Hebrew-English Text
I. Summary
The Babylonians besiege Jerusalem, raid and destroy the temple, and exile most of the Judeans. Gedaliah is murdered after he is named the leader of Judea. Jehoiachin is released after spending thirty-seven years in a Babylonian prison.

II. Photo
The temple is destroyed: “Nebuzaradan, the chief of the guards, an officer of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. He burned the House of the LORD, the king’s palace, and all the houses of Jerusalem; he burned down the house of every notable person.” (v. 8b-9)

III. Important Verses
1-4a: And in the ninth year of his reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar moved against Jerusalem with his whole army. He besieged it; and they built towers against it all around. The city continued in a state of siege until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah. By the ninth day [of the fourth month] the famine had become acute in the city; there was no food left for the common people. Then [the wall of] the city was breached.
6-7: They captured the king and brought him before the king of Babylon at Riblah; and they put him on trial. They slaughtered Zedekiah’s sons before his eyes; then Zedekiah’s eyes were put out. He was chained in bronze fetters and he was brought to Babylon.
8-9: On the seventh day of the fifth month — that was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon — Nebuzaradan, the chief of the guards, an officer of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. He burned the House of the LORD, the king’s palace, and all the houses of Jerusalem; he burned down the house of every notable person.
25-26: In the seventh month, Ishmael son of Nethaniah son of Elishama, who was of royal descent, came with ten men, and they struck down Gedaliah and he died; [they also killed] the Judeans and the Chaldeans who were present with him at Mizpah. And all the people, young and old, and the officers of the troops set out and went to Egypt because they were afraid of the Chaldeans.
27-29: In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of King Jehoiachin of Judah, on the twenty-seventh day of the twelfth month, King Evil-merodach of Babylon, in the year he became king, took note of King Jehoiachin of Judah and released him from prison. He spoke kindly to him, and gave him a throne above those of other kings who were with him in Babylon. His prison garments were removed, and [Jehoiachin] received regular rations by his favor for the rest of his life.

IV. Outline
1. Nebuchadnezzar lays siege to Jerusalem
2-3. Famine strikes the city
4. The wall is breached
5-6. Zedekiah is caught and put on trial
7a. Zedekiah’s sons are killed
7b. Zedekiah is brought to Babylon
8-10. Nebuzaradan destroys the temple, the city walls, and the houses
11-12. Nebuzaradan exiles most of the remaining people
13-17. The temple’s bronze vessels are plundered
18-21a. The head priests are killed
21b. Summary statement
22. Gedaliah is appointed leader of Judah
23-24. Gedaliah attempts to reassure the people
25. Gedaliah is killed
26. The conspirators set out to Egypt
27-30. Jehoiachin is released from prison and given rations in Babylon

V. Comment
No comment today. Stay tuned.

VI. Works Used
(see “Commentaries” page)
Cogan, Mordechai and Hayim Tadmor. “II Kings” The Anchor Bible v. 11 (USA: Doubleday, 1988).
Collins, John J. “Introduction to the Hebrew Bible,” (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2004).
Hobbs, T.R. “2 Kings” Word Biblical Commentary vol. 13 (Waco, Texas: Wordbooks, 1985).
Photo taken from http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/45447000/jpg/_45447585_fire_b_466x240.jpg

Hebrew-English Text
I. Summary
Jehoiakim reigns during a time of turmoil. Jehoiachin succeeds him and surrenders Jerusalem to Nebuchadnezzar. Jerusalem is plundered and the Judeans are exiled to Babylon.

II. Photo
Jerusalem surrenders: “Thereupon King Jehoiachin of Judah, along with his mother, and his courtiers, commanders, and officers, surrendered to the king of Babylon.” (v. 12a)

III. Important Verses
1-2: In his days, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came up, and Jehoiakim became his vassal for three years. Then he turned and rebelled against him. The LORD let loose against him the raiding bands of the Chaldeans, Arameans, Moabites, and Ammonites; He let them loose against Judah to destroy it, in accordance with the word that the LORD had spoken through His servants the prophets.
3-4: All this befell Judah at the command of the LORD, who banished [them] from His presence because of all the sins that Manasseh had committed,and also because of the blood of the innocent that he shed. For he filled Jerusalem with the blood of the innocent, and the LORD would not forgive.
11-17: King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon advanced against the city while his troops were besieging it. Thereupon King Jehoiachin of Judah, along with his mother, and his courtiers, commanders, and officers, surrendered to the king of Babylon. The king of Babylon took him captive in the eighth year of his reign. He carried off from Jerusalem all the treasures of the House of the LORD and the treasures of the royal palace; he stripped off all the golden decorations in the Temple of the LORD — which King Solomon of Israel had made — as the LORD had warned. He exiled all of Jerusalem: all the commanders and all the warriors — ten thousand exiles — as well as all the craftsmen and smiths; only the poorest people in the land were left. He deported Jehoiachin to Babylon; and the king’s wives and officers and the notables of the land were brought as exiles from Jerusalem to Babylon. All the able men, to the number of seven thousand — all of them warriors, trained for battle — and a thousand craftsmen and smiths were brought to Babylon as exiles by the king of Babylon. And the king of Babylon appointed Mattaniah, Jehoiachin’s uncle, king in his place, changing his name to Zedekiah.

