Hezekiah

Fausset's Bible Dictionary

("strength of Jehovah".)

1. Twelfth king of Judah; son of the unbelieving Ahaz and Abi or Abijah; ascended the throne at the age of 25 in 726 B.C. Of his faithfulness it is written (2 Kings 18:5) "he trusted in the Lord God of Israel, so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor any that were before him, for he clave to the Lord, and departed not from following Him but kept His commandments." Probably his mother, being daughter of Zechariah "who had understanding in the visions of God" (2 Chronicles 26:5), was pious, and her influence counteracted the bad example of his father. In the very first year and first month of his reign the Lord put it "in his heart to make a covenant with the Lord God of Israel" (2 Chronicles 29), so he opened and repaired the doors of the Lord's house which had been "shut up," and charged the Levites not to be negligent but to "sanctify" the house and "carry forth the filthiness out of the holy place," and to light the lamps, to burn incense, and to offer burnt offerings as in former times; all which, to the shame and disaster of Judah, had latterly been neglected.

They did so, and moreover sanctified all the vessels which Ahaz had "cast away in his transgression." Then an atonement was made for the kingdom, the sanctuary, and Judah, with a sin offering of seven bullocks, seven rams, seven lambs, and seven he-goats; then followed the burnt offering, while "the Levite singers sang with the words of David and Asaph the seer, and the trumpets sounded." The priests were too few to flay the burnt offerings which the congregation "of a free heart" brought in; therefore the Levites helped them "until the other priests had sanctified themselves, for the Levites were more upright in heart to sanctify themselves than the priests." So "Hezekiah rejoiced that God had prepared the people, for the thing was done suddenly." Then followed the Passover, in the second month, "because the priests had not sanctified themselves sufficiently, neither had the people gathered themselves together to Jerusalem," so as to keep it in the regular month (Numbers 9:10-11; compare Exodus 12:6; Exodus 12:18).

Hezekiah by letter invited not only Judah, but also Ephraim and Manasseh, to it: "Ye children of Israel, turn again unto the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, and He will return to the remnant of you, escaped out of the hand of the king of Assyria." The majority "laughed the messengers to scorn; nevertheless, divers of Asher, Manasseh, and Zebulun (Ephraim and Issachar also) humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem." Also "in Judah the hand of God was to give them one heart to do the commandment of the king by the word of the Lord" (2 Chronicles 30:2; 2 Chronicles 30:12; 2 Chronicles 30:18; 2 Chronicles 30:23; Jeremiah 32:39). Owing to the want of priests several were not duly cleansed and sanctified, yet did eat the Passover; but Hezekiah prayed for them, "the good Lord pardon every one that prepareth his heart to seek God, though he be not cleansed according to the purification of the sanctuary."

So "the Lord hearkened to Hezekiah and healed the people." "And Hezekiah spoke comfortably unto all the Levites that taught the good knowledge of the Lord," assuring them of God's pardon upon their "making confession to the Lord God" for the people, so that "the whole assembly took counsel and kept other seven days with gladness." "So there was great joy in Jerusalem, for since Solomon's time there was not the like ... and the priests blessed the people ... and their prayer came up to the Lord's holy place, even unto heaven." Next, all Israel present went out to break the images, cut down the groves, and throw down the high places and altars out of all Judah and Benjamin, in Ephraim also and Manasseh, until they had utterly destroyed them all. (See ASHTORETH; Asheerah.) "Hezekiah also broke in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses made," for previously "Israel did burn intense to it, and he called it Nehushtan" (piece of brass, nothing better: 2 Kings 18:4); a practical condemnation of "relics" when superstitiously venerated.

Yet in spite of the warning the brazen serpent was reverenced by professing Christians in the church of Ambrose at Milan! (Prideaux, Connex., 1:19). The Passover must have been five or six years later than the purification of the temple, which was in Hezekiah's first year; for it was not until the sixth year of Hezekiah that the king of Assyria took Samaria (ver. 9-10); its fall prepared many in Israel to accept humbly Hezekiah's invitation (2 Chronicles 30:6; 2 Chronicles 30:9). Hezekiah also provided for the maintenance of the priests and Levites by commanding the payment of tithes; he ordered also their courses of service, and "in every work that he began in the service of the house of God, and in the law, and in the commandments, to seek his God, he did it with all his heart and prospered": a good motto for Christians (Colossians 3:23).

Isaiah the prophet was the great supporter of Hezekiah in his pious efforts; but not without opposition from drunken scoffers, who asked "whom shall he (Isaiah) teach knowledge? them that are weaned from the milk?" i.e., does he take us for babes just weaned, that he presumes to teach us? (Isaiah 28:9) "for precept upon precept, line upon line, here a little and there a little," i.e., for he is constantly repeating the same thing as if to little children, and as one teaching young beginners how to make the strokes of a letter and join line to line; the scorners imitated Isaiah's stammering like repetitions, in Hebrew tsaw latsar, qaw laqaw. The simplicity of divine teaching offends proud scorners (2 Kings 5:11-12; 1 Corinthians 1:23); but children in knowledge needed to be spoken to in children's language (Matthew 13:13). Isaiah replies, You will have a sterner teacher with stammering and foreign speech to convict you of unbelief (Isaiah 28).

Ahaz the former king's counselors recommended worldly alliances and compromises of principle for political expediency, instead of Isaiah's counsel to rest on Jehovah alone. Shebna was one of these half hearted, self indulgent, and ostentatious officers at court. His father's name is not given, though his office is," the scribe" (2 Kings 18:18; 2 Kings 19:2); whereas the fathers of Eliakim and Joah, with Shebna, are named. The reason appears quite incidentally in Isaiah 22:15, "Say unto Shebna ... this treasurer over the house (prefect of the palace), What hast thou here? and whom hast thou here, that thou hast hewed thee out a sepulchre here?" i.e. as being a foreigner (his name is un-Hebrew like, he was probably a Syrian brought from abroad to Ahaz' court) thou hast no paternal burying place or kindred here.

He was degraded; but (probably upon his repentance) the lower yet honourable office of "scribe" or secretary of state was given him, and in that office he is mentioned as if faithful (Isaiah 37:2, etc.), so that the sentence of exile and humiliation, "tossed like a ball into a large country, and there the chariots of his glory becoming the shame of his lord's house," was apparently reversed, though Jewish tradition says he was tied to the horses' tails by the enemy to whom he designed to betray Jerusalem, but who thought he mocked them. (See ELIAKIM.) It is possible that, unwarned by the past, he relapsed into treachery, and then were fulfilled Isaiah's prophetic threats, which but for his relapse would have been averted, and which were temporarily suspended.

Hezekiah recovered from the Philistines all the cities which his father Ahaz had lost, namely, of "the low country and the S. of Judah, Bethshemesh, Ajalon, Gederoth, Shocho, Timnah, Gimzo" with their dependent villages, "the Lord having brought Judah low because Ahaz had made Judah naked, and transgressed sore against the Lord" (2 Chronicles 28:18-19). "Hezekiah smote them even unto Gaza (Gaza and Gath alone remained to them: Josephus, Ant. 9:13, section 3), from the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city" (2 Kings 18:8). This was foretold by Isaiah (Isaiah 14:29-30): "Rejoice not thou, whole Palestina, because the God of him that smote thee (Uzziah, 2 Chronicles 26:6) is broken (namely, under Ahaz), for out of the serpent's (as Uzziah was regarded by the Philistines) root shall come forth a cockatrice," an adder, to the Philistines, Hezekiah; "and the firstborn of the poor (the poorest) shall feed" in safety, instead of constant alarms of Philistine invasions.

Hezekiah bore for a time the yoke of tribute imposed by the Assyrian Tiglath Pileser on Ahaz (2 Kings 16:7); but having spent much on the Philistine war, trusting in the aid of Egypt, be now ventured to withhold payment from Assyria. Shalmaneser had begun, and Sargon had just terminated, the siege of Samaria (Isaiah 20:1; Isaiah 20:4; Isaiah 20:6; 2 Kings 17:6; 2 Kings 17:24; 2 Kings 18:7; 2 Kings 18:7; 2 Kings 18:9-10 "THEY took it," 11). Sargon moreover removed some of the Israelites to "the cities of the Medes"; the Scripture herein being confirmed by Assyrian monuments which mention his seizing and annexing several Median cities, to which Assyrian policy would of course transplant distant colonists. Light years subsequent to Samaria's fall, in Hezekiah's fourteenth year, Sennacherib, in the third year of his reign according to Assyrian records, undertook his first expedition against Judah. In the interval between Samaria's fall and this invasion Tyre's gallant resistance under their king Elulaeus had forced the Assyrians to retire after a five years' siege.

