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Hezekiah & The Silent Slaughter · The Chosen People

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Speaker 1: Previously on The Chosen People But.
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Speaker 2: If you or your descendants turn away from me and
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Speaker 2: do not observe my commands, if you serve other gods
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Speaker 2: and worship them, then I will cut off Israel from
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Speaker 2: the land I have given them. I will reject this
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Speaker 2: temple I have consecrated for my name.
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Speaker 3: Silence! Hear now the judgment of the Lord, oh giant slayer.
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Speaker 4: The sword shall never leave your house.
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Speaker 3: Blood shall answer blood. Because you have dealt in violence,
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Speaker 3: so too shall violence rise in your own walls.
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Speaker 1: You do the king and Israel no good with all
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Speaker 1: your negativity and doom. You should be giving the king confidence.
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Speaker 4: Give our nation something to cheer for.
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Speaker 5: I cheer for the holiness of our nation. I cheer
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Speaker 5: for justice to our poor and repentance from the wickedness
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Speaker 5: of our kings.
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Speaker 4: Israel, hear me!
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Speaker 6: How long will you stumble like drunkards, wavering between two paths,
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Speaker 6: pretending you serve both when your hearts belong to neither?
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Speaker 4: How long will you hobble.
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Speaker 6: Back and forth, torn between a God of silence and
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Speaker 6: a God of all creation? How long will you let
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Speaker 6: a slothful drunk and a witch queen make your decisions
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Speaker 6: for you?
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Speaker 4: If Yahweh is God, follow him. If Baal is God,
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Speaker 4: then bow to him fully.
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Speaker 7: But enough of this cowardly, pathetic half-faith.
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Speaker 6: You cannot serve two masters.
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Speaker 4: This is the moment. This is the line.
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Speaker 2: Choose!
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Speaker 1: It was a reckoning with their own depravity, a cry
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Speaker 1: for deliverance from the whirlwind of sin that had ensnared them.
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Speaker 1: And though this story ended in ashes, It pointed to
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Speaker 1: a greater need, a king who would not fall to sin,
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Speaker 1: a savior who would lead them with love and strength.
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Speaker 1: One day, he would come. Jerusalem was less a city
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Speaker 1: and more a wound wrapped in stone. Its walls were
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Speaker 1: ancient and cracked. still echoing with the boots of David,
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Speaker 1: the prayers of Solomon, and the screams of every foolish
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Speaker 1: king who tried to flirt with idolatry and got burned.
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Speaker 1: The streets had seen too much, too many coronations, too
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Speaker 1: many corpses, and now they watched again, waiting to see
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Speaker 1: if the next chapter was salvation or siege. Hezekiah had
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Speaker 1: been king for fourteen years, He was young when he started,
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Speaker 1: impossibly young, 25 and already surrounded by the detritus of
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Speaker 1: his father's apostasy. His father, Ahaz, had gutted the temple,
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Speaker 1: sold off the sacred vessels like they were pawn shop trinkets,
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Speaker 1: and made treaties with gods that didn't exist. The man
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Speaker 1: had turned the Lord's sanctuary into something between a trash
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Speaker 1: heap and a museum of foreign humiliations. Hezekiah had spent
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Speaker 1: his entire reign trying to atone for the sins of
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Speaker 1: his father. And now the Assyrian Empire had come. Sennacherib's
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Speaker 1: war machine. They'd taken Samaria. The northern kingdom was gone,
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Speaker 1: wiped off the map like chalk in the rain. And
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Speaker 1: now their eyes were on Judah, on Jerusalem. Hezekiah stood
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Speaker 1: in the shadow of the wall, his hand resting on
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Speaker 1: the warm limestone, eyes scanning the horizon. He was older now, scarred,
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Speaker 1: his youth buried under layers of strategy and sleepless nights.
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Speaker 1: But something burned in his chest, something that hadn't been
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Speaker 1: there in Ahaz. Faith may be just enough. Beside him,
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Speaker 1: a voice broke the heavy silence.
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Speaker 8: I assume you're praying, my king? Or just waiting to
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Speaker 8: hear the sound of the gates giving out?
