Hezekiah Destroys Idolatry in Judah (2 Chronicles 29:1–2)
2 UST Hezekiah was 25 years old when he became the king of Judah. He ruled from Jerusalem for 29 years. His mother was Abijah daughter of Zechariah. BSB BSB: 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.
3 UST Hezekiah did things that pleased Yahweh, just as his ancestor King David had done. BSB BSB: And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, just as his father David had done.
5 UST Hezekiah trusted in Yahweh, the God whom the Israelites worshiped. No king who ruled Judah before him or after him was as devoted to Yahweh as he was. BSB BSB: Hezekiah trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel. No king of Judah was like him, either before him or after him.
6 UST Hezekiah remained loyal to Yahweh and did not disobey him. He carefully obeyed the commandments that Yahweh had given to Moses. BSB BSB: He remained faithful to the LORD and did not turn from following Him; he kept the commandments that the LORD had given Moses.
8 UST Hezekiah led his army against the Philistines, and they defeated them in battles throughout their territory as far south as the city of Gaza and the area around it. BSB BSB: He defeated the Philistines as far as Gaza and its borders, from watchtower to fortified city.
9 UST After Hezekiah had been ruling Judah for almost four years and Hoshea had been ruling Israel for almost seven years, the army of King Shalmaneser of Assyria invaded Israel and surrounded the city of Samaria. BSB BSB: 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.
10 UST After three years, they captured the city. That was when Hezekiah had been ruling Judah for almost six years and Hoshea had been ruling Israel for almost nine years. BSB BSB: 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.
11 UST The king of Assyria commanded his soldiers to take the Israelites as captives to Assyria. They made them live in the city of Halah, near the Habor River in the region of Gozan, and in cities in the kingdom of Media{, which the Assyrians had conquered}. BSB BSB: 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.
12 UST That happened because the Israelites did not obey the commandments that Yahweh their God had given them. They disobeyed the solemn agreement that Yahweh had made with their ancestors. That agreement included the laws that Moses had told them to obey. They were not careful to obey those laws. BSB BSB: 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.
Sennacherib Invades Judah (2 Chronicles 32:1–8; Psalm 46:1–11)
15 UST So Hezekiah sent him all the silver that was in Yahweh’ s temple and that he was keeping in the royal palace. BSB BSB: Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the house of the LORD and in the treasuries of the royal palace.
16 UST { To get the gold he needed,} Hezekiah had his workers strip off the gold that he had earlier put on the doors and doorposts of the temple. He sent all that gold to the king of Assyria. BSB BSB: 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.
Sennacherib Threatens Jerusalem (2 Chronicles 32:9–19; Isaiah 36:1–22)
17 UST But the king of Assyria sent{ three of his most important officials,} the Tartan, the Rabsaris, and the Rabshakeh, with a large army from the city of Lachish to persuade King Hezekiah to surrender. When the army reached Jerusalem, they stopped alongside the aqueduct through which water flowed from the Upper Pool into Jerusalem. They stopped at the place where it went under the road that led to the Field of the Fuller. BSB BSB: 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.
18 UST Those officials sent a message to King Hezekiah{ saying that they had a message for him from the king of Assyria}. Hezekiah sent three of his officials to speak with them. He sent Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was in charge of the palace. He also sent Shebna, his official secretary, and Joah son of Asaph, the official who reported to the people everything that Hezekiah decided they should do. BSB BSB: 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.
19 UST The Rabshakeh told them to tell Hezekiah,“The great king, the king of Assyria, says that you have no reason to expect that anyone will help you fight against him. BSB BSB: 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?
20 UST You claim that you have a strong enough army and good enough plans to resist him. But that is only talk.{ You can not resist him alone, and} you can not depend on anyone else to help you. So you should not have rebelled against him. BSB BSB: 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?
21 UST You are relying on the army of Egypt to help you. But you must realize that that is like using a broken reed as a staff for support. The pointed end of such a staff would make a hole in the hand of anyone who tried to use it! That is what the king of Egypt is like. He hurts anyone who relies on him for help.” BSB BSB: 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.
23 UST { So tell Hezekiah for me that} I am offering him a deal on behalf of my master, the king of Assyria. I will give him 2, 000 horses if he still has enough healthy soldiers to ride on them! BSB BSB: 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!
24 UST But also tell him that I know that even if I gave him those horses, he would not be able to defeat even one of the weakest soldiers in our army. Tell him I know that is why he is hoping that the king of Egypt will send chariots and soldiers on horseback to help him. BSB BSB: 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?
25 UST Furthermore, do not 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!” BSB BSB: 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.’”
26 UST Then Eliakim told the Rabshakeh on behalf of himself and Shebna and Joah,“Sir, please speak to us in your own Aramaic language. We understand it. Do not keep speaking to us in our Judean language. The people who are standing on the wall can{ hear and} understand you{, and you are frightening them}.” BSB BSB: 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.”
27 UST But the Rabshakeh told Eliakim,“You should not think that my master sent me to say these things only to your king and to you and not also to the people on the wall who are listening!{ If you do not surrender, we will besiege the city, and soon} they will have nothing to eat but their own dung and nothing to drink but their own urine. The three of you will also have nothing else to eat or drink.” BSB BSB: 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?”
28 UST Then the Rabshakeh directly faced the people on the wall. He shouted to them in Judean,“Listen to this message from the great king, the king of Assyria. BSB BSB: Then the Rabshakeh stood and called out loudly in Hebrew: “Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria!
29 UST He says that you must not allow Hezekiah to deceive you. Hezekiah will not be able to rescue you from his army. BSB BSB: This is what the king says: Do not let Hezekiah deceive you; he cannot deliver you from my hand.
30 UST He says that you must not allow Hezekiah to persuade you to rely on Yahweh by telling you that Yahweh will certainly rescue you and that the army of Assyria will never capture this city! BSB BSB: 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.’
31 UST Do not let Hezekiah persuade you! The king of Assyria says that you should come out of the city and surrender to him. He says that if you do that,{ instead of being very hungry as you are now,} you will be able to eat the grapes and figs you have grown and drink water from your own wells. BSB BSB: 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,
32 UST He promises that you will be able to do that until his soldiers come and take you to a land that is like your land. It will be a land where you can grow grain to make bread and grow grapes to make wine. It will be a land that has groves of olive trees that produce oil and whose bees produce honey. The king encourages you to survive{ by surrendering} rather than die{ by continuing to resist}. He says that Hezekiah is deceiving you when he says that Yahweh will rescue you and so you must not believe him. BSB BSB: 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.’
33 UST The king reminds you that none of the gods that the people of other nations worship have been able to prevent him from conquering those nations! BSB BSB: Has the god of any nation ever delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria?
34 UST The gods of Hamath and Arpad did not come and rescue the people who lived there! The gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah did not come and rescue the people who lived there! And even the gods of Samaria did not prevent me from conquering it! BSB BSB: Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah? Have they delivered Samaria from my hand?
35 UST The king reminds you that none of these gods prevented him from conquering the people who worshiped them. So do not think that Yahweh will prevent him from conquering Jerusalem.” BSB BSB: 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?”
36 UST King Hezekiah had told the people,“When the Rabshakeh speaks to you, do not answer him.” So the people who were listening did not say anything in reply to him. BSB BSB: But the people remained silent and did not answer a word, for Hezekiah had commanded, “Do not answer him.”
37 UST Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah tore their clothes{ because they were extremely distressed}. They went back to Hezekiah and told him what the Rabshakeh had said. BSB BSB: 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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