Hezekiah had used this interval to "stop the waters of the fountains without the city, stopping the upper watercourse (rather 'spring head') of Gihon (i.e. the spring source of the Kedron stream, Nachal being the valley E. of the city, Ge the valley W. and S. of the city), and bringing it straight down to the W. side of the city of David" (i.e into the valley separating mount Moriah and Zion from the upper city (2 Chronicles 32:3-4; 2 Chronicles 32:13; 2 Chronicles 32:30): Zion must therefore have lain on the N. not on the S.W. of the city, so that the water brought to the W. of it should be inside not outside the city); also building up the broken wall (using the materials of the houses which they broke down for the purpose), and raising it up to the towers, and another wall without, and repairing Millo in the city of David, and making darts and shields in abundance. Hezekiah also "gathered together the waters of the lower pool," i.e. brought into the city by subterranean passages in Zion rock the waters from the fountain which supplied the lower pool (Isaiah 22:9-11; Isaiah 7:3; 2 Kings 20:20).

"He also made a ditch between the two walls for the water of the old pool," i.e. the lower pool's water he diverted to a new tank in the city between the two walls. His words too cheered the hearts of his captains and people, being the language of faith: "there be more with us than with him; with him is an arm of flesh, but with us is the Lord our God to fight our battles." So "the people rested themselves upon his words." (See JERUSALEM.) Sennacherib undertook two expeditions against Judah. In the first he took all Judah's fenced cities, and Hezekiah sent saying, "I have offended; return from me, that which thou puttest upon me I will bear"; and "the king of Assyria appointed 300 talents of silver, and 30 talents of gold."

The monuments confirm this Scripture statement: "because Hezekiah king of Judah would not submit, I took 46 of his strong fenced cities ... and from these, as spoil, 200,150 people, with horses, asses, camels, oxen, and sheep; and Hezekiah himself I shut up in Jerusalem, like a bird in a cage, building towers round the city to hem him in, and raising banks of earth against the gates .... Then Hezekiah sent out to me the chiefs with 30 talents of gold and 800 talents of silver ... by way of tribute." The patriotism of the Hebrew historian (2 Kings 18) suppresses the ravages, advance on the capital, and the siege; but Isaiah (2 Kings 10:28-32; 2 Kings 22:1-14; 2 Kings 22:2 Kings 24; 2 Kings 29) more vividly than even Sennacherib's annalist, notices all. In the main facts there is a singular agreement between the sacred and the secular records, the variation in the number of talents of silver being probably due to the Hebrew recording the number appointed as permanent tribute, the Assyrian the whole that was actually carried off. The inscriptions record that Ekron had submitted to Hezekiah and delivered their king Padi up to him because of his adherence to Assyria.

Sennacherib recovered Padi from Jerusalem and seated him again on the throne. Hezekiah's sickness must have occurred just before Sennacherib's expedition, for God assures him (Isaiah 38:6), "I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city," in the 14th year of Hezekiah's reign. Moreover, 15 years was the addition promised by God to his life, which added to the 14 years would give 29 years, the actual number of years in all that he reigned. His sickness was owing to an inflammatory carbuncle and abscess. Having then no heir, he shrank from death with a fear scarcely worthy of a believer. God granted his earnest prayer; "afore Isaiah had gone out into the middle court the word of the Lord came to him," i.e. when he had just left Hezekiah and Hezekiah was in the act of praying, after having heard God's message, "thou shalt die."

God hears while His children are yet speaking (Isaiah 65:24; Psalms 32:5; Daniel 9:21). Our wishes, when gratified, often prove curses. Three years afterward Hezekiah had a son, Manasseh, the chief cause of God's wrath against Judah and of the overthrow of the kingdom (2 Kings 23:26-27). God gave Hezekiah as a sign of recovery the recession of the shadow ten degrees on Ahaz's (See DIAL, an obelisk in the midst of the court, the shadow of which could be seen by Hezekiah from his sick chamber, falling on the successive steps ascending to his palace. Hezekiah composed a thanksgiving hymn for his, recovery, based on the psalms of David, which he had restored to liturgical use in the temple. The beginning rests on Psalms 102:2, the first half of verse 11 on Psalms 27:13 (chedel ), "the world" or age soon ceasing, is from chaadal "to cease"; usually written cheled , this transitory world, Psalms 49:1); verse 18 on Psalms 6:5; Psalms 30:9; the beginning of verse 20 on Psalms 70:1. (See HEPHZIBAH.)

Hezekiah did not disbelieve in a future state, but regarded the disembodied state as one wherein men cannot declare the praises of God before men, it is as to this world an unseen land of stillness, the living alone can praise God on earth. That the true view was at the time held of the blessedness of the sleeping saints Isaiah 57:1-2 proves. A cake of figs was the instrument used for the cure; God can make effectual the simplest means. Sennacherib's object in his second expedition was Egypt, Hezekiah's ally. Hence with the great body of his army he advanced toward Egypt by S.W. Palestine, and did not himself approach Jerusalem; this was two years after the former invasion. The Assyrian annals are silent as to Sennacherib's second expedition in the fifth year of his reign, which began by his "treacherously" (Isaiah 33:1) attacking Lachish, and which ended in the destruction recorded in 2 Kings 19:35; for, unlike the faithful Jewish historians, they never record any of their monarch's disasters. (See LACHISH.)

But the disaster is tacitly deducible in the Assyrian records from the discontinuance subsequently of expeditions by Sennacherib westward further than Cilicia. The Assyrians did not resume aggression upon southern Syria and Egypt until the close of Esarhaddon's reign. Moreover the Egyptian priests told Herodotus, from their records, that, a century and a half before Cambyses, Sennacherib led a host of Assyrians and Arabs to the Egyptian border where king Sethos met them near Pelusium on the E. of the Nile; and that swarms of field mice ate the Assyrians' quivers, bowstrings, and shield thongs in the night, so in the morning, they fled, and multitudes fell, having no arms to defend themselves. Sethos erected a monument, a man in stone with a mouse in his hand, and the inscription, "Look on me and learn to reverence the gods." The mouse symbolized ruin (1 Samuel 6:4-5); the story arose out of this symbolical statue, not the statue out of the literal story.

Sennacherib, according to Assyrian inscriptions, which mention the 22nd year of his reign, lived about 17 years after the invasion and was slain by his two sons. Isaiah, while disapproving of trust in Egypt, regarded the voluntarily offered aid of the tall and warlike Ethiopians as providential (Isaiah 18:1-2; Isaiah 18:7). "Ho (not Woe!) to the land of the winged bark," or else "to the land of the clanging sound of wings" (i.e. armies). To Ethiopia Isaiah announces the overthrow of Sennacherib the common foe, and desires the Ethiopian ambassadors, then at Jerusalem, to carry the tidings to their people. See TIRHAKAH'S coming forth to encounter Sennacherib created a diversion in favor of Judaea. In the former invasion Sennacherib in his first, expedition inflicted a decisive blow on the united forces of Egypt and Ethiopia at Altagu (possibly the Eltekon of Joshua 15:59); but now he was forced to raise the siege of Pelusium by Tirhakah, and send an imperious letter to Hezekiah by Rabshakeh, whose sneers at his religious reforms in removing the high places (2 Kings 18:22-32) and flattering promises in fluent Hebrew to the people favor the idea that he was a renegade Jew.

Hezekiah's simple childlike faith appears in his spreading the foe's insolent, letter before the Lord. His faith received an immediate answer of peace; 185,000 were slain by the angel of the Lord in the "night," perhaps by "the plague that, walketh in darkness" (2 Kings 19:35, with which Isaiah 37:36 undesignedly accords, "when they arose early in the morning".) In this second expedition, according to Jehovah's word, Sennacherib did not "come before the city with shields, nor cast a bank against it" (Isaiah 37:33); whereas in the first he shut Hezekiah up as a "bird in a cage" also "raising banks of earth against the gates." It is possible Rabshakeh took the army with him from Jerusalem to Libnah on the borders of Egypt (ver. 8), and that the destruction occurred there, which accords with the Egyptian story to Herodotus above; the Lord's words "he shall not shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shields" seem corrupted into the Egyptian legend of the mice gnawing the bowstrings and shield straps.

In Sennacherib's account of his wars with Hezekiah, inscribed with cuneiform characters in the hall of the palace of Koyunjik built by him (140 ft. long by 120 ft. wide), wherein the Jewish physiognomy of the captives is discernible, after mentioning the capture of the 200,150 Jews he adds, "then I prayed unto God," the only instance of God's name in an inscription without a pagan adjunct. On returning to Nineveh Sennacherib, according to Tobit 1:18, revenged himself on the Jews then in his power; but that apocryphal book makes him die 55 days afterward, whereas 17 years elapsed: see above. In Isaiah 39, an embassy from Merodach Baladan to Hezekiah is recorded. He congratulated Hezekiah on his recovery, and sent also a present. About this time precisely it was that Babylon had revolted from Assyria, and set up an independent kingdom. Scripture calls him "king of Babylon," though both before and after him Babylon was subject to Assyria.