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Speaker 1: Shebna. Royal steward. Political operator. The kind of man who
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Speaker 1: wore his robes like armour and never let a sentence
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Speaker 1: end without a smirk. Hezekiah kept him close because you
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Speaker 1: don't survive in a court without at least one man
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Speaker 1: who knows where all the bodies are buried.
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Speaker 5: I'm listening for the Lord.
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Speaker 9: Not that you'd recognise the difference.
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Speaker 10: The Lord's been very quiet since Lachish fell. Maybe he's
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Speaker 10: thinking or packing his bags to run for the hills.
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Speaker 1: The tension between them had become ritual. Shebna, who thought
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Speaker 1: in silver and politics. Hezekiah, who thought in covenant and blood.
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Speaker 1: The king didn't answer. He just turned slow and steady.
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Speaker 1: Another figure approached, robes dusty, hair wild, eyes that had
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Speaker 1: seen too much. Eliakim, son of Hilkiah. Master of the palace.
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Speaker 1: Not a politician, not a flatterer. Just a man who
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Speaker 1: had the unfortunate task of trying to keep the gears
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Speaker 1: of Judah turning while everyone else panicked. He was already mid-breath,
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Speaker 1: already angry.
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Speaker 3: The Rabshakeh is on his way. with a message, loud, public,
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Speaker 3: right in front of the wall.
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Speaker 1: Hezekiah sighed. Of course, the Rabshaker, Assyria's chief of propaganda
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Speaker 1: and psychological warfare. The man could make threats sound like
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Speaker 1: lullabies and turn a crowd faster than a plague.
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Speaker 9: Does he speak Hebrew? Fluently and with cruelty.
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Speaker 5: Oh, he'll use the people's tongue to break their spine.
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Speaker 4: Clever.
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Speaker 9: Tell him nothing. Let him talk. Let him threaten.
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Speaker 5: Then come back to me.
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Speaker 1: Shebna blinked, surprised. Eliakim just nodded, already turning. He knew
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Speaker 1: better than to argue. Hezekiah didn't look at either of them.
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Speaker 1: His eyes were still fixed east toward the path the
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Speaker 1: Assyrians would take and inside the city the people began
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Speaker 1: to whisper. They heard the footsteps of the Rabshakeh approaching.
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Speaker 1: They heard the thunder of horses and the sharp hiss
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Speaker 1: of the Assyrian tongue curling around Hebrew syllables. They climbed
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Speaker 1: the walls hoping to hear the voice of a foreign
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Speaker 1: empire speak their doom in their own language. Above it
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Speaker 1: all The temple stood restored, cleaned and pure again, thanks
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Speaker 1: to Hezekiah's reforms. The sacrifices had returned, the priests sang again,
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Speaker 1: but the Lord hadn't spoken yet. The silence was a test,
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Speaker 1: and the king, standing in the tension between faith and fear,
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Speaker 1: was about to find out who he really served. The
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Speaker 1: Rabshaker arrived like a thunderclap. No chariot, no ceremony, just boots, armor,
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Speaker 1: and a voice that could peel paint off stone. He
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Speaker 1: came with two other Assyrian officials. They approached, standing at
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Speaker 1: the aqueduct, right by the upper pool, the place where
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Speaker 1: Hezekiah had once redirected water to prepare for this very moment. Poetic,
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Speaker 1: the Rabshaker knew it too. Everything he did was intentional,
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Speaker 1: every word a scalpel. He raised his voice, loud, too loud,
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Speaker 1: designed to carry over the heads of Judah's officials and
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Speaker 1: into the ears of every scared, half-starved citizen huddled behind
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Speaker 1: the city wall.
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Speaker 7: I have a message for your master, your precious Hezekiah.
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Speaker 7: Tell him this is what the great king, the king
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Speaker 7: of Assyria, has to say. What on earth do you
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Speaker 7: think you're doing? What is your plan? Hoping in smoke?
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Speaker 7: Leaning on Egypt like some cripple on a staff? Egypt
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Speaker 7: is a stick of dead wood. Lean on it too
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Speaker 7: hard and it'll stab right through your hand.
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Speaker 1: He paced like a lion sizing up sheep. He wasn't
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Speaker 1: talking to Eliakim or Shebna or the scribal nobody tagging
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Speaker 1: along with them. He was talking to the walls, to
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Speaker 1: the people behind them, listening in fear.
