The Divided Kingdom

He did what was right from ADONAI's perspective, following the example of everything David his ancestor had done.

He removed the high places, smashed the standing-stones, cut down the asherah and broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moshe had made; because in those days the people of Isra'el were making offerings to it, calling it N'chushtan.

He put his trust in ADONAI the God of Isra'el; after him there was no one like him among all the kings of Y'hudah, nor had there been among those before him.

For he clung to ADONAI and did not leave off following him, but obeyed his mitzvot, which ADONAI had given Moshe.

So ADONAI was with him. Wherever he went out to battle, he did well. He rebelled against the king of Ashur and refused to be his vassal.

He drove the P'lishtim back to 'Azah and laid waste to their territory from the watchtower to the fortified city.

It was in the fourth year of King Hizkiyahu, which was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah, king of Isra'el, that Shalman'eser king of Ashur advanced against Shomron and laid siege to it.

At the end of three years they captured it - that is, Shomron was captured in the sixth year of Hizkiyahu, which was the ninth year of Hoshea king of Isra'el.

The king of Ashur carried Isra'el away captive to Ashur and settled them in Halach, in Havor on the Gozan River and in the cities of the Medes.

This happened because they did not heed the voice of ADONAI their God, but violated his covenant, everything that Moshe the servant of ADONAI had ordered them to do, and would neither hear it nor do it.

In the fourteenth year of King Hizkiyahu, Sancheriv king of Ashur advanced against all the fortified cities of Y'hudah and captured them.

Hizkiyahu king of Y'hudah sent this message to the king of Ashur at Lakhish: "I have done wrong. If you will go away from me, I will pay whatever penalty you impose on me." The king of Ashur imposed on Hizkiyahu a penalty of ten tons of silver and a ton of gold.

Hizkiyahu gave him all the silver that could be found in the house of ADONAI and in the treasuries of the royal palace.

It was at that time that Hizkiyahu stripped the gold from the doors of the sanctuary of ADONAI and from the doorposts which Hizkiyahu king of Y'hudah himself had overlaid, and gave it to the king of Ashur.

From Lakhish the king of Ashur sent Tartan, Rav-Saris and Rav-Shakeh to King Hizkiyahu in Yerushalayim with a large army. They advanced and came to Yerushalayim. Upon arrival, they came and positioned themselves by the aqueduct from the Upper Pool, which is by the road to the Launderers' Field.

They summoned the king, but those answering the call were Elyakim the son of Hilkiyahu, who was in charge of the household, Shevnah the general secretary and Yo'ach the son of Asaf the foreign minister.

Rav-Shakeh addressed them: "Tell Hizkiyahu: 'Here is what the great king, the king of Ashur, says: "What makes you so confident?

Do you think that mere spoken words constitute strategy and strength for battle? In whom, then, are you trusting when you rebel against me like this?

Now look! Relying on Egypt is like using a broken stick as a staff - when you lean on it, it Hebrew nachash means "serpent," and n'choshet means "bronze." punctures your hand. That's what Pharaoh king of Egypt is like for anyone who puts his trust in him.

But if you tell me, 'We trust in ADONAI our God,' then isn't he the one whose high places and altars Hizkiyahu has removed, telling Y'hudah and Yerushalayim, 'You must worship before this altar in Yerushalayim'?

All right, then, make a wager with my lord the king of Ashur: I will give you two thousand horses if you can find enough riders for them.

How then can you repulse even one of my master's lowest-ranked army officers? Yet you are relying on Egypt for chariots and riders!

Do you think I have come up to this place to destroy it without ADONAI's approval? ADONAI said to me, 'Attack this land, and destroy it'!"'"

Elyakim the son of Hilkiyahu, Shevnah and Yo'ach said to Rav-Shakeh, "Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, since we understand it; don't speak with us in Hebrew while the people on the wall are listening."

But Rav-Shakeh answered them, "Did my master send me to deliver my message just to your master and yourselves? Didn't he send me to address the men sitting on the wall, who, like you, are going to eat their own dung and drink their own urine?"