This is an undesigned coincidence of Scripture with secular history, confirming the truth of the former. The Assyrian inscriptions say he reigned twice, and that Sennacherib in his first year expelled him and set up Belib in his stead. Probably he recovered the Babylonian kingdom when Sennacherib was weakened by his disaster in Judea, and sent the embassy not merely to congratulate Hezekiah on his recovery but mainly to court Hezekiah's alliance, as having like himself cast off the Assyrian yoke. Hence arose Hezekiah's excessive attention to his ambassadors. But how had Hezekiah such a store of precious things? Either the transaction was before Hezekiah's straits when he had to cut off the gold from the doors and pillars of the temple, to give to the Assyrian king. (Then Merodach Baladan's embassy would be during his earlier reign at Babylon, in Sargon's time, 713 B.C.; whereas his second reign fell in 703 B.C., five or six years before the date of Hezekiah's death (these dates are deduced from the Assyrian records, if they be trustworthy).

The chronology favors the view that Hezekiah's sickness and Merodach Baindan's embassy were some years before Sennacherib, in the first reign of Merodach Baladan). Or the more probable (though the dates cause difficulty) explanation is in 2 Chronicles 32:22-23; "thus the Lord saved Hezekiah from Sennacherib .... And many brought gifts unto the Lord (doubtless impressed with His great majesty and power in the miraculous destruction of the Assyrians) to Jerusalem, and presents to Hezekiah king of Judah; so that he was magnified in the sight of all nations from thenceforth." The spoils of the Assyrian army left in panic, as on a different occasion (2 Kings 7:15), would add to Hezekiah's wealth.

The sending of the embassy so long after his recovery is accounted for by Babylon being then regarded in respect to Judah as "a far country" (Isaiah 39:3), also by the impossibility of sending sooner during Sennacherib's invasion; moreover another object of the princes of Babylon, which was famed for astronomy, was "to enquire of the wonder that was done in the land" (2 Chronicles 32:25-26; 2 Chronicles 32:31), i.e. the recession of the shadow on Ahaz's dial. Hezekiah was "glad"; it was not the act but the ostentatious spirit, and the unbelief tempting him to rest on Babylon, proud of its alliance, instead of on Jehovah, which called forth God's retributive threat that Babylon, the instrument of his and Judah's sin, should be the instrument of their punishment (Isaiah 39:5-7); fulfilled 120 years afterward. Ingratitude to God, and pride, were his fault in this affair; "Hezekiah rendered not again according to the benefit done unto him, for his heart was lifted up," "God leaving him to try him, that He might kow all that was in his heart" (Deuteronomy 8:2).

But when the believer's foot slides, it slides the deeper into humility. First, Hezekiah frankly confessed "all"; unlike Saul and Asa, submitting to God's servant though his subject (Isaiah 39:4; 2 Chronicles 16:7-10; 1 Samuel 15:20-21), and "humbling himself for the pride of his heart," and "accepting the punishment of his iniquity" (Leviticus 26:41) meekly, and even finding cause for thanksgiving in the mitigating fact foretold by implication, "there shall be peace and truth in my days." Not the language of mere selfishness, but of one feeling that the national corruption must at last lead to the threatened judgment, and thanking God for the stroke being deferred yet for a time. The prophecy of the carrying away to Babylon, in the form of a rebuke, forms the connecting link between the former portion of Isaiah's prophecies (Isaiah 1-39), which relate to the deliverance from Assyria, and the latter (Isaiah 40-66) as to the deliverance from Babylon, more than a century and a half later. Psalm 46 and Psalm 76 commemorate Sennacherib's overthrow.

Two coincidences in Psalm 46 occur: "the city of God" (verse 4) is that wherein" God is in the midst," so that "she shall not be moved," just as history states that the mother city Jerusalem alone escaped, whereas "all the defensed cities of Judah" fell before Sennacherib (Isaiah 36:1); also in verse 10, "Be still and know that I am God, I will be exalted in the earth," is God's reply to Hezekiah's prayer, "O Lord our God save us, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that Thou art the Lord" (Isaiah 37:20). Also verse 5," God shall help her ... right early," Hebrew at the turning of the morning (Psalms 30:5 ff). On the previous night the cause of the city of God seemed desperate and the Assyrian triumphant, but "when they (the Jews) arose early in the morning, behold they (the Assyrians) were all dead corpses" (Isaiah 37:36). In Isaiah 37:8-10 Sennacherib's overthrow is made the earnest of the final cessation of wars throughout the earth under the Prince of Peace, after He shall have made "desolations" of the adversary.

Psalms 76:3, "there broke He the arrows of the bow ... shield ... sword ... battle," implies that by one stroke at Jerusalem (which opposes the view that Libnah was the scene of the Assyrian overthrow) God ended completely the war. Psalms 76:6; Psalms 76:8 imply that it was by Jehovah's direct interposition. The "death sleep" of the host at God's rebuke is described vividly (Psalms 76:5-6), the camp so recently full of life now lying still as death. "The stout hearted are spoiled, they have slept their sleep .... At Thy rebuke, O God of Jacob, both the chariot and horse are cast into a dead sleep." God's "cutting off the breath (spirit) of princes" (Psalms 76:12) implies probably that Rabshakeh and other leaders fell on the same night. "Let all that be round about Him bring presents unto Him that ought to be feared" (Psalms 76:11) accords with the fact recorded 2 Chronicles 32:22-23.

The assurance of God's help in Psalm 75 accords with Isaiah 37:21-35; also the omission of the N. among the quarters from from whence help is expected accords with the Assyrian attack being from the N. Hezekiah died in his 56th year after a 29 years' reign, 697 B.C. He was buried "in the chiefest (or highest) of the sepulchres of the sons of David, and all Judah and Jerusalem did him honour at his death" (Proverbs 10:7). His "acts and goodness were written in the vision of Isaiah ... and in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel" (2 Chronicles 32:32-33). A fitting accompaniment of the religious reformation he wrought was his setting" the men of Hezekiah" (Isaiah, Micah, Joah, etc.) to "copy out" some of the 3,000 proverbs which Solomon spoke 300 years before: thus he brought forth the word of God from its obscurity (1 Kings 4:32; Ecclesiastes 12:9; Proverbs 25:1).

2. Son of Neariah, of Judah (1 Chronicles 3:23; Zephaniah 1:1).

Bridgeway Bible Dictionary

At the time of Hezekiah’s accession to Judah’s throne, his country was in a sad condition. The policies of Ahaz had left Judah economically weak, politically dominated by Assyria, and religiously corrupted through false religions (see AHAZ).

Upon becoming king, Hezekiah set out on the bold task of strengthening the nation’s economy, overthrowing Assyrian domination, and reforming Judah’s religion. This latter achievement won him praise as being Judah’s greatest king to that time (2 Kings 18:1-8).

Religious reforms

The prophets of Hezekiah’s time (he reigned from 716 to 687 BC) were Hosea, Isaiah and Micah. Hosea was by this time very old (cf. Hosea 1:1), Isaiah was very influential around the palace (Isaiah 1:1; Isaiah 38:1) and Micah was preaching with such authority that the king was taking good notice of him (Micah 1:1; Jeremiah 26:17-19). Yet none of the prophets records Hezekiah’s reforms. Perhaps this was because the prophets were more concerned with the spiritual attitudes of people than with the revised procedures for temple worship.

Hezekiah began his reforms by assembling the priests and Levites and telling them plainly that neglect of the temple and its services was the reason for God’s anger with Judah (2 Chronicles 29:1-11). He then sent them to cleanse and rededicate the temple. The common people responded to his reforms with such enthusiasm that the temple officials were unable to cope with all the sacrifices (2 Chronicles 29:12-36).

After this, Hezekiah arranged a great Feast of Passover and Unleavened Bread (2 Chronicles 30:1-12). He insisted, however, that before joining in the festival, people ceremonially cleanse themselves and remove all traces of false religion from Jerusalem (2 Chronicles 30:13-22).

Having cleansed Jerusalem of false religion, Hezekiah then cleansed the country areas (2 Chronicles 31:1). His desire was that the nation as a whole follow the religious order laid down by Moses and developed by David. He therefore organized the priests and Levites according to David’s plan, and arranged for their proper financial support through the orderly payment and distribution of the people’s tithes and offerings (2 Chronicles 31:2-19). Some of Hezekiah’s leading officials made a collection of Solomon’s proverbs to instruct the people further (Proverbs 25:1).

Political achievements

Assyrian influence in Palestine was at its peak during the time of Hezekiah. In the early part of his reign Assyria conquered the northern kingdom Israel and carried the people into captivity (722 BC; 2 Kings 17:6; 2 Kings 18:9-12). Meanwhile in the south, Hezekiah was busy strengthening Judah’s independence. He improved its economy, increased its agricultural production, fortified its defences and improved Jerusalem’s water supply (2 Chronicles 32:27-30). He then revolted against Assyria by refusing to pay further tribute (2 Kings 18:7).