IV. Outline

1-7. Jehoiakim king of Judah
    1a. Jehoiakim becomes Nebuchadnezzar’s vassal
    1b. Jehoiakim rebels against Babylon
    2. Judah is attacked by the Chaldeans, Arameans, Moabites, and Ammonites
    3-4. Theological explanation for the attack: Menasseh’s idolatry and murder
    5-6. Summary statement: Jehoiakim king of Judah
    7. Babylon conquers Egypt’s holdings in western Asia
8-17. Jehoiachin king of Judah
    8. Introductory statement
    9. Jehoiachin’s evil ways
    10-12. Jehoiachin surrenders to Babylon
    13. Nebuchadnezzar raids the city and the temple
    14-17. Nebuchadnezzar exiles the Judeans to Babylon
18-20. Zedekiah king of Judah
    18. Introductory statement
    19. Zekekiah’s evil ways
    20a. God’s anger
    20b. Zedekiah rebels against Babylon

V. Comment
No comment today. Stay tuned.

VI. Works Used
(see “Commentaries” page)
Cogan, Mordechai and Hayim Tadmor. “II Kings” The Anchor Bible v. 11 (USA: Doubleday, 1988).
Collins, John J. “Introduction to the Hebrew Bible,” (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2004).
Hobbs, T.R. “2 Kings” Word Biblical Commentary vol. 13 (Waco, Texas: Wordbooks, 1985).
Photo taken from http://www.catrionajeffries.com/images/works/g_koh/full/22_g_koh.jpg

Hebrew-English Text
I. Summary
Josiah forges a new covenant and uproots all forms of idolatry in the land. He and his successor Jehoahaz are killed by Pharaoh Neco. Jehoiakim becomes the next king and pays a hefty tribute to Pharaoh Neco.

II. Photo
Josiah disinters the idolaters’ bones: “Josiah turned and saw the graves that were there on the hill; and he had the bones taken out of the graves and burned on the altar.” (v. 16a)

III. Important Verses
1-3: At the king’s summons, all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem assembled before him. The king went up to the House of the LORD, together with all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the priests and prophets — all the people, young and old. And he read to them the entire text of the covenant scroll which had been found in the House of the LORD. The king stood by the pillar and solemnized the covenant before the LORD: that they would follow the LORD and observe His commandments, His injunctions, and His laws with all their heart and soul; that they would fulfill all the terms of this covenant as inscribed upon the scroll. And all the people entered into the covenant.
6-7: He brought out the [image of] Asherah from the House of the LORD to the Kidron Valley outside Jerusalem, and burned it in the Kidron Valley; he beat it to dust and scattered its dust over the burial ground of the common people. He tore down the cubicles of the male prostitutes in the House of the LORD, at the place where the women wove coverings for Asherah.
10: He also defiled Topheth, which is in the Valley of Ben-hinnom, so that no one might consign his son or daughter to the fire of Molech.
13: The king also defiled the shrines facing Jerusalem, to the south of the Mount of the Destroyer, which King Solomon of Israel had built for Ashtoreth, the abomination of the Sidonians, for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, and for Milcom, the detestable thing of the Ammonites.
16: Josiah turned and saw the graves that were there on the hill; and he had the bones taken out of the graves and burned on the altar. Thus he defiled it, in fulfillment of the word of the LORD foretold by the man of God who foretold these happenings.

IV. Outline

1-3. Josiah’s covenant
    1-2a. Josiah assembles the people
    2b. Josiah reads the scroll
    3. Josiah seals a new covenant with the people
4-20. Uprooting Idolatry
    4. Removing idols from the temple
    5. Removing the idolatrous priests
    6. Removing the Asherah from the temple
    7. Removing the locations of the male prostitutes
    8-9. Removing the priests from Judah
    10. Removing the site of Molech-worship
    11. Removing the horses and chariots for Shemesh
    12. Removing the altars of the kings of Judah
    13-14. Removing Solomon’s shrines
    15. Removing Jeroboam’s altar
    16. Removing the bones on the hill
    17-18. Keeping the prophet’s bones
    19-20. Removing the shrines in Samaria
21-29. Other events in Josiah’s reign
    21-23. The people keep Passover in a new fashion
    24a. Removing the necromancers and mediums
    24b-25. Praise for Josiah
    26-27. God’s wrath because of Menasseh
    28. Summary statement: Josiah king of Judah
    28-29. Josiah is killed by Pharaoh Neco
    30. Josiah is buried; Jehoahaz becomes king
31-34. Jehoahaz king of Judah
    31. Introductory statement
    32. Jehoahaz’s evil ways
    33-34a. Pharaoh Neco captures Jehoahaz and installs Jehoiakim as king
    34b. Jehoahaz dies in Egypt
35-37. Jehoiakim king of Judah
    35. Jehoiakim pays tribute to Pharaoh Neco
    36. Introductory statement
    37. Jehoiakim’s evil ways

