. Schultz, Jerusalem, p. 31, and Tobler, Denkbltter, pp. 44ff.). (Note: The identity of the ברכה, which Hezekiah constructed as a reservoir for the overflow of the upper Gihon that was conducted into the city (Kg2 20:20), with the present "pool of Hezekiah" is indeed very probable, but not quite certain. For in very recent times, on digging the foundation for the Evangelical church built on the northern slope of Zion, they lighted upon a large well-preserved arched channel, which was partly cut in the rock, and, where this was not the case, built in level layers and coated within with a hard cement about an inch thick and covered with large stones (Robinson, New Inquiries as to the Topography of Jerusalem, p. 113, and Bibl. Res. p. 318), and which might possibly be connected with the channel made by Hezekiah to conduct the water of the upper Gihon into the city, although this channel does not open into the pool of Hezekiah, and the walls, some remains of which are still preserved, may belong to a later age. The arguments adduced by Thenius in support of the assumption that the "lower" or "old pool" mentioned in Isa 22:9 and Isa 22:11 is different from the lower Gihon-pool, and to be sought for in the Tyropoeon, are inconclusive. It by no means follows from the expression, "which lies by the road of the fuller's field," i.e., by the road which runs past the fuller's field, that there was another upper pool in Jerusalem beside the upper pool (Gihon); but this additional clause simply serves to define more precisely the spot by the conduit mentioned where the Assyrian army took its stand; and it by no means follows from the words of Isa 22:11, "a gathering of waters have ye made between the two walls for the waters of the old pool," that this gathering of waters was made in the Tyropoeon, and that this "old pool," as distinguished from the lower pool (Isa 22:9), was an upper pool, which was above the king's pool mentioned in Neh 3:15. For even if החמתים בין occurs in Kg2 25:4; Jer 39:4; Jer 52:7, in connection with a locality on the south-east side of the city, the Old Testament says nothing about two pools in the Tyropoeon at the south-east corner of Jerusalem, but simply mentions a fountain gate, which probably derived its name from the present fountain of the Virgin, and the king's pool, also called Shelach in Neh 2:14; Neh 3:15, which was no doubt fed from that fountain like the present Siloam, and watered the royal gardens. (Compare Rob. Pal. i. pp. 565ff., and Bibl. Res. p. 189, and Tobler, Die Siloah-quelle u. der Oelberg, pp. 1ff.). The two walls, between which Hezekiah placed the reservoir, may very well be the northern wall of Zion and the one which surrounded the lower city (Acra) on the north-west, according to which the words in Isa 22:11 would admirably suit the "pool of Hezekiah." Again, Hezekiah did not wait till the departure of Sennacherib before he built this conduit, which is also mentioned in Wis. 48:17, as Knobel supposes (on Isa 22:11), but he made it when he first invaded Judah, before the appearance of the Assyrian troops in front of Jerusalem, when he made the defensive preparations noticed at v. 14, as is evident from Ch2 32:3-4, compared with Kg2 18:30, since the stopping up of the fountain outside the city, to withdraw the water from the Assyrians, is expressly mentioned in Kg2 18:3, Kg2 18:4 among the measures of defence; and in the concluding notices concerning Hezekiah in Kg2 20:20, and Ch2 32:30, there is also a brief allusion to this work, without any precise indication of the time when he had executed it.) Kg2 18:18 Hezekiah considered it beneath his dignity to negotiate personally with the generals of Sennacherib. He sent three of his leading ministers out to the front of the city: Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, the captain of the castle, who had only received the appointment to this office a short time before in Shebna's place (Isa 22:20-21); Shebna, who was still secretary of state (ספר: see at Sa2 8:17); and Joach the son of Asaph, the chancellor (מזכּיר: see at Sa2 8:16). Rabshakeh made a speech to these three (Kg2 18:19-25), in which he tried to show that Hezekiah's confidence that he would be able to resist the might of the king of Assyria was perfectly vain, since neither Egypt (Kg2 18:21), nor his God (Kg2 18:22), nor his forces (Kg2 18:23), would be able to defend him. Kg2 18:19 "The great king:" the Assyrian, Babylonian, and Persian kings all assumed this title (cf. Eze 26:7; Dan 2:37), because kings of conquered lands were subject to them as vassals (see at Isa 10:8). "What is this confidence that thou cherishest?" i.e., how vain or worthless is this confidence! Kg2 18:20 "Thou sayest ... it is only a lip-word...: counsel and might for battle;" i.e., if thou speakest of counsel and might for battle, that is only שׂפתים דּבר, a word that merely comes from the lips, not from the heart, the seat of the understanding, i.e., a foolish and inconsiderate saying (cf. Pro 14:23; Job 11:2). - עמרתּ is to be preferred to the אמרתּי of Isaiah as the more original of the two. עתּה, now, sc. we will see on whom thou didst rely, when thou didst rebel against me. Kg2 18:21 On Egypt? "that broken reed, which runs into the hand of any one who would lean upon it (thinking it whole), and pierces it through." This figure, which is repeated in Eze 29:6-7, is so far suitably chosen, that the Nile, representing Egypt, is rich in reeds. What Rabshakeh says of Egypt here, Isaiah had already earnestly impressed upon his people (Isa 30:3-5), to warn them against trusting in the support of Egypt, from which one party in the nation expected help against Assyria. Kg2 18:22 Hezekiah (and Judah) had a stronger ground of confidence in Jehovah his God. Even this Rabshakeh tried to shake, availing himself very skilfully, from his heathen point of view, of the reform which Hezekiah had made in the worship, and representing the abolition of the altars on the high places as an infringement upon the reverence that ought to be shown to God. "And if ye say, We trust in Jehovah our God, (I say:) is it not He whose high places and altars Hezekiah has taken away and has said to Judah and Jerusalem, Ye shall worship before this altar (in the temple) in Jerusalem?" Instead of האמרוּ כּי, according to which Rabshakeh turned to the deputies, we have in Isa 7:7 תאמר כּי, according to which the words are addressed to Hezekiah, as in Kg2 18:20. האמרוּ is preferred by Thenius, Knobel, and others, because in what follows Hezekiah is addressed in the third person. but the very circumstance that האמרוּ is apparently more suitable favours the originality of תאמר, according to which the king is still addressed in the person of his ambassadors, and Rabshakeh only speaks directly to the ambassadors when this argument is answered. The attack upon the confidence which the Judaeans placed in their God commences with הוּא הלוא. The opinion of Thenius, that the second clause of the verse is a continuation of the words supposed to be spoken by the Judaeans who trusted in God, and that the apodosis does not follow till Kg2 18:23, is quite a mistake. The ambassadors of Hezekiah could not regard the high places and idolatrous altars that had been abolished as altars of Jehovah; and the apodosis could not commence with ועתּה. Kg2 18:23-24 Still less could Hezekiah rely upon his military resources. נא התערב: enter, I pray thee, (into contest) with my lord, and I will give thee 2000 horses, if thou canst set the horsemen upon them. The meaning, of course, is not that Hezekiah could not raise 2000 soldiers in all, but that he could not produce so many men who were able to fight as horsemen. "How then wilt thou turn back a single one of the smallest lieutenants of my lord?" פל את־פּני השׁיב, to repulse a person's face, means generally to turn away a person with his petition (Kg1 2:16-17), here to repulse an assailant. אחד פּחת is one pasha; although אחד hguo, which is grammatically subordinate to פּחת, is in the construct state, that the genitives which follow may be connected (for this subordination of אחד see Ewald, 286, a.). פּחה (see at Kg1 10:15), lit., under-vicegerent, i.e., administrator of a province under a satrap, in military states also a subordinate officer. ותּבטח: and so (with thy military force so small) thou trustest in Egypt וגו לרכב, so far as war-chariots and horsemen are concerned. Kg2 18:25 After Rabshakeh had thus, as he imagined, taken away every ground of confidence from Hezekiah, he added still further, that the Assyrian king himself had also not come without Jehovah, but had been summoned by Him to effect the destruction of Judah. It is possible that some report may have reached his ears of the predictions of the prophets, who had represented the Assyrian invasion as a judgment from the Lord, and these he used for his own purposes. Instead of הזּה המּקום על, against this place, i.e., Jerusalem, we have הזּאת הארץ על in Isaiah, - a reading which owes its origin simply to the endeavour to bring the two clauses into exact conformity to one another. Kg2 18:26-37 It was very conceivable that Rabshakeh's boasting might make an impression upon the people; the ambassadors of Hezekiah therefore interrupted him with the request that he would speak to them in Aramaean, as they understood that language, and not in Jewish, on account of the people who were standing upon the wall. ארמית was the language spoken in Syria, Babylonia, and probably also in the province of Assyria, and may possibly have been Rabshakeh's mother-tongue, even if the court language of the Assyrian kings was an Aryan dialect. With the close affinity between the Aramaean and the Hebrew, the latter could not be unknown to Rabshakeh, so that he made use of it, just as the Aramaean language was intelligible to the ministers of Hezekiah, whereas the people in Jerusalem understood only יהוּדיה, Jewish, i.e., the Hebrew language spoken in the kingdom of Judah. It is evident from the last clause of the verse that the negotiations were carried on in the neighbourhood of the city wall of Jerusalem. Kg2 18:27 But Rabshakeh rejected this proposal with the scornful remark, that his commission was not to speak to Hezekiah and his ambassadors only, but rather to the people upon the wall. The variation of the preposition על and אל in אדניך על אדני, to thy lord (Hezekiah), and אליך, to thee (Eliakim as chief speaker), is avoided in the text of Isaiah. על is frequently used for אל, in the later usage of the language, in the sense of to or at. In the words "who sit upon the wall to eat their dung and drink their urine," Rabshakeh points to the horrors which a siege of Jerusalem would entail upon the inhabitants. For חריהם = חראיהם, excrementa sua, and שׁיניהם, urinas suas, the Masoretes have substituted the euphemisms צואתם, going forth, and רגליהם מימי, water of their feet. Kg2 18:28-30 ויּעמוד: not, he stood up, raised himself (Ges.), or came forward (Then.), but he stationed himself, assumed an attitude calculated for effect, and spoke to the people with a loud voice in the Jewish language, telling them to listen to the king of Assyria and not to be led astray by Hezekiah, i.e., to be persuaded to defend the city any longer, since neither Hezekiah nor Jehovah could defend them from the might of Sennacherib. אל־ישּׁיא: let not Hezekiah deceive you, sc. by pretending to be able to defend or save Jerusalem. In מיּדו, "out of his (the Assyrian's) hand," the speaker ceases to speak in the name of his king. On the construction of the passive תּנּתן with את־העיר, see Ewald, 277, d., although in the instance before us he proposes to expunge the את after Isa 36:15. Kg2 18:31-32 "Make peace with me and come out to me (sc., out of your walls, i.e., surrender to me), and ye shall eat every one his vine, ... till I come and bring you into a land like your own land..." בּרכה is used here to signify peace as the concentration of weal and blessing. The imperative ועכלוּ expresses the consequence of what goes before (vid., Ewald, 347, b.). To eat his vine and fig-tree and to drink the water of his well is a figure denoting the quiet and undisturbed enjoyment of the fruits of his own possession (cf. Kg1 5:5). Even in the event of their yielding, the Assyrian would transport the Jewish people into another land, according to the standing custom of Asiatic conquerors in ancient times (for proofs see Hengstenberg, De rebus Tyriis, pp. 51, 52). To make the people contented with this thought, the boaster promised that the king of Assyria would carry them into a land which was quite as fruitful and glorious as the land of Canaan. The description of it as a land with corn and new wine, etc., recalls the picture of the land of Canaan in Deu 8:8 and Deu 33:28. יצהר זית is the olive-tree which yields good oil, in distinction from the wild olive-tree. וגו וחיוּ: and ye shall live and not die, i.e., no harm shall befall you from me (Thenius). This passage is abridged in Isa 36:17. Kg2 18:33-34 Even Jehovah could not deliver them any more than Hezekiah. As a proof of this, Rabshakeh enumerated a number of cities and lands which the king of Assyria had conquered, without their gods' being able to offer any resistance to his power. "Where are the gods of Hamath, etc., that they might have delivered Samaria out of my hand?" Instead of הצּילוּ כּי we have הץ וכי and that they might have, which loosens the connection somewhat more between this clause and the preceding one, and makes it more independent. "Where are they?" is equivalent to they are gone, have perished (cf. Kg2 19:18); and "that they might have delivered" is equivalent to they have not delivered. The subject to הצּילוּ כּי is הגּוים אלהי, which includes the God of Samaria. Sennacherib regards himself as being as it were one with his predecessors, as the representative of the might of Assyria, so that he attributes to himself the conquests of cities and lands which his ancestors had made. The cities and lands enumerated in Kg2 18:34 have been mentioned already in Kg2 17:24 as conquered territories, from which colonists had been transplanted to Samaria, with the exception of Arpad and Hena. ארפּד, which is also mentioned in Kg2 19:13; Isa 10:9; Isa 36:19; Isa 37:13, and Jer 49:23, in connection with Hamath, was certainly situated in the neighbourhood of that city, and still exists, so far as the name is concerned, in the large village of rfd, Arfd (mentioned by Maraszid, i. 47), in northern Syria in the district of Azz, which was seven hours to the north of Haleb, according to Abulf. Tab. Syr. ed. Khler, p. 23, and Niebuhr, Reise, ii. p. 414 (see Roediger, Addenda ad Ges. thes. p. 112). הנע, Hena, which is also combined with 'Ivvah in Kg2 19:13 and Isa 37:13, is probably the city of 'nt Ana, on the Euphrates, mentioned by Abulf., and עוּה is most likely the same as עוּא in Kg2 17:24. The names ועוּה הנע are omitted from the text of Isaiah in consequence of the abridgment of Rabshakeh's address. Kg2 18:35 Kg2 18:35 contains the conclusion drawn from the facts already adduced: "which of all the gods of the lands are they who have delivered their land out of my hand, that Jehovah should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?" i.e., as not one of the gods of the lands named have been able to rescue his land from Assyria, Jehovah also will not be able to defend Jerusalem. Kg2 18:36-37 The people were quite silent at this address ("the people," העם, to whom Rabshakeh had wished to address himself); for Hezekiah had forbidden them to make any answer, not only to prevent Rabshakeh from saying anything further, but that the ambassadors of Sennacherib might be left in complete uncertainty as to the impression made by their words. The deputies of Hezekiah returned to the king with their clothes rent as a sign of grief at the words of the Assyrian, by which not only Hezekiah, but still more Jehovah, had been blasphemed, and reported what they had heard.

Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78]

Sennacherib invades Judah and threatens Jerusalem.

(Note: We have a parallel and elaborate account of this campaign of Sennacherib and his defeat (2 Kings 18:13-19:37), and also of Hezekiah's sickness and recovery and the arrival of the Babylonian embassy in Jerusalem (2 Kings 20:1-19), in Isa 36-39, and a brief extract, with certain not unimportant supplements, in 2 Chron 32. These three narratives, as is now generally admitted, are drawn independently of one another from a collection of the prophecies of Isaiah, which was received into the annals of the kingdom (Ch2 32:32), and serve to confirm and complete one another.)

- Sennacherib, סנחריב (Sanchērı̄bh), Σενναχηρίμ (lxx), Σεναχήριβος (Joseph.), Σαναχάριβος (Herodot.), whose name has not yet been deciphered with certainty upon the Assyrian monuments or clearly explained (see J. Brandis uber den histor. Gewinn aus der Entzifferung der assyr. Inschriften, pp. 103ff., and M. v. Niebuhr, Gesch. Assurs, p. 37), was the successor of Salmanasar (Sargina according to the monuments). He is called βασιλεὺς Ἀραβίων τε καὶ Ἀσσυρίων by Herodotus (ii. 141), and reigned, according to Berosus, eighteen years. He took all the fortified cities in Judah (יפּשׂם, with the masculine suffix instead of the feminine: cf. Ewald, 184, c.). The כּל, all, is not to be pressed; for, beside the strongly fortified capital Jerusalem, he had not yet taken the fortified cities of Lachish and Libnah (Kg2 18:17 and Kg2 19:8) at the time, when, according to Kg2 18:14., he sent a division of his army against Jerusalem, and summoned Hezekiah to surrender that city. According to Herodotus (l.c.), the real object of his campaign was Egypt, which is also apparent from Kg2 19:24, and is confirmed by Isa 10:24; for which reason Tirhaka marched against him (Kg2 19:8; cf. M. v. Niebuhr, Gesch. Assurs, pp. 171, 172).

