He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother's name [was] Abi the daughter of Zechariah.
He removed the high places and broke the [sacred] pillars, cut down the wooden image and broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made; for until those days the children of Israel burned incense to it, and called it Nehushtan.
Now it came to pass in the fourth year of King Hezekiah, which [was] the seventh year of Hoshea the son of Elah, king of Israel, [that] Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against Samaria and besieged it.
Then the king of Assyria carried Israel away captive to Assyria, and put them in Halah and by the Habor, the River of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes,
because they did not obey the voice of the LORD their God, but transgressed His covenant [and] all that Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded; and they would neither hear nor do [them.]
Then Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria at Lachish, saying, "I have done wrong; turn away from me; whatever you impose on me I will pay." And the king of Assyria assessed Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.
At that time Hezekiah stripped [the gold from] the doors of the temple of the LORD, and [from] the pillars which Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid, and gave it to the king of Assyria.
Then the king of Assyria sent [the] Tartan, [the] Rabsaris, [and the] Rabshakeh from Lachish, with a great army against Jerusalem, to King Hezekiah. And they went up and came to Jerusalem. When they had come up, they went and stood by the aqueduct from the upper pool, which [was] on the highway to the Fuller's Field.
And when they had called to the king, Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who [was] over the household, Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came out to them.
Then [the] Rabshakeh said to them, "Say now to Hezekiah, 'Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: "What confidence [is] this in which you trust?
"Now look! You are trusting in the staff of this broken reed, Egypt, on which if a man leans, it will go into his hand and pierce it. So [is] Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him.
"But if you say to me, 'We trust in the LORD our God,' [is] it not He whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away, and said to Judah and Jerusalem, 'You shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem'?" '
"Now therefore, I urge you, give a pledge to my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses -- if you are able on your part to put riders on them!
Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, Shebna, and Joah said to [the] Rabshakeh, "Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand [it;] and do not speak to us in Hebrew in the hearing of the people who [are] on the wall."
But [the] Rabshakeh said to them, "Has my master sent me to your master and to you to speak these words, and not to the men who sit on the wall, who will eat and drink their own waste with you?"
'nor let Hezekiah make you trust in the LORD, saying, "The LORD will surely deliver us; this city shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria." '
"Do not listen to Hezekiah; for thus says the king of Assyria: 'Make [peace] with me by a present and come out to me; and every one of you eat from his own vine and every one from his own fig tree, and every one of you drink the waters of his own cistern;
'until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive groves and honey, that you may live and not die. But do not listen to Hezekiah, lest he persuade you, saying, "The LORD will deliver us."
Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who [was] over the household, Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with [their] clothes torn, and told him the words of [the] Rabshakeh.