V. Comment
No comment today. Stay tuned.

VI. Works Used
(see “Commentaries” page)
Cogan, Mordechai and Hayim Tadmor. “II Kings” The Anchor Bible v. 11 (USA: Doubleday, 1988).
Collins, John J. “Introduction to the Hebrew Bible,” (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2004).
Hobbs, T.R. “2 Kings” Word Biblical Commentary vol. 13 (Waco, Texas: Wordbooks, 1985).
Photo taken from http://ecostreet.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/digging.jpg

Hebrew-English Text
I. Summary
Josiah becomes king and oversees the temple’s repairs. A priest named Hilkiah finds a scroll and Josiah laments how the people have abandoned God. Hulda the prophetess predicts the fall of Jerusalem.

II. Photo
Hilkiah has important news: “Then the high priest Hilkiah said to the scribe Shaphan, ‘I have found a scroll of the Teaching in the House of the Lord.’” (v. 8a)

III. Important Verses
2: [Josiah] did what was pleasing to the LORD and he followed all the ways of his ancestor David; he did not deviate to the right or to the left.
8: Then the high priest Hilkiah said to the scribe Shaphan, “I have found a scroll of the Teaching in the House of the LORD.” And Hilkiah gave the scroll to Shaphan, who read it.
11: When the king heard the words of the scroll of the Teaching, he rent his clothes.
15-20: [Hulda] responded: “Thus said the LORD, the God of Israel: Say to the man who sent you to me: Thus said the LORD: I am going to bring disaster upon this place and its inhabitants, in accordance with all the words of the scroll which the king of Judah has read. Because they have forsaken Me and have made offerings to other gods and vexed Me with all their deeds, My wrath is kindled against this place and it shall not be quenched. But say this to the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the LORD: Thus said the LORD, the God of Israel: As for the words which you have heard — because your heart was softened and you humbled yourself before the LORD when you heard what I decreed against this place and its inhabitants — that it will become a desolation and a curse — and because you rent your clothes and wept before Me, I for My part have listened — declares the LORD. Assuredly, I will gather you to your fathers and you will be laid in your tomb in peace. Your eyes shall not see all the disaster which I will bring upon this place.” So they brought back the reply to the king.

IV. Outline
1. Introductory statement: Josiah king of Judah
2. Josiah’s righteousness
3-7. Josiah oversees the temple finances
8a. Hilkiah finds a scroll in the temple
8b-10a. Josiah is informed of the temple work and the scroll
10b. Shaphan reads the scroll
11-13. Josiah’s dismay
14-20. Hulda augurs doom for Jerusalem, but not during Josiah’s lifetime

V. Comment
Chapter 22, which is the beginning of “Josiah’s great reform” (640–609 B.C.E.), is considered by many to be one of the most important chapters of the Hebrew Bible. This is because the priest Hilkiah “finds” a scroll that many consider to be the book of Deuteronomy. Cogan and Tadmor write: “It has become an accepted maxim in biblical scholarship ever since De Wette’s Dissertatio Critica in 1805 that the book is Deuteronomy or its early nucleus. Josiah’s acts of cultic reform (cf. 23:4-14, 21-24), which culminated in the centralization of all worship in Jerusalem, are presented in terms and style almost identical to that of Deuteronomy. Moreover no other book in the Pentateuch besides Deuteronomy requires cultic centralization in [God’s] chosen city. Josiah’s mournful reaction to the book also points to the Deuteronomy, in which the legal code concludes with lengthy maledictions, a dire warning to all violators of [God’s] covenant. Deuteronomy presents itself as a covenant, and from a literary point of view the book has the structure of a political treaty. It is, therefore, cardinal for the understanding of the Josianic reform that it is described as having emerged from ‘the book of the covenant which was found in the Temple’ (23:2), i.e. the book of Deuteronomy or a significant part of it.” (294)

