18:1 – 24:20. Judah.

F8  R¹  18:1-20:1. Hezekiah.
    R²  21:1-18. Manasseh.
    R³  21:19-26. Amon.
    R4  22:1-23:30. Josiah.
    R5  23:31-35. Jehoahaz.
    R6  23:36-24:7. Jehoiakim.
    R7  24:8-16. Jehoiachin.
    R8  24:17-20. Zedekiah.

18:1-20:21. Hezekiah.

R¹  S  18:1,2. Introduction. Accession.
     T  18:3-7-. Personal. Well-doing.
      U  18:-7-19:37. Events. Political.
     T  20:1-19. Personal. Sickness.
    S  20:20,21. Conclusion. Record and death.

617 B.C.

2 Kings 18)

1 Now it came to pass in the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel (Hoshea began in the 12th year of Ahaz. Therefore Hezekiah began in the 15th year of Ahaz. Ahaz reigned 16 years, but was deposed by Shalmaneser [17:3,4], who set up Hezekiah. Hezekiah rebelled [v.7], which shows he was under Assyria till then), [that] Hezekiah (= the might of Yahaveh) the son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign.

617 to 588

2 Twenty and five years old was he when he began to reign; and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother's name also [was] Abi, the daughter of Zachariah (in 2 Chron.29:1 it is "Abijah", but "Abi" may be the abbreviation of "Abijah", the "i" or "j" standing for "jah").

3 And he did [that which was] right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that David his father did.
4 He removed the high places, and brake the images, and cut down the asherah (sing. See Ex.34:13), and broke in pieces the brasen serpent that Moses had made (cp. Num.21:9. Now 835 years old. [From 1452 to 617 = 835]): for unto those days the sons of Israel did burn incense to it: and he called it Nehushtan (= a brass thing).
5 He confided in the Lord God of Israel; so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah (i.e. for trust in Yehovah. Same praise given to Josiah [23:25], but in a different respect), nor [any] that were before him.
6 For he clove to the Lord, [and] departed not from following him, but kept his commandments, which the Lord commanded Moses.
7 And the Lord was with him; [and] he prospered to whichever place he went forth:

18:-7-19:37.

U  V  18:-7. Assyria. Hezekiah's rebellion.
    W  18:8. Philistines. Smitten.
   V  18:9-19:37. Assyria. Shalmaneser's invasions.

and he rebelled against the king of Assyria, and served him not (Hezekiah had hitherto been dependent on him. See v.15).

8 He smote the Philistines (prophesied by Isaiah [14:28-32]), [even] to Gaza, and the borders thereof, from the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city.

18:9-19:37. Assyria. Invasions.

V  X¹  18:9-12. Invasion of Israel (Shalmaneser).
   X²  18:13-19:37. Invasion of Judah (Sennacherib).

613 B.C.

9 And it came to pass in the fourth year of king Hezekiah (cp. 17:3-6), which [was] the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, [that] Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against Samaria, and besieged it (commenced the siege; Sargon, his successor, completed it after 3 years. Cp. 17:5,6, where we have the same interval as here. In Sargon's own inscription he refers to the "tributes imposed upon them by the former king").

611 B.C.

10 And at the end of three years (see 17:5) he took it (i.e. Sargon. See 17:5,6. Sargon took it after Shalmaneser's death): [even] in the sixth year of Hezekiah, that [is] the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel, Samaria was taken.
11 And the king of Assyria did carry away Israel to Assyria, and put them in Halah (see 17:6) and in Habor [by] the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes: (Why did the lord let them go into captivity?)
12 Because they obeyed not the voice of the Lord their God, but transgressed His covenant, [and] all that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded, and would not hear [them], nor do [them]. (Well we see a lot of that to day, do we not?)

18:13-19:37. Invasions of Judah.

X²  Y¹  18:13-16. First invasion.
    Y²  18:17-19:37. Second invasion.

603 B.C.

13 Now in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah (this was the first invasion of Judah which Sennacherib's inscription enlarges upon, but is only mentioned here. See v.17. Cp. Isa. 36,37, and 2 Chron.32) did Sennacherib (= sin, the moon, increases brothers) king of Assyria come up against all the fenced cities of Judah, and took them. (46 mentioned in the inscriptions. "Hezekiah like a Bird in a Cage". This is not mentioned in Scripture; but Sennacherib has written it down for us, and it may be read today in the British Museaum in London [55-10-3.1], on a hexagonal cylinder of this very Sennacherib, king of Assyria [607-583 B.C. According to the "received" dating this is usually given as 705-681 B.C. Sennacherib's siege of Jerusalem took place in the 14th year of Hezekiah {603 B.C.}. According to Professor Sayce, "Bible and Monuments" {Variorum Aids. p.80}, this invasion took place 4 years after his accession; and, as he is supposed to have reigned 20 years afterward {24 years in all}, his true regal period would be 607-583 B.C. and not 705-681 B.C.]. It is "one of the finest and most perfect objects of its class and kind ever discovered, and its importance as an historical document can hardly be overrated. It contains 487 lines of closely written but legible cuneiform text, inscribed in the Eponymy of Belimuranni, perfect of Karkemish". The text record 8 expeditions of Sennacherib. Among them his description of this very siege of Jerusalem in the reign of Hezekiah. The words we wish to refer to are in the 11th to the 21st lines: -