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Speaker 4: Or maybe, maybe you're counting on your God. That God
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Speaker 4: of yours, eh?
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Speaker 7: Funny, because didn't Hezekiah just go and tear down all
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Speaker 7: his altars?
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Speaker 4: Yes, that's right. I heard.
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Speaker 8: What?
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Speaker 7: He told everyone, you can only worship at this altar
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Speaker 7: in Jerusalem. Sounds like a real downgrade to me.
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Speaker 1: Shebna clenched his jaw. Eliakim's fists were white-knuckled, but they
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Speaker 1: said nothing, just like Hezekiah ordered.
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Speaker 4: Let's make a deal. I'll give you 2,000 horses right now.
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Speaker 4: You pick the riders.
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Speaker 7: If you can even find that many men who know
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Speaker 7: which end is the front of a horse.
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Speaker 4: Let's see what you've got. Let's see your... Big comeback.
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Speaker 1: He chuckled an ugly, joyless sound.
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Speaker 7: You think Assyria came here on a whim? You think
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Speaker 7: we just decided to stroll into Judah?
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Speaker 4: Listen, you fools. Yahweh sent us. Yes, your God.
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Speaker 7: He's the one who said, attack Judah, destroy it. So
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Speaker 7: don't blame me when the boots start trampling over you.
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Speaker 1: Eliakim finally stepped forward, his voice low, respectful, desperate.
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Speaker 3: Please, sir, speak to us in Aramaic. We understand it.
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Speaker 3: No need to use Hebrew. There are people listening on
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Speaker 3: the wall.
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Speaker 1: The rapturer smiled, and it was the kind of smile
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Speaker 1: that made your soul itch.
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Speaker 4: Why, you simple little man.
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Speaker 7: That's exactly why I'm speaking Hebrew. I want them to
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Speaker 7: hear every single word. Let's not pretend this message isn't
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Speaker 7: for you psychophantic lapdogs of Hezekiah. This is for the people,
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Speaker 7: for the scared men with rusted swords, for the women
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Speaker 7: rationing bread, for the children wondering why the sky looks
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Speaker 7: darker every morning.
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Speaker 1: He turned his voice into a trumpet. bellowing toward the
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Speaker 1: walls like a preacher at a dying revival.
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Speaker 7: Hear ye, hear ye, Jerusalem.
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Speaker 4: Don't let Hezekiah lie to you. He says, the Lord
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Speaker 4: will save us. The Lord will save us. Where was
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Speaker 4: he with the north hill? Where was he when Hamath collapsed? Arpad? Gone.
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Speaker 4: Got it. Burned down to the foundations. Think, you fools.
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Speaker 2: Think!
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Speaker 1: He gestured wildly, arms raised like some twisted prophet.
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Speaker 4: What makes you think your god is any different?
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Speaker 7: What makes you think your king can save you? Don't
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Speaker 7: be fooled by his speeches, his prayers, his pathetic temple theatrics.
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Speaker 7: You follow him, you'll be eating your own bones in
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Speaker 7: a month.
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Speaker 1: The crowd on the stone wall was stone silent. Mothers
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Speaker 1: froze mid-rocking. Soldiers blinked sweat into their eyes. Even the
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Speaker 1: wind stopped.
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Speaker 4: Make peace with me. Walk out. Surrender.
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Speaker 7: I promise you, things will go well for you. You'll
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Speaker 7: eat from your own fig tree. You'll drink from your
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Speaker 7: own well. Not this rationed misery. Not this slow death
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Speaker 7: behind these crumbling stones.
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Speaker 4: We'll take you to a land like yours. Vignettes.
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Speaker 5: Olive trees.
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Speaker 4: The future. No more war.
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Speaker 5: No more lies.
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Speaker 4: Just... life.
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Speaker 1: He let it hang in the air. A seductive offer.
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Speaker 2: Bloodless.
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Speaker 5: Rational. Human.
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Speaker 1: Then, he snapped it.
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Speaker 8: But.
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Speaker 1: if you wait.
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Speaker 4: if you cling to your king....