Cogan and Tadmor point out that Josiah reigned at a critical juncture in ancient Near Eastern history. This is because the Assyrians, who had once dominated the land of Israel, lost their hegemony in the West. Cogan and Tadmor write: “In contradistinction to the age of Manasseh, when Assyrian pressure was actively felt in the West, in particular during the campaigns of Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal to Egypt, Josiah’s reign occurred during the days of Assyria’s decline and fall. By the middle of the seventh century, Assyria had lost control of Egypt; and for over a decade was involved in wars in Babylonia and Elam. Babylon was reconquered in 648 B.C.E. after a long siege; Elam was ravaged and its capital Susa finally pillaged and destroyed by 645. On its northern borders, the Empire was troubled by the activity of nomadic hordes, the Cimmerians (or in the opinion of some scholars, the Scythians)… Shortly after 640, the written sources cease and very little is known of Assyrian history during the last decade of Ashurbanipal’s reign. After the king’s death in 627 B.C.E., there is reason to believe that Assyria was much weakened by internal strife stemming from the struggle between claimants to the throne. In 626 Babylonia rebelled and achieved independence, under Nabopolassar, a prince of Chaldean descent… In 614 the city of Ashur fell, and two years later the capital Nineveh was captured and sacked. For a few years the western part of the Assyrian Empire, with the city of Haran as its center, resisted under the last Assyrian king, Ashur-uballit II. In 610 Haran, too, fell to the Babylonians… It is very hard to establish the date when Assyria lost both its hold over the province of Samaria and its hegemony over Judah. The earliest possible date is in the 630’s; another possibility would be 627 B.C.E., the year of Ashurbanipal’s death. Josiah’s thirty-one years of reign come, then, during a critical stage in the history of the ancient Near East. ” (291-293)

VI. Works Used
(see “Commentaries” page)
Cogan, Mordechai and Hayim Tadmor. “II Kings” The Anchor Bible v. 11 (USA: Doubleday, 1988).
Collins, John J. “Introduction to the Hebrew Bible,” (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2004).
Hobbs, T.R. “2 Kings” Word Biblical Commentary vol. 13 (Waco, Texas: Wordbooks, 1985).
Photo taken from http://www.inyomonotitle.com/scrol2.jpg

Hebrew-English Text
I. Summary
Menasseh reinstitutes the idolatrous practices that his father uprooted. Amon succeeds Menasseh as king of Judah, but he is quickly killed in a coup. Amnon’s son Josiah becomes the next king.

II. Photo
Manasseh upsets God: “He consigned his son to the fire… he did much that was displeasing to the Lord, to vex Him.” (v. 6)

III. Important Verses
2-9: He did what was displeasing to the LORD, following the abhorrent practices of the nations that the LORD had dispossessed before the Israelites. He rebuilt the shrines that his father Hezekiah had destroyed; he erected altars for Baal and made a sacred post, as King Ahab of Israel had done. He bowed down to all the host of heaven and worshiped them, and he built altars for them in the House of the LORD, of which the LORD had said, “I will establish My name in Jerusalem.” He built altars for all the hosts of heaven in the two courts of the House of the LORD. He consigned his son to the fire; he practiced soothsaying and divination, and consulted ghosts and familiar spirits; he did much that was displeasing to the LORD, to vex Him. The sculptured image of Asherah that he made he placed in the House concerning which the LORD had said to David and to his son Solomon, “In this House and in Jerusalem, which I chose out of all the tribes of Israel, I will establish My name forever. And I will not again cause the feet of Israel to wander from the land that I gave to their fathers, if they will but faithfully observe all that I have commanded them — all the Teachings with which My servant Moses charged them.” But they did not obey, and Manasseh led them astray to do greater evil than the nations that the LORD had destroyed before the Israelites.
11-12: Because King Manasseh of Judah has done these abhorrent things — he has outdone in wickedness all that the Amorites did before his time — and because he led Judah to sin with his fetishes, assuredly, thus said the LORD, the God of Israel: I am going to bring such a disaster on Jerusalem and Judah that both ears of everyone who hears about it will tingle.
16: Moreover, Manasseh put so many innocent persons to death that he filled Jerusalem [with blood] from end to end — besides the sin he committed in causing Judah to do what was displeasing to the LORD.
23-24: Amon’s courtiers conspired against him; and they killed the king in his palace. But the people of the land put to death all who had conspired against King Amon, and the people of the land made his son Josiah king in his stead.

IV. Outline
1-18. Menasseh king of Judah
1. Introductory statement
2-9. Menasseh’s idolatrous ways
10-15. God’s warning
16. Menasseh’s murderous ways
17-18. Summary statement
19-26. Amnon king of Judah
19. Introductory statement
20-22. Amnon’s sins
23. Amnon is killed
24. The people kill the conspirators
25-26. Summary statement

V. Comment
No comment today. Stay tuned.

VI. Works Used
(see “Commentaries” page)
Cogan, Mordechai and Hayim Tadmor. “II Kings” The Anchor Bible v. 11 (USA: Doubleday, 1988).
Collins, John J. “Introduction to the Hebrew Bible,” (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2004).
Hobbs, T.R. “2 Kings” Word Biblical Commentary vol. 13 (Waco, Texas: Wordbooks, 1985).
Photo taken from http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2191/2417164282_3cedc64029.jpg

Hebrew-English Text
I. Summary
Hezekiah prays to God and recovers from his illness. The Babylonians send messengers to Jerusalem and Hezekiah shows them his treasurehouses. Isaiah warns Hezekiah that the Babylonians will raid Jerusalem and plunder its wealth.