As expected, Assyria sent its army to attack Judah, but Hezekiah had prepared Judah well and had equipped Jerusalem to withstand the siege (2 Kings 18:13; 2 Chronicles 32:1-6). He had also made a defence agreement with Egypt that he hoped would guarantee success. Isaiah opposed this dependence on Egypt. Judah’s need was for quiet faith in God, not for military help from a foreign country (Isaiah 30:1-3; Isaiah 30:15; Isaiah 31:1; Isaiah 31:3; Isaiah 31:5; Isaiah 31:8).

The Assyrian attack was far more damaging to Jerusalem than Hezekiah had expected. Even when the Assyrians had forced Hezekiah to pay them large amounts of money, they did not retreat. They were preparing to crush Jerusalem completely (2 Kings 18:14-37). On two occasions Hezekiah went in great distress to the temple to ask God’s help, and on both occasions Isaiah brought God’s reassuring answer (2 Kings 19:1-7; 2 Kings 19:14-34). The outcome was that God intervened and dramatically overthrew the Assyrians (2 Kings 19:35-37).

Hezekiah had at one time become so sick that it appeared he would die. In answer to his prayers, God extended his life by fifteen years, enabling him to lead Judah through its period of conflict with Assyria (2 Kings 20:1-11). In gratitude to God, Hezekiah wrote a song of praise for his recovery (Isaiah 38:9-22).

Throughout this period Babylon was increasing in power and was looking for allies to help it conquer Assyria. An illness of Hezekiah gave the Babylonians the opportunity to visit him, in the hope of persuading him to join them against Assyria. Hezekiah was easily persuaded. He was very anti-Assyrian and very proud that his achievements for Judah had attracted Babylon’s admiration (2 Kings 20:1-13; 2 Chronicles 32:24-25; 2 Chronicles 32:31). Once again Isaiah condemned Hezekiah’s willingness to enter into foreign alliances, for it would result in conquest by the allied nation (2 Kings 20:14-19). Hezekiah repented of his wrongdoing and completed his reign with Judah’s independence still intact (2 Chronicles 32:26).

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

HEZEKIAH. 1 . One of the most prominent kings of Judah. He came to the throne after his father Ahaz, about b.c. 714. The assertions that Samaria was destroyed in his sixth year and that Sennacherib’s invasion came in his fourteenth year are inconsistent ( 2 Kings 18:10; 2 Kings 18:13 ). The latter has probability on its side, and as we know that Sennacherib invaded Palestine in 701 the calculation is easily made.

Politically Hezekiah had a difficult task. His father had submitted to Assyria, but the vassalage was felt to be severe. The petty kingdoms of Palestine were restive under the yoke, and they were encouraged by the Egyptians to make an effort for independence. There was always an Egyptian party at the court of Jerusalem, though at this time Egypt was suffering from internal dissensions. In the East the kingdom of Babylon under Merodach-baladan was also making trouble for the Assyrians. Hezekiah seems to have remained faithful to the suzerain for some years after his accession, but when, about the time of Sennacherib’s accession (705), a coalition was formed against the oppressor he joined it. We may venture to suppose that about this time he received the embassy from Merodach-baladan (2 Kings 20:12 ff., Isaiah 39:1 ff.), which was intended to secure the co-operation of the Western States with Babylon in the effort then being made. Isaiah, as we know from his own discourses, was opposed to the Egyptian alliance, and apparently to the whole movement. The Philistines were for revolt; only Padi, king of Ekron, held out for his master the king of Assyria. For this reason Hezekiah invaded his territory and took him prisoner. If, as the Biblical account seems to intimate ( 2 Kings 18:8 ), he incorporated the conquered land in his own kingdom, the gain was not for a long time. In 701 Sennacherib appeared on the scene, and there was no possibility of serious resistance. The inscriptions tell us that the invaders captured forty-six walled towns, and carried 200,000 Judahites into slavery. The Egyptian (some suppose it to be an Arabian) army made a show of coming to the help of its allies, but was met on the border and defeated. Hezekiah was compelled to release the captive Padi, who returned to his throne in triumph. Sennacherib was detained at Lachish by the stubborn resistance of that fortress, and could send only a detachment of his troops to Jerusalem. With it went an embassy, the account of which may be read in 2 Kings 18:1-37; 2 Kings 19:1-37 and Is 36, 37. The laconic sentence: ‘Hezekiah sent to the king of Assyria at Lachish, saying: I have offended; that which thou puttest on me will I bear’ ( 2 Kings 18:14 ) shows that abject submission was made. The price of peace was a heavy one three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold. To pay it, all the gold and silver that could be found was gathered together, even the Temple doors ( 2 Kings 18:16 ) being stripped of their precious metal.

In our accounts we read of a great destruction which came upon the Assyrian army (2 Kings 19:35 , Isaiah 37:36 ). Whether Sennacherib was not satisfied with the submission of Hezekiah, or whether a second campaign was made which the historian has confused with this one, is not yet certainly known. There was a second expedition of Sennacherib’s to the west some years later than the one we have been considering. At that time, it may be, the pestilence broke out and made the army too weak for further operations. It is clear that the people of Jerusalem felt that they had had a remarkable deliverance. Hezekiah’s sickness is dated by the Biblical writer in the time of this invasion, which can hardly be correct if the king lived fifteen years after that experience.

The account of Hezekiah’s religious reforms is more sweeping than seems probable for that date. There seems no reason to doubt, however, that he destroyed the brazen serpent, which had been an object of worship in the Temple (2 Kings 18:4 ). The cleansing of the country sanctuaries from idolatry, under the influence of Isaiah, may have been accomplished at the same time. The expansions of the Chronicler ( 2 Chronicles 29:1-36 ff.) must be received with reserve.

2. An ancestor of the prophet Zephaniah ( Zephaniah 1:1 ), possibly to be identified with the king of the same name. 3. Head of a family of exiles who returned, Ezra 2:16 = Nehemiah 7:21 (cf. Nehemiah 10:17 ).

H. P. Smith.

Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary

king of Judah, was the son of Ahaz, and born in the year of the world 3251. At the age of five-and-twenty he succeeded his father in the government of the kingdom of Judah, and reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem, namely, from the year of the world 3277 to 3306, 2 Kings 18:1-2; 2 Chronicles 29:1 . The reign of his father Ahaz had been most unpropitious for his subjects. A war had raged between the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, in which Pekah, king of Israel, overthrew the army of Ahaz, destroying a hundred and twenty thousand of his men; after which he carried away two hundred thousand women and children as captives into his own country; they were, however, released and sent home again, at the remonstrance of the Prophet Oded. As idolatry had been established in Jerusalem and throughout Judea, by the command of Ahaz, and the service of the temple either intermitted, or converted into an idolatrous worship, the first object of his son Hezekiah, on his accession to the throne, was to restore the regal worship of God, both in Jerusalem and throughout Judea. He cleansed and repaired the temple, and held a solemn passover. He improved the city, repaired the fortifications, erected magazines of all sorts, and built a new aqueduct. In the fourth year of his reign, Salmanezer, king of Assyria, invaded the kingdom of Israel, took Samaria, and carried away the ten tribes into captivity, replacing them by different people sent from his own country. But Hezekiah was not deterred by this alarming example from refusing to pay that tribute to the Assyrians which had been imposed on Ahaz: this brought on the invasion of Sennacherib, in the fourteenth year of the reign of Hezekiah, of which we have a very particular account in the writings of the Prophet Isaiah, who was then living, Isaiah 36.

Immediately after the termination of this war, Hezekiah "was sick unto death," owing, as the sacred historian strongly intimates, to his heart being improperly elevated on occasion of this miraculous deliverance, and not sufficiently acknowledging the hand of God in it. 2 Kings 20; Isaiah 38. Isaiah was sent to bid him set his house in order, for he should die and not live. Hezekiah had instant recourse to God by prayer and supplications for his recovery; and the prophet had scarcely proceeded out of the threshold, when the Lord commanded him to return to Hezekiah, and to say to him, "Thus saith the Lord, I have heard thy prayer, and I have seen thy tears; I will heal thee: on the third day thou shalt go up to the house of the Lord, and I will add unto thy days fifteen years." And to confirm to him the certainty of all these tokens of the divine regard, the shadow of the sun on the dial of Ahaz, at his request, went backward ten degrees. After his recovery, he composed an ode of thanksgiving to the God of all his mercies, which the Prophet Isaiah has recorded in his writings, Isaiah 38:10-11 . Yet, as an instance of human fickleness and frailty, we find Hezekiah, with all his excellencies, again forgetting himself, and incurring the divine displeasure. The king of Babylon having been informed of his sickness and recovery, sent ambassadors to congratulate him on his restoration: an honour with which the heart of Hezekiah was greatly elated; and, to testify his gratitude, he made a pompous display to them of all his treasures, his spices, and his rich vessels: and concealed from them nothing that was in his palace. In all this the pride of Hezekiah was gratified; and to humble him, Isaiah was sent to declare to him that his conduct was displeasing to God, and that a time should come when all the treasures of which he had made so vain a display should be removed to Babylon, and even his sons be made eunuchs to serve in the palace of the king of Babylon. Hezekiah bowed submissively to the will of God, and acknowledged the divine goodness toward him, in ordaining peace and truth to continue during the remainder of his reign. He accordingly passed the latter years of his life in tranquillity, and contributed greatly to the prosperity of his people and kingdom. He died in the year of the world 3306, leaving behind him a son, Manasseh, who succeeded him in the throne: a son every way unworthy of such a father.

