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17.34 former manners: they fear not the, neither do they after their statutes, or after their ordinances, or after the law or after the commandment which the commanded the children of Jacob, whom He named Israel; with whom the  had made a covenant, and charged them, saying: 'Ye shall not fear other gods, nor bow down to them, nor serve them, nor sacrifice to them; but the , who brought you up out of the land of Egypt with great power and with an outstretched arm, Him shall ye fear, and Him shall ye worship, and to Him shall ye sacrifice; and the statutes and the ordinances, and the law and the commandment, which He wrote for you, ye shall observe to do for evermore; and ye shall not fear other gods; and the covenant that I have made with you ye shall not forget; neither shall ye fear other gods; but the  your God shall ye fear; and He will deliver you out of the hand of all your enemies.' Howbeit they did not hearken, but they did after their former manner. So these nations feared the, and served their graven images; their children likewise, and their children's children, as did their fathers, so do they unto this day.

Now it came to pass in the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, that Hezekiah the son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign. Twenty and five years old was he when he began to reign; and he reigned twenty and nine years in Jerusalem; and his mother's name was Abi the daughter of Zechariah. And he did that which was right in the eyes of the, according to all that David his father had done. He removed the high places, and broke the pillars, and cut down the Asherah; and he broke in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had made; for unto those days the children of Israel did offer to it; and it was called Nehushtan. He trusted in the, the God of Israel; so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor among them that were before him. For he cleaved to the, he departed not from following Him, but kept His commandments, which the commanded Moses. And the was with him: whithersoever he went forth he prospered; and he rebelled against the king of Assyria, and served him not. He smote the Philistines unto Gaza and the borders thereof, from the tower of the watchmen to the fortified city. And it came to pass in the fourth year of king Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, that Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against Samaria, and besieged it. And at the end of three years they took it; even in the sixth year of Hezekiah, which was the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel, Samaria was taken. And the king of Assyria carried Israel away unto Assyria, and put them in Halah, and in Habor, on the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes; because they hearkened not to the voice of the LORD their God, but transgressed His covenant, even all that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded, and would not hear it, nor do it.

Now in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah did Sennacherib king of Assyria come up against all the fortified cities of Judah, and took them. 14And Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria to Lachish, saying: 'I have offended; return from me; that which thou puttest on me will I bear.' And the king of Assyria