II. Photo
An ailing Hezekiah prays for recovery: “Thereupon Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord.” (v. 2a)

III. Important Verses
1-6: In those days Hezekiah fell dangerously ill. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz came and said to him, “Thus said the LORD: Set your affairs in order, for you are going to die; you will not get well.” Thereupon Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD. He said,  “Please, O LORD, remember how I have walked before You sincerely and wholeheartedly, and have done what is pleasing to You.” And Hezekiah wept profusely. Before Isaiah had gone out of the middle court, the word of the LORD came to him: “Go back and say to Hezekiah, the ruler of My people: Thus said the LORD, the God of your father David: I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears. I am going to heal you; on the third day you shall go up to the House of the LORD. And I will add fifteen years to your life. I will also rescue you and this city from the hands of the king of Assyria. I will protect this city for My sake and for the sake of My servant David.”
9-11: Isaiah replied, “This is the sign for you from the LORD that the LORD will do the thing that He has promised: Shall the shadow advance ten steps or recede ten steps?” Hezekiah said, “It is easy for the shadow to lengthen ten steps, but not for the shadow to recede ten steps.” So the prophet Isaiah called to the LORD, and He made the shadow which had descended on the dial of Ahaz recede ten steps.
16-18: Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the LORD: A time is coming when everything in your palace which your ancestors have stored up to this day will be carried off to Babylon; nothing will remain behind, said the LORD. And some of your sons, your own issue, whom you will have fathered, will be taken to serve as eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.”

IV. Outline
1a. Hezekiah falls ill
1b. Isaiah informs him of his coming death
2-3. Hezekiah’s prayer
4-6. God tells Isaiah that he will save Hezekiah
7. Isaiah heals Hezekiah
8-11. A sign of recovery: a shadow recedes 10 steps
12. Berodach-baladan of Babylon sends a gift to Hezekiah
13. Hezekiah shows the messengers his riches
14-18. Isaiah predicts a Babylonian raid of Jerusalem
19. Hezekiah accepts the decree
20-21. Summary statement: Hezekiah king of Judah

V. Comment
No comment today. Stay tuned.

VI. Works Used
(see “Commentaries” page)
Cogan, Mordechai and Hayim Tadmor. “II Kings” The Anchor Bible v. 11 (USA: Doubleday, 1988).
Collins, John J. “Introduction to the Hebrew Bible,” (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2004).
Hobbs, T.R. “2 Kings” Word Biblical Commentary vol. 13 (Waco, Texas: Wordbooks, 1985).
Photo taken from http://munfitnessblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/sad-man-forehead-on-the-wall.JPG

Hebrew-English Text
I. Summary
Hezekiah petitions God to save him, God guarantees him salvation, and an angel kills 185,000 Assyrians in one night. Sennacherib flees and is killed by his sons in Nineveh.

II. Photo
God quotes the Assyrians: “You thought, ‘Thanks to my vast chariotry, it is I who have climbed the highest mountains, to the remotest parts of the Lebanon, and have cut down its loftiest cedars, its choicest cypresses, and have reached its remotest lodge, its densest forest.’” (v. 23b)

III. Important Verses
14-19: Hezekiah took the letter from the messengers and read it. Hezekiah then went up to the House of the LORD and spread it out before the LORD. And Hezekiah prayed to the LORD and said, “O LORD of Hosts, Enthroned on the Cherubim! You alone are God of all the kingdoms of the earth. You made the heavens and the earth. O LORD, incline Your ear and hear; open Your eyes and see. Hear the words that Sennacherib has sent to blaspheme the living God! True, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have annihilated the nations and their lands, and have committed their gods to the flames and have destroyed them; for they are not gods, but man’s handiwork of wood and stone. But now, O LORD our God, deliver us from his hands, and let all the kingdoms of the earth know that You alone, O LORD, are God.”
20-25: Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent this message to Hezekiah: “Thus said the LORD, the God of Israel: I have heard the prayer you have offered to Me concerning King Sennacherib of Assyria. This is the word that the LORD has spoken concerning him: “Fair Maiden Zion despises you, She mocks at you; Fair Jerusalem shakes Her head at you. Whom have you blasphemed and reviled? Against whom made loud your voice And haughtily raised your eyes? Against the Holy One of Israel! Through your envoys you have blasphemed my Lord. Because you thought, ‘Thanks to my vast chariotry, It is I who have climbed the highest mountains, To the remotest parts of the Lebanon, And have cut down its loftiest cedars, Its choicest cypresses, And have reached its remotest lodge, Its densest forest. It is I who have drawn and drunk the waters of strangers; I have dried up with the soles of my feet All the streams of Egypt.’ Have you not heard? Of old I planned that very thing, I designed it long ago, And now have fulfilled it. And it has come to pass, Laying waste fortified towns In desolate heaps.”
35: That night an angel of the LORD went out and struck down one hundred and eighty-five thousand in the Assyrian camp, and the following morning they were all dead corpses.
36-37: So King Sennacherib of Assyria broke camp and retreated, and stayed in Nineveh. While he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sarezer struck him down with the sword. They fled to the land of Ararat, and his son Esarhaddon succeeded him as king.