Holman Bible Dictionary

2 Kings 16:7-20

Hezekiah began his reign by bringing religious reform to Judah. Hezekiah was not willing to court the favor of the Assyrian kings. The Temple in Jerusalem was reopened. The idols were removed from the Temple. Temple vessels that had been desecrated during Ahaz's reign were sanctified for use in the Temple. The sacrifices were initiated with singing and the sounds of musical instruments. The tribes in the Northern Kingdom (Israel) had been subjected to Assyrian dominance. Hezekiah invited the Israelites to join in the celebration of the Passover in Jerusalem. Places of idol worship were destroyed. Hezekiah even destroyed the bronze serpent Moses had erected in the wilderness (Numbers 21:4-9 ) so the people would not view the bronze serpent as an object of worship. Hezekiah organized the priests and Levites for the conducting of religious services. The tithe was reinstituted. Plans were made to observe the religious feasts called for in the Law.

In 711 B.C., just a few years after Hezekiah had become king, Sargon II of Assyria captured Ashdod. Hezekiah anticipated the time when he would have to confront Assyrian armies. Hezekiah fortified the city of Jerusalem and organized an army. Knowing that a source of water was crucial, Hezekiah constructed a tunnel through solid rock from the spring of Gihon to the Siloam pool. The city wall was extended to enclose this important source of water.

Isaiah warned Hezekiah not to become involved with Assyria (Isaiah 20:1-6 ). The critical time for Hezekiah came in 705 B.C. when Sennacherib became king of Assyria. From Hezekiah, Sennacherib obtained a heavy tribute of silver and gold.

In 701 B.C., Hezekiah became seriously ill (Isaiah 38:1-21 ). Isaiah warned the king to prepare for his approaching death, but Hezekiah prayed that God would intervene. God answered by promising Hezekiah fifteen more years of life and deliverance of Jerusalem from Assyria (Isaiah 38:4-6 ).

In the meantime, Sennacherib had besieged Lachish. Aware that Hezekiah had trusted God for deliverance, Sennacherib sent messengers to the Jerusalem wall to urge the people to surrender. Sennacherib boasted of having conquered 46 walled cities and having taken 200,000 captives. Sennacherib's messengers taunted that God would not come to Judah's defense. Hezekiah, dressed in sackcloth and ashes, went to the Temple to pray. He also called for Isaiah, the prophet. Isaiah announced that Sennacherib would “hear a rumour” and return to his own land where he would die by the sword (2 Kings 19:7 ).

Hezekiah's faith and physical recovery brought him recognition from the surrounding nations (2 Chronicles 32:33 ). The Babylonian leader, Merodachbaladan, even congratulated Hezekiah on his recovery. Hezekiah hosted this Babylonian leader at a reception, but Isaiah met this event with a warning that succeeding generations would be subjected to Babylonian captivity (Isaiah 39:1-8 ).

Sennacherib destroyed the city of Babylon in 689 B.C. He then marched toward Egypt. Hoping to ward off any interference from Judah, Sennacherib sent letters to Hezekiah ordering him to surrender (Isaiah 37:9-38 ). Hezekiah took the letters to the Temple and prayed for God's help. From Isaiah came the message that Sennacherib would not prevail. In fact, Sennacherib's army was destroyed in a miraculous way (2 Kings 19:35-37 ). In 681 B.C., Sennacherib was killed by two of his sons as had been predicted by Isaiah in 701 B.C. Hezekiah died in 687/86 B.C. Manasseh, his son, succeeded him, although Manasseh had become co-regent with Hezekiah about 696 B.C.

The Gospel of Matthew lists Hezekiah in the genealogy of Jesus (Matthew 1:9-10 ).

Gary Hardin

Smith's Bible Dictionary

Hezeki'ah. (the might of Jehovah).

1. Twelfth king of Judah, son of the apostate, Ahaz and Abi or Abijah, ascended the throne at the age of 25, B.C. 726. Hezekiah was one of the three most perfect kings of Judah. 2 Kings 18:5. Sirach 49:4. His first act was to purge, repair and reopen, with splendid sacrifices and perfect ceremonial, the Temple. He also destroyed a brazen serpent, said to have been the one used by Moses, in the miraculous healing of the Israelites, Numbers 21:9, which had become an object of adoration.

When the kingdom of Israel had fallen, Hezekiah invited the scattered inhabitants to a peculiar Passover, which was continued for the unprecedented period of fourteen days. 2 Chronicles 29:30-31. At the head of a repentant and united people, Hezekiah ventured to assume the aggressive camp[aign against the Philistines, and in a series of victories, not only rewon the cities which his father had lost, 2 Chronicles 28:18, but even dispossessed them of their own cities, except Gaza, 2 Kings 18:8, and Gath. He refused to acknowledge the supremacy of Assyria. 2 Kings 18:7. Instant war was imminent and Hezekiah used every available means to strengthen himself. 2 Kings 20:20.

It was probably at this dangerous crisis in his kingdom, that we find him sick and sending for Isaiah, who prophesies death as the result. 2 Kings 20:1. Hezekiah's prayer for longer life is heard. The prophet had hardly left the palace when he was ordered to return and promise the king immediate recovery and fifteen years more of life. 2 Kings 20:4. An embassy coming from Babylon ostensibly to compliment Hezekiah on his convalescence, but really to form an alliance between the two powers, is favorably received by the king, who shows them the treasures which he had accumulated. For this, Isaiah foretells the punishment that shall befall his house. 2 Kings 20:17.

The two invasions of Sennacherib occupy the greater part of the scripture records concerning the reign of Hezekiah. The first of these took place in the third year of Sennacherib, B.C. 702, and occupies only three verses. 2 Kings 18:13-16. Respecting the commencement of the second invasion, we have full details in 2 Kings 18:17; seq.; 2 Chronicles 32:9; seq.; Isaiah 36:1. Sennacherib sent against Jerusalem, an army under two officers and his cupbearer, the orator Rabshakeh, with a blasphemous and insulting summons to surrender; but Isaiah assures the king he need not fear, promising to disperse the enemy. 2 Kings 19:6-7. Accordingly, that night "the angel of the Lord went out, and smote, in the camp of the Assyrians, a hundred fourscore and five thousand."

Hezekiah only lived to enjoy for about one year more, his well-earned peace and glory. He slept with his fathers, after a reign of twenty-nine years, in the 56th year of his age, B.C. 697.

2. Son of Neariah, one of the descendants of the royal family of Judah. 1 Chronicles 3:23.

3. The same name, though rendered in the Authorized Version Hizkiah, is found in Zephaniah 1:1.

4. Ater of Hezekiah. See Ater.

Easton's Bible Dictionary

Son of Ahaz (2 Kings 18:1; 2 Chronicles 29:1 ), whom he succeeded on the throne of the kingdom of Judah. He reigned twenty-nine years (B.C. 726-697). The history of this king is contained in 2 Kings 18:20 , Isaiah 3639-39 , and 2 Chronicles 2932-32 . He is spoken of as a great and good king. In public life he followed the example of his great-granfather Uzziah. He set himself to abolish idolatry from his kingdom, and among other things which he did for this end, he destroyed the "brazen serpent," which had been removed to Jerusalem, and had become an object of idolatrous worship (Numbers 21:9 ). A great reformation was wrought in the kingdom of Judah in his day (2 Kings 18:4; 2 Chronicles 29:3-36 ).

On the death of Sargon and the accession of his son Sennacherib to the throne of Assyria, Hezekiah refused to pay the tribute which his father had paid, and "rebelled against the king of Assyria, and served him not," but entered into a league with Egypt (Isaiah 30; 31; 36:6-9 ). This led to the invasion of Judah by Sennacherib (2 Kings 18:13-16 ), who took forty cities, and besieged Jerusalem with mounds. Hezekiah yielded to the demands of the Assyrian king, and agreed to pay him three hundred talents of silver and thirty of gold (18:14).

But Sennacherib dealt treacherously with Hezekiah (Isaiah 33:1 ), and a second time within two years invaded his kingdom (2 Kings 18:17; 2 Chronicles 32:9; Isaiah 36 ). This invasion issued in the destruction of Sennacherib's army. Hezekiah prayed to God, and "that night the angel of the Lord went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians 185,000 men." Sennacherib fled with the shattered remnant of his forces to Nineveh, where, seventeen years after, he was assassinated by his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer (2 Kings 19:37 ). (See Sennacherib .)

