2 Kings 18:1-12--Hezekiah Reigns over Judah

2 Kings 18:1-12
English Standard Version

Hezekiah Reigns in Judah
18 In the third year of Hoshea son of Elah, king of Israel, Hezekiah the son of Ahaz, king of Judah, began to reign. 2 He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Abi the daughter of Zechariah. 3 And he did what 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 bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the people of Israel had made offerings to it (it was called Nehushtan). 5 He trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel, so that there was none like him among all the kings of Judah after him, nor among those who were before him. 6 For he held fast to the LORD. He did not depart from following him, but kept the commandments that the LORD commanded Moses. 7 And the LORD was with him; wherever he went out, he prospered. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and would not serve him. 8 He struck down the Philistines as far as Gaza and its territory, from watchtower to fortified city.

​9 In the fourth year of King Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah, king of Israel, Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against Samaria and besieged it, 10 and at the end of three years he took it. In the sixth year of Hezekiah, which was the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel, Samaria was taken. 11 The king of Assyria carried the Israelites away to Assyria and put them in Halah, and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes, 12 because they did not obey the voice of the LORD their God but transgressed his covenant, even all that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded. They neither listened nor obeyed.

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We're going to go back to focusing on Judah now that Israel is out of the Land and in Exile.  In the third year of Hoshea, the last king of Israel before the Exile, Hezekiah, the son of Ahaz, king of Judah came to power.  He was 25 years old when his reign started, and he reigned 29 years from Jerusalem.  He did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, according to all that David had done.  That's quite a big statement there!  Specifically, he removed all the high places, broke down the pillars and cut down the Asherah.  He broke to pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made (the one from Numbers 21:4-9).  Apparently the people of Judah had given it the name 'Nehushtan' and started worshiping it and making offerings to it.

The text tells us that there was no other king of Judah like him in the way that he trusted the LORD and followed after Him.  He kept the commandments of the LORD, and the LORD was with him wherever he went and whatever he set out to do prospered.

He refused to pay tribute to the king of Assyria or became a vassal king to him like his predecessor.  He also struck down the Philistines as far as Gaza and its territory (they had been allowed to live among the people of Judah and they were driving back into their land in what we know today as the Gaza Strip).  Though the land of Gaza rightfully belonged to the Jews, they would not fully drive out the Philistines from their land, but they Philistines were at least made to retreat back into their fortified cities and stop their campaign of expansion and assimilation that had been going on since the book of Judges.

The events that we talked about last time with the exile of the northern kingdom of Samaria happened in the fourth year of Hezekiah, which was also the seventh year of Hoshea.  The siege against Samaria lasted three years and when Elah, king of Assyria, finally took the city, he took them away to Assyria to the cities that we mentioned last time (they are repeated here so that there is independent testimony from the king of Judah as to what happened to the king of Samaria).  The text even gives us the reason why all this happened to them, "Because they did not obey the voice of the LORD their God but transgressed his covenant, even all that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded. They neither listened nor obeyed."  That's a pretty harsh criticism, but well-deserved from what we've seen throughout the time of 1 Kings and 2 Kings so far.  The LORD sent many prophets to the kings of Israel (and Judah too) and Israel refused to listen--He got better responses from the Assyrians when he sent Jonah to them than He did from His own people.  However, those days of the Assyrians repenting and turning to the LORD are gone and the LORD will send another prophet to them to tell them that the judgment that was originally promised by Jonah was now going to be fulfilled, for God held it back for a time, but He would not let Nineveh (that is the capital city of Assyria) get away with this wickedness and go unpunished.  We don't see that here in the book of Kings, but we will see it when we study the Prophets.