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Speaker 5: If.
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Speaker 4: You trust your way. Then watch your children starve.
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Speaker 7: Watch your city crumble. Watch your God fall.
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Speaker 4: Silent one last time. Mark my words.
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Speaker 7: The last sound you hear will not be the sound
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Speaker 7: of your pathetic God.
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Speaker 4: It will be the sound of my laughter. <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL>.
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Speaker 8: <HAL> <HAL>.
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Speaker 9: As Judah burns.
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Speaker 1: He paused and waited, pleased with his performance. Eliakim said nothing.
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Speaker 1: Shebna said nothing. They turned and walked back to the palace,
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Speaker 1: robes dragging dust like the weight of coming death. And
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Speaker 1: above them, the people on the wall still said nothing.
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Speaker 1: But inside the palace, Hezekiah was waiting, pale, Eyes hollow,
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Speaker 1: knees bent. Not before the Assyrians, before God. The palace
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Speaker 1: was quiet. Hezekiah stood in the chamber like a man
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Speaker 1: who had aged twenty years in twenty minutes. The scroll
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Speaker 1: from Sennacherib lay unrolled before him on the ground, its
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Speaker 1: words like a dagger dressed in silk. Surrender, survive, or
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Speaker 1: be destroyed. The Rabshakeh's venom had soaked deep into the
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Speaker 1: stones of Jerusalem, and now the king's knees hit the floor.
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Speaker 1: He didn't speak to his advisors. He didn't summon Shevna
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Speaker 1: or Eliakim or even the priesthood. He dragged the letter
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Speaker 1: straight to the temple, straight to the heart of everything.
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Speaker 1: And there, under the shadow of the cherubim, Surrounded by
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Speaker 1: the scent of ancient blood and sacred oil, he did
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Speaker 1: the only thing left to do. He prayed.
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Speaker 11: Lord, God of Israel, you who sit above the cherubim,
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Speaker 11: you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth.
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Speaker 1: His voice cracked, his body trembled, but his soul stood up.
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Speaker 9: You made heaven and earth.
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Speaker 11: You hear.
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Speaker 9: You see. Look at this letter. Read what Sennacherib wrote.
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Speaker 9: Read how he mocks you, the living God. Yes, he's
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Speaker 9: destroyed nations. He's burned their gods. But they were wood, stone,
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Speaker 9: made by hands.
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Speaker 1: He inhaled slowly, like swallowing a stone. You're not like them.
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Speaker 4: You're real.
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Speaker 11: You are here. You've saved our people in the past.
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Speaker 11: You parted the Red Sea. You slew Goliath with a stone.
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Speaker 11: Save us, Lord, not for us, not for our name,
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Speaker 11: but so that all the kingdoms of the earth may
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Speaker 11: know you alone are Yahweh.
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Speaker 1: First there was silence, then wind. Somewhere on the other
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Speaker 1: side of the city, Isaiah, son of Amoz, was already
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Speaker 1: sitting up straighter. He'd been praying too, listening. watching the
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Speaker 1: heavens shift in that peculiar way only prophets can perceive,
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Speaker 1: like watching a storm roll in from a thousand miles
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Speaker 1: away and still smelling the rain. And then he heard it,
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Speaker 1: that voice, not booming, not theatrical, but surgical, inevitable.
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Speaker 2: Isaiah, go to King Hezekiah. I have a message for him.
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Speaker 1: So Isaiah rose, wrapped his cloak around his shoulders, and
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Speaker 1: walked like a man carrying fire in his palms. Back
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Speaker 1: at the palace, the scroll still lay there, its ink
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Speaker 1: dry but its message still dripping poison in the air.
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Speaker 1: Hezekiah hadn't moved since laying it before the Lord. His
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Speaker 1: knees were stiff, his breath tasted like copper. The prayers
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Speaker 1: had been whispered, groaned, screamed, and now he waited, eyes red,
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Speaker 1: jaw clenched. When Isaiah entered, he didn't wait to be announced.
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Speaker 1: Prophets don't knock, they arrive. Hezekiah turned his head.
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Speaker 8: The Lord has spoken.
