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¹In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah, Hoshea the son of Elah became king over Israel in Samaria, and reigned for nine years.

²He did evil in the sight of the LORD, only not as the kings of Israel who preceded him.

³Shalmaneser the king of Assyria marched against him, and Hoshea became his servant and paid him tribute.

⁴But the king of Assyria uncovered a conspiracy by Hoshea, who had sent messengers to So, king of Egypt, and had then brought no tribute to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year; so the king of Assyria arrested him and confined him in prison.

⁵Then the king of Assyria invaded the entire land, and went up to Samaria and besieged it for three years.

⁶In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and led the people of Israel into exile to Assyria, and settled them in Halah and Habor, on the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.

⁷Now this came about because the sons of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, who had brought them up from the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt; and they had feared other gods.

⁸They also followed the customs of the nations whom the LORD had driven out from the sons of Israel, and in the customs of the kings of Israel which they had introduced.

⁹And the sons of Israel did things secretly against the LORD their God which were not right. Moreover, they built for themselves high places in all their towns, from watchtower to fortified city.

¹⁰And they set up for themselves memorial stones and Asherim on every high hill and under every green tree,

¹¹and there they burned incense on all the high places as the nations did that the LORD had taken into exile before them; and they did evil things, provoking the LORD.

¹²They served idols, concerning which the LORD had said to them, “You shall not do this thing.”

¹³Yet the LORD warned Israel and Judah through all His prophets and every seer, saying, “Turn back from your evil ways and keep My commandments and My statutes in accordance with all the Law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you through My servants the prophets.”

¹⁴However, they did not listen, but stiffened their neck like their fathers, who did not believe in the LORD their God.

¹⁵They rejected His statutes and His covenant which He made with their fathers, and His warnings which He gave them. And they followed idols and became empty, and followed the nations that surrounded them, about which the LORD had commanded them not to do as they did.

¹⁶And they abandoned all the commandments of the LORD their God and made for themselves cast metal images: two calves. And they made an Asherah, and worshiped all the heavenly lights, and served Baal.

¹⁷Then they made their sons and their daughters pass through the fire, and they practiced divination and interpreting omens, and gave themselves over to do evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking Him.

¹⁸So the LORD was very angry with Israel, and He removed them from His sight; no one was left except the tribe of Judah.

¹⁹Judah did not keep the commandments of the LORD their God either, but they followed the customs which Israel had introduced.

²⁰So the LORD rejected all the descendants of Israel and afflicted them and handed them over to plunderers, until He had cast them out of His sight.

²¹When He had torn Israel from the house of David, they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king. Then Jeroboam drove Israel away from following the LORD and misled them into a great sin.

²²And the sons of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he committed; they did not desist from them

²³until the LORD removed Israel from His sight, just as He had spoken through all His servants the prophets. So Israel went into exile from their own land to Assyria until this day.

²⁴Then the king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim, and settled them in the cities of Samaria in place of the sons of Israel. So they took possession of Samaria and lived in its cities.

²⁵And at the beginning of their living there, they did not fear the LORD; therefore the LORD sent lions among them that were killing some of them.

²⁶So they spoke to the king of Assyria, saying, “The nations whom you have taken into exile and settled in the cities of Samaria do not know the custom of the God of the land; so He has sent lions among them, and behold, they are killing them because they do not know the custom of the God of the land.”

²⁷Then the king of Assyria issued commands, saying, “Take one of the priests there whom you led into exile, and have him go and live there; and have him teach them the custom of the God of the land.”

²⁸So one of the priests whom they had led into exile from Samaria came and lived in Bethel, and taught them how they were to fear the LORD.

²⁹But every nation was still making gods of its own, and they put them in the houses of the high places which the people of Samaria had made, every nation in their cities in which they lived.

³⁰The men of Babylon made Succoth-benoth, the men of Cuth made Nergal, the men of Hamath made Ashima,

³¹and the Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak; and the Sepharvites were burning their children in the fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim.

³²They also feared the LORD and appointed from their entire population priests of the high places, who acted for them in the houses of the high places.

³³They feared the LORD, yet they were serving their own gods in accordance with the custom of the nations from among whom they had been taken into exile.

³⁴To this day they act in accordance with the earlier customs: they do not fear the LORD, nor do they follow their statutes, their ordinances, the Law, or the commandments which the LORD commanded the sons of Jacob, whom He named Israel.

³⁵The LORD made a covenant with them and commanded them, saying, “You shall not fear other gods, nor bow down to them, nor serve them, nor sacrifice to them.

³⁶But the LORD, who brought you up from the land of Egypt with great power and with an outstretched arm, Him you shall fear, and to Him you shall bow down, and to Him you shall sacrifice.

³⁷And the statutes, the ordinances, the Law, and the commandment which He wrote for you, you shall take care to do always; and you shall not fear other gods.

³⁸The covenant that I have made with you, you shall not forget, nor shall you fear other gods.

³⁹But you shall fear the LORD your God; and He will save you from the hand of all your enemies.”