The narrative of Hezekiah's sickness and miraculous recovery is found in 2Kings 20:1, 2 Chronicles 32:24 , Isaiah 38:1 . Various ambassadors came to congratulate him on his recovery, and among them Merodach-baladan, the viceroy of Babylon (2 Chronicles 32:23; 2 Kings 20:12 ). He closed his days in peace and prosperity, and was succeeded by his son Manasseh. He was buried in the "chiefest of the sepulchres of the sons of David" (2 Chronicles 32:27-33 ). He had "after him none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor any that were before him" (2 Kings 18:5 ). (See Isaiah .)

Copyright StatementThese dictionary topics are from M.G. Easton M.A., D.D., Illustrated Bible Dictionary, Third Edition, published by Thomas Nelson, 1897. Public Domain.

Bibliography InformationEaston, Matthew George. Entry for 'Hezekiah'. Easton's Bible Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/ebd/h/hezekiah.html. 1897.

People's Dictionary of the Bible

Hezekiah. (hĕz'e-kî'ah), whom God strengthens. A good king of Judah, who succeeded his Hither Ahaz about 726 b.c., and died about 698 b.c. For his history see 2 Kings 18:1-37; 2 Kings 19:1-37; 2 Kings 20:1-21; 2 Chronicles 29:1-36; 2 Chronicles 30:1-27; 2 Chronicles 31:1-21; 2 Chronicles 32:1-33. Compare Isaiah 36:1-22; Isaiah 37:1-38; Isaiah 38:1-22. He tried to restore the worship of Jehovah, removing "high places," and destroying the brazen serpent; consult 2 Chronicles 28:22-25; for the final deportation of the Ten Tribes see 2 Kings 17:1-41; 2 Kings 18:9-12; and for his revolt against the Assyrians compare 2 Kings 18:1-37; 2 Chronicles 32:1-33. Hezekiah's payment of tribute is noted in 2 Kings 18:13-16. Assyrian annals of Sennacherib discovered at Nineveh agree with this account. A second invasion seems to have followed when Sennacherib, Isaiah 30:1-7, returned, Isaiah 33:1. Then came Sennacherib's letters from Lachish and Libnah, the destruction of a great part of his army, and the retreat of the rest to Assyria, in answer to Hezekiah's prayer. Compare Isaiah 31:8-9; Isaiah 37:33-37. Hezekiah's sickness, humiliation, and prolongation of life 15 years in peace, and the prediction that Babylon, then feeble and friendly, would one day carry his descendants into captivity are noticed in Old Testament history, Isaiah 39:1-8; Micah 4:10. Hezekiah collated the Proverbs of Solomon. Proverbs 25:1. The prophecies of Hosea and Micah were delivered partly in his reign; compare Jeremiah 26:17-19; and Nahum was perhaps his contemporary.

Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary

King of Judah, the son of Ahaz and Abi. His name is striking, Hezek and Jah, signifying the strength of the Lord. We have his history 2 Kings 18:1-37; 2 Kings 19:1-37; 2 Kings 20:1-21. And so very important was the life of this prince considered, to form a part in the records of the church, that the Holy Ghost directed the prophet Isaiah to give it again in his prophetical writings. (See Isaiah 36:1-22; Isaiah 37:1-38; Isaiah 38:1-22; Isaiah 39:1-8) The miraculous effect wrought on the sun-dial, in confirmation of the Lord's promise to Hezekiah, is an evident testimony of the Lord's favour to this prince. Hezekiah's hymn is beautiful, Isaiah 38:10-20.

American Tract Society Bible Dictionary

A pious king of Judah, succeeded his father Ahaz about 726 B. C., and died about 698 B. C. His history is contained in 2 Kings 18:12-21 2 Chronicles 29:1-32:33 . Compare Isaiah 36:1-38:22 . His reign is memorable for his faithful efforts to restore the worship of Jehovah; for his pride and presumption towards the Assyrians; for the distractions of their invading host in answer to his prayer; for his sickness and humiliation, and the prolonging of his life fifteen years of peace. He was succeeded by the unworthy Manasseh.

Morrish Bible Dictionary

1. Son of Neariah, of the royal house of Judah. 1 Chronicles 3:23 .

2. Ancestor of Ater whose descendants returned from exile. Ezra 2:16; Nehemiah 7:21 .

Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament

HEZEKIAH. —One of the kings of Judah, mentioned in Mt.’s (Matthew 1:9 f.) genealogy of our Lord.

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

(Heb. Chizkiyah', חַזְקַיָּה ), whom Jehovah has strengthened, 2 Kings 18:1; 2 Kings 18:10; 2 Kings 18:14-16; 1 Chronicles 3:23; Nehemiah 7:21; Proverbs 25:1; "Hizkiah," Nehemiah 10:17; Zephaniah 1:1; also in the prosthetic form Yechiskiyah', יְחַזְקַיָּה, Ezra 2:16; Hosea 1:1; Micah 1:1; elsewhere in the prolonged form Chizkiya'hu, חַזְקַיָּהו ּ [in 2 Kings 20:10; 1 Chronicles 4:41; 2 Chronicles 28:27; 2 Chronicles 29:1; 2 Chronicles 29:20; 2 Chronicles 29:30-31; 2 Chronicles 29:36; 2 Chronicles 30:1; 2 Chronicles 30:18; 2 Chronicles 30:20; 2 Chronicles 30:22; 2 Chronicles 31:2; 2 Chronicles 31:8-9; 2 Chronicles 11:13; 2 Chronicles 11:20; 2 Chronicles 32:2; 2 Chronicles 32:8-9; 2 Chronicles 32:11-12; 2 Chronicles 32:16-17; 2 Chronicles 32:20; 2 Chronicles 32:22-27; 2 Chronicles 32:30; 2 Chronicles 32:32-33; 2 Chronicles 33:3; Isaiah 1:1; Jeremiah 15:4, it is both prosthetic and prolonged, YechizlLiya'hu, יְחַזְקַיָּהוּ ]; Sept., Josephus, and N. Test. Ε᾿ζεκίας ), the name of four men. SEE JEHIZKIAH.

1. The thirteenth king (reckoning Athaliah) of the separate kingdom of Judah, son of Ahaz and Abi or Abijah (2 Kings 18:2; 2 Chronicles 29:1), born B.C. 751750 (2 Kings 18:2), and his father's successor on. the throne for twenty-nine years, B.C. 726-697. In both the above texts he is stated to have been twenty-five years old at his accession; but some, computing (from a comparison with 2 Chronicles 28:1) that Ahaz died at the age of thirty-six, make Hezekiah only twenty years old at his accession (reading כ for כה ), as otherwise he would have been born when Ahaz was a boy eleven years old. This, indeed, is not impossible (Hieron. Ep. cad Vitalern, 132, quoted by Bochart, Geogr. Sacr. p. 920; see Keil on 2 Kings 18:1; Knobel, Jes. p. 22, etc.); but others suppose that Ahaz was twenty-five and not twenty years old at his accession (Sept., Syr., Arab., 2 Chronicles 28:1), reading כה for כ in 2 Kings 16:2. Neither of these suppositions, however, is necessary, for Ahaz was fifty years old at his death, and the date there given of the accession of Ahaz is simply that of his viceroyship or association with his father. (See Ahaz).

The history of Hezekiah's reign is contained in 2 Kings 18:20; Isaiah 36-39, and 2 Chronicles 29-32, illustrated by contemporary prophecies of Isaiah and Micah. He is represented as a great and good king (2 Kings 18:5-6), who set himself, immediately on his accession, to abolish idolatry, and restore the worship of Jehovah, which had been neglected during the careless and idolatrous reign of his father. This consecration was accompanied by a revival of the theocratic spirit, so strict as not even to spare "the high places," which, though tolerated by many well-intentioned kings, had naturally been profaned by the worship of images and Asherahs (2 Kings 18:4). On the extreme importance and probable consequences of this measure, (See High Place).