Kg2 18:14-16

On the report of Sennacherib's approach, Hezekiah made provision at once for the safety of Jerusalem. He had the city fortified more strongly, and the fountain of the upper Gihon and the brook near the city stopped up (see at Kg2 18:17), to cut off the supply of water from the besiegers, as is stated in Ch2 32:2-8, and confirmed by Isa 22:8-11. In the meantime Sennacherib had pressed forward to Lachish, i.e., Um Lakis, in the plain of Judah, on the south-west of Jerusalem, seven hours to the west of Eleutheropolis on the road to Egypt (see at Jos 10:3); so that Hezekiah, having doubts as to the possibility of a successful resistance, sent ambassadors to negotiate with him, and promised to pay him as much tribute as he might demand if he would withdraw. The confession "I have sinned" is not to be pressed, inasmuch as it was forced from Hezekiah by the pressure of distress. Since Asshur had made Judah tributary by faithless conduct on the part of Tiglath-pileser towards Ahaz, there was nothing really wrong in the shaking off of this yoke by the refusal to pay any further tribute. But Hezekiah certainly did wrong, when, after taking the first step, he was alarmed at the disastrous consequences, and sought to purchase once more the peace which he himself had broken, by a fresh submission and renewal of the payment of tribute. This false step on the part of the pious king, which arose from a temporary weakness of faith, was nevertheless turned into a blessing through the pride of Sennacherib and the covenant-faithfulness of the Lord towards him and his kingdom. Sennacherib demanded the enormous sum of three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold (more than two and a half million thalers, or 375,000); and Hezekiah not only gave him all the gold and silver found in the treasures of the temple and palace, but had the gold plates with which he had covered the doors and doorposts of the temple (Ch2 29:3) removed, to send them to the king of Assyria. האמנות, lit., the supports, i.e., the posts, of the doors.

These negotiations with Sennacherib on the part of Hezekiah are passed over both in the book of Isaiah and also in the Chronicles, because they had no further influence upon the future progress of the war.

Kg2 18:17

For though Sennacherib did indeed take the money, he did not depart, as he had no doubt promised, but, emboldened still further by this submissiveness, sent a detachment of his army against Jerusalem, and summoned Hezekiah to surrender the capital. "He sent Tartan, Rabsaris, and Rabshakeh." Rabshakeh only is mentioned in Isaiah, as the chief speaker in the negotiations which follow, although in Isa 37:6 and Isa 37:24 allusion is evidently made to the other two. Tartan had no doubt the chief command, since he is not only mentioned first here, but conducted the siege of Ashdod, according to Isa 20:1. The three names are probably only official names, or titles of the offices held by the persons mentioned. For רב־סריס means princeps eunuchorum, and רבשׁקה chief cup-bearer. תּרתּן is explained by Hitzig on Isa 20:1 as derived from the Persian tr-tan, "high person or vertex of the body," and in Jer 39:3 as "body-guard;" but this is hardly correct, as the other two titles are Semitic. These generals took up their station with their army "at the conduit of the upper pool, which ran by the road of the fuller's field," i.e., the conduit which flowed from the upper pool - according to Ch2 32:30, the basin of the upper Gihon (Birket el Mamilla) - into the lower pool (Birket es Sultn: see at Kg1 1:33). According to Isa 7:3, this conduit was in existence as early as the time of Ahaz. The "end" of it is probably the locality in which the conduit began at the upper pool or Gihon, or where it first issued from it. This conduit which led from the upper Gihon into the lower, and which is called in Ch2 32:30 "the outflow of the upper Gihon," Hezekiah stopped up, and conducted the water downwards, i.e., the underground, towards the west into the city of David; that is to say, he conducted the water of the upper Gihon, which had previously flowed along the western side of the city outside the wall into the lower Gihon and so away down the valley of Ben-hinnom, into the city itself by means of a subterranean channel,

(Note: We may get some idea of the works connected with this aqueduct from the description of the "sealed fountain" of the Solomon's pool at Ain Saleh in Tobler, Topogr. v. Jerus. ii. pp. 857ff., Dritte Wanderung.)

that he might retain this water for the use of the city in the event of a siege of Jerusalem, and keep it from the besiegers.

This water was probably collected in the cistern (הבּרכה) which Hezekiah made, i.e., order to be constructed (Kg2 20:20), or the reservoir "between the two walls for the waters of the old pool," mentioned in Isa 22:11, i.e., most probably the reservoir still existing at some distance to the east of the Joppa gate on the western side of the road which leads to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the so-called "pool of Hezekiah," which the natives call Birket el Hamman, "Bathing-pool," because it supplies a bath in the neighbourhood, or B. el Batrak, "Patriarch's pool" (see Robinson, Pal. i. p. 487, and Fresh Researches into the Topography of Jerusalem, pp. 111ff.), since this is still fed by a conduit from the Mamilla pool (see E. G. Schultz, Jerusalem, p. 31, and Tobler, Denkbltter, pp. 44ff.).

(Note: The identity of the ברכה, which Hezekiah constructed as a reservoir for the overflow of the upper Gihon that was conducted into the city (Kg2 20:20), with the present "pool of Hezekiah" is indeed very probable, but not quite certain. For in very recent times, on digging the foundation for the Evangelical church built on the northern slope of Zion, they lighted upon a large well-preserved arched channel, which was partly cut in the rock, and, where this was not the case, built in level layers and coated within with a hard cement about an inch thick and covered with large stones (Robinson, New Inquiries as to the Topography of Jerusalem, p. 113, and Bibl. Res. p. 318), and which might possibly be connected with the channel made by Hezekiah to conduct the water of the upper Gihon into the city, although this channel does not open into the pool of Hezekiah, and the walls, some remains of which are still preserved, may belong to a later age. The arguments adduced by Thenius in support of the assumption that the "lower" or "old pool" mentioned in Isa 22:9 and Isa 22:11 is different from the lower Gihon-pool, and to be sought for in the Tyropoeon, are inconclusive. It by no means follows from the expression, "which lies by the road of the fuller's field," i.e., by the road which runs past the fuller's field, that there was another upper pool in Jerusalem beside the upper pool (Gihon); but this additional clause simply serves to define more precisely the spot by the conduit mentioned where the Assyrian army took its stand; and it by no means follows from the words of Isa 22:11, "a gathering of waters have ye made between the two walls for the waters of the old pool," that this gathering of waters was made in the Tyropoeon, and that this "old pool," as distinguished from the lower pool (Isa 22:9), was an upper pool, which was above the king's pool mentioned in Neh 3:15. For even if החמתים בין occurs in Kg2 25:4; Jer 39:4; Jer 52:7, in connection with a locality on the south-east side of the city, the Old Testament says nothing about two pools in the Tyropoeon at the south-east corner of Jerusalem, but simply mentions a fountain gate, which probably derived its name from the present fountain of the Virgin, and the king's pool, also called Shelach in Neh 2:14; Neh 3:15, which was no doubt fed from that fountain like the present Siloam, and watered the royal gardens. (Compare Rob. Pal. i. pp. 565ff., and Bibl. Res. p. 189, and Tobler, Die Siloah-quelle u. der Oelberg, pp. 1ff.). The two walls, between which Hezekiah placed the reservoir, may very well be the northern wall of Zion and the one which surrounded the lower city (Acra) on the north-west, according to which the words in Isa 22:11 would admirably suit the "pool of Hezekiah." Again, Hezekiah did not wait till the departure of Sennacherib before he built this conduit, which is also mentioned in Wis. 48:17, as Knobel supposes (on Isa 22:11), but he made it when he first invaded Judah, before the appearance of the Assyrian troops in front of Jerusalem, when he made the defensive preparations noticed at v. 14, as is evident from Ch2 32:3-4, compared with Kg2 18:30, since the stopping up of the fountain outside the city, to withdraw the water from the Assyrians, is expressly mentioned in Kg2 18:3, Kg2 18:4 among the measures of defence; and in the concluding notices concerning Hezekiah in Kg2 20:20, and Ch2 32:30, there is also a brief allusion to this work, without any precise indication of the time when he had executed it.)

Kg2 18:18

Hezekiah considered it beneath his dignity to negotiate personally with the generals of Sennacherib. He sent three of his leading ministers out to the front of the city: Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, the captain of the castle, who had only received the appointment to this office a short time before in Shebna's place (Isa 22:20-21); Shebna, who was still secretary of state (ספר: see at Sa2 8:17); and Joach the son of Asaph, the chancellor (מזכּיר: see at Sa2 8:16).

Rabshakeh made a speech to these three (Kg2 18:19-25), in which he tried to show that Hezekiah's confidence that he would be able to resist the might of the king of Assyria was perfectly vain, since neither Egypt (Kg2 18:21), nor his God (Kg2 18:22), nor his forces (Kg2 18:23), would be able to defend him.

