2Ki 18:4-22 | ESV | STEP | He removed the high places and broke the pillars and cut down the Asherah . And he broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made , for until those days the people of Israel had made offerings to it (it was called Nehushtan ).

2 Kings 18:4-22

4 ^aHe removed the high places and broke the ^bpillars and cut down ^cthe Asherah. And he broke in pieces ^dthe bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the people of Israel had made offerings to it (it was called Nehushtan). ^{▼▼ Nehushtan sounds like the Hebrew for both bronze and serpent} 5 ^fHe trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel, ^gso that there was none like him among all the kings of Judah after him, nor among those who were before him. 6 ^hFor he held fast to the Lord. He did not depart from following him, but kept the commandments that the Lord commanded Moses. 7 ⁱAnd the Lord was with him; wherever he went out, ^jhe prospered. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and would not serve him. 8 ^kHe struck down the Philistines as far as Gaza and its territory, ^lfrom watchtower to fortified city.

9 In the fourth year of King Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah, king of Israel, ^mShalmaneser king of Assyria came up against Samaria and besieged it, 10 and at the end of three years he took it. In the sixth year of Hezekiah, which was the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel, Samaria was taken. 11 The king of Assyria carried the Israelites away to Assyria and put them in ⁿHalah, and on the ^oHabor, ^pthe river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes, 12 because they did not obey the voice of the Lord their God but transgressed his covenant, even all that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded. They neither listened nor obeyed.

Sennacherib Attacks Judah

13 ^qIn the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them. 14 And Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria at Lachish, saying, “I have done wrong; withdraw from me. Whatever you impose on me I will bear.” ^rAnd the king of Assyria required of Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents ^{▼▼A talent was about 75 pounds or 34 kilograms} of silver and thirty talents of gold. 15 And Hezekiah ^tgave him all the silver that was found in the house of the Lord and in the treasuries of the king’s house. 16 At that time Hezekiah stripped the gold from the doors of the temple of the Lord and from the doorposts that Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid and gave it to the king of Assyria. 17 And the king of Assyria sent the ^uTartan, the Rab-saris, and the Rabshakeh with a great army from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. And they went up and came to Jerusalem. When they arrived, they came and stood by ^vthe conduit of the upper pool, which is on the highway to the Washer’s Field. 18 And when they called for the king, there came out to them ^wEliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and ^xShebnah the secretary, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder.

19 And the Rabshakeh said to them, “Say to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: On what do you rest this trust of yours? 20 Do you think that mere words are strategy and power for war? In whom do you now trust, that you have rebelled against me? 21 Behold, you are trusting now in Egypt, that broken reed of ^ya staff, which will pierce the hand of any man who leans on it. Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him. 22 But if you say to me, “We trust in the Lord our God,” is it not he ^zwhose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and to Jerusalem, “You shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem”?