IV. Outline
1. Hezekiah’s distress
2-4. Hezekiah sends messengers to Isaiah
5-7. Isaiah’s message of confidence
8-9. Sennacherib hears of a Nubian invader
10-13. Sennacherib’s warning to Hezekiah
14-19. Hezekiah’s prayer in the temple
20-34. God tells Isaiah that Sennacherib will fail
35. An angel kills 185,000 Assyrians
36-37. Sennacherib flees and is killed in Nineveh

V. Comment
No comment today. Stay tuned.

VI. Works Used
(see “Commentaries” page)
Cogan, Mordechai and Hayim Tadmor. “II Kings” The Anchor Bible v. 11 (USA: Doubleday, 1988).
Collins, John J. “Introduction to the Hebrew Bible,” (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2004).
Hobbs, T.R. “2 Kings” Word Biblical Commentary vol. 13 (Waco, Texas: Wordbooks, 1985).
Photo taken from http://elaney.org/wp/leslie_blackie/files/2009/05/redwood.jpg

Hebrew-English Text
I. Summary
Hezekiah serves God, outlaws idolatry, and rebels against the Assyrians. Sennacherib marches on Judea and sends an officer to taunt the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

II. Photo
Hezekiah proscribes all types of idolatry: “He also broke into pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until that time the Israelites had been offering sacrifices to it; it was called Nehushtan.” (v. 4b)

III. Important Verses
3-8: [Hezekiah] did what was pleasing to the LORD, just as his father David had done. He abolished the shrines and smashed the pillars and cut down the sacred post. He also broke into pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until that time the Israelites had been offering sacrifices to it; it was called Nehushtan. He trusted only in the LORD the God of Israel; there was none like him among all the kings of Judah after him, nor among those before him. He clung to the LORD; he did not turn away from following Him, but kept the commandments that the LORD had given to Moses. And the LORD was always with him; he was successful wherever he turned. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and would not serve him. He overran Philistia as far as Gaza and its border areas, from watchtower to fortified town.
13-15: In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, King Sennacherib of Assyria marched against all the fortified towns of Judah and seized them. King Hezekiah sent this message to the king of Assyria at Lachish: “I have done wrong; withdraw from me; and I shall bear whatever you impose on me.” So the king of Assyria imposed upon King Hezekiah of Judah a payment of three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold. Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was on hand in the House of the LORD and in the treasuries of the palace.
19-22, 25: The Rabshakeh said to them, “You tell Hezekiah: Thus said the Great King, the King of Assyria: What makes you so confident? You must think that mere talk is counsel and valor for war! Look, on whom are you relying, that you have rebelled against me? You rely, of all things, on Egypt, that splintered reed of a staff, which enters and punctures the palm of anyone who leans on it! That’s what Pharaoh king of Egypt is like to all who rely on him. And if you tell me that you are relying on the LORD your God, He is the very one whose shrines and altars Hezekiah did away with, telling Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You must worship only at this altar in Jerusalem… And do you think I have marched against this land to destroy it without the LORD? The LORD Himself told me: Go up against that land and destroy it.”
26-27: Eliakim son of Hilkiah, Shebna, and Joah replied to the Rabshakeh, “Please, speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it; do not speak to us in Judean in the hearing of the people on the wall.” But the Rabshakeh answered them, “Was it to your master and to you that my master sent me to speak those words? It was precisely to the men who are sitting on the wall — who will have to eat their dung and drink their urine with you.”

IV. Outline
1-2. Introductory statement: Hezekiah king of Judah
3-7a. Hezekiah’s piety
7b. Hezekiah rebels against Assyria
8. Hezekiah defeats the Philistines
9-11. Shalmaneser exiles the inhabitants of Samaria
12. Theological reason for the exile
13-16. Hezekiah sends tribute to Sennacherib king of Assyria
17. Sennacherib besieges Jerusalem
18-25. The Rabshakeh taunts Hezekiah
26-28. The Rabshakeh continues to speak in Judean
29-35. The Rabshakeh tries to cajole the Judeans into joining his side
36. The people remain silent
37. The Rabshakeh’s message is delivered to Hezekiah

V. Comment
No comment today. Stay tuned.

VI. Works Used
(see “Commentaries” page)
Cogan, Mordechai and Hayim Tadmor. “II Kings” The Anchor Bible v. 11 (USA: Doubleday, 1988).
Collins, John J. “Introduction to the Hebrew Bible,” (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2004).
Hobbs, T.R. “2 Kings” Word Biblical Commentary vol. 13 (Waco, Texas: Wordbooks, 1985).
Photo taken from http://www.memoclic.com/14-3746-600×450/fond-ecran-serpent-vert-symetrique.jpg

Hebrew-English Text
I. Summary
Shalmeneser exiles the Israelites when he learns of Hoshea’s double-dealings. The sins that caused the exile are enumerated. Foreigners resettle the land and continue to worship their pagan deities.