Kg2 18:19

"The great king:" the Assyrian, Babylonian, and Persian kings all assumed this title (cf. Eze 26:7; Dan 2:37), because kings of conquered lands were subject to them as vassals (see at Isa 10:8). "What is this confidence that thou cherishest?" i.e., how vain or worthless is this confidence!

Kg2 18:20

"Thou sayest ... it is only a lip-word...: counsel and might for battle;" i.e., if thou speakest of counsel and might for battle, that is only שׂפתים דּבר, a word that merely comes from the lips, not from the heart, the seat of the understanding, i.e., a foolish and inconsiderate saying (cf. Pro 14:23; Job 11:2). - עמרתּ is to be preferred to the אמרתּי of Isaiah as the more original of the two. עתּה, now, sc. we will see on whom thou didst rely, when thou didst rebel against me.

Kg2 18:21

On Egypt? "that broken reed, which runs into the hand of any one who would lean upon it (thinking it whole), and pierces it through." This figure, which is repeated in Eze 29:6-7, is so far suitably chosen, that the Nile, representing Egypt, is rich in reeds. What Rabshakeh says of Egypt here, Isaiah had already earnestly impressed upon his people (Isa 30:3-5), to warn them against trusting in the support of Egypt, from which one party in the nation expected help against Assyria.

Kg2 18:22

Hezekiah (and Judah) had a stronger ground of confidence in Jehovah his God. Even this Rabshakeh tried to shake, availing himself very skilfully, from his heathen point of view, of the reform which Hezekiah had made in the worship, and representing the abolition of the altars on the high places as an infringement upon the reverence that ought to be shown to God. "And if ye say, We trust in Jehovah our God, (I say:) is it not He whose high places and altars Hezekiah has taken away and has said to Judah and Jerusalem, Ye shall worship before this altar (in the temple) in Jerusalem?" Instead of האמרוּ כּי, according to which Rabshakeh turned to the deputies, we have in Isa 7:7 תאמר כּי, according to which the words are addressed to Hezekiah, as in Kg2 18:20. האמרוּ is preferred by Thenius, Knobel, and others, because in what follows Hezekiah is addressed in the third person. but the very circumstance that האמרוּ is apparently more suitable favours the originality of תאמר, according to which the king is still addressed in the person of his ambassadors, and Rabshakeh only speaks directly to the ambassadors when this argument is answered. The attack upon the confidence which the Judaeans placed in their God commences with הוּא הלוא. The opinion of Thenius, that the second clause of the verse is a continuation of the words supposed to be spoken by the Judaeans who trusted in God, and that the apodosis does not follow till Kg2 18:23, is quite a mistake. The ambassadors of Hezekiah could not regard the high places and idolatrous altars that had been abolished as altars of Jehovah; and the apodosis could not commence with ועתּה.

Kg2 18:23-24

Still less could Hezekiah rely upon his military resources. נא התערב: enter, I pray thee, (into contest) with my lord, and I will give thee 2000 horses, if thou canst set the horsemen upon them. The meaning, of course, is not that Hezekiah could not raise 2000 soldiers in all, but that he could not produce so many men who were able to fight as horsemen. "How then wilt thou turn back a single one of the smallest lieutenants of my lord?" פל את־פּני השׁיב, to repulse a person's face, means generally to turn away a person with his petition (Kg1 2:16-17), here to repulse an assailant. אחד פּחת is one pasha; although אחד hguo, which is grammatically subordinate to פּחת, is in the construct state, that the genitives which follow may be connected (for this subordination of אחד see Ewald, 286, a.). פּחה (see at Kg1 10:15), lit., under-vicegerent, i.e., administrator of a province under a satrap, in military states also a subordinate officer. ותּבטח: and so (with thy military force so small) thou trustest in Egypt וגו לרכב, so far as war-chariots and horsemen are concerned.

Kg2 18:25

After Rabshakeh had thus, as he imagined, taken away every ground of confidence from Hezekiah, he added still further, that the Assyrian king himself had also not come without Jehovah, but had been summoned by Him to effect the destruction of Judah. It is possible that some report may have reached his ears of the predictions of the prophets, who had represented the Assyrian invasion as a judgment from the Lord, and these he used for his own purposes. Instead of הזּה המּקום על, against this place, i.e., Jerusalem, we have הזּאת הארץ על in Isaiah, - a reading which owes its origin simply to the endeavour to bring the two clauses into exact conformity to one another.

Kg2 18:26-37

It was very conceivable that Rabshakeh's boasting might make an impression upon the people; the ambassadors of Hezekiah therefore interrupted him with the request that he would speak to them in Aramaean, as they understood that language, and not in Jewish, on account of the people who were standing upon the wall. ארמית was the language spoken in Syria, Babylonia, and probably also in the province of Assyria, and may possibly have been Rabshakeh's mother-tongue, even if the court language of the Assyrian kings was an Aryan dialect. With the close affinity between the Aramaean and the Hebrew, the latter could not be unknown to Rabshakeh, so that he made use of it, just as the Aramaean language was intelligible to the ministers of Hezekiah, whereas the people in Jerusalem understood only יהוּדיה, Jewish, i.e., the Hebrew language spoken in the kingdom of Judah. It is evident from the last clause of the verse that the negotiations were carried on in the neighbourhood of the city wall of Jerusalem.

Kg2 18:27

But Rabshakeh rejected this proposal with the scornful remark, that his commission was not to speak to Hezekiah and his ambassadors only, but rather to the people upon the wall. The variation of the preposition על and אל in אדניך על אדני, to thy lord (Hezekiah), and אליך, to thee (Eliakim as chief speaker), is avoided in the text of Isaiah. על is frequently used for אל, in the later usage of the language, in the sense of to or at. In the words "who sit upon the wall to eat their dung and drink their urine," Rabshakeh points to the horrors which a siege of Jerusalem would entail upon the inhabitants. For חריהם = חראיהם, excrementa sua, and שׁיניהם, urinas suas, the Masoretes have substituted the euphemisms צואתם, going forth, and רגליהם מימי, water of their feet.

Kg2 18:28-30

ויּעמוד: not, he stood up, raised himself (Ges.), or came forward (Then.), but he stationed himself, assumed an attitude calculated for effect, and spoke to the people with a loud voice in the Jewish language, telling them to listen to the king of Assyria and not to be led astray by Hezekiah, i.e., to be persuaded to defend the city any longer, since neither Hezekiah nor Jehovah could defend them from the might of Sennacherib. אל־ישּׁיא: let not Hezekiah deceive you, sc. by pretending to be able to defend or save Jerusalem. In מיּדו, "out of his (the Assyrian's) hand," the speaker ceases to speak in the name of his king. On the construction of the passive תּנּתן with את־העיר, see Ewald, 277, d., although in the instance before us he proposes to expunge the את after Isa 36:15.

Kg2 18:31-32

"Make peace with me and come out to me (sc., out of your walls, i.e., surrender to me), and ye shall eat every one his vine, ... till I come and bring you into a land like your own land..." בּרכה is used here to signify peace as the concentration of weal and blessing. The imperative ועכלוּ expresses the consequence of what goes before (vid., Ewald, 347, b.). To eat his vine and fig-tree and to drink the water of his well is a figure denoting the quiet and undisturbed enjoyment of the fruits of his own possession (cf. Kg1 5:5). Even in the event of their yielding, the Assyrian would transport the Jewish people into another land, according to the standing custom of Asiatic conquerors in ancient times (for proofs see Hengstenberg, De rebus Tyriis, pp. 51, 52). To make the people contented with this thought, the boaster promised that the king of Assyria would carry them into a land which was quite as fruitful and glorious as the land of Canaan. The description of it as a land with corn and new wine, etc., recalls the picture of the land of Canaan in Deu 8:8 and Deu 33:28. יצהר זית is the olive-tree which yields good oil, in distinction from the wild olive-tree. וגו וחיוּ: and ye shall live and not die, i.e., no harm shall befall you from me (Thenius). This passage is abridged in Isa 36:17.

