2 Kings 18182 KingsJudah alone to the fall of JerusalemUnlocked Dynamic Bible

Unlocked Dynamic BibleBerean Standard Bible

1. Hezekiah Destroys Idolatry in Judah

   (2 Chronicles 29:1–2)

2. 1UDBAfter King Hoshea had been ruling Israel for almost three years, Hezekiah son of Ahaz began to rule Judah.BSBBSB: In the third year of the reign of Hoshea son of Elah over Israel, Hezekiah son of Ahaz became king of Judah.
3. 2UDBHe was twenty-five years old when he became the king of Judah, and he ruled from Jerusalem for twenty-nine years. His mother was Abijah, the daughter of a man whose name was Zechariah.BSBBSB: He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-nine years. His mother’s name was Abi, the daughter of Zechariah.
4. 3UDBHezekiah did things that Yahweh said were right, as his ancestor King David had done.BSBBSB: And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, just as his father David had done.
5. 4UDBHe destroyed the places where people worshiped Yahweh, and he broke into pieces the poles for worshiping the goddess Asherah. He also broke into pieces the bronze replica of a snake that Moses had made. He did that because the people had named it Nehushtan, and they were burning incense in front of it to honor it.BSBBSB: He removed the high places, shattered the sacred pillars, and cut down the Asherah poles. He also demolished the bronze snake called Nehushtan that Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had burned incense to it.
6. 5UDBHezekiah trusted in Yahweh, the God whom the Israelites worshiped. There was no king who ruled Judah before him or after him who was as devoted to Yahweh as he was.BSBBSB: Hezekiah trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel. No king of Judah was like him, either before him or after him.
7. 6UDBHe remained loyal to Yahweh and never disobeyed him. He carefully obeyed all the commandments that Yahweh had given to Moses.BSBBSB: He remained faithful to the LORD and did not turn from following Him; he kept the commandments that the LORD had given Moses.
8. 7UDBYahweh always helped Hezekiah. He was successful in everything he did. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and refused to do what the king of Assyria wanted him to do.BSBBSB: And the LORD was with Hezekiah, and he prospered wherever he went. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and refused to serve him.
9. 8UDBHis army defeated the soldiers of Philistia as far south as the city of Gaza and the nearby villages. They conquered the entire area, from the smallest village with only a watchtower to the largest cities surrounded by walls.BSBBSB: He defeated the Philistines as far as Gaza and its borders, from watchtower to fortified city.
10. 9UDBAfter King Hezekiah had been ruling Judah for almost four years, and when King Hoshea had been ruling Israel for almost seven years, the army of King Shalmaneser of Assyria invaded Israel and surrounded the city of Samaria.BSBBSB: In the fourth year of Hezekiah’s reign, which was the seventh year of the reign of Hoshea son of Elah over Israel, Shalmaneser king of Assyria marched against Samaria and besieged it.
11. 10UDBIn the third year they captured the city. That was when Hezekiah had been ruling Judah for almost six years and when Hoshea had been ruling Israel for almost nine years.BSBBSB: And at the end of three years, the Assyrians captured it. So Samaria was captured in the sixth year of Hezekiah, which was the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel.
12. 11UDBThe king of Assyria commanded that the people of Israel be taken to Assyria. Some of them were taken to the city of Halah, some were taken to a place near the Habor River in the region of Gozan, and some were taken to cities where the Mede people live.BSBBSB: The king of Assyria exiled the Israelites to Assyria and settled them in Halah, in Gozan by the Habor River, and in the cities of the Medes.
13. 12UDBThat happened because the Israelites did not obey Yahweh their God. They had disobeyed the covenant that Yahweh had made with their ancestors and all the laws that Moses, the man who served Yahweh very well, had told them to obey. They would not obey those laws. They would not even listen to them.BSBBSB: This happened because they did not listen to the voice of the LORD their God, but violated His covenant—all that Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded—and would neither listen nor obey.