A still more decisive act was the destruction of a brazen serpent, said to have been the one used by Moses in the miraculous healing of the Israelites (Numbers 21:9), which had been removed to Jerusalem, and had become, "down to those days," an object of adoration, partly in consequence of its venerable character as a relic, and partly, perhaps, from some dim tendencies to the ophiolatry common in ancient times (Ewald, Gesch. 3, 622). To break up a figure so curious and so highly honored showed a strong mind as well as a clear-sighted zeal, and Hezekiah briefly justified his procedure by calling the image נֶחֻשְׁתָּן," a brazen thing," possibly with a contemptuous play on the word נָחָשׁ, "a serpent." How necessary this was in such times may be inferred from the fact that "the brazen serpent" is, or was, reverenced in the Church of St. Ambrose at Milan (Prideaux, Connect. 1, 19, Oxf. ed.). The history of this Reformation, of which 2 Kings 18:4 sq. gives only a concise summary, is copiously related, from the Levitical point of view, in 2 Chronicles 29 sq. It commenced with the cleansing of the Temple "in the first month" of Hezekiah's first year, i.e. in the month Nisan next after his accession, and was followed in the next month (because at the regular season neither Levites nor Temple were in a due state of preparation) by a great Passover, extended to fourteen days, to which not only all Judah was summoned, but also the "remnant" of the Ten Tribes, some of whom accepted the invitation. Some writers (as Jahn, Keil, and Caspari) contend that this passover must have been subsequent to the fall of Samaria, alleging that the mention of the "remnant" (2 Chronicles 30:6) is unsuitable to an earlier period, and that, while the kingdom of Samaria still subsisted, Hezekiah's messengers would not have been suffered to pass through the land, much less would the destruction of the high places in Ephraim and Manasseh have been permitted (2 Chronicles 31:1). But the intention of the chronicler at least is plain enough: the connection of 2 Chronicles 29:17 "the first month," with 2 Chronicles 30:2, "the second month," admits of but one construction that both are meant to belong to one and the same year, the first of the reign. Accordingly, Thenius, in the Kgf. exeg. Hdb. 2 Kings, p. 379, urges this as an argument against the historical character of the whole narrative of this passover, which, he thinks, "rendered antecedently improbable by the silence of the Book of Kings, is perhaps completely refuted by 2 Kings 23:22. The author of the story, wishing to place in the strongest light Hezekiah's zeal for religion, represents him, not Josiah, as the restorer of the Passover after long desuetude, and this in the very beginning of his reign, without, perhaps, caring to reflect that the final deportation of the Ten Tribes, implied in 2 Chronicles 30:6, had not then taken place." But 2 Kings 23:22, taken in connection, as it ought to be, with the preceding verse, is perfectly compatible with the account in the Chronicles. It says: "Surely such a Passover" — one kept in all respects "as it is written in the Book of the Covenant" "was not holden from the time of the Judges," etc. whereas Hezekiah's Passover, though kept with even greater joy and fervor than Josiah's, was held neither at the appointed season, nor in strict conformity with the law. Nor is it necessary to suppose that by "the remnant" the chronicler understood those who were left by Shalmaneser. Rather, his view is, that the people of the Ten Tribes, untaught by the judgments brought upon them by former reverses and partial deportations (under Tiglath-Pileser), with respect to which they might well be called a "remnant" (comp. the very similar terms in which even Judah is spoken of, 39:8,9), and scornfully rejecting the last call to repentance, brought upon themselves their final judgment and complete overthrow (Bertheau, Kgf. exeg. 11db. 2 Chronicles p. 395 sq.). Those, however, of the Ten Tribes who had taken part in the solemnity were thereby (such is evidently the chronicler's view of the matter, 31:1) inspired with a zeal for the true religion which enabled them, on their return home, in defiance of all opposition on the part of the scorners or of Hoshea, to effect a destruction of the high places and altars in Ephraim and Manasseh, as complete as was effected in Jerusalem before, and in Judah after the Passover.

That this prudent and pious king was not deficient in military qualities is shown by his successes against the Philistines, seemingly in the early part of his reign, before the overthrow of Sennacherib (2 Kings 18:8), and by the efficient measures taken by him for the defense of Jerusalem against the Assyrians. Hezekiah also assiduously cultivated the arts of peace, and by wise management of finance, and the attention which, after the example of David and Uzziah, he paid to agriculture and the increase of flocks and herds, he became possessed, even in troubled times, of an ample exchequer and treasures of wealth (2 Chronicles 32:27-29; 2 Kings 20:13; Isaiah 39:2). Himself a sacred poet, and probably the author of other psalms besides that in Isaiah 38; he seems to have collected the psalms of David and Asaph for the Temple worship, and certainly employed competent scribes to complete the collection of Solomon's Proverbs (Proverbs 25:1). He appears also to have taken order for the preservation of genealogical records (Browne, Review of Lepsius on Bible Chronology, in Arnold's Theological Critic, 1, 59 sq.).

By a rare and happy providence, this most pious of kings was confirmed in his faithfulness and seconded in his endeavors by the powerful assistance of the noblest and most eloquent of prophets. The influence of Isaiah was, however, not gained without a struggle with the "scornful" remnant of the former royal counselors (Isaiah 28:14), who in all probability recommended no the king such alliances and compromises as would be in unison rather with the dictates of political expediency than with that sole unhesitating trust in the arm of Jehovah which the prophets inculcated. The leading man of this cabinet was Shebna, who, from the omission of his father's name, and the expression in Isaiah 22:16 (see Blunt, Uindes. Coincidences), was probably a foreigner, perhaps a Syrian (Hitzig). At the instance of Isaiah, he seems to have been subsequently degraded from the high post of prefect of the palace (which office was given to Eliakim, Isaiah 22:21), to the inferior, though still honorable station of state secretary (סֹפֵר, 2 Kings 18:18); the further punishment of exile with which Isaiah had threatened him (2 Kings 22:18) being possibly forgiven on his amendment, of which we have some traces in Isaiah 37, sq. (Ewald, Gesch. 3:617).

At the head of a repentant and united people, Hezekiah ventured to assume the aggressive against the Philistines, ‘ and in a series of victories not only re-won the cities which his father had lost (2 Chronicles 28:18), but even dispossessed them of their own cities except Gaza (2 Kings 18:8) and Gath (Josephus, Ant. 9:13,3). It was perhaps to the purposes of this war that he applied the money which would' otherwise have been used to pay the tribute exacted by Shalmaneser, according to the agreement of Ahaz with his predecessor, Tiglath-Pileser. When the king of Assyria applied for this impost, Hezekiah refused it, and omitted to send even the usual presents (2 Kings 18:7), a line of conduct to which he does not appear to have been encouraged by any exhortations of his prophetic guide.

Instant war was averted by the heroic and long-continued resistance of the Tyrians under their king Eluloeus (Josephus, Ant. 9, 14), against a siege, which was abandoned only in the fifth year (Grote, Greece, 3, 359, 4th edit.), when it was found to be impracticable. This must have been a critical and intensely anxious period for Jerusalem, and Hezekiah used every available means to strengthen his position, and render his capital impregnable (2 Kings 20:20; 2 Chronicles 32:3-5; 2 Chronicles 32:30; Isaiah 22:8-11; Isaiah 33:18; and to these events Ewald also refers, Psalms 48:13). But while all Judaea trembled with anticipation of Assyrian invasion, and while Shebna and others were relying "in the shadow of Egypt," Isaiah's brave heart did not fail, and he even denounced the wrath of God against the proud and sinful merchant city (Isaiah 23), which now seemed to be the main bulwark of Judaea against immediate attack.

At what time it was that Hezekiah "rebelled against the king of Assyria, and served him not," we do not learn from the direct history: in the brief summary, 2 Kings 18:7-8 (for such it clearly is), of the successes with which the Lord prospered him, that particular statement only introduces what is more fully detailed in the sequel (2 Kings 18:13; 2 Kings 19:37). That it precedes the notice of the overthrow of Samaria (2 Kings 19:9 sq.), does not warrant the inference that the assertion of independence belongs to the earliest years of Hezekiah's reign (see Winer, Real Wö rterbuch 1, 497, n. 2). Ewald, however, thinks otherwise: in the absence of direct evidence, makings history, as his manner is, out of his own peremptory interpretation of certain passages of Isaiah (ch. 1 and Isaiah 22:1-14), he informs us that Hezekiah, holding his kingdom absolved by the death of Ahaz from the obligations contracted with Tiglath-Pileser, prepared himself from the first to resist the demands of Assyria, and put Jerusalem in a state of defense. (It matters not to Ewald that the measures noted in 2 Kings 20:20; 2 Chronicles 32:3-5; 2 Chronicles 32:30, are in the latter passage expressly assigned to the time of Sennacherib's advance upon Jerusalem.) "From Shalmaneser's hosts at that time stationed in Phoenicia and elsewhere in the neighborhood of Judah, forces were detached which laid waste the land in all directions: an army sent against them from Jerusalem, seized with panic at the sight of the unwonted enemy, took to flight, and, Jerusalem now lying helplessly exposed, a peace was concluded in all haste upon the stipulation of a yearly tribute, and the ignominious deliverance was celebrated with feastings in Jerusalem" (Gesch. des V. Israel, 2, 330 sq.): all of which rests upon the supposition that Ewald's interpretation of Isaiah 1:22 is the only possible one it cannot be said to be on record as history.

As gathered from the Scriptures only, the course of events appears to have been as follows: Ahaz had placed his kingdom as tributary under the protection of Tiglath-Pileser (2 Kings 16:7). It would seem from Isaiah 10:27; Isaiah 28:22, that in the time of Shalmaneser, to which the latter passage certainly, and the former probably, belongs, Judah was still under the yoke of this dependence. The fact that Sargon (whether or not the same with the Shalmaneser of the history), in his expedition against Egypt, left Judah untouched (Isaiah 20), implies that Judah had not yet asserted its independence. A powerful party, indeed, was scheming for revolt from Assyria and a league with Egypt; but there appears no reason to believe that Hezekiah all along favored a policy which Isaiah in the name of the Lord, to the last, strenuously condemned. It was not till after the accession of Sennacherib that Hezekiah refused the tribute, and at the instigation of his nobles made a league with Egypt by ambassadors sent to Zoan (Tanis) (Isaiah 30:31; compare Isaiah 36:6-9). (Some, indeed [as Ewald and Caspari], place Isaiah 29-32 before the fall of Samaria, to which time ch. 28 must unquestionably be assigned. Possibly ch. 29 may belong to the same time, and Isaiah 29:1 to Isaiah 32:15 may refer to plottings for a league with Egypt already carried on in secret. Knobel, Kyf: exeg. Hdb. p. 215, 223, decides too peremptorily that such must be the reference, and consequently that ch. 29 falls only a little earlier than the following chapters, where the league is openly denounced, viz. in the early part of the reign of Sennacherib.)