Kg2 18:33-34

Even Jehovah could not deliver them any more than Hezekiah. As a proof of this, Rabshakeh enumerated a number of cities and lands which the king of Assyria had conquered, without their gods' being able to offer any resistance to his power. "Where are the gods of Hamath, etc., that they might have delivered Samaria out of my hand?" Instead of הצּילוּ כּי we have הץ וכי and that they might have, which loosens the connection somewhat more between this clause and the preceding one, and makes it more independent. "Where are they?" is equivalent to they are gone, have perished (cf. Kg2 19:18); and "that they might have delivered" is equivalent to they have not delivered. The subject to הצּילוּ כּי is הגּוים אלהי, which includes the God of Samaria. Sennacherib regards himself as being as it were one with his predecessors, as the representative of the might of Assyria, so that he attributes to himself the conquests of cities and lands which his ancestors had made. The cities and lands enumerated in Kg2 18:34 have been mentioned already in Kg2 17:24 as conquered territories, from which colonists had been transplanted to Samaria, with the exception of Arpad and Hena. ארפּד, which is also mentioned in Kg2 19:13; Isa 10:9; Isa 36:19; Isa 37:13, and Jer 49:23, in connection with Hamath, was certainly situated in the neighbourhood of that city, and still exists, so far as the name is concerned, in the large village of rfd, Arfd (mentioned by Maraszid, i. 47), in northern Syria in the district of Azz, which was seven hours to the north of Haleb, according to Abulf. Tab. Syr. ed. Khler, p. 23, and Niebuhr, Reise, ii. p. 414 (see Roediger, Addenda ad Ges. thes. p. 112). הנע, Hena, which is also combined with 'Ivvah in Kg2 19:13 and Isa 37:13, is probably the city of 'nt Ana, on the Euphrates, mentioned by Abulf., and עוּה is most likely the same as עוּא in Kg2 17:24. The names ועוּה הנע are omitted from the text of Isaiah in consequence of the abridgment of Rabshakeh's address.

Kg2 18:35

Kg2 18:35 contains the conclusion drawn from the facts already adduced: "which of all the gods of the lands are they who have delivered their land out of my hand, that Jehovah should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?" i.e., as not one of the gods of the lands named have been able to rescue his land from Assyria, Jehovah also will not be able to defend Jerusalem.

Kg2 18:36-37

The people were quite silent at this address ("the people," העם, to whom Rabshakeh had wished to address himself); for Hezekiah had forbidden them to make any answer, not only to prevent Rabshakeh from saying anything further, but that the ambassadors of Sennacherib might be left in complete uncertainty as to the impression made by their words. The deputies of Hezekiah returned to the king with their clothes rent as a sign of grief at the words of the Assyrian, by which not only Hezekiah, but still more Jehovah, had been blasphemed, and reported what they had heard.

Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65]
Them - Many of them; universal particles being frequently so used both in scripture, and other authors; and this success God gave him; to lift him up to his own greater and more shameful destruction: to humble and chastise his own people for their manifold sins, and, to gain an eminent opportunity to advance his own honour by that miraculous deliverance which he designed for his people.

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²⁴ How then wilt thou turn away [07725] the face [06440] of one [0259] captain [06346] of the least [06996] of my master's [0113] servants [05650], and put thy trust [0982] on Egypt [04714] for chariots [07393] and for horsemen [06571]?

⁸ So Rabshakeh [07262] returned [07725], and found [04672] the king [04428] of Assyria [0804] warring [03898] against Libnah [03841]: for he had heard [08085] that he was departed [05265] from Lachish [03923].

¹⁷ And the king [04428] of Assyria [0804] sent [07971] Tartan [08661] and Rabsaris [07249] and Rabshakeh [07262] from Lachish [03923] to king [04428] Hezekiah [02396] with a great [03515] host [02426] against Jerusalem [03389]. And they went up [05927] and came [0935] to Jerusalem [03389]. And when they were come up [05927], they came [0935] and stood [05975] by the conduit [08585] of the upper [05945] pool [01295], which is in the highway [04546] of the fuller's [03526] field [07704].

¹ Behold, the LORD [03068] maketh the earth [0776] empty [01238], and maketh it waste [01110], and turneth [05753] it upside down [06440], and scattereth abroad [06327] the inhabitants [03427] thereof.
² And it shall be, as with the people [05971], so with the priest [03548]; as with the servant [05650], so with his master [0113]; as with the maid [08198], so with her mistress [01404]; as with the buyer [07069], so with the seller [04376]; as with the lender [03867], so with the borrower [03867]; as with the taker of usury [05383], so [0834] with the giver of usury [05378] to him.
³ The land [0776] shall be utterly [01238] emptied [01238], and utterly [0962] spoiled [0962]: for the LORD [03068] hath spoken [01696] this word [01697].
⁴ The earth [0776] mourneth [056] and fadeth away [05034], the world [08398] languisheth [0535] and fadeth away [05034], the haughty [04791] people [05971] of the earth [0776] do languish [0535].
⁵ The earth [0776] also is defiled [02610] under the inhabitants [03427] thereof; because they have transgressed [05674] the laws [08451], changed [02498] the ordinance [02706], broken [06565] the everlasting [05769] covenant [01285].
⁶ Therefore hath the curse [0423] devoured [0398] the earth [0776], and they that dwell [03427] therein are desolate [0816]: therefore the inhabitants [03427] of the earth [0776] are burned [02787], and few [04213] men [0582] left [07604].
⁷ The new wine [08492] mourneth [056], the vine [01612] languisheth [0535], all the merryhearted [08056] [03820] do sigh [0584].
⁸ The mirth [04885] of tabrets [08596] ceaseth [07673], the noise [07588] of them that rejoice [05947] endeth [02308], the joy [04885] of the harp [03658] ceaseth [07673].
⁹ They shall not drink [08354] wine [03196] with a song [07892]; strong drink [07941] shall be bitter [04843] to them that drink [08354] it.
¹⁰ The city [07151] of confusion [08414] is broken down [07665]: every house [01004] is shut up [05462], that no man may come in [0935].
¹¹ There is a crying [06682] for wine [03196] in the streets [02351]; all joy [08057] is darkened [06150], the mirth [04885] of the land [0776] is gone [01540].
¹² In the city [05892] is left [07604] desolation [08047], and the gate [08179] is smitten [03807] with destruction [07591].

³⁶ But the people [05971] held their peace [02790], and answered [06030] him not a word [01697]: for the king's [04428] commandment [04687] was, saying [0559], Answer [06030] him not.
³⁷ Then came [0935] Eliakim [0471] the son [01121] of Hilkiah [02518], which was over the household [01004], and Shebna [07644] the scribe [05608], and Joah [03098] the son [01121] of Asaph [0623] the recorder [02142], to Hezekiah [02396] with their clothes [0899] rent [07167], and told [05046] him the words [01697] of Rabshakeh [07262].

³⁵ Who are they among all the gods [0430] of the countries [0776], that have delivered [05337] their country [0776] out of mine hand [03027], that the LORD [03068] should deliver [05337] Jerusalem [03389] out of mine hand [03027]?

²⁴ And the king [04428] of Assyria [0804] brought [0935] men from Babylon [0894], and from Cuthah [03575], and from Ava [05755], and from Hamath [02574], and from Sepharvaim [05617], and placed [03427] them in the cities [05892] of Samaria [08111] instead of the children [01121] of Israel [03478]: and they possessed [03423] Samaria [08111], and dwelt [03427] in the cities [05892] thereof.

¹³ Where is the king [04428] of Hamath [02574], and the king [04428] of Arphad [0774], and the king [04428] of the city [05892] of Sepharvaim [05617], Hena [02012], and Ivah [05755]?

¹³ Where is the king [04428] of Hamath [02574], and the king [04428] of Arpad [0774], and the king [04428] of the city [05892] of Sepharvaim [05617], of Hena [02012], and Ivah [05755]?

²³ Concerning Damascus [01834]. Hamath [02574] is confounded [0954], and Arpad [0774]: for they have heard [08085] evil [07451] tidings [08052]: they are fainthearted [04127]; there is sorrow [01674] on the sea [03220]; it cannot [03201] be quiet [08252].

¹³ Where is the king [04428] of Hamath [02574], and the king [04428] of Arphad [0774], and the king [04428] of the city [05892] of Sepharvaim [05617], Hena [02012], and Ivah [05755]?

¹⁹ Where are the gods [0430] of Hamath [02574] and Arphad [0774]? where are the gods [0430] of Sepharvaim [05617]? and have they delivered [05337] Samaria [08111] out of my hand [03027]?

⁹ Is not Calno [03641] as Carchemish [03751]? is not Hamath [02574] as Arpad [0774]? is not Samaria [08111] as Damascus [01834]?

¹³ Where is the king [04428] of Hamath [02574], and the king [04428] of Arpad [0774], and the king [04428] of the city [05892] of Sepharvaim [05617], of Hena [02012], and Ivah [05755]?

³⁴ Where are the gods [0430] of Hamath [02574], and of Arpad [0774]? where are the gods [0430] of Sepharvaim [05617], Hena [02012], and Ivah [05755]? have they delivered [05337] Samaria [08111] out of mine hand [03027]?

