2 Kings 18


2 Kings 18 is the eighteenth chapter of the second part of the Books of Kings in the Hebrew Bible or the Second Book of Kings in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. The book is a compilation of various annals recording the acts of the kings of Israel and Judah by a Deuteronomic compiler in the seventh century BCE, with a supplement added in the sixth century BCE. This chapter records the events during the reign of Hezekiah, the king of Judah, a part of the section comprising 2 Kings 18:1 to 20:21, with a parallel version in Isaiah 36–39.

Text

This chapter was originally written in the Hebrew language. It is divided into 37 verses.

Textual witnesses

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter in Hebrew are of the Masoretic Text tradition, which includes the Codex Cairensis, Aleppo Codex, and Codex Leningradensis.
There is also a translation into Koine Greek known as the Septuagint, made in the last few centuries BCE. Extant ancient manuscripts of the Septuagint version include Codex Vaticanus and Codex Alexandrinus.

Analysis

This chapter introduces Hezekiah as a 'ultra-righteous king' who relied on YHWH, the most David-like king since David. It is contrasted to the apostate northern kingdom which was then destroyed by the Assyrians. Prompting by Hezekiah's rebellion, Sennacherib, the Assyrian king, came to attack Judah, and even after given large amount of tribute still demanded Jerusalem to surrender with convincing argumentation.
The narrative of the Assyrian siege on Jerusalem in chapter 18 and 19 is presented in a parallel structure:
From 18:17 onwards the editors seem to insert another source, which is also used in the Book of Isaiah, that indicates the Assyrians breaking their word after receiving the tribute and putting further pressure on Hezekiah in Jerusalem.

Hezekiah, king of Judah (18:1–12)

This section highlights Hezekiah's religious reforms which may contribute to an exceptional evaluation: he and Josiah alone are comparable to David. The destruction of the Nehushtan, a snake-shaped cultic image traced back to Moses, can really be attributed to Hezekiah, despite little details were reported, among other acts of piety. Next are Hezekiah's early foreign political activities: he liberated the kingdom of Judah from Assyrian subservience and conducted successful campaigns against the Philistines. An Assyrian source noted that Hezekiah was the 'leader of an anti-Assyrian coalition from 705 BCE onwards', and he even 'arrested a pro-Assyrian king of Ekron in this capacity'. The editors included the description of the northern Israel kingdom's defeat to the Assyrians, as well as the cause of it, namely, the 'entire population's lack of loyalty to the Torah'.

Verse 1

  • Cross references: 2 Chronicles 29:1
  • "In the 3rd year of Hoshea": According to Thiele's chronology, following "accession year method", Hezekiah became co-regent with his father, Ahaz, in the kingdom of Judah, in September 729 BCE. Based on Thiele-McFall chronology, Hoshea started to reign in Samaria between September 732 and April 731 BCE.
  • "Hezekiah the son of Ahaz, king of Judah": A bulla impression dating to 727–698 BCE with the inscription "לחזקיהו אחז מלך יהדה", meaning "belonging to Hezekiah Ahaz king of Judah", was uncovered in a dig at the Ophel in Jerusalem. The impression on this inscription was set in ancient Hebrew script.

    Verse 2

  • Cross references: 2 Chronicles 29:1
  • "Reigned 29 years": according to Thiele's chronology, Hezekiah became the sole king after his father died before 1 Nisan 715 BCE, until his death between September 687 and September 686 BCE, for the total of 29 years. Prior to that, Hezekiah became co-regent with his father from September 729 BCE to sometime before 1 Nisan 715 BCE.
  • "Abi": written as "Abijah" in the parallel verse 2 Chronicles 29:1.

    Verse 3

  • "He did what was right": a praise that is only assigned to two other kings of Judah: Asa and Josiah ; all three kings were the sons of wicked fathers. Since an early age, Hezekiah likely was taught by prophet Isaiah, who was on familiar terms with his father, king Ahaz.

    Verse 4

  • "High places": are "places for pagan worship."
  • "Wooden image": from Hebrew: Asherah, also the name of a leading Canaanite goddess. The term is singular in the Masoretic Text but plural in the Greek Septuagint texts and other ancient versions, but it is also possible to regard "the singular as a collective singular." The places of worship for Asherah were shrines in or near groves of evergreen trees or at places marked by wooden poles, all of which were to be burned or cut down by the Israelites.
  • "Nehushtan": literally, "Bronze Thing", also similar to Hebrew word nahash, meaning "serpent" or נְחַשׁ הַנְּחֹשֶׁת, nekhash hannekhoshet, meaning "bronze serpent." Moses made the bronze serpent pole following the command of YHWH to stop the attack of "fiery serpents" after the Israelistes complaining against YHWH and Moses during the wandering in the wilderness. Jesus applied the event of Moses lifting up the bronze serpent pole as a foreshadowing of his own act of salvation through being lifted up on the cross, stating "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life".

