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.’
This same Hezekiah blocked the upper outlet of the water from the Gihon Spring and channelled it smoothly downwards and westwards to the city of David. Hezekiah succeeded in everything he did.
He was diligent in every deed that he began in the service of God’s temple, in the instruction and the commands, in order to seek his God, and he prospered.
So he went out to meet Asa and said to him, ‘Asa and all Judah and Benjamin, hear me. The Lord is with you when you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you abandon him, he will abandon you.
David marched out with the army and was successful in everything Saul sent him to do. Saul put him in command of the fighting men, which pleased all the people and Saul’s servants as well.
Then he placed garrisons in Aram of Damascus, and the Arameans became David’s subjects and brought tribute. The Lord made David victorious wherever he went.
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 ten tonnes of silver and one tonne of gold from King Hezekiah of Judah.
The Lord was with Judah and enabled them to take possession of the hill country, but they could not drive out the people who were living in the plain because those people had iron chariots.