11. "I fixed upon him. And of Hezekiah [king of the]
12. Jews, who had not submitted to my yoke,
13. forty-six of his fenced cities, and the strongholds, and the smaller cities.
14. which were round about them and which were without number,
15. by the battering of rams, and by the attack of engines
16. and by the assaults of foot soldiers, and.....²
17. I besieged, I captured, 200,150 people, small and great, male and female,
18. horses, and mules, and asses, and camels, and men,
19. and sheep innumerable from their midst I brought out, and
20. I reckoned [them] as spoil. [Hezekiah] himself like a caged bird within Jerusalem,
21. his royal city, I shut in, &c.
² The three words at the end of this line are the proper names of military engines.
Now read the words of Hezekiah in Ps.124:7: - "Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers: The snare is broken, and we are delivered". This takes the Psalm right back to the very days of Hezekiah and Sennacherib. Indeed, it takes us beyond the days of Hezekiah and Sennacherib: for it is a Psalm of David. Some 360 years before Hezekiah [964-603 B.C.], David had found himself in similar trouble. He was hunted like a partridge in the mountains, pursued as a dog, and sought as a flea, by Saul. He had been shut up in his hiding places [2 Sam.23:1-13, 19-24, 12, 14; 26:1-20]. At such a time it was that David penned this Psalm [124]. At such a similar time of Hezekiah's need, when he was shut up in his house by sickness, and besieged in Jerusalem by Sennacherib, he was indeed "like a caged bird". What Psalm could more suitably express the sense of his need, and his praise for Divine deliverance? He had no need himself to write another "Song". Here was one ready to his hand. Indeed, David's reference to his escape "as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers" would be seized on by Hezekiah as exactly suited to express his deliverance from the "snare", as well as from the siege of Sennacherib. It makes the history live again before our eyes. We can see the vain boasting of his enemies; and hear his own praise, as he exclaims: "Blessed be Yehovah, Who has not given us as a prey to their teeth" [Ps.124:6])
14 And Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria to Lachish (Sennacharib had not approached Jerusalem yet. This is a city South of Jerusalem), saying, “I have offended (see v.7); return from me: that which you put on me will I bear.” And the king of Assyria appointed to Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver (approx. 3,000 lbs. The Assyrian inscription says 800, the exact equivalent of 300 Hebrew [silver] talents. See note on "twenty" [15:27]) and thirty talents of gold (]600 lbs]. He’s saying I’ve offended you so please withdraw from Judah and I’ll pay whatever tribute you say for me to pay. And you know this is hard for me to understand about Hezekiah. Hezekiah was a righteous king. He was a good man. Boy especially compared to his father Ahaz. Ahaz was an idolator if their ever was one. But you know, this turned into a blessing for Judah because of Sennacherib’s blasphemy and his pride. Now let’s see, blasphemy and pride. Who does that sound like? Maybe antichrist just a little bit? Blasphemy? He’s going to be claiming to be God and standing in God’s place. Put his throne where God’s throne is supposed to be. Pride? That was his downfall. Sound familiar?)
15 And Hezekiah gave [him] all the silver that was found in the house of the Lord, and in the treasuries of the king's house (see Isa.39:2. Buying treasures. It won’t be enough to satisfy Sennacherib for long).
16 At that time did Hezekiah cut off [the gold from] the doors of the temple of the LORD, and [from] the pillars which Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid, and gave them to the king of Assyria.

18:17-19:37. Second Invasion.

Y²  A¹  18:17-36. King of Assyria. Mission.
     B¹  a  18:37. Report.
          b  19:1. Conduct.
           c  19:2-5. Message to Isaiah.
            d  19:6,7. Answer to Isaiah.
    A²  19:8-13. King of Assyria. Letter.
     B²  a  19:14-. Letter.
          b  19:-14. Conduct.
           c  19:15-19. Prayer to Yehovah.
            d  19:20-34. Answer of Yehovah.
    A³  19:35-37. King of Assyria. Destruction.

