¹⁴ So King Hezekiah of Judah sent word to the king of Assyria at Lachish:^(A) ‘I have done wrong;^(B) withdraw from me. Whatever you demand from me, I will pay.’ The king of Assyria demanded ten tonnes^[a] of silver and one tonne^[b] of gold from King Hezekiah of Judah. ¹⁵ So Hezekiah gave him all the silver found in the Lord’s temple and in the treasuries of the king’s palace.

¹⁶ At that time Hezekiah stripped the gold from the doors of the Lord’s sanctuary and from the doorposts he had overlaid and gave it to the king of Assyria.^(C)

¹⁷ Then the king of Assyria sent the field marshal,^(D) the chief of staff, and his royal spokesman, along with a massive army, from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem.^(E) They advanced and came to Jerusalem, and^[c] they took their position by the aqueduct of the upper pool, by the road to the Launderer’s Field.^(F)