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The remaining 8 chapters deal with the Kingdom of Judah. At the time of the destruction of Israel (722BC.), Ahaz was King of Judah. He had bought some degree of peace with Assyria by giving them the treasurers of the Temple. At his death, his son, Hezekiah, became the 13th. King of Judah. He was 25 years old when he became king. He reigned for 29 years. He was considered a "good king"; in fact, none of the other Kings of Judah was as close to God with the exception of David.
If you study carefully verses 9 thru 12 and compare the reigns of the Kings of Judah and Israel you will notice a difference with this record and the one I made up on the Kings of Israel and Judah. According to the "Bible Time Line" whose dates I use most of the time, Hezekiah did not become King of Judah until 7 years after the destruction of Israel. But, according to verses 9 thru 12, Hezekiah was King of Judah when Israel was destroyed. This simply points out the difficulty of establishing dates in the Old Testament.
As the result of Hezekiah's obedience to the Lord, the Lord prospered everything that he did. Now it is a known fact that some people cannot stand prosperity. Feeling over confident, Hezekiah rebelled against Assyria and refused to pay tribute any longer. Remember that God had anointed Assyria as the instrument of Judgment upon Israel and when Assyria finished with Israel, they came down into Judah and captured all of their fortified cities. Hezekiah realized that he had gone to far in stopping the tribute to Assyria, sent word to the King of Assyria to ask him what tribute he would demand to leave them alone. The King of Assyria demanded 300 talents of silver and 30 talents of gold, approximately $1,500,000. To get this Hezekiah took all that was left in the treasurer of the Temple and even stripped the gold from the doors and gave it all to the Assyrian King, but this did not appease the King. He sent a great army that encamped along the highway where the water conduit came down from the Mt. of Olives to Jerusalem.
There the Syrian General demanded that King Hezekiah come out and speak to him, instead, Hezekiah sent a truce delegation made up of his Business Manager, his Secretary and his Historian but the Assyrian General was not in the mood to negotiate. Rather, he sent a message back to Hezekiah. "The great King of Assyria says that no one can save you now." "Which of your allies will you rely upon?" "Will it be Egypt, the Egyptian Pharaoh is totally unreliable." "Will it be your God, remember you destroyed His Hill Top Altars." The Assyrian General was willing to give them a sporting chance; he would give them 2000 horses if they could find 2000 Israeli soldiers to ride them. They certainly would be no threat to Assyria.
Notice the three representatives from Hezekiah asked the Assyrian General to speak in Aramaic rather than Hebrew so the people up on the wall could not understand what he was saying, but he refused. What he was about to do would affect them also. Then the Assyrian General shouted up to the people on the wall and asked them to give up and come out and he would take them to another land as fertile as Judah. He reminded them that none of the gods of the other nations had been able to save them from the Assyrian Army, but the people remained silent and stayed in their places, for the King had commanded them to say nothing. With this, the Kings representatives went back inside the city and told Hezekiah all that the General had said.
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