1In the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, Hezekiah son of Ahaz king of Judah became king.2He 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.3He did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, just as David his father had done.4He removed the high places, broke the pillars, cut down the Asherah, and crushed the bronze serpent that Moses had made, because until those days the sons of Israel had been burning incense to it, and he called it Nehushtan.5He trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel, so that there was no one like him among all the kings of Judah who were before him.6He held fast to the LORD and did not turn away from following him; he kept the commandments that the LORD had commanded Moses.7The LORD was with him; he prospered in everything he undertook. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and would not serve him.8He defeated the Philistines as far as Gaza and its territory, from the watchtower to the fortified city.9In the fourth year of King Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, Shalmaneser king of Assyria marched against Samaria and laid siege to it.10The city was captured after three years; in the sixth year of Hezekiah, which was the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel, Samaria was taken.11The king of Assyria deported Israel to Assyria and settled them in Halah, on the Habor river of Gozan, and in the cities of Madai.12This happened because they had not obeyed the voice of the LORD their God but had violated his covenant—all that Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded—and they neither listened nor obeyed.13In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them.14Hezekiah king of Judah sent word to the king of Assyria at Lachish: "I have done wrong. Withdraw from me, and I will pay whatever you demand of me." The king of Assyria then imposed on Hezekiah king of Judah a tribute of three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.15Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the house of the LORD and in the treasuries of the royal palace.16At that time Hezekiah cut off the doors of the temple of the LORD and the pillars that Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid and gave them to the king of Assyria.