    Verse 5

  • "None like him among all the kings of Judah": similar words are used of Josiah in 2 Kings 23:25, but the context shows that the pre-eminence is not the same for the two kings: to Hezekiah is in the "trust in the Lord"; to Josiah is in the "exact observance of the Law".

    Verse 6

Verse 7

Verse 8

Verse 9

  • "In the 4th year of King Hezekiah": according to Thiele-McFall chronology was in the period of his co-regency between September 726 and September 725 BCE. The synchronism limit with the 7th year of Hoshea, the last king of Israel, places the start of Shalmaneser V's siege on Samaria between April and September 725 BCE.

    Verse 10

  • "At the end of 3 years": according to Thiele-McFall chronology the siege on Samaria lasted from 725 to 723 BCE.
  • "In the 4th year of King Hezekiah": according to Thiele-McFall chronology was in the period of his co-regency between Tishrei 724 and Tishrei 723 BCE, and as "the 9th year of Hoshea" started in Nisan 723 BCE, it means the fall of Samaria occurred between Nisan and Tishrei 723 BCE. Sargon II ascended the throne of Assyrian on 12 Tebet 722 BCE, no less than 15 months after the last possible date of the fall of Samaria; so when it happened, Sargon was not a king, although he could have been the commander of the Assyrian army who took Samaria.
  • "Samaria was taken": This event is also noted in one of the Babylonian Chronicles.

    Verse 11

Verse 12

The Assyrians attack and force tribute payment (18:13–16)

The Assyrians stormed Judah, likely in response to Hezekiah's rebellion in 701 BCE. In a short time many cities of Judah were occupied and Jerusalem was besieged. King Sennacherib depicted his victory over Lachish in a stone relief in his palace at Nineveh and described Hezekiah's desperate situation on several victory monuments :
The Bible text records that Hezekiah initially tried to free himself from Assyrian pressure by conceding defeat and paying a heavy tribute, which also conforms with Sennacherib's record:

Verse 13

  • "In the 14th year of King Hezekiah": according to Thiele-McFall chronology as sole ruler was between September 702 and September 701 BCE. in this period Hezekiah was also granted 15 years more to live.

    Rabshakeh's speeches (18:17–37)

Sennacherib decided that the tribute from Judah is not enough, so he sent his "big guns", his main officers, consisting of: 'Tartan, Rabsaris, and Rabshakeh' to force the capitulation of Jerusalem verse 17). The Assyrians started by using psychological warfare, with Rabshakeh speaking directly to the people of Jerusalem at the wall of the city using the Hebrew language and employing shrewd rhetoric on Israelite faith while undermining it.
The Rabshakeh is not a common messenger, as he is a 'propagandist and skill negotiator' with the ability of speaking the 'language of diplomatic disputation', with a purpose to divide the people of Judah along calls lines. The envoy delivered two speeches: one directed to King Hezekiah and his officers/negotiators, including Shebna and Eliakim, and one to 'the people on the city walls'. Rabshakeh's well-crafted speeches alternate between promises of good things from the Assyrian king and warnings not to trust YHWH nor Hezekiah to protect them:
He states four seemingly excellent arguments for capitulation:
  1. Reliance on Egypt is foolish and dangerous, as already shown in history
  2. Reliance on God is unwise as Hezekiah has removed God's holy places
  3. Reliance on Judah's military power would be ridiculous
  4. Assyrians are the agents of God, charged with the mission to destroy Judah
Rabshakeh hammers on the issue of trust, which is a key issue in 2 Kings 17, as spoken by the prophets, but here he offers the theological challenge: Hezekiah's acts of destroying places of worship provoke the displeasure of YHWH, and the implication: neither Hezekiah nor Egypt nor YHWH can be trusted to deliver the people. He ends his speech with an audacious claim that Sennacherib, not Hezekiah, is doing the will of God and that the Assyrian king will be the shepherd-king for Israel, a composite of Moses, Joshua and Solomon, to bring the people to a land full of prosperity. Brueggemann observes a structure in the speech mocking YHWH's power to emphasize that 'YHWH is only one among many gods':
Rabshakeh's argument rises from the polytheistic worship system of the empire with the boast that Assyria has the king 'before whom no gods can stand'. This leads to the confrontation and the display of YHWH's power in chapter 19.