14. Sennacherib Invades Judah

    (2 Chronicles 32:1–8; Psalm 46:1–11)

15. 13UDBAfter King Hezekiah had been ruling Judah for almost fourteen years, the army of King Sennacherib of Assyria attacked all the cities in Judah that had walls around them. They did not capture Jerusalem, but they captured all the other cities.BSBBSB: In the fourteenth year of Hezekiah’s reign, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked and captured all the fortified cities of Judah.
16. 14UDBKing Hezekiah sent a message to Sennacherib while Sennacherib was in the city of Lachish, saying, "What I have done was wrong. Please tell your soldiers to stop attacking us. If you do that, I will pay you whatever you tell me to." So the king of Assyria said that Hezekiah must pay to him ten thousand kilograms of silver and one thousand kilograms of gold.BSBBSB: So Hezekiah king of Judah sent word to the king of Assyria at Lachish, saying, “I have done wrong; withdraw from me, and I will pay whatever you demand from me.” And the king of Assyria exacted from Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.
17. 15UDBSo Hezekiah gave to him all the silver that was in the temple and that was stored in his palace.BSBBSB: Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the house of the LORD and in the treasuries of the royal palace.
18. 16UDBHezekiah's men also stripped the gold from the doors of the temple and the gold that he himself had put on the doorposts, and he sent all that gold to the king of Assyria.BSBBSB: At that time Hezekiah stripped the gold with which he had plated the doors and doorposts of the temple of the LORD, and he gave it to the king of Assyria.

19. Sennacherib Threatens Jerusalem

    (2 Chronicles 32:9–19; Isaiah 36:1–22)

