4 He got rid of the illegal places of worship, crushed the sacred stones, and cut down the poles dedicated to the goddess Asherah. He even crushed the bronze snake that Moses had made because up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it. They called it Nehushtan.
5 Hezekiah trusted the Lord God of Israel. No king among all the kings of Judah was like Hezekiah.
6 He was loyal to the Lord and never turned away from him. He obeyed the commands that the Lord had given through Moses,
7 so the Lord was with him. He succeeded in everything he tried: He rebelled against the king of Assyria and wouldn’t serve him anymore.
8 He conquered the Philistines from the ⌊smallest⌋ watchtower to the ⌊largest⌋ fortified city all the way to Gaza and its territory.
9 In Hezekiah’s fourth year as king (which was the seventh year in the reign of King Hoshea, son of Elah of Israel) King Shalmaneser of Assyria attacked Samaria, blockaded it,
10 and captured it at the end of three years. Samaria was taken in Hezekiah’s sixth year as king (which was Hoshea’s ninth year as king of Israel).