2 Kings 18:16, commentary and pictures

Hezekiah stripped the gold from the doors of the temple of the LORD and from the pillars he himself had overlaid, and gave it to the king of Assyria as tribute to buy peace. He sent to him at Lachish while the city was under siege, confessing his offense and agreeing to bear whatever was imposed, and the king laid upon him three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold. Sennacherib's own record reports receiving the gold and silver with other treasure sent by messengers to Nineveh to present tribute and make submission, the difference in the silver numbers coming from different measures of the talent. The Assyrian inscriptions supply a supplementary account agreeing with the Bible in many details, including Hezekiah being shut up and the tribute exacted with its amount, and confirm the accuracy of the Scripture narrative. The Assyrian threat was a test of trust in God, for Sennacherib mocked the LORD, but Hezekiah trusted in the God of Israel and God miraculously defeated the army and saved the city, showing His power over earthly rulers and false gods.

Tribute and Historical Setting

At that time Hezekiah cut off the gold from the doors of the temple of the LORD and from the pillars which he himself as king of Judah had overlaid, and gave it to the king of Assyria as tribute to buy peace and secure a treaty, even robbing the temple of its riches. Hezekiah sent to the Assyrian king at Lachish while he was besieging it, confessing his offense and agreeing to bear whatever was imposed upon him. The king appointed him three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold, a large tribute extorted from him and forced upon him.

Sennacherib's own record reports receiving thirty talents of gold and eight hundred talents of silver, with metals, rubies, pearls, great carbuncles, seats, thrones, amber, skins, sandal wood and ebony, and the contents of his treasury, sent by messengers to Nineveh with an ambassador to present tribute and make submission. The difference in the silver numbers is explained because different measures of the talent were used, so the larger number of smaller talents equals the smaller number of larger talents. The verse belongs to the history of Judah after the ten tribes had been swept away, in the final section of Kings covering the remaining kingdom. It belongs to the eight-chapter record running from Hezekiah to Zedekiah and hastening toward the Babylonian captivity after the breakup of Samaria, and Hezekiah was a good king and devoted man of God notwithstanding his mistakes, his reign together with Josiah's filling five of those eight chapters.

The tribute belonged to Sennacherib's campaign against Judah in 701 B.C., when dated to 713 B.C. as a loss of temple treasure, in which he came against Judah when Sennacherib came against him. In that campaign he came against Judah's fortified and western cities, besieged Lachish, and shut Hezekiah up in Jerusalem. The campaign is also shown in Assyrian palace reliefs of the siege of Lachish and Sennacherib receiving spoils, including a scene of Sennacherib receiving the city's spoils. The fuller biblical account notes the large tribute sent during the siege of Lachish without explaining the temple gold or pillars.

The stripping took place even during Hezekiah's reign when the temple had been purified and its worship restored.

Confirmation and Spiritual Lessons

The stripping of the temple doors and pillars for tribute belongs to the history of Sennacherib's successful invasion of Judah, an event also described in his own cylinder inscription and in the contemporary records of the Assyrians concerned. Those Assyrian accounts supply a supplementary history that agrees with the biblical account in many details, including Hezekiah being shut up in Jerusalem and tribute being exacted from him. Sennacherib's own account even records the amount Hezekiah was forced to pay, supporting the tribute named in the narrative. With the other names and doings of the kings, this growing number of monumental references in the period of the kings confirms the accuracy of the Scripture narrative.

The Assyrian threat was a test of trust in God, for Sennacherib mocked the LORD and claimed that no god could deliver Jerusalem from his hand. Hezekiah trusted in the God of Israel, and God miraculously defeated the Assyrian army and saved the city. That deliverance showed God's power over earthly rulers and over the false gods of the nations. The victory and the honor Hezekiah received among the nations should have turned attention to God, but when the signs of divine salvation were treated as evidence of human greatness the blessing was turned into a curse.

Jerusalem's standing as the city of the Great King did not make it immune to disaster, for Assyria threatened it and its people faced captivity. The giving of the temple's gold under that danger and pressure shows that sacred wealth and the city's holy character did not prevent evil from coming. Assyria is one of the empires whose origin, career, and end are predicted in the Bible, and so bears witness to the truth of the Bible. Sennacherib lifted puny hands against God's plans and precepts, and his hopeless doom is written in history, now dead and living only in infamy while the word stands.