II Kings 18, Judah Under Siege

Israel is no more.  It has been absorbed by Assytia.  However, the northern kingdom survives.

But Assyria continues to grow in power and will shortly turn its eye on Judah.

2 Kings 18: 1-8, Hezekiah, a good king

In the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, Hezekiah son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign. He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-nine years. His mother's name was Abijah daughter of Zechariah.

He did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, just as his father David had done. He removed the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it. (It was called Nehushtan.)
 

Hezekiah trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel. There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before him or after him. He held fast to the LORD and did not cease to follow him; he kept the commands the LORD had given Moses. And the LORD was with him; he was successful in whatever he undertook. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and did not serve him. From watchtower to fortified city, he defeated the Philistines, as far as Gaza and its territory.

Hezekiah takes the throne in Judah and desires to return to the worship of YHWH, as described by Moses.  One of the things the Israelites had been worshiping was a bronze replica of a serpent, presumably the replica Moses held up in the desert in Numbers 21: 8-9.

(NIV footnotes: Nehushtan sounds like the Hebrew for "bronze and snake and unclean thing".)

2 Kings 18: 9-12, Capture of Israel by Shalmaneser

In King Hezekiah's fourth year, 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. At the end of three years the Assyrians took it. So Samaria was captured in Hezekiah's sixth year, which was the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel. The king of Assyria deported Israel to Assyria and settled them in Halah, in Gozan on the Habor River and in towns of the Medes.

This happened because they had not obeyed the LORD their God, but had violated his covenant--all that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded. They neither listened to the commands nor carried them out.

Incidences of the previous chapter on Israel are summarized. Shalmaneser may turn on Judah next.

Hubbard argues that the dates of Hezekiah's reign do not line up with computations based on the Assyrian attack (next verse) which occurred in 701 BC and the date of Hoshea's reign. It is likely (says Hubbard) that we have scribal errors in the writing down of the numbers. Or that the method of recording dates has changed. (This issue also occurs in verse 1 of the previous chapter.)

2 Kings 18: 13-16, Ransom

In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah's reign, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them. So Hezekiah king of Judah sent this message 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 exacted from Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.

So Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the temple of the LORD and in the treasuries of the royal palace. At this time Hezekiah king of Judah stripped off the gold with which he had covered the doors and doorposts of the temple of the LORD, and gave it to the king of Assyria.

Seven years after capturing Israel, Assyria attacks Judah.  This time the king of Assyria is listed as Sennacherib.  In between Shalmaneser and Sennacherib is Sargon, who historians say reigned 17 years.  (So there seems to be discrepancy in the timeline here?)

To appease Sennacherib, Hezekiah empties the temple treasury and gives all to the Assyrian king.

2 Kings 18: 17-21, Challenge from Assyria

The king of Assyria sent his supreme commander, his chief officer and his field commander with a large army, from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. They came up to Jerusalem and stopped at the aqueduct of the Upper Pool, on the road to the Washerman's Field. They called for the king; and Eliakim son of Hilkiah the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph the recorder went out to them.

The field commander said to them, "Tell Hezekiah: `This is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says: On what are you basing this confidence of yours? You say you have strategy and military strength--but you speak only empty words. On whom are you depending, that you rebel against me? Look now, you are depending on Egypt, that splintered reed of a staff, which pierces a man's hand and wounds him if he leans on it! Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who depend on him.'
 

The Assyrians don't seem to be mollified by the ransom paid by Hezekiah. They may believe that there are more riches to be found in Jerusalem!

As has happened elsewhere, when an enemy king surrounds a city, he makes various demands, challenges and taunts. The Assyrians want Hezekiah to know he should not rely on Egypt. Egypt is described no more powerful than a splintered reed, which might cut one's hand if one leans on it, but is essentially useless. The field commander's taunt about Egypt is to make it clear that relying on Egypt will merely get your hand full of slivers.

2 Kings 18: 22-25, YHWH also taunted

And if you say to me, "We are depending on the LORD our God"--isn't he the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah removed, saying to Judah and Jerusalem, "You must worship before this altar in Jerusalem"?

"`Come now, make a bargain with my master, the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses--if you can put riders on them! How can you repulse one officer of the least of my master's officials, even though you are depending on Egypt for chariots and horsemen? Furthermore, have I come to attack and destroy this place without word from the LORD? The LORD himself told me to march against this country and destroy it.'"

The taunts continue. The Assyrian commander is aware of Hezekiah's removal of the altars in the high places, moving all worship back to Jerusalem. If Hezekiah is relying on that god, Sennacherib says, that is also foolish! That god, YHWH,  will not protect Jerusalem! (Spoiler alert: taunting Egypt is one thing. Taunting YHWH, who led Israel out of Egypt, in quite another!)

2 Kings 18: 26-27, Request for Aramaic

Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, and Shebna and Joah said to the field commander, "Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, since we understand it. Don't speak to us in Hebrew in the hearing of the people on the wall."

But the commander replied, "Was it only to your master and you that my master sent me to say these things, and not to the men sitting on the wall--who, like you, will have to eat their own filth and drink their own urine?"
 

The taunts of the Assyrian commander are part of a ploy to weaken the people of Jerusalem and get them to give in without a fight. The commanders of Judah want the conversation to be in Aramaic, the language of diplomacy, not Hebrew, the language of the people. The Judean leaders are indeed concerned about low morale among the populace.

2 Kings 18: 28-35, Taunts in Hebrew

Then the commander stood and called out in Hebrew: "Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria! This is what the king says: Do not let Hezekiah deceive you. He cannot deliver you from my hand. Do not let Hezekiah persuade you to trust in the LORD when he says, `The LORD will surely deliver us; this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.'

"Do not listen to Hezekiah. This is what the king of Assyria says: Make peace with me and come out to me. Then every one of you will eat from his own vine and fig tree and drink water from his own cistern, until I come and take you to a land like your own, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees and honey. Choose life and not death! 

"Do not listen to Hezekiah, for he is misleading you when he says, `The LORD will deliver us.' Has the god of any nation ever delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria? Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena and Ivvah? Have they rescued Samaria from my hand? Who of all the gods of these countries has been able to save his land from me? How then can the LORD deliver Jerusalem from my hand?"

The Assyrian commander continues to taunt Hezekiah in Hebrew. He offers two choices -- surrender and receive peace (and eventual exile to a prosperous land) or fight and die. In the taunt the Assyrian says, "No one has been able to defeat us." (This is the taunt of every empire builder after a string of victories, whether Napolean or Hitler or the Assyrian king. But a string of victories does not go on forever.) In these ancient taunts, the gods of defeated tribes are named.

Hubbard argues the Assyrian commandders promises echo that of YHWH to Israel in Deuteronomy 8: 7-9.

2 Kings 18: 36-37, Silence

But the people remained silent and said nothing in reply, because the king had commanded, "Do not answer him." Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary and Joah son of Asaph the recorder went to Hezekiah, with their clothes torn, and told him what the field commander had said.

Hezekiah has ordered silence from the people and the Judean commanders report to him all that the Assyrians had said. The king of Assyria, in his taunts, has set up a battle between Assyria and YHWH. The resolution of that fight occurs in the next chapter.