17 And the king of Assyria (some suppose Sargon, and treat Sennacharib as a mistake here. But probably Sennacharib was the co-regent in the field. Cp. Cp. Jerusalem being taken by Nebuchadnezzar, while Nabopolassar was king in Babylon. So Belshazzar was co-regent with Nabonnedus at the taking of Babylon) sent Tartan (a title = commander-in-chief) and Rabsaris (a title = chief of the heads) and Rabshakeh (a title = chief of the captains; possibly a political officer) from Lachish (10 miles south-east of Jerusalem, on Sennacharib's way to Egypt. See 19:8) to king Hezekiah with a heavy force against Jerusalem (see Judg.1:8). And they went up and came to Jerusalem. And when they were come up, they came and stood by the conduit of the upper pool (on the east side of Jebus = Gihon), which [is] in the highway of the fuller's field. (Now you might say, now wait a minute, Israel was doing bad and God sent the Assyrian, but Judah was doing good. Hezekiah was a good king. Why would He send the Assyrian against Judah? Understand. God will test you from time-to-time. He does not want a bunch of hothouse lilies that are going to wilt at the 1st sign of trouble. You know it’s awfully hard to become an over-comer if you never have anything to overcome).
18 And when they had called to the king, there came out to them Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, which [was] over the palace, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder.
19 And Rabshakeh said to them (see the references to this in Hezekah's "Songs of the degrees". Ps. 120:2,3; 123:3,4. and cp. Isa. 37:4), “Speak you all now to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria, ‘What confidence [is] this wherein you trust? (Fig., Erotesis, which the Rab-shakeh constantly uses. See. vv.20,22,24,25,27,33,34,35. Well he’s pretty proud of his king isn’t he? The GREAT king of Assyria. Is that a type for us? Absolutely. Satan’s going to think he’s pretty great in his role)
20 You say, {vain words (Heb. word of lips = lip-words. In other words you say this with your lips but you really don’t believe it with your heart),} [I have] counsel and strength for the war. Now on whom do you trust, that you rebel against me?
21 Now, behold, you trust (a policy opposed by Isaiah [Isa. 30:2; 31:4]) upon the staff of this bruised reed (cp. Ezek. 29:6), [even] upon Egypt, on which if a man lean, it will go into his hand, and pierce it: so [is] Pharaoh king of Egypt (probably Shabako, the successor of So. See 19:9 and cp.17:3,4) to all that trust on him. (God wanted His people to lean and trust on Him, not the king of Egypt, not some other man, or some other god).
22 But if you all say to me (Isa. 36:7. If you say. Spoken to one, but meant for all), ‘We trust in the Lord our God:’ [is] not that He, Whose high places and Whose altars Hezekiah has taken away, and has said to Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You all shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem?’ ’ ’ (Why should Yahaveh help you when your king tore down all the illegal places of worship that the previous kings of Judah had set up?)
23 Now therefore, I pray you, give pledges to my lord the king of Assyria, and I will deliver you two thousand horses, if you be able on your part to set riders upon them. (Still even less depending on the bruised reed of Egypt. Can you depend on your own army? If I gave you 2000 horses, you don’t even have enough men capable of putting on there, that can fight from horse back)
24 How then will you turn away the face of one captain of the least of my master's servants, and put your trust on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen? (Your military is so week that you have no choice but to depend on Egypt.)
25 Am I now come up without the Lord (either said in pretense, or from having heard Yahaveh's prophecies [cp. 19:25 with Isa. 10:5) against this place to destroy it? the Lord said to me, ‘Go up against this land, and destroy it.’ ” (Now we’ve got some problems for the Assyrian. God had not commanded him to go up and destroy Judah. This is out-and-out blasphemy)
26 Then said Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, and Shebna, and Joah, to Rabshakeh, “Speak, I pray you, to your servants in the Aramaic language; for we understand [it]: and talk not with us in the Jews' language (or Hebrew) in the ears of the people that [are] on the wall.” (We understand your language so please, you know, you’re scaring our troops over here on the wall. Don’t talk in Hebrew, you’re scaring our people)
27 But Rabshakeh said to them, “Has my master sent me to you master, and to you, to speak these words? [has he] not [sent me] to the men which sit on the wall, that they may eat their own dung, and drink their own piss with you?” (In other words that’s how bad it’s going to get if the Assyrian lays siege on Jerusalem. Three years is a long time to lay siege. What do they do basically? They starve them out. If you can’t get food into the city and you’ve got probably tens of thousands of people there at the time, or over 100,000 people there, they’re going to starve to death eventually. Of course they routed water under secret passage ways in to Jerusalem and taken it away. But I also ask you to look at that maybe as a little bit of a type. If you don’t participate in the Assyrian’s or antichrist’s one world system, you’re on your