20. 17UDBBut the king of Assyria sent a large army with some of his important officials from the city of Lachish to persuade King Hezekiah to surrender. When they arrived at Jerusalem, they stood alongside the aqueduct in which water flows from the upper pool into Jerusalem, near the road to the field where the women wash clothes.BSBBSB: Nevertheless, the king of Assyria sent the Tartan, the Rabsaris, and the Rabshakeh, along with a great army, from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. They advanced up to Jerusalem and stationed themselves by the aqueduct of the upper pool, on the road to the Launderer’s Field.
21. 18UDBThey sent a message requesting King Hezekiah to come to them, but the king sent three of his officials to talk to them. He sent Hilkiah's son Eliakim, who supervised the palace; Shebna, the official secretary; and Asaph's son Joah, who communicated the king's messages to the people.BSBBSB: Then they called for the king. And Eliakim son of Hilkiah the palace administrator, Shebnah the scribe, and Joah son of Asaph the recorder, went out to them.
22. 19UDBOne of Sennacherib's important officials told them to take this message to Hezekiah: "This is what the king of Assyria, the great king, says: 'In what are you trusting to rescue you?BSBBSB: The Rabshakeh said to them, “Tell Hezekiah that this is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says: What is the basis of this confidence of yours?
23. 20UDBYou say that you have weapons to fight us and that some country has promised to help you, but that is only talk. Who do you think will help you to rebel against my soldiers from Assyria?BSBBSB: You claim to have a strategy and strength for war, but these are empty words. In whom are you now trusting, that you have rebelled against me?
24. 21UDBListen to me! You are relying on the army of Egypt. But that is like using a broken reed for a walking stick on which you could lean. It would pierce the hand of anyone who would lean on it! That is what the king of Egypt would be like for anyone who relied on him for help.BSBBSB: Look now, you are trusting in Egypt, that splintered reed of a staff that will pierce the hand of anyone who leans on it. Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him.
25. 22UDBBut perhaps you will say to me, "No, we are relying on Yahweh our God to help us." I would reply, "Is he not the one whom you insulted by tearing down his houses on the hills where the idols were worshiped and the altars on which you offered sacrifices, forcing everyone in Jerusalem and other places in Judah to worship only in front of the altar in Jerusalem?"BSBBSB: But if you say to me, ‘We trust in the LORD our God,’ is He not the One whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and Jerusalem: ‘You must worship before this altar in Jerusalem’?
26. 23UDBSo I suggest that you make a deal between you and my master the king of Assyria. I will give you two thousand horses, but I do not think that you are able to find two thousand of your men who can ride on them!BSBBSB: Now, therefore, make a bargain with my master, the king of Assyria. I will give you two thousand horses—if you can put riders on them!
27. 24UDBYou are hoping that the king of Egypt will send chariots and men riding horses to assist you. But they certainly would not be able to defeat even the most unimportant official in my army!BSBBSB: For how can you repel a single officer among the least of my master’s servants when you depend on Egypt for chariots and horsemen?
28. 25UDBFurthermore, do you think that we have come to destroy Jerusalem without Yahweh's help? It is Yahweh himself who told us to come here and destroy this land!"BSBBSB: So now, was it apart from the LORD that I have come up against this place to destroy it? The LORD Himself said to me, ‘Go up against this land and destroy it.’”
29. 26UDBThen Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the official from Assyria, "Sir, please speak to us in your Aramaic language, because we understand it. Do not speak to us in our Hebrew language, because the people who are standing on the wall will understand it and be frightened."BSBBSB: Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, along with Shebnah and Joah, said to the Rabshakeh, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, since we understand it. Do not speak with us in Hebrew in the hearing of the people on the wall.”
30. 27UDBBut the official replied, "Do you think that my master sent me to say these things only to you and not to the people who are standing on the wall? If you reject this message, the people in this city will soon need to eat their own dung and drink their own urine, just as you will, because there will be nothing more for you to eat or drink."BSBBSB: But the Rabshakeh replied, “Has my master sent me to speak these words only to you and your master, and not to the men sitting on the wall, who are destined with you to eat their own dung and drink their own urine?”
31. 28UDBThen the official stood up and shouted in the Hebrew language to the people sitting on the wall. He said, "Listen to this message from the great king, the king of Assyria. He says this:BSBBSB: Then the Rabshakeh stood and called out loudly in Hebrew: “Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria!
32. 29UDB'Do not allow Hezekiah to deceive you. He will not be able to rescue you from my power.BSBBSB: This is what the king says: Do not let Hezekiah deceive you; he cannot deliver you from my hand.
33. 30UDBDo not allow him to persuade you to rely on Yahweh, saying that Yahweh will rescue you, and that the army of Assyria will never capture this city!'BSBBSB: Do not let Hezekiah persuade you to trust in the LORD when he says, ‘The LORD will surely deliver us; this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.’
34. 31UDBDo not pay attention to what Hezekiah says! This is what the king of Assyria says: 'Come out of the city and surrender to me. If you do that, I will arrange for each of you to drink the juice from you own grapevines, eat figs from your own trees, and drink water from your own wells.BSBBSB: Do not listen to Hezekiah, for this is what the king of Assyria says: Make peace with me and come out to me. Then every one of you will eat from his own vine and his own fig tree and drink water from his own cistern,
35. 32UDBYou will be able to do that until we come and take you to a land that is like your land—a land where there is grain to make bread and vineyards to produce grapes for making wine. It will be a land that has plenty of olive trees and honey.' If you do what the king of Assyria commands, you will not die. You will continue to live. Do not allow Hezekiah to persuade you to trust in Yahweh, saying that he will rescue you!BSBBSB: until I come and take you away to a land like your own—a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees and honey—so that you may live and not die. But do not listen to Hezekiah, for he misleads you when he says, ‘The LORD will deliver us.’
36. 33UDBThe gods that people of other nations worship have never rescued them from the power of the king of Assyria!BSBBSB: Has the god of any nation ever delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria?
37. 34UDBWhere are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah? Did any of their gods deliver Samaria out of my hand?BSBBSB: Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah? Have they delivered Samaria from my hand?
38. 35UDBNone of these gods kept their people from being destroyed by the king of Assyria. Do you think your God Yahweh can do any better?BSBBSB: Who among all the gods of these lands has delivered his land from my hand? How then can the LORD deliver Jerusalem from my hand?”
39. 36UDBBut the people who were listening were silent. No one said anything because King Hezekiah had told them, "When the official from Assyria talks to you, do not answer him."BSBBSB: But the people remained silent and did not answer a word, for Hezekiah had commanded, “Do not answer him.”
40. 37UDBThen Eliakim and Shebna and Joah went back to Hezekiah with their clothes torn because they were extremely distressed, and they told him what the official from Assyria had said.BSBBSB: Then Hilkiah’s son Eliakim the palace administrator, Shebna the scribe, and Asaph’s son Joah the recorder came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and they relayed to him the words of the Rabshakeh.

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