Study Desk

King Pul of Assyria invaded the land, so Menahem gave Pul seventy-five thousand pounds of silver so that Pul would support him to strengthen his grasp on the kingdom.

Then Menahem exacted twenty ounces of silver from each of the prominent men of Israel to give to the king of Assyria. So the king of Assyria withdrew and did not stay there in the land.

So Ahaz sent messengers to King Tiglath-pileser of Assyria, saying, “I am your servant and your son. March up and save me from the grasp of the king of Aram and of the king of Israel, who are rising up against me.”

So the king of Assyria listened to him and marched up to Damascus and captured it. He deported its people to Kir but put Rezin to death.

But the king of Assyria caught Hoshea in a conspiracy: He had sent envoys to So king of Egypt and had not paid tribute to the king of Assyria as in previous years. Therefore the king of Assyria arrested him and put him in prison.

So the Lord rejected all the descendants of Israel, punished them, and handed them over to plunderers until he had banished them from his presence.

Finally, the Lord removed Israel from his presence just as he had declared through all his servants the prophets. So Israel has been exiled to Assyria from their homeland to this very day.

When they first lived there, they did not fear the Lord. So the Lord sent lions among them, which killed some of them.

Then the king of Assyria issued a command: “Send back one of the priests you deported. Have him go and live there so he can teach them the requirements of the god of the land.”

So one of the priests they had deported came and lived in Bethel, and he began to teach them how they should fear the Lord.

So King Hezekiah of Judah sent word to the king of Assyria at Lachish: “I have done wrong; withdraw from me. Whatever you demand from me, I will pay.” The king of Assyria demanded eleven tons of silver and one ton of gold from King Hezekiah of Judah.

So Hezekiah gave him all the silver found in the Lord’s temple and in the treasuries of the king’s palace.

You think mere words are strategy and strength for war. Who are you now relying on so that you have rebelled against me?

“So now, make a bargain with my master the king of Assyria. I’ll give you two thousand horses if you’re able to supply riders for them!

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 honey—so that you may live and not die. But don’t listen to Hezekiah when he misleads you, saying, “The Lord will rescue us.”

Who among all the gods of the lands has rescued his land from my power? So will the Lord rescue Jerusalem from my power?’”

So the servants of King Hezekiah went to Isaiah,

The king had heard concerning King Tirhakah of Cush, “Look, he has set out to fight against you.” So he again sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying,

They have thrown their gods into the fire, for they were not gods but made by human hands—wood and stone. So they have destroyed them.

Now, Lord our God, please save us from his power so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, Lord, are God—you alone.