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Speaker 1: The silence cracked thin as glass. The king rose slowly,
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Speaker 1: his joints groaning under the weight of fasting and dread,
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Speaker 1: robes dragging like chains.
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Speaker 9: Tell me.
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Speaker 1: Isaiah looked at him for a moment longer than necessary.
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Speaker 1: Hezekiah looked utterly wrecked. The kind of agony that, like
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Speaker 1: Jacob many years ago, only comes from wrestling with God
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Speaker 1: and not letting go. Isaiah respected that.
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Speaker 9: You prayed.
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Speaker 8: You cried out.
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Speaker 5: And the God of Israel has answered.
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Speaker 11: Did he answer with mercy or with silence?
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Speaker 5: He answered with laughter.
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Speaker 9: Laughter?
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Speaker 5: He laughed, Ezekiel.
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Speaker 8: Laughed like a father watching a toddler threaten him with
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Speaker 8: a stick. Yes, Zion, the virgin daughter. She laughs at
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Speaker 8: that fool Sennacherib. She tosses her head like a girl
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Speaker 8: mocking a drunk at the gate. She sees him for
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Speaker 8: what he is.
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Speaker 4: Noise.
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Speaker 1: Hezekiah stepped closer, eyebrows drawn low.
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Speaker 9: Are you telling me God mocks him? Mocks the Assyrians?
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Speaker 5: I'm telling you, Sennacherib mocked the wrong throne. He lifted
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Speaker 5: his voice against the High One, the maker of mountains,
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Speaker 5: the shaper of breath. He bragged of burning spirits. drowning rivers,
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Speaker 5: and tearing down strongholds. He thought it was strength, but
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Speaker 5: it was permission. The fool thinks he's a self-made man. Nonsense!
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Speaker 5: Every step he took, God allowed. And now, he revokes it.
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Speaker 1: The weight of the words pressed against the walls. Hezekiah
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Speaker 1: reached out and touched the edge of the scroll with
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Speaker 1: two fingers, as if it might sting him.
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Speaker 11: Zennacherib said he came in God's name.
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Speaker 9: He said that the Lord sent him.
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Speaker 5: He confused silence for agreement. He mistook long-suffering for weakness.
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Speaker 5: But God is not mocked. And he's not slow. Just precise.
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Speaker 9: Then what does the Lord say? What's the verdict?
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Speaker 1: Isaiah stepped forward, his voice beginning to carry something ancient,
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Speaker 1: like thunder warming up behind his ribs.
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Speaker 8: This is what the Lord says. You will not see
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Speaker 8: one arrow fly over this wall. Not one. No ladder
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Speaker 8: will touch these stones. No soldier will pass your gates.
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Speaker 8: Sennacherib will go back the way he came. I will
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Speaker 8: put a hook in his rotten nose and I will
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Speaker 8: drag him out like the beast he is. I will
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Speaker 8: defend this city. I will shield it not for your sake,
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Speaker 8: not because of your strength, but for my name and
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Speaker 8: because of the promise I made to your forefather David.
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Speaker 1: Hezekiah closed his eyes, holding back tears.
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Speaker 9: So, the Lord heard me.
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Speaker 5: Yes, he did.
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Speaker 1: The silence that followed wasn't empty. It was holy. It
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Speaker 1: was a silence that waits before the mighty God moves.
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Speaker 1: The Assyrian camp had spread across the valley like a
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Speaker 1: living thing, a serpent with 185,000 teeth. The night air
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Speaker 1: was thick with sweat and arrogance, the stench of cooked
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Speaker 1: meat and war-polished bronze. Fires flickered in uneven rhythms, casting
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Speaker 1: shadows across faces already marked with the casual cruelty of men.
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Speaker 1: The Assyrians had crushed cities beneath their boots and forgotten
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Speaker 1: the names of the children they'd orphaned. Their blades weren't dull,
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Speaker 1: but the men kept sharpening anyway. They were, to a man, certain.
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Speaker 1: Not arrogant in the foolish way of green recruits, but
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Speaker 1: confident in the mechanical inevitability of their machine. No one
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Speaker 1: escaped Assyria. The northern kingdom of Israel had already fallen,
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Speaker 1: The cities of the plain had bowed. Jerusalem was a
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Speaker 1: song in its final note, a candle with no wax left,
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Speaker 1: a name about to become dust. No one was watching
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Speaker 1: the sky. And why would they? The gods of Assyria
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Speaker 1: had never needed stars. They had siege towers and logistics.
