18:1-8
At last we get a good king of Judah, king Hezekiah. He reigned for twenty nine years, and the text makes clear that it is his obedience to the Lord that makes the difference. He takes after his father David. He even removed the high places, as well as cutting down the Asherah pole. The bronze snake that Moses had made had become a source of idol worship. We will make idols out of anything. Hezekiah was aware of the dangers of idol worship, note that later he would be criticised for this.
Hezekiah trusted the Lord, so he was successful, and he rebelled against Assyria, and defeated the Philistines.
18:9-37
Assyria, under Shalmaneser, laid siege to Samaria and captured it . Israel’s defeat is put down to their disobedience to the Lord.Then Assyria turned their attention to Judah, but failed. The difference in outcomes is put down to trusting the Lord by Hezekiah. Even so Hezekiah had sought to buy off Assyria with temple treasures. We then get a telling of the way the battle went with fear tactics used by Assyria, I have written about this in my notes on Isaiah.
