2 Kings 18 is the eighteenth chapter of the second part of the Books of Kings in the Hebrew Bible or the Second Book of Kings in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. The book is a compilation of various annals recording the acts of the kings of Israel and Judah by a Deuteronomic compiler in the seventh century BCE, with a supplement added in the sixth century BCE. This chapter records the events during the reign of Hezekiah, the king of Judah, a part of the section comprising 2 Kings 18:1 to 20:21, with a parallel version in Isaiah 36–39.

This chapter was originally written in the Hebrew language. It is divided into 37 verses.

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter in Hebrew are of the Masoretic Text tradition, which includes the Codex Cairensis (895), Aleppo Codex (10th century), and Codex Leningradensis (1008).

There is also a translation into Koine Greek known as the Septuagint, made in the last few centuries BCE. Extant ancient manuscripts of the Septuagint version include Codex Vaticanus (B; ${\displaystyle {\mathfrak {G}}}$^B; 4th century) and Codex Alexandrinus (A; ${\displaystyle {\mathfrak {G}}}$^A; 5th century).

This chapter introduces Hezekiah as a 'ultra-righteous king' who relied on YHWH (verses 1–8), the most David-like king since David (verse 3, cf. verse 7 with 1 Samuel 18:14). It is contrasted to the apostate northern kingdom which was then destroyed by the Assyrians (verses 9–12). Prompting by Hezekiah's rebellion (verse 7), Sennacherib, the Assyrian king, came to attack Judah, and even after given large amount of tribute (verses 13–16) still demanded Jerusalem to surrender with convincing argumentation (verses 17–37).

The narrative of the Assyrian siege on Jerusalem in chapter 18 and 19 is presented in a parallel structure:

From 18:17 onwards the editors seem to insert another source, which is also used in the Book of Isaiah, that indicates the Assyrians breaking their word after receiving the tribute and putting further pressure on Hezekiah in Jerusalem (cf. 1 Kings 20:1–7 for the equivalent chain of events).

This section highlights Hezekiah's religious reforms which may contribute to an exceptional evaluation: he and Josiah (2 Kings 22:2) alone are comparable to David. The destruction of the Nehushtan, a snake-shaped cultic image traced back to Moses (cf. Numbers 21:9), can really be attributed to Hezekiah, despite little details were reported, among other acts of piety (verses 6–7). Next are Hezekiah's early foreign political activities: he liberated the kingdom of Judah from Assyrian subservience and conducted successful campaigns against the Philistines (verses 7–8). An Assyrian source noted that Hezekiah was the 'leader of an anti-Assyrian coalition from 705 BCE onwards', and he even 'arrested a pro-Assyrian king of Ekron in this capacity'. The editors included the description of the northern Israel kingdom's defeat to the Assyrians (cf. verses 9–11 with 2 Kings 17:3–6), as well as the cause of it, namely, the 'entire population's lack of loyalty to the Torah' (verse 12).