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Speaker 1: But heaven does not need chariots when it chooses to march.
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Speaker 1: And on that night, in the quiet, the angel of
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Speaker 1: the Lord entered the camp. There was no trumpet, no
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Speaker 1: war cry, no flash of wings or the melodrama of
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Speaker 1: men's imagination. Only a stillness, a holy, terrifying stillness. And
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Speaker 1: then it began, not in fire, but in breath leaving lungs.
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Speaker 1: One by one, the Assyrian soldiers died, not like men
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Speaker 1: on a battlefield flailing for glory or gurgling oaths to
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Speaker 1: the moon, but like candles snuffed by an invisible wind.
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Speaker 1: Fingers twitched, knees buckled, hearts stopped mid-beat. Across the valley,
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Speaker 1: in silence, the machinery of empire collapsed like a lung
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Speaker 1: punctured by the dagger of God. And if anyone had
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Speaker 1: remained alive as a witness, they would have nothing to report.
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Speaker 1: Nothing but the sight of living men dropping dead without
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Speaker 1: sword or arrow. Morning arrived. The city of Jerusalem woke slowly, cautiously,
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Speaker 1: the fear still heavy in their bellies. Hezekiah stood on
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Speaker 1: the wall, shoulders hunched in prayer, flanked by Eliakim and Shebna.
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Speaker 1: Eliakim looked out and surveyed the Assyrian camp.
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Speaker 9: My lord, they're not moving.
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Speaker 1: Hezekiah turned.
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Speaker 4: What do you see?
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Speaker 9: Nothing, my king.
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Speaker 3: They're not moving because they're not alive.
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Speaker 1: The king walked to the edge of the wall, placed
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Speaker 1: a hand on the cold stone. The valley below was
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Speaker 1: a graveyard. A nation's worth of power had been reduced
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Speaker 1: to stillness. Campfire still burned, swords still gleamed, but there
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Speaker 1: was no one left to wield them. Suddenly, Isaiah appeared,
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Speaker 1: robes swirling, eyes already wet with something halfway between holy
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Speaker 1: awe and grim understanding. Hezekiah didn't speak, couldn't. The king nodded.
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Speaker 1: He turned from the wall, stepped down, and the city
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Speaker 1: exhaled for the first time in weeks. Far away, Sennacherib
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Speaker 1: heard the news, and something inside him cracked. He left
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Speaker 1: Jerusalem's shadow without a word, retreated to Nineveh, with nothing
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Speaker 1: but the silence of God ringing in his ears. And
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Speaker 1: in the end, in the house of his god Nisroch,
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Speaker 1: while he prayed for answers his idols couldn't give, his
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Speaker 1: own sons rose against him. blood on stone, betrayal at
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Speaker 1: the altar. And the man who mocked the Lord died
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Speaker 1: with a question still forming on his lips. Jerusalem survived,
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Speaker 1: not because it was strong, but because God is. And because,
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Speaker 1: one way or another, he answers the prayers of those
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Speaker 1: who fear his name. This Pray.com production is only made
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Speaker 1: possible by our dedicated team of creative talents. Steve Gatina,
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Speaker 1: Max Bard, Zach Schelleberger, and Ben Gammon are the executive
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Speaker 1: producers of The Chosen People, narrated by Paul Coltofianu. Characters
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Speaker 1: are voiced by Jonathan Cotton, Aaron Salvato, Sarah Seltz, Mike Reagan,
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Speaker 1: Stephen Ringwald, Sylvia Zaradok, Thomas Copeland Jr., Rosanna Pilcher, and
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Speaker 1: Mitch Lashinsky. Music by Andrew Morgan Smith. Written by Aaron Salvato,
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Speaker 1: Brie Rosely, and Chris Baig. You can hear more Prey.com
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Speaker 1: productions on the Prey.com app, available on the Apple App
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Speaker 1: Store and Google Play Store. If you enjoyed The Chosen People,
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Speaker 1: please rate and leave a review.