II. Photo
Samaria’s new inhabitants are punished: “When they first settled there, they did not worship the Lord; so the Lord sent lions against them which killed some of them.” (v. 25)

III. Important Verses
3-6: King Shalmaneser marched against him, and Hoshea became his vassal and paid him tribute. But the king of Assyria caught Hoshea in an act of treachery: he had sent envoys to King So of Egypt, and he had not paid the tribute to the king of Assyria, as in previous years. And the king of Assyria arrested him and put him in prison. Then the king of Assyria marched against the whole land; he came to Samaria and besieged it for three years. In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria. He deported the Israelites to Assyria and settled them in Halah, at the [River] Habor, at the River Gozan, and in the towns of Media.
13-18: The LORD warned Israel and Judah by every prophet [and] every seer, saying: “Turn back from your wicked ways, and observe My commandments and My laws, according to all the Teaching that I commanded your fathers and that I transmitted to you through My servants the prophets.” But they did not obey; they stiffened their necks, like their fathers who did not have faith in the LORD their God; they spurned His laws and the covenant that He had made with their fathers, and the warnings He had given them. They went after delusion and were deluded; [they imitated] the nations that were about them, which the LORD had forbidden them to emulate. They rejected all the commandments of the LORD their God; they made molten idols for themselves — two calves — and they made a sacred post and they bowed down to all the host of heaven, and they worshiped Baal. They consigned their sons and daughters to the fire; they practiced augury and divination, and gave themselves over to what was displeasing to the LORD and vexed Him. The LORD was incensed at Israel and He banished them from His presence; none was left but the tribe of Judah alone.
24-25: The king of Assyria brought [people] from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim, and he settled them in the towns of Samaria in place of the Israelites; they took possession of Samaria and dwelt in its towns. When they first settled there, they did not worship the LORD; so the LORD sent lions against them which killed some of them.
27-29: The king of Assyria gave an order: “Send there one of the priests whom you have deported; let him go and dwell there, and let him teach them the practices of the God of the land.” So one of the priests whom they had exiled from Samaria came and settled in Bethel; he taught them how to worship the LORD. However, each nation continued to make its own gods and to set them up in the cult places which had been made by the people of Samaria; each nation [set them up] in the towns in which it lived.

IV. Outline

1-6. Hoshea king of Israel; Exile
    1. Introductory statement
    2. Hoshea’s mitigated sins
    3-4. Shalmeneser imprisons Hoshea
    5-6. Shalmeneser exiles the Israelites
7-23. The reasons for exile
    7-12. Improper worship
    13-15. Israel ignored God’s warnings
    16-18. Israel ignored God’s teachings
    19. Judah’s sins
    20-23. The sins of Jeroboam
24-41. Samaria’s new inhabitants
    24. Shalmeneser resettles Samaria
    25-26. Lions attack the settlers
    27-28. A priest teaches them the religion of the land
    29-33. The settlers worship many gods
    34-40. The settlers violate God’s decree
    41. The settlers continue to worship other gods

V. Comment
Chapter 17 gives a brief description of Samaria’s fall (vv. 1-6) and a lengthy theological explanation for that fall (vv. 7-23). Hobbs explains the significance of this explanation: “In recording and commenting upon [the exile], the writer attempts to make sense of it. Change is a fundamental part of human experience, and indeed provides opportunities for reflection (see L. Gilkey, Reaping the Whirlwind [New York: Seabury Press, 1976] 3–35). In a time in which change does not normally take place rapidly, such violent change as was experienced by the people of God with the loss of the north and the subsequent exile of the south, forces a complete reassessment of the past. The reassessment is all the more urgent when one important ingredient of that past is seen as stability—a stability focused on the nature of God and his actions. How can this fundamental breaking of order and stability be integrated into one’s knowledge and understanding of the past? This, it seems, is the question addressed by our writer. The events of the recent past are understood in terms of the breaking of covenant (vv 15, 35). The social and religious organization that grows out of the notion of covenant is destroyed because the covenant is broken. The senior partner of that agreement reacts to the loss of fidelity on the part of the junior partner. But there is hope in this. The destruction of the north now has meaning. It is not an isolated, irrational, or capricious event. It is purposed. The same God is active in judgment. Reconstruction is therefore possible.” (241)