⁴⁰However, they did not listen, but they kept acting in accordance with their earlier custom.

⁴¹So while these nations feared the LORD, they also served their idols; their children likewise and their grandchildren, just as their fathers did, they do to this day.

¹Now it came about in the third year of Hoshea, the son of Elah king of Israel, that Hezekiah the son of Ahaz king of Judah became king.

²He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned for twenty-nine years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Abi the daughter of Zechariah.

³He did what was right in the sight of the LORD, in accordance with everything that his father David had done.

⁴He removed the high places and smashed the memorial stones to pieces, and cut down the Asherah. He also crushed to pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the sons of Israel had been burning incense to it; and it was called Nehushtan.

⁵He trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel; and after him there was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, nor among those who came before him.

⁶For he clung to the LORD; he did not desist from following Him, but kept His commandments, which the LORD had commanded Moses.

⁷And the LORD was with him; wherever he went he was successful. And he revolted against the king of Assyria and did not serve him.

⁸He defeated the Philistines as far as Gaza and its territory, from watchtower to fortified city.

⁹Now in 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 besieged it.

¹⁰And at the end of three years they captured it; in the sixth year of Hezekiah, which was the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel, Samaria was captured.

¹¹Then the king of Assyria led Israel into exile to Assyria, and put them in Halah and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.

¹²This happened because they did not obey the voice of the LORD their God, but violated His covenant, all that Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded; they would neither listen nor do it.

¹³Now in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria marched against all the fortified cities of Judah and seized them.

¹⁴Then Hezekiah king of Judah sent messengers to the king of Assyria at Lachish, saying, “I have done wrong. Withdraw from me; whatever you impose on me I will endure.” So the king of Assyria imposed on Hezekiah king of Judah the payment of three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.

¹⁵Hezekiah then gave him all the silver that was found in the house of the LORD, and in the treasuries of the king’s house.

¹⁶At that time Hezekiah cut off the gold from the doors of the temple of the LORD, and from the doorposts, which Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid, and he gave it to the king of Assyria.

¹⁷Then the king of Assyria sent Tartan, Rab-saris, and Rabshakeh from Lachish to King Hezekiah with a large army to Jerusalem. So they went up and came to Jerusalem. And when they went up, they came and stood by the conduit of the upper pool, which is on the road of the fuller’s field.

¹⁸Then they called to the king, and Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was in charge of the household, Shebnah the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph the secretary, went out to them.

¹⁹And Rabshakeh said to them, “Say now to Hezekiah, ‘This is what the great king, the king of Assyria says: “What is this confidence that you have?

²⁰You say—but they are only empty words—‘I have a plan and strength for the war.’ Now on whom have you relied, that you have revolted against me?

²¹Now behold, you have relied on the support of this broken reed, on Egypt; on which if a man leans, it will go into his hand and pierce it. That is how Pharaoh king of Egypt is to all who rely on him.

²²However, if you say to me, ‘We have trusted in the LORD our God,’ is it not He whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has removed, and has said to Judah and to Jerusalem, ‘You shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem’?

²³Now then, come make a wager with my master the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to put riders on them!

²⁴How then can you drive back even one official of the least of my master’s servants, and rely on Egypt for chariots and horsemen?

²⁵Have I now come up without the LORD’S approval against this place to destroy it? The LORD said to me, ‘Go up against this land and destroy it.’ ” ’ ”

²⁶Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, Shebnah, and Joah, said to Rabshakeh, “Speak now to your servants in Aramaic, because we understand it; and do not speak with us in Judean so that the people who are on the wall hear you.”

²⁷But Rabshakeh said to them, “Has my master sent me only to your master and to you to speak these words? Has he not also sent me to the men who sit on the wall, doomed to eat their own dung and drink their own urine with you?”

²⁸Then Rabshakeh stood up and shouted with a loud voice in Judean, saying, “Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria!

²⁹This is what the king says: ‘Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to save you from my hand.

³⁰And do not let Hezekiah lead you to trust in the LORD by saying, “The LORD will certainly save us, and this city will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.”

³¹Do not listen to Hezekiah, for this is what the king of Assyria says: “Make your peace with me and come out to me, and eat, each one, from his vine and each from his fig tree, and drink, each one, the waters of his own cistern,

³²until I come and take you to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees producing oil, and of honey, so that you will live and not die.” But do not listen to Hezekiah, because he misleads you by saying, “The LORD will save us.”

³³Has any of the gods of the nations actually saved his land from the hand of the king of Assyria?

³⁴Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah? Have they saved Samaria from my hand?

³⁵Who among all the gods of the lands are there who have saved their land from my hand, that the LORD would save Jerusalem from my hand?’ ”

³⁶But the people were silent and did not answer him with even a word, because it was the king’s command: “Do not answer him.”

³⁷Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was in charge of the household, and Shebna the scribe and Joah the son of Asaph, the secretary, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and they reported to him the words of Rabshakeh.