own when it comes to food and water. Let me ask you this, has anyone ever warned you that we should have a little bit of food set aside for when the antichrist comes? Has anyone ever warned you that you should have some water set aside for your family? Because you’re on your own folks. You’re not going to be able to buy and sell. Has anyone ever warned you to have a little bit of precious metal available to where you can barter trade? Have you done that? Have you done it to the extent that… And some people might say, “Well, you don’t understand. You know I’m living check-to-check right now and it’s just hard for me to do that.” Boy I do understand with gasoline prices up and I filled up on the way up here and you talk about making your knees shake! That made my knees shake, filling up that SUV. Whoooh! But my point is this, it’s a lot easier right now for you to do what you need to do and to get some things set aside then it’s going to be when he actually arrives. Because I mean everything to your checking account, do you think you’re going to be able to use that? No. Not without taking the mark of the beast or worshiping him. So a little bit of a type here. A little bit graphic maybe.)
28 Then Rabshakeh stood and cried with a loud voice in the Jews' language (Hebrew), and spoke, saying, “Hear the message of the great king, the king of Assyria (We’re about to see some real psychological warfare here. Propaganda):
29 Thus saith the king, ‘Let not Hezekiah deceive you (= raise false hopes. Note the Lamed [l] here, as in the first occ. [Gen. 3:13]): for he shall not be able to deliver you out of his hand (i.e. Asshur's king's hand. Out of the king of Assyria’s hand in other words. Don’t let Hezekiah give you false hope):
30 Neither let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord, saying, ‘The Lord will surely deliver us, and this city shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria.’ (Hezekiah can’t save you, the Lord can’t save you. Now wait a minute. I know the Lord is my deliverer, and here we’ve got the king of Assyria saying the Lord can’t delver you. That’s blasphemy)
31 Listen not to Hezekiah: for thus says the king of Assyria, “Make [an agreement] (= Get a blessing out of my coming. Lit. Make with me a blessing) with me by a present, and come out to me (i.e. capitulate), and [then] eat you all every man of his own vine, and every one of his fig tree, and drink you all every one the waters of his cistern (Boy! Does that sound like somebody? How about Dan chapter 11:24 when the antichrist comes in peacefully and prosperously. You see he’s promising these people around the wall in Jerusalem, "Just surrender. Just worship me, and it's going to be good for you. I'll pay off all your bills…" Remember where we started with Paul giving you a warning? He said, these things happened as examples for you. Types for you. Don’t be taken with his deceit):
32 Until I come and take you away to a land like your own land (He’s saying, "I’ll deliver you. Hezekiah can’t deliver you. The Lord can’t deliver you. I’ll rapture you out of here"), a land of corn and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of oil olive and of honey, that you all may live, and not die (And we’re talking about a death of the flesh here that they’re concerned about): and listen not to Hezekiah, when he persuades you, saying, ‘The Lord will rescue us.’ ("You can’t trust Hezekiah, you can’t trust the Lord". Wrong)
33 Has any of the gods of the nations delivered at all his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria? (He thinks he is top dog! None of the gods of the nations of the Assyrians have already conquered could save them)
34 Where [are] the gods of Hamath (cp. 17:24), and of Arpad? (a city of Syria, north-west of Aleppo. Now identified with Tell Erfud) where [are] the gods of Sepharvaim (on the Euphrates, north of Babylon. See 17:24), Hena, and Ivah? (probably names of gods or goddesses) have they delivered Samaria out of mine hand? (Home of the 10 northern tribes. See 17:5,24. Hamath, Arpad, and Samaria are all mentioned in the inscriptions at Korsabad. See 17:21. Let me ask you this; when the antichrist returns, who is everyone in the world going to think their God is? You know, think about what I'm saying here referring to "where [are] the gods". Everyone in the world, I don't care if they’re Islamic, I don’t care if they're Buddhist, I don’t care what their faith is, they are going to think antichrist is God. Are you prepared for that in your mind? And you know what they're going to be asking you because you’re not worshiping him? Where is your God is what they're going to be asking you? )
35 Who [are] they among all the gods of the countries, that have delivered their country out of my hand, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?’ ” (Yahaveh answers him in Nahum 2:11-13)
36 But the people held their peace, and answered him not a word: for the king's commandment was, saying, “Answer him not.”

37 Then came Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, which [was] over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder, to Hezekiah with [their] clothes torn, and told him the words of Rabshakeh. (Pretty good speech, but the problem is Rabshakeh has not only blasphemed Hezekieh, he’s also blasphemed our heavenly Father)

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