¹⁸ And have cast [05414] their gods [0430] into the fire [0784]: for they were no gods [0430], but the work [04639] of men's [0120] hands [03027], wood [06086] and stone [068]: therefore they have destroyed [06] them.

³³ Hath any [0376] of the gods [0430] of the nations [01471] delivered [05337] at all [05337] his land [0776] out of the hand [03027] of the king [04428] of Assyria [0804]?
³⁴ Where are the gods [0430] of Hamath [02574], and of Arpad [0774]? where are the gods [0430] of Sepharvaim [05617], Hena [02012], and Ivah [05755]? have they delivered [05337] Samaria [08111] out of mine hand [03027]?

¹⁷ Until I come [0935] and take you away [03947] to a land [0776] like your own land [0776], a land [0776] of corn [01715] and wine [08492], a land [0776] of bread [03899] and vineyards [03754].

²⁸ Israel [03478] then shall dwell [07931] in safety [0983] alone [0910]: the fountain [05869] of Jacob [03290] shall be upon a land [0776] of corn [01715] and wine [08492]; also his heavens [08064] shall drop down [06201] dew [02919].

⁸ A land [0776] of wheat [02406], and barley [08184], and vines [01612], and fig trees [08384], and pomegranates [07416]; a land [0776] of oil [08081] olive [02132], and honey [01706];

⁵ And, behold, I purpose [0559] to build [01129] an house [01004] unto the name [08034] of the LORD [03068] my God [0430], as the LORD [03068] spake [01696] unto David [01732] my father [01], saying [0559], Thy son [01121], whom I will set [05414] upon thy throne [03678] in thy room, he shall build [01129] an house [01004] unto my name [08034].

³¹ Hearken [08085] not to Hezekiah [02396]: for thus saith [0559] the king [04428] of Assyria [0804], Make [06213] an agreement with me by a present [01293], and come out [03318] to me, and then eat [0398] ye every man [0376] of his own vine [01612], and every one [0376] of his fig tree [08384], and drink [08354] ye every one [0376] the waters [04325] of his cistern [0953]:
³² Until I come [0935] and take you away [03947] to a land [0776] like your own land [0776], a land [0776] of corn [01715] and wine [08492], a land [0776] of bread [03899] and vineyards [03754], a land [0776] of oil [03323] olive [02132] and of honey [01706], that ye may live [02421], and not die [04191]: and hearken [08085] not unto Hezekiah [02396], when he persuadeth [05496] you, saying [0559], The LORD [03068] will deliver [05337] us.

¹⁵ Neither let Hezekiah [02396] make you trust [0982] in the LORD [03068], saying [0559], The LORD [03068] will surely [05337] deliver [05337] us: this city [05892] shall not be delivered [05414] into the hand [03027] of the king [04428] of Assyria [0804].

²⁸ Then Rabshakeh [07262] stood [05975] and cried [07121] with a loud [01419] voice [06963] in the Jews' language [03066], and spake [01696], saying [0559], Hear [08085] the word [01697] of the great [01419] king [04428], the king [04428] of Assyria [0804]:
²⁹ Thus saith [0559] the king [04428], Let not Hezekiah [02396] deceive [05377] you: for he shall not be able [03201] to deliver [05337] you out of his hand [03027]:
³⁰ Neither let Hezekiah [02396] make you trust [0982] in the LORD [03068], saying [0559], The LORD [03068] will surely [05337] deliver [05337] us, and this city [05892] shall not be delivered [05414] into the hand [03027] of the king [04428] of Assyria [0804].

²⁷ But Rabshakeh [07262] said [0559] unto them, Hath my master [0113] sent [07971] me to thy master [0113], and to thee, to speak [01696] these words [01697]? hath he not sent me to the men [0582] which sit [03427] on the wall [02346], that they may eat [0398] their own dung [06675] [02755], and drink [08354] their own piss [04325] [07272] [07890] with you?

²⁶ Then said [0559] Eliakim [0471] the son [01121] of Hilkiah [02518], and Shebna [07644], and Joah [03098], unto Rabshakeh [07262], Speak [01696], I pray thee, to thy servants [05650] in the Syrian language [0762]; for we understand [08085] it: and talk [01696] not with us in the Jews' language [03066] in the ears [0241] of the people [05971] that are on the wall [02346].
²⁷ But Rabshakeh [07262] said [0559] unto them, Hath my master [0113] sent [07971] me to thy master [0113], and to thee, to speak [01696] these words [01697]? hath he not sent me to the men [0582] which sit [03427] on the wall [02346], that they may eat [0398] their own dung [06675] [02755], and drink [08354] their own piss [04325] [07272] [07890] with you?
²⁸ Then Rabshakeh [07262] stood [05975] and cried [07121] with a loud [01419] voice [06963] in the Jews' language [03066], and spake [01696], saying [0559], Hear [08085] the word [01697] of the great [01419] king [04428], the king [04428] of Assyria [0804]:
²⁹ Thus saith [0559] the king [04428], Let not Hezekiah [02396] deceive [05377] you: for he shall not be able [03201] to deliver [05337] you out of his hand [03027]:
³⁰ Neither let Hezekiah [02396] make you trust [0982] in the LORD [03068], saying [0559], The LORD [03068] will surely [05337] deliver [05337] us, and this city [05892] shall not be delivered [05414] into the hand [03027] of the king [04428] of Assyria [0804].
³¹ Hearken [08085] not to Hezekiah [02396]: for thus saith [0559] the king [04428] of Assyria [0804], Make [06213] an agreement with me by a present [01293], and come out [03318] to me, and then eat [0398] ye every man [0376] of his own vine [01612], and every one [0376] of his fig tree [08384], and drink [08354] ye every one [0376] the waters [04325] of his cistern [0953]:
³² Until I come [0935] and take you away [03947] to a land [0776] like your own land [0776], a land [0776] of corn [01715] and wine [08492], a land [0776] of bread [03899] and vineyards [03754], a land [0776] of oil [03323] olive [02132] and of honey [01706], that ye may live [02421], and not die [04191]: and hearken [08085] not unto Hezekiah [02396], when he persuadeth [05496] you, saying [0559], The LORD [03068] will deliver [05337] us.
³³ Hath any [0376] of the gods [0430] of the nations [01471] delivered [05337] at all [05337] his land [0776] out of the hand [03027] of the king [04428] of Assyria [0804]?
³⁴ Where are the gods [0430] of Hamath [02574], and of Arpad [0774]? where are the gods [0430] of Sepharvaim [05617], Hena [02012], and Ivah [05755]? have they delivered [05337] Samaria [08111] out of mine hand [03027]?
³⁵ Who are they among all the gods [0430] of the countries [0776], that have delivered [05337] their country [0776] out of mine hand [03027], that the LORD [03068] should deliver [05337] Jerusalem [03389] out of mine hand [03027]?
³⁶ But the people [05971] held their peace [02790], and answered [06030] him not a word [01697]: for the king's [04428] commandment [04687] was, saying [0559], Answer [06030] him not.
³⁷ Then came [0935] Eliakim [0471] the son [01121] of Hilkiah [02518], which was over the household [01004], and Shebna [07644] the scribe [05608], and Joah [03098] the son [01121] of Asaph [0623] the recorder [02142], to Hezekiah [02396] with their clothes [0899] rent [07167], and told [05046] him the words [01697] of Rabshakeh [07262].

²⁵ Am I now come up [05927] without [01107] the LORD [03068] against this place [04725] to destroy [07843] it? The LORD [03068] said [0559] to me, Go up [05927] against this land [0776], and destroy [07843] it.

¹⁵ Beside that he had of the merchantmen [0582] [08446], and of the traffick [04536] of the spice merchants [07402], and of all the kings [04428] of Arabia [06153], and of the governors [06346] of the country [0776].

¹⁶ And now I ask [07592] one [0259] petition [07596] of thee, deny [07725] me [06440] not. And she said [0559] unto him, Say on [01696].
¹⁷ And he said [0559], Speak [0559], I pray thee, unto Solomon [08010] the king [04428], (for he will not say [07725] thee [06440] nay [07725] that he give [05414] me Abishag [049] the Shunammite [07767] to wife [0802].

²³ Now therefore, I pray thee, give pledges [06148] to my lord [0113] the king [04428] of Assyria [0804], and I will deliver [05414] thee two thousand [0505] horses [05483], if thou be able [03201] on thy part to set [05414] riders [07392] upon them.
²⁴ How then wilt thou turn away [07725] the face [06440] of one [0259] captain [06346] of the least [06996] of my master's [0113] servants [05650], and put thy trust [0982] on Egypt [04714] for chariots [07393] and for horsemen [06571]?

