Immerse: Kingdoms Full Volume - Flipbook - Page 268
256
IMMERSE
•
KINGDOMS
2K
| 18:14-27
Assyria came to attack the fortified towns of Judah and conquered them.
King Hezekiah sent this message to the king of Assyria at Lachish: “I have
done wrong. I will pay whatever tribute money you demand if you will
only withdraw.” The king of Assyria then demanded a settlement of more
than eleven tons of silver and one ton of gold. To gather this amount, King
Hezekiah used all the silver stored in the Temple of the Lord and in the
palace treasury. Hezekiah even stripped the gold from the doors of the
Lord’s Temple and from the doorposts he had overlaid with gold, and he
gave it all to the Assyrian king.
Nevertheless, the king of Assyria sent his commander in chief, his field
commander, and his chief of staff from Lachish with a huge army to confront King Hezekiah in Jerusalem. The Assyrians took up a position beside
the aqueduct that feeds water into the upper pool, near the road leading
to the field where cloth is washed. They summoned King Hezekiah, but
the king sent these officials to meet with them: Eliakim son of Hilkiah, the
palace administrator; Shebna the court secretary; and Joah son of Asaph,
the royal historian.
Then the Assyrian king’s chief of staff told them to give this message to
Hezekiah:
“This is what the great king of Assyria says: What are you trusting
in that makes you so confident? Do you think that mere words can
substitute for military skill and strength? Who are you counting on,
that you have rebelled against me? On Egypt? If you lean on Egypt, it
will be like a reed that splinters beneath your weight and pierces your
hand. Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, is completely unreliable!
“But perhaps you will say to me, ‘We are trusting in the Lord our
God!’ But isn’t he the one who was insulted by Hezekiah? Didn’t
Hezekiah tear down his shrines and altars and make everyone in Judah
and Jerusalem worship only at the altar here in Jerusalem?
“I’ll tell you what! Strike a bargain with my master, the king of
Assyria. I will give you 2,000 horses if you can find that many men to
ride on them! With your tiny army, how can you think of challenging
even the weakest contingent of my master’s troops, even with the
help of Egypt’s chariots and charioteers? What’s more, do you think
we have invaded your land without the Lord’s direction? The Lord
himself told us, ‘Attack this land and destroy it!’”
Then Eliak im son of Hilkiah, Shebna, and Joah said to the Assyrian chief
of staff, “Please speak to us in Aramaic, for we understand it well. Don’t
speak in Hebrew, for the people on the wall will hear.”
But Sennacherib’s chief of staff replied, “Do you think my master sent