According to our chapter, the exile was carried out by the Assyrian king Shalmeneser V. Bright places this chapter within a historical perspective: “Hoshea had submitted to Assyria only to save what was left of his country, and no doubt planned defection as soon as he considered it safe. Not long after Tiglath-pileser had been succeeded by his son Shalmaneser V, Hoshea, thinking his chance had come, made overtures to Egypt and withheld tribute. This was Israel’s suicide. Egypt had at the time broken up into a number of unimportant rival states and was in no position to help anyone. The ‘So, king of Egypt’ who Hoshea approached (II Kings 17:4) was in all probability Tefnakhte of the weak Twenty-fourth dynasty, whose residence was in Sais, in the western Delta. No real aid could be expected from him, and none came. In 724, Shalmaneser attacked. Hoshea, who apparently appeared before his master hoping to make peace, was taken prisoner. The Assyrians then occupied the land, save for the city of Samaria, which continued to hold out for over two years. Although Shalmaneser’s successor, Sargon II, who seized the Assyrian throne on Shalmaneser’s death late in 722, repeatedly boasts of having taken Samaria, the Bible is probably correct in attributing its capture to Shalmaneser. The city apparently fell in the late summer or autumn of the year 722/721. Thousands of its citizens – 27,290 according to Sargon – were subsequently deported to Upper Mesopotamia and Media, there ultimately to vanish from the stage of history.”  (275)

VI. Works Used
(see “Commentaries” page)
Bright, John. “A History of Israel” (Kentucky: Westminster John Knox, 2000).
Cogan, Mordechai and Hayim Tadmor. “II Kings” The Anchor Bible v. 11 (USA: Doubleday, 1988).
Collins, John J. “Introduction to the Hebrew Bible,” (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2004).
Hobbs, T.R. “2 Kings” Word Biblical Commentary vol. 13 (Waco, Texas: Wordbooks, 1985).
Photo taken from http://www.bostonherald.com/blogs/sports/rap_sheet/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/african-lion-closeup.jpg

Hebrew-English Text
I. Summary
Ahaz sacrifices burnt offerings outside the temple and consigns his son to fire.  He pays Tiglath-pileser to destroy Damascus when the Arameans besiege Jerusalem. Ahaz builds a new altar and makes changes to the temple.

II. Photo
Ahaz sketches plans for a new altar: “King Ahaz sent the priest Uriah a sketch of the altar and a detailed plan of its construction.” (v. 10b)

III. Important Verses
2b-4: He did not do what was pleasing to the LORD his God, as his ancestor David had done, but followed the ways of the kings of Israel. He even consigned his son to the fire, in the abhorrent fashion of the nations which the LORD had dispossessed before the Israelites. He sacrificed and made offerings at the shrines, on the hills, and under every leafy tree.
5, 7-9: Then King Rezin of Aram and King Pekah son of Remaliah of Israel advanced on Jerusalem for battle. They besieged Ahaz, but could not overcome [him]… Ahaz sent messengers to King Tiglath-pileser of Assyria to say, “I am your servant and your son; come and deliver me from the hands of the king of Aram and from the hands of the king of Israel, who are attacking me.” Ahaz took the gold and silver that were on hand in the House of the LORD and in the treasuries of the royal palace and sent them as a gift to the king of Assyria. The king of Assyria responded to his request; the king of Assyria marched against Damascus and captured it. He deported its inhabitants to Kir and put Rezin to death.
10-11: When King Ahaz went to Damascus to greet King Tiglath-pileser of Assyria, he saw the altar in Damascus. King Ahaz sent the priest Uriah a sketch of the altar and a detailed plan of its construction. The priest Uriah did just as King Ahaz had instructed him from Damascus; the priest Uriah built the altar before King Ahaz returned from Damascus.

IV. Outline
1-2a. Introductory statement
2b-4. Ahaz’s sins
5. Jerusalem is besieged by Aram
6. The might of Rezin king of Aram
7-8. Ahaz seeks Tiglath-pileser’s help
9. Tiglath-pileser destroys damascus
10-11. Ahaz builds a Damascus-like altar
12-13. Ahaz consecrates the new altar
14. The old altar is moved
15-16. Ahaz commands Uriah to use the new altar
17-18. Other changes to the temple
19-20. Summary statement

V. Comment
No comment today. Stay tuned.

VI. Works Used
(see “Commentaries” page)
Cogan, Mordechai and Hayim Tadmor. “II Kings” The Anchor Bible v. 11 (USA: Doubleday, 1988).
Collins, John J. “Introduction to the Hebrew Bible,” (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2004).
Hobbs, T.R. “2 Kings” Word Biblical Commentary vol. 13 (Waco, Texas: Wordbooks, 1985).
Photo taken from http://www.tisd.k12.mi.us/TTC/pencils.jpg