²⁰ Thou sayest [0559], (but they are but vain [08193] words [01697],) I have counsel [06098] and strength [01369] for the war [04421]. Now on whom dost thou trust [0982], that thou rebellest [04775] against me?

⁷ Thus [03541] saith [0559] the Lord [0136] GOD [03069], It shall not stand [06965], neither shall it come to pass.

²² But if ye say [0559] unto me, We trust [0982] in the LORD [03068] our God [0430]: is not that he, whose high places [01116] and whose altars [04196] Hezekiah [02396] hath taken away [05493], and hath said [0559] to Judah [03063] and Jerusalem [03389], Ye shall worship [07812] before [06440] this altar [04196] in Jerusalem [03389]?

³ Therefore shall the strength [04581] of Pharaoh [06547] be your shame [01322], and the trust [02622] in the shadow [06738] of Egypt [04714] your confusion [03639].
⁴ For his princes [08269] were at Zoan [06814], and his ambassadors [04397] came [05060] to Hanes [02609].
⁵ They were all ashamed [03001] of a people [05971] that could not profit [03276] them, nor be an help [05828] nor profit [03276], but a shame [01322], and also a reproach [02781].

⁶ And all the inhabitants [03427] of Egypt [04714] shall know [03045] that I am the LORD [03068], because they have been a staff [04938] of reed [07070] to the house [01004] of Israel [03478].
⁷ When they took hold [08610] of thee by thy hand [03709], thou didst break [07533], and rend [01234] all their shoulder [03802]: and when they leaned [08172] upon thee, thou brakest [07665], and madest all their loins [04975] to be at a stand [05976].

²¹ Now, behold, thou trustest [0982] upon the staff [04938] of this bruised [07533] reed [07070], even upon Egypt [04714], on which if a man [0376] lean [05564], it will go [0935] into his hand [03709], and pierce [05344] it: so is Pharaoh [06547] king [04428] of Egypt [04714] unto all that trust [0982] on him.

² Should not the multitude [07230] of words [01697] be answered [06030]? and should a man [0376] full of talk [08193] be justified [06663]?

²³ In all labour [06089] there is profit [04195]: but the talk [01697] of the lips [08193] tendeth only to penury [04270].

⁸ For he saith [0559], Are not my princes [08269] altogether [03162] kings [04428]?

³⁷ Thou [0607], O king [04430], art a king [04430] of kings [04430]: for the God [0426] of heaven [08065] hath given [03052] thee a kingdom [04437], power [02632], and strength [08632], and glory [03367].

⁷ For thus saith [0559] the Lord [0136] GOD [03069]; Behold, I will bring [0935] upon Tyrus [06865] Nebuchadrezzar [05019] king [04428] of Babylon [0894], a king [04428] of kings [04428], from the north [06828], with horses [05483], and with chariots [07393], and with horsemen [06571], and companies [06951], and much [07227] people [05971].

¹⁹ And Rabshakeh [07262] said [0559] unto them, Speak [0559] ye now to Hezekiah [02396], Thus saith [0559] the great [01419] king [04428], the king [04428] of Assyria [0804], What confidence [0986] is this wherein thou trustest [0982]?
²⁰ Thou sayest [0559], (but they are but vain [08193] words [01697],) I have counsel [06098] and strength [01369] for the war [04421]. Now on whom dost thou trust [0982], that thou rebellest [04775] against me?
²¹ Now, behold, thou trustest [0982] upon the staff [04938] of this bruised [07533] reed [07070], even upon Egypt [04714], on which if a man [0376] lean [05564], it will go [0935] into his hand [03709], and pierce [05344] it: so is Pharaoh [06547] king [04428] of Egypt [04714] unto all that trust [0982] on him.
²² But if ye say [0559] unto me, We trust [0982] in the LORD [03068] our God [0430]: is not that he, whose high places [01116] and whose altars [04196] Hezekiah [02396] hath taken away [05493], and hath said [0559] to Judah [03063] and Jerusalem [03389], Ye shall worship [07812] before [06440] this altar [04196] in Jerusalem [03389]?
²³ Now therefore, I pray thee, give pledges [06148] to my lord [0113] the king [04428] of Assyria [0804], and I will deliver [05414] thee two thousand [0505] horses [05483], if thou be able [03201] on thy part to set [05414] riders [07392] upon them.
²⁴ How then wilt thou turn away [07725] the face [06440] of one [0259] captain [06346] of the least [06996] of my master's [0113] servants [05650], and put thy trust [0982] on Egypt [04714] for chariots [07393] and for horsemen [06571]?
²⁵ Am I now come up [05927] without [01107] the LORD [03068] against this place [04725] to destroy [07843] it? The LORD [03068] said [0559] to me, Go up [05927] against this land [0776], and destroy [07843] it.

¹⁶ And Joab [03097] the son [01121] of Zeruiah [06870] was over the host [06635]; and Jehoshaphat [03092] the son [01121] of Ahilud [0286] was recorder [02142];

¹⁷ And Zadok [06659] the son [01121] of Ahitub [0285], and Ahimelech [0288] the son [01121] of Abiathar [054], were the priests [03548]; and Seraiah [08304] was the scribe [05608];

²⁰ And it shall come to pass in that day [03117], that I will call [07121] my servant [05650] Eliakim [0471] the son [01121] of Hilkiah [02518]:
²¹ And I will clothe [03847] him with thy robe [03801], and strengthen [02388] him with thy girdle [073], and I will commit [05414] thy government [04475] into his hand [03027]: and he shall be a father [01] to the inhabitants [03427] of Jerusalem [03389], and to the house [01004] of Judah [03063].

¹⁸ And when they had called [07121] to the king [04428], there came out [03318] to them Eliakim [0471] the son [01121] of Hilkiah [02518], which was over the household [01004], and Shebna [07644] the scribe [05608], and Joah [03098] the son [01121] of Asaph [0623] the recorder [02142].

³⁰ This same Hezekiah [03169] also stopped [05640] the upper [05945] watercourse [04161] [04325] of Gihon [01521], and brought it straight [03474] down [04295] to the west side [04628] of the city [05892] of David [01732]. And Hezekiah [03169] prospered [06743] in all his works [04639].

²⁰ And the rest [03499] of the acts [01697] of Hezekiah [02396], and all his might [01369], and how he made [06213] a pool [01295], and a conduit [08585], and brought [0935] water [04325] into the city [05892], are they not written [03789] in the book [05612] of the chronicles [01697] [03117] of the kings [04428] of Judah [03063]?

⁴ He removed [05493] the high places [01116], and brake [07665] the images [04676], and cut down [03772] the groves [0842], and brake in pieces [03807] the brasen [05178] serpent [05175] that Moses [04872] had made [06213]: for unto those days [03117] the children [01121] of Israel [03478] did burn incense [06999] to it: and he called [07121] it Nehushtan [05180].

³ And he did [06213] that which was right [03477] in the sight [05869] of the LORD [03068], according to all that David [01732] his father [01] did [06213].

³⁰ Neither let Hezekiah [02396] make you trust [0982] in the LORD [03068], saying [0559], The LORD [03068] will surely [05337] deliver [05337] us, and this city [05892] shall not be delivered [05414] into the hand [03027] of the king [04428] of Assyria [0804].

³ He took counsel [03289] with his princes [08269] and his mighty men [01368] to stop [05640] the waters [04325] of the fountains [05869] which were without [02351] the city [05892]: and they did help [05826] him.
⁴ So there was gathered [06908] much [07227] people [05971] together [06908], who stopped [05640] all the fountains [04599], and the brook [05158] that ran [07857] through the midst [08432] of the land [0776], saying [0559], Why should the kings [04428] of Assyria [0804] come [0935], and find [04672] much [07227] water [04325]?

¹¹ Ye made [06213] also a ditch [04724] between the two walls [02346] for the water [04325] of the old [03465] pool [01295]: but ye have not looked [05027] unto the maker [06213] thereof, neither had respect [07200] unto him that fashioned [03335] it long ago [07350].

¹⁵ But the gate [08179] of the fountain [05869] repaired [02388] Shallun [07968] the son [01121] of Colhozeh [03626], the ruler [08269] of part [06418] of Mizpah [04709]; he built [01129] it, and covered [02926] it, and set up [05975] the doors [01817] thereof, the locks [04514] thereof, and the bars [01280] thereof, and the wall [02346] of the pool [01295] of Siloah [07975] by the king's [04428] garden [01588], and unto the stairs [04609] that go down [03381] from the city [05892] of David [01732].

