The Koine Bible

And it came to pass in the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, Hezekiah son of Ahaz king of Judah reigned.

He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem; and the name of his mother was Abou, daughter of Zacharias.

And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that David his father did.

He removed the high places and broke in pieces all the pillars and cut down the groves and the bronze serpent that Moses made, because until those days the sons of Israel were burning incense to it; and he called it Neesthan.

In the Lord, the God of Israel, he trusted, and after him there was not one like him among the kings of Judah, and among those who were before him.

And he cleaved to the Lord; he did not turn away from behind him, and he kept his commandments, all that he commanded Moses.

And the Lord was with him in all that he did; he prospered, and he rebelled against the king of the Assyrians and did not serve him.

He struck the Philistines as far as Gaza and as far as its border, from the watchtower of the guards and as far as the fortified city.

And it came to pass in the fourth year of King Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah, king of Israel, that Shalmaneser king of the Assyrians went up against Samaria and besieged it.

And he took it after the end of three years, in the sixth year of Hezekiah, that is, the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel, and Samaria was captured

And the king of the Assyrians carried Samaria away to Assyria and set them in Halah and in Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the mountains of the Medes.

because they did not listen to the voice of the Lord their God and transgressed his covenant, all that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded, and they did not listen and did not do

And in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of the Assyrians went up against the fortified cities of Judah and captured them.

And Hezekiah king of Judah sent messengers to the king of the Assyrians to Lachish, saying, I have sinned; turn back from me; whatever you put on me, I will bear. And the king of the Assyrians laid on Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.

And Hezekiah gave all the silver that was found in the house of the Lord and in the treasuries of the house of the king

At that time Hezekiah broke off the doors of the house of the Lord and the posts that Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid with gold, and he gave them to the king of the Assyrians.

And the king of the Assyrians sent Tartan and Raphis and Rapsakes from Lachish to king Hezekiah with a heavy force against Jerusalem, and they went up and came to Jerusalem and stood at the conduit of the pool of the upper one, which is in the way of the fuller’s field

And they cried out to Hezekiah, and Eliakim son of Hilkiah, the steward, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah son of Asaph, the recorder, went out to him.

And Rabshakeh said to them, Say now to Hezekiah, Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: What is this confidence in which you have trusted?

You have said, only words of lips: counsel and power for war. Now therefore, in whom, trusting, have you rebelled against me?

Now behold, you have trusted in yourself on this broken reed, on Egypt; whoever a man leans on it, it will go into his hand and pierce it. So Pharaoh king of Egypt is to all who trust in him.

And because you said to me, We have trusted in the Lord God, is it not he, this one whose high places and his altars Hezekiah removed, and said to Judah and to Jerusalem, Before this altar you shall worship in Jerusalem?

And now, make a wager with my lord the king of the Assyrians, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able to give riders for yourself on them.

And how will you turn back the face of one local governor among the least of the servants of my lord? And you have trusted in yourself upon Egypt for chariots and horsemen.

And now have we come up against this place without the Lord, to destroy it? The Lord said to me, Go up against this land and destroy it.

And Eliakim son of Hilkiah and Somnas and Joas said to Rapsakes, Speak now to your servants in Syrian, for we hear, and do not speak with us in Jewish, and why do you speak in the ears of the people who are on the wall?

And Rapsakes said to them, Has my lord not sent me to your lord and to you to speak these words—rather, to the men sitting on the wall, to eat their dung and to drink their urine with you?

And Rabsaces stood and cried out with a loud voice in Judean, and he spoke and said, Hear the words of the great king of the Assyrians.

Thus says the king: let Hezekiah not lift you up with words, because he will by no means be able to deliver you from my hand.

And let not Hezekiah make you hope in the Lord, saying, The Lord will surely deliver us, this city shall not be given into the hand of the king of the Assyrians.

Do not listen to Hezekiah, for thus says the king of the Assyrians: Make a blessing with me and come out to me, and each man shall eat his vine and each man his fig tree, and shall drink water of his cistern.

until I come and take you to a land like your land, a land of grain and wine and bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees and oil and honey, and you shall live and you shall surely not die. And do not listen to Hezekiah, for he deceives you, saying, The Lord will rescue us.

Have the gods of the nations, each one, by rescuing rescued his own land from the hand of the king of the Assyrians?

Where is the god of Hamath and Arpad? Where is the god of Sepharvaim, and have they delivered Samaria out of my hand?

Who among all the gods of the lands has delivered their lands from my hand, that the Lord will deliver Jerusalem from my hand?

But they were silent and did not answer him a word, because the command of the king was, saying, You shall not answer him.

And Eliakim son of Hilkiah, the steward, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah, their clothes torn, and reported to him the words of Rabshakeh.