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The Assyrian Campaign against Samaria and Jerusalem
v. 9. And it came to pass in the fourth year of King Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hoshea, son of Elah, king of Israel, that Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, came up against Samaria and besieged it.
v. 10. And at the end of three years they took it; even in the sixth year of Hezekiah, that is the ninth year of Hoshea, king of Israel, Samaria was taken.
v. 11. And the king of Assyria did carry away Israel unto Assyria, and put them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes,
v. 12. because they obeyed not the voice of the Lord, their God, but transgressed His covenant, and all that Moses, the servant of the Lord, commanded, and would not hear them nor do them. Cf 2Ki_17:5-8. The account is here repeated because the catastrophe which overtook Israel was of great importance to the entire covenant people and probably aided Hezekiah in carrying out his reforms, since the people continually had the warning example of their northern neighbors before them.
v. 13. Now, in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah did Sennacherib, king of Assyria, come up against all the fenced cities of Judah and took them, all the fortified towns outside of Jerusalem, his purpose being to leave behind him conquered territory as he advanced against Egypt.
v. 14. And Hezekiah, King of Judah, sent to the king of Assyria to Lachish, a city some fifteen hours southwest of Jerusalem, on the way to Egypt, against which Sennacherib (or Sargon, as the inscriptions have his real name) was then encamped, saying, I have offended, he acknowledged that he had acted foolishly in not submitting to the invaders. Return from me; that which thou puttest on me, namely, in the form of ransom- or tribute-money, will I bear. And the king of Assyria appointed unto Hezekiah, king of Judah, three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold, a sum which would amount to at least $2,000,000 in modern money.
v. 15. And Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the house of the Lord and in the treasures of the king's house.
v. 16. At that time did Hezekiah cut off the gold from the doors of the Temple of the Lord, which he himself had put on the door-casings, 2Ch_29:3, and from the pillars which Hezekiah, king of Judah, had overlaid, and gave it to the king of Assyria. It was a very heavy tribute and drained the resources of Hezekiah. It was a momentary weakness of Hezekiah, which caused him even to enter into negotiations with the enemy; for the Lord was well able to preserve Judah, as the subsequent events showed. The strongest test of faith in God comes on the darkest days; it is then that the heart must cling to Him to the exclusion of everything else.