¹⁴ Then I went on [05674] to the gate [08179] of the fountain [05869], and to the king's [04428] pool [01295]: but there was no place [04725] for the beast [0929] that was under me to pass [05674].

⁷ Then the city [05892] was broken up [01234], and all the men [0582] of war [04421] fled [01272], and went forth [03318] out of the city [05892] by night [03915] by the way [01870] of the gate [08179] between the two walls [02346], which was by the king's [04428] garden [01588]; (now the Chaldeans [03778] were by the city [05892] round about [05439]:) and they went [03212] by the way [01870] of the plain [06160].

⁴ And it came to pass, that when Zedekiah [06667] the king [04428] of Judah [03063] saw [07200] them, and all the men [0582] of war [04421], then they fled [01272], and went forth [03318] out of the city [05892] by night [03915], by the way [01870] of the king's [04428] garden [01588], by the gate [08179] betwixt the two walls [02346]: and he went out [03318] the way [01870] of the plain [06160].

⁴ And the city [05892] was broken up [01234], and all the men [0582] of war [04421] fled by night [03915] by the way [01870] of the gate [08179] between two walls [02346], which is by the king's [04428] garden [01588]: (now the Chaldees [03778] were against the city [05892] round about [05439]:) and the king went [03212] the way [01870] toward the plain [06160].

⁹ Ye have seen [07200] also the breaches [01233] of the city [05892] of David [01732], that they are many [07231]: and ye gathered together [06908] the waters [04325] of the lower [08481] pool [01295].

³ Then said [0559] the LORD [03068] unto Isaiah [03470], Go forth [03318] now to meet [07125] Ahaz [0271], thou, and Shearjashub [07610] thy son [01121], at the end [07097] of the conduit [08585] of the upper [05945] pool [01295] in the highway [04546] of the fuller's [03526] field [07704];

³³ The king [04428] also said [0559] unto them, Take [03947] with you the servants [05650] of your lord [0113], and cause Solomon [08010] my son [01121] to ride [07392] upon mine own mule [06506], and bring him down [03381] to Gihon [01521]:

³ And all the princes [08269] of the king [04428] of Babylon [0894] came in [0935], and sat [03427] in the middle [08432] gate [08179], even Nergalsharezer [05371], Samgarnebo [05562], Sarsechim [08310], Rabsaris [07249], Nergalsharezer [05371], Rabmag [07248], with all the residue [07611] of the princes [08269] of the king [04428] of Babylon [0894].

¹ In the year [08141] that Tartan [08661] came [0935] unto Ashdod [0795], (when Sargon [05623] the king [04428] of Assyria [0804] sent [07971] him,) and fought [03898] against Ashdod [0795], and took [03920] it;

²⁴ By [03027] thy servants [05650] hast thou reproached [02778] the Lord [0136], and hast said [0559], By the multitude [07230] of my chariots [07393] am I come up [05927] to the height [04791] of the mountains [02022], to the sides [03411] of Lebanon [03844]; and I will cut down [03772] the tall [06967] cedars [0730] thereof, and the choice [04005] fir trees [01265] thereof: and I will enter [0935] into the height [04791] of his border [07093], and the forest [03293] of his Carmel [03760].

⁶ And Isaiah [03470] said [0559] unto them, Thus shall ye say [0559] unto your master [0113], Thus saith [0559] the LORD [03068], Be not afraid [03372] of [06440] the words [01697] that thou hast heard [08085], wherewith the servants [05288] of the king [04428] of Assyria [0804] have blasphemed [01442] me.

³ He in the first [07223] year [08141] of his reign [04427], in the first [07223] month [02320], opened [06605] the doors [01817] of the house [01004] of the LORD [03068], and repaired [02388] them.

³ Wherefore Adonizedek [0139] king [04428] of Jerusalem [03389] sent [07971] unto Hoham [01944] king [04428] of Hebron [02275], and unto Piram [06502] king [04428] of Jarmuth [03412], and unto Japhia [03309] king [04428] of Lachish [03923], and unto Debir [01688] king [04428] of Eglon [05700], saying [0559],

⁸ And he discovered [01540] the covering [04539] of Judah [03063], and thou didst look [05027] in that day [03117] to the armour [05402] of the house [01004] of the forest [03293].
⁹ Ye have seen [07200] also the breaches [01233] of the city [05892] of David [01732], that they are many [07231]: and ye gathered together [06908] the waters [04325] of the lower [08481] pool [01295].
¹⁰ And ye have numbered [05608] the houses [01004] of Jerusalem [03389], and the houses [01004] have ye broken down [05422] to fortify [01219] the wall [02346].
¹¹ Ye made [06213] also a ditch [04724] between the two walls [02346] for the water [04325] of the old [03465] pool [01295]: but ye have not looked [05027] unto the maker [06213] thereof, neither had respect [07200] unto him that fashioned [03335] it long ago [07350].

² And when Hezekiah [03169] saw [07200] that Sennacherib [05576] was come [0935], and that he was purposed [06440] to fight [04421] against Jerusalem [03389],
³ He took counsel [03289] with his princes [08269] and his mighty men [01368] to stop [05640] the waters [04325] of the fountains [05869] which were without [02351] the city [05892]: and they did help [05826] him.
⁴ So there was gathered [06908] much [07227] people [05971] together [06908], who stopped [05640] all the fountains [04599], and the brook [05158] that ran [07857] through the midst [08432] of the land [0776], saying [0559], Why should the kings [04428] of Assyria [0804] come [0935], and find [04672] much [07227] water [04325]?
⁵ Also he strengthened [02388] himself, and built up [01129] all the wall [02346] that was broken [06555], and raised it up [05927] to the towers [04026], and another [0312] wall [02346] without [02351], and repaired [02388] Millo [04407] in the city [05892] of David [01732], and made [06213] darts [07973] and shields [04043] in abundance [07230].
⁶ And he set [05414] captains [08269] of war [04421] over the people [05971], and gathered them together [06908] to him in the street [07339] of the gate [08179] of the city [05892], and spake [01696] comfortably [03824] to them, saying [0559],
⁷ Be strong [02388] and courageous [0553], be not afraid [03372] nor dismayed [02865] for [06440] the king [04428] of Assyria [0804], nor for all the multitude [01995] that is with him: for there be more [07227] with us than with him:
⁸ With him is an arm [02220] of flesh [01320]; but with us is the LORD [03068] our God [0430] to help [05826] us, and to fight [03898] our battles [04421]. And the people [05971] rested [05564] themselves upon the words [01697] of Hezekiah [03169] king [04428] of Judah [03063].

¹⁴ And Hezekiah [02396] king [04428] of Judah [03063] sent [07971] to the king [04428] of Assyria [0804] to Lachish [03923], saying [0559], I have offended [02398]; return [07725] from me: that which thou puttest [05414] on me will I bear [05375]. And the king [04428] of Assyria [0804] appointed [07760] unto Hezekiah [02396] king [04428] of Judah [03063] three [07969] hundred [03967] talents [03603] of silver [03701] and thirty [07970] talents [03603] of gold [02091].
¹⁵ And Hezekiah [02396] gave [05414] him all the silver [03701] that was found [04672] in the house [01004] of the LORD [03068], and in the treasures [0214] of the king's [04428] house [01004].
¹⁶ At that time [06256] did Hezekiah [02396] cut off [07112] the gold from the doors [01817] of the temple [01964] of the LORD [03068], and from the pillars [0547] which Hezekiah [02396] king [04428] of Judah [03063] had overlaid [06823], and gave [05414] it to the king [04428] of Assyria [0804].

²⁴ Therefore thus saith [0559] the Lord [0136] GOD [03069] of hosts [06635], O my people [05971] that dwellest [03427] in Zion [06726], be not afraid [03372] of the Assyrian [0804]: he shall smite [05221] thee with a rod [07626], and shall lift up [05375] his staff [04294] against thee, after the manner [01870] of Egypt [04714].

²⁴ I have digged [06979] and drunk [08354] strange [02114] waters [04325], and with the sole [03709] of my feet [06471] have I dried [02717] up all the rivers [02975] of besieged places [04693].

³² Now the rest [03499] of the acts [01697] of Hezekiah [03169], and his goodness [02617], behold, they are written [03789] in the vision [02377] of Isaiah [03470] the prophet [05030], the son [01121] of Amoz [0531], and in the book [05612] of the kings [04428] of Judah [03063] and Israel [03478].