the Fourth Week of Advent
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Hebrew Names Version
2 Kings 18
1 Now it happened in the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Yisra'el, that Hizkiyahu the son of Achaz king of Yehudah began to reign. 2 He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign; and he reigned twenty-nine years in Yerushalayim: and his mother's name was Avi the daughter of Zekharyah. 3 He did that which was right in the eyes of the LORD, according to all that David his father had done. 4 He removed the high places, and broke the pillars, and cut down the Asherah: and he broke in pieces the brazen serpent that Moshe had made; for to those days the children of Yisra'el did burn incense to it; and he called it Nechushtan. 5 He trusted in the LORD, the God of Yisra'el; so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Yehudah, nor [among them] that were before him. 6 For he joined with the LORD; he didn't depart from following him, but kept his mitzvot, which the LORD commanded Moshe. 7 The LORD was with him; wherever he went forth he prospered: and he rebelled against the king of Ashshur, and didn't serve him. 8 He struck the Pelishtim to `Aza and the borders of it, from the tower of the watchmen to the fortified city.
9 It happened in the fourth year of king Hizkiyahu, which was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Yisra'el, that Shalman'eser king of Ashshur came up against Shomron, and besieged it. 10 At the end of three years they took it: in the sixth year of Hizkiyahu, which was the ninth year of Hoshea king of Yisra'el, Shomron was taken. 11 The king of Ashshur carried Yisra'el away to Ashshur, and put them in Halach, and on the Havor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Madai, 12 because they didn't obey the voice of the LORD their God, but transgressed his covenant, even all that Moshe the servant of the LORD commanded, and would not hear it, nor do it. 13 Now in the fourteenth year of king Hizkiyahu did Sancheriv king of Ashshur come up against all the fortified cities of Yehudah, and took them. 14 Hizkiyahu king of Yehudah sent to the king of Ashshur to Lakhish, saying, I have offended; return from me: that which you put on me will I bear. The king of Ashshur appointed to Hizkiyahu king of Yehudah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold. 15 Hizkiyahu gave [him] all the silver that was found in the house of the LORD, and in the treasures of the king's house. 16 At that time did Hizkiyahu cut off [the gold from] the doors of the temple of the LORD, and [from] the pillars which Hizkiyahu king of Yehudah had overlaid, and gave it to the king of Ashshur.
17 The king of Ashshur sent Tartan and Rav-Saris and Ravshakeh from Lakhish to king Hizkiyahu with a great army to Yerushalayim. They went up and came to Yerushalayim. When they were come up, they came and stood by the conduit of the upper pool, which is in the highway of the fuller's field. 18 When they had called to the king, there came out to them Elyakim the son of Hilkiyah, who was over the household, and Shebnah the Sofer, and Yo'ach the son of Asaf the recorder. 19 Ravshakeh said to them, Say you now to Hizkiyahu, Thus says the great king, the king of Ashshur, What confidence is this in which you trust? 20 You say (but they are but vain words), [There is] counsel and strength for the war. Now on whom do you trust, that you have rebelled against me? 21 Now, behold, you trust on the staff of this bruised reed, even on Mitzrayim; whereon if a man lean, it will go into his hand, and pierce it: so is Par`oh king of Mitzrayim to all who trust on him. 22 But if you tell me, We trust in the LORD our God; isn't that he whose high places and whose altars Hizkiyahu has taken away, and has said to Yehudah and to Yerushalayim, You shall worship before this altar in Yerushalayim? 23 Now therefore, Please give pledges to my master the king of Ashshur, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to set riders on them. 24 How then can you turn away the face of one captain of the least of my master's servants, and put your trust on Mitzrayim for chariots and for horsemen? 25 Am I now come up without the LORD against this place to destroy it? the LORD said to me, Go up against this land, and destroy it. 26 Then said Elyakim the son of Hilkiyah, and Shebnah, and Yo'ach, to Ravshakeh, Please speak to your servants in the Arammian language; for we understand it: and don't speak with us in the Yehudim' language, in the ears of the people who are on the wall. 27 But Ravshakeh said to them, Has my master sent me to your master, and to you, to speak these words? Hasn't he sent me to the men who sit on the wall, to eat their own dung, and to drink their own water with you? 28 Then Ravshakeh stood, and cried with a loud voice in the Yehudim' language, and spoke, saying, Hear you the word of the great king, the king of Ashshur. 29 Thus says the king, Don't let Hizkiyahu deceive you; for he will not be able to deliver you out of his hand: 30 neither let Hizkiyahu make you trust in the LORD, saying, the LORD will surely deliver us, and this city shall not be given into the hand of the king of Ashshur. 31 Don't listen to Hizkiyahu: for thus says the king of Ashshur, Make your shalom with me, and come out to me; and eat you everyone of his vine, and everyone of his fig tree, and everyone drink the waters of his own cistern; 32 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 trees and of honey, that you may live, and not die: and don't listen to Hizkiyahu, when he persuades you, saying, the LORD will deliver us. 33 Has any of the gods of the nations ever delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Ashshur? 34 Where are the gods of Hamat, and of Arpad? where are the gods of Sefarvayim, of Hena, and `Ivvah? have they delivered Shomron out of my hand? 35 Who are they among all the gods of the countries, that have delivered their country out of my hand, that the LORD should deliver Yerushalayim out of my hand? 36 But the people held their shalom, and answered him not a word; for the king's mitzvah was, saying, Don't answer him. 37 Then came Elyakim the son of Hilkiyah, who was over the household, and Shevna the Sofer, and Yo'ach the son of Asaf the recorder, to Hizkiyahu with their clothes torn, and told him the words of Ravshakeh.
