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2 Kings

Hezekiah’s Reforms and Fortifications

18
Chapter 18
1 In the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, Hezekiah son of Ahaz king of Judah became king. 2 He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Abi daughter of Zechariah. 3 He did what was upright in the eyes of the LORD, according to all that his father David did. 4 He removed the high places, broke the pillars, cut down the Asherah pole, and crushed the bronze serpent that Moses had made—for until those days the sons of Israel had been burning incense to it. And he called it Nehushtan. 5 He trusted in the LORD God of Israel, and after him there was none like him among all the kings of Judah or those who were before him. 6 And he clung to the LORD; he did not turn aside from after him, and he kept his commandments, which the LORD commanded Moses. 7 And the LORD was with him in all that he went out to do; he succeeded. And he rebelled against the king of Assyria and did not serve him. 8 He struck the Philistines as far as Gaza and its borders, from the Tower of Watchers as far as the fortified city. 9 And it was in the fourth year of King Hezekiah, the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, that Shalmaneser king of Assyria went up against Samaria and besieged it. 10 It was captured at the end of three years; in the sixth year of Hezekiah—which was the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel—Samaria was captured. 11 The king of Assyria exiled Israel to Assyria and settled them in Halah, in Habor by the river of Gozen, and in the cities of Madai. 12 because they did not hear the voice of the LORD their God, and they transgressed his covenant, all that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded. They did not hear and they did not do it. 13 In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria went up against all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them. 14 Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria at Lachish, saying, "What you impose on me, I will bear. I have sinned; return from me." And the king of Assyria imposed on Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold. 15 Hezekiah gave all the silver that was found in the house of the LORD and in the treasuries of the house of the king. 16 At that time Hezekiah cut off the doors of the temple of the LORD and the doorposts that Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid and gave them to the king of Assyria.