2 Kings 18
Open in the reader1In the third year of the reign of Saves son of Terebinth over Strives-with-God, He-Who-Is-Has-Strengthened son of He-Has-Grasped became king of Praised.
2He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Foundation-of-Peace twenty-nine years. His mother’s name was My-Father, the daughter of He-Who-Is-Remembers.
3And he did what was right in the eyes of He-Who-Is, just as his father Beloved had done.
4He removed the high places, shattered the sacred pillars, and cut down the Asherah poles. He also demolished the bronze snake called Nehushtan that Drawn-Out had made, for up to that time the Strives-with-Godites had burned incense to it.
5He-Who-Is-Has-Strengthened trusted in He-Who-Is, the God of Strives-with-God. No king of Praised was like him, either before him or after him.
6He remained faithful to He-Who-Is and did not turn from following Him; he kept the commandments that He-Who-Is had given Drawn-Out.
7And He-Who-Is was with He-Who-Is-Has-Strengthened, and he prospered wherever he went. He rebelled against the king of Successful and refused to serve him.
8He defeated the Philistines as far as Stronghold and its borders, from watchtower to fortified city.
9In the fourth year of He-Who-Is-Has-Strengthened’s reign, which was the seventh year of the reign of Saves son of Terebinth over Strives-with-God, Shalmaneser king of Successful marched against Watch-Mountain and besieged it.
10And at the end of three years, the Assyrians captured it. So Watch-Mountain was captured in the sixth year of He-Who-Is-Has-Strengthened, which was the ninth year of Saves king of Strives-with-God.
11The king of Successful exiled the children of Strives-with-God to Successful and settled them in Halah, in Gozan by the United River, and in the cities of the Media.
12This happened because they did not listen to the voice of He-Who-Is their God, but violated His covenant—all that Drawn-Out the servant of He-Who-Is had commanded—and would neither listen nor obey.
13In the fourteenth year of He-Who-Is-Has-Strengthened’s reign, Sennacherib king of Successful attacked and captured all the fortified cities of Praised.
14So He-Who-Is-Has-Strengthened king of Praised sent word to the king of Successful at Lachish, saying, “I have done wrong; withdraw from me, and I will pay whatever you demand from me.” And the king of Successful exacted from He-Who-Is-Has-Strengthened king of Praised three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.
15He-Who-Is-Has-Strengthened gave him all the silver that was found in the house of He-Who-Is and in the treasuries of the royal palace.
16At that time He-Who-Is-Has-Strengthened stripped the gold with which he had plated the doors and doorposts of the temple of He-Who-Is, and he gave it to the king of Successful.
17Nevertheless, the king of Successful sent the Tartan, the Rabsaris, and the Chief-Cupbearer, along with a great army, from Lachish to King He-Who-Is-Has-Strengthened at Foundation-of-Peace. They advanced up to Foundation-of-Peace and stationed themselves by the aqueduct of the upper pool, on the road to the Launderer’s Field.
18Then they called for the king. And God-Will-Establish son of My-Portion-Is-He-Who-Is the palace administrator, Shebnah the scribe, and He-Who-Is-Brother son of Gatherer the recorder, went out to them.
19The Chief-Cupbearer said to them, “Tell He-Who-Is-Has-Strengthened that this is what the great king, the king of Successful, says: What is the basis of this confidence of yours?
20You claim to have a strategy and strength for war, but these are empty words. In whom are you now trusting, that you have rebelled against me?
21Look now, you are trusting in Two-Straits, that splintered reed of a staff that will pierce the hand of anyone who leans on it. Such is Pharaoh king of Two-Straits to all who trust in him.
22But if you say to me, ‘We trust in He-Who-Is our God,’ is He not the One whose high places and altars He-Who-Is-Has-Strengthened has removed, saying to Praised and Foundation-of-Peace: ‘You must worship before this altar in Foundation-of-Peace’?
23Now, therefore, make a bargain with my master, the king of Successful. I will give you two thousand horses—if you can put riders on them!
24For how can you repel a single officer among the least of my master’s servants when you depend on Two-Straits for chariots and horsemen?
25So now, was it apart from He-Who-Is that I have come up against this place to destroy it? He-Who-Is Himself said to me, ‘Go up against this land and destroy it.’”
26Then God-Will-Establish son of My-Portion-Is-He-Who-Is, along with Shebnah and He-Who-Is-Brother, said to the Chief-Cupbearer, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, since we understand it. Do not speak with us in the language of Praise in the hearing of the people on the wall.”
27But the Chief-Cupbearer replied, “Has my master sent me to speak these words only to you and your master, and not to the men sitting on the wall, who are destined with you to eat their own dung and drink their own urine?”
28Then the Chief-Cupbearer stood and called out loudly in the language of Praise: “Hear the word of the great king, the king of Successful!
29This is what the king says: Do not let He-Who-Is-Has-Strengthened deceive you; he cannot deliver you from my hand.
30Do not let He-Who-Is-Has-Strengthened persuade you to trust in He-Who-Is when he says, ‘He-Who-Is will surely deliver us; this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Successful.’
31Do not listen to He-Who-Is-Has-Strengthened, for this is what the king of Successful says: Make peace with me and come out to me. Then every one of you will eat from his own vine and his own fig tree and drink water from his own cistern,
32until I come and take you away 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—so that you may live and not die. But do not listen to He-Who-Is-Has-Strengthened, for he misleads you when he says, ‘He-Who-Is will deliver us.’
33Has the god of any nation ever delivered his land from the hand of the king of Successful?
34Where are the gods of Fortress and Spread-Out? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah? Have they delivered Watch-Mountain from my hand?
35Who among all the gods of these lands has delivered his land from my hand? How then can He-Who-Is deliver Foundation-of-Peace from my hand?”
36But the people remained silent and did not answer a word, for He-Who-Is-Has-Strengthened had commanded, “Do not answer him.”
37Then My-Portion-Is-He-Who-Is’s son God-Will-Establish the palace administrator, Growth the scribe, and Gatherer’s son He-Who-Is-Brother the recorder came to He-Who-Is-Has-Strengthened with their clothes torn, and they relayed to him the words of the Chief-Cupbearer.