¹³ In the fourteenth year^(A) of King Hezekiah’s reign, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all the fortified cities of Judah^(B) and captured them. ¹⁴ So Hezekiah king of Judah sent this message to the king of Assyria at Lachish:^(C) “I have done wrong.^(D) Withdraw from me, and I will pay whatever you demand of me.” The king of Assyria exacted from Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents^[a] of silver and thirty talents^[b] of gold. ¹⁵ So Hezekiah gave^(E) him all the silver that was found in the temple of the Lord and in the treasuries of the royal palace.

¹⁶ At this time Hezekiah king of Judah stripped off the gold with which he had covered the doors^(F) and doorposts of the temple of the Lord, and gave it to the king of Assyria.

The Lord’s Devastation of the Earth