2 Kings 18:1-12

The Reign of Hezekiah

18¹ In the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, Hezekiah son of Ahaz began his rule over Judah. ² He was twenty-five years old when he became king and he ruled for twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Abijah daughter of Zechariah. ³ In God's opinion he was a good king; he kept to the standards of his ancestor David. ⁴ He got rid of the local fertility shrines, smashed the phallic stone monuments, and cut down the sex-and-religion Asherah groves. As a final stroke he pulverized the ancient bronze serpent that Moses had made; at that time the Israelites had taken up the practice of sacrificing to it - they had even dignified it with a name, Nehushtan (The Old Serpent). ⁵ Hezekiah put his whole trust in the God of Israel. There was no king quite like him, either before or after. ⁶ He held fast to God - never loosened his grip - and obeyed to the letter everything God had commanded Moses. ⁷ And God, for his part, held fast to him through all his adventures. ⁸ And he drove back the Philistines, whether in sentry outposts or fortress cities, all the way to Gaza and its borders.

The Fall of Samaria

⁹ In the fourth year of Hezekiah and the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, Shalmaneser king of Assyria attacked Samaria. He threw a siege around it ¹⁰ and after three years captured it. It was in the sixth year of Hezekiah and the ninth year of Hoshea that Samaria fell to Assyria. ¹¹ The king of Assyria took Israel into exile and relocated them in Halah, in Gozan on the Habor River, and in towns of the Medes. ¹² All this happened because they wouldn't listen to the voice of their God and treated his covenant with careless contempt. They refused either to listen or do a word of what Moses, the servant of God, commanded.