The subsequent history, as gathered from the Scriptures, compared with the notices on the ancient monuments, is thought to be as follows. Sargon was succeeded by his son Sennacherib, whose two invasions occupy the greater part of the Scripture records concerning the reign of Hezekiah. The first of these took place in the third year of Semnacherib, and occupies only three verses (2 Kings 18:13-16), though the route of' the advancing Assyrians maybe traced in Isaiah 10:5; Isaiah 11. The rumor of the invasion redoubled Hezekiah's exertions, and he prepared for a siege by providing offensive and defensive armor, stopping up the wells, and diverting the watercourses, conducting the water of Gihon into the city by a subterranean canal (Sirach 48:17). For a similar precaution taken by the Mohammedans, see Will. Tyr. 8:7, Keil). But the main hope of the political faction was the alliance with Egypt, and they seem to have sought it by presents and private entreaties (Isaiah 30:6), especially with a view to obtaining chariots and cavalry (Isaiah 32:1-3), which was the weakest arm of the Jewish service, as we see from the derision which it excited (2 Kings 18:23). Such overtures kindled Isaiah's indignation, and Shebna may have lost his high office for recommending them. The prophet clearly saw that Egypt was too weak and faithless to be serviceable, and the applications to Pharaoh (who is compared by Rabshakeh to one of the weak reeds of his own river) implied a want of trust in the help of God. But Isaiah did not disapprove of the spontaneously proffered assistance of the tall and warlike Ethiopians (Isaiah 18:2; Isaiah 18:7, ace. to Ewald's transl.), because he may have regarded it as a providential aid.

The account given of this first invasion in the cuneiform "Annals of Sennacherib" is that he attacked Hezekiah because the Ekronites had sent their king Padiya (or" Haddiya," ace. to Col. Rawlinson) as a prisoner to Jerusalem (comp. 2 Kings 18:8); that he took forty-six cities ("all the fenced cities" in 2 Kings 18:13 is apparently a general expression; compare 19:8) and 200,000 prisoners; that he besieged Jerusalem with mounds (comp. 2 Kings 19:32); and although Hezekiah promised to pay 800 talents of silver (of which perhaps only 300 were ever paid) and 30 of gold (2 Kings 18:14; but see Layard, Nin. and Bab. p. 148), yet, not content with this, he muleted him of a part of his dominions, and gave them to the kings of Ekron, Ashdod, and Gaza (Rawlinson, Herod. 1, 475 sq.). So important was this expedition that Demetrius, the Jewish historian, even attributes to Sennacherib the Great Captivity (Clem. Alexand. Stron. 1 p. 147, ed. Sylb.). In almost every particular this account agrees with the notice in Scripture, and we may see a reason for so great a sacrifice on the part of Hezekiah in the glimpse which Isaiah gives us of his capital city driven by desperation into licentious and impious mirth (Isaiah 22:12-14). This campaign must at least have had the one good result of proving the worthlessness of the Egyptian alliance; for at a place called Altagft (the Eltekon of Joshua 15:59?) Sennacherib inflicted an overwhelming defeat on the combined forces of Egypt and Ethiopia, which had come to the assistance of Ekron. But Isaiah regarded the purchased treaty as a cowardly defection, and the sight of his fellow-citizens gazing peacefully from the housetops on the bright array of the car-borne and quivered Assyrians filled him with indignation and despair (Isaiah 22:1-7, if the latest explanations of this chapter be correct).

Hezekiah's bribe (or fine) brought a temporary release, for the Assyrians marched into Egypt, where, if Herodotus (2, 141) and Josephus (Ant. 10, 1-3) are to be trusted, they advanced without resistance to Pelusium, owing to the hatred of the warrior-caste against Sethos, the king-priest of Pthah, who had, in his priestly predilections, interfered with their prerogatives. In spite of this advantage, Sennacherib was forced to raise the siege of Pelusium, by the advance of Tirhakah or Tarakos, the ally of Sethos and Hezekiah, who afterwards united the crowns of Egypt and Ethiopia. This magnificent Ethiopian hero, who had extended his conquests to the Pillars of Hercules (Strabo, 15, 472), was indeed a formidable antagonist. His deeds are recorded in a temple at Medinet-Abu, but the jealousy of the Memphites (Wilkinson, Anc. Egypt. 1, 141) concealed his assistance, and attributed the deliverance of Sethos to the ‘ miraculous interposition of an army of mice (Herod. 2, 141). This story may have had its source, however, not in jealousy, but in the use of a mouse as the emblem of destruction (Horapoll. Hierogl. 1, 50; Rawlinson, Herod. ad loc.), and of some sort of disease or plague (? 1 Samuel 6:18; Jahn, Archi. Bibl. § 185). The legend doubtless gained ground from the extraordinary circumstance which ruined the army of Sennacherib.

Returning from his futile expedition (ἄπρακτος ἀνεχώρησε , Josephus, Ant. 10, 1, 4), Sennacherib "dealt treacherously" with Hezekiah (Isaiah 33:1) by attacking the stronghold of Lachish. This was the commencement of that second invasion, respecting which we have such full details in 2 Kings 18:17 sq.; 2 Chronicles 32:9 sq.; Isaiah 36. That there were two invasions (contrary to the opinion of Layard, Bosanquet, Vance Smith, etc.) is clearly proved by the details of the first given in the Assyrian annals (see Rawlinson, Herod. 1, 477). Although the annals of Sennacherib on the great cylinder in the British Museum reach to the end of his eighth year, and this second invasion belongs to his fifth year, yet no allusion to it has been found. So shameful a disaster was naturally concealed by national vanity. From Lachish he sent against Jerusalem an army under two officers and his cup-bearer, the orator Rabshakeh, with a blasphemous and insulting summons to surrender, deriding Hezekiah's hopes of Egyptian succor, and apparently endeavoring to inspire the people with distrust of his religious innovations (2 Kings 18:22; 2 Kings 18:25; 2 Kings 18:30). The reiteration and peculiarity of the latter argument, together with Rabshakeh's fluent mastery of Hebrew (which he used to tempt the people from their allegiance by a glowing promise, 2 Kings 18:31-32), give countenance to the supposition that he was an apostate Jew. Hezekiah's ministers were thrown into anguish, and dismay; but the undaunted Isaiah hurled back threatening for threatening with unrivalled eloquence and force. He even prophesied that the fires of Tophet were already burning in expectancy of the Assyrian corpses which were destined to feed their flame. Meanwhile Sennacherib, having taken Lachish (an event possibly depicted on a series of slabs at Mosul, Layard, Nin. and Bab. p. 148-152), was besieging Libnah, when, alarmed by a "rumor" of Tirhakah's advance (to avenge the defeat at Altaglf?), he was forced to relinquish once more his immediate designs, and content himself with a defiant letter to Hezekiah. Whether on the occasion he encountered and defeated the Ethiopians (as Prideaux precariously infers from Isaiah 20, Connect. 1, 26), or not, we cannot tell. The next event of the campaign about which we are informed is that the Jewish king, with simple piety, prayed to God with Sennacherib's letter outspread before him (comp. 1 Maccabees 3:48), and received a promise of immediate deliverance. Accordingly "that night the angel of the Lord went out and smote in the camp of the Assyrians 185.000 men."

There is no doubt that some secondary cause was employed in the accomplishment of this event. We are certainly "not to suppose," as Dr. Johnson observed, "that the angel went about with a sword in his hand stabbing them one by one, but that some powerful natural agent was employed." The Babylonish Talmud and some of the Targums attribute it to storms of lightning (Vitringa, Vogel, etc.); Prideaux, Heine (De causa Strag. Assyr. Berl. 1761), Harmer, and Faber to the simoom; R. Jose (in Seder Olam Rabba), Marsham, Usher, Preiss (De causa clad. Assyr. Gö ttingen, 1776), to a nocturnal attack by Tirhakah; Paulus to a poisoning of the waters; and, finally, Josephus (Ant. 10, 1, 4 and 5), followed by an immense majority of ancient and modern commentators (including Michaelis, Ddderlein, Dathe, Heusler, Bauer, Ditmar, Gesenius, Maurer, Knobel, etc., and even Keil), to the pestilence (compare 2 Samuel 24:15-16). This would be a cause not only adequate (Justin, 19:11; Diodor. 19:434; see the other instances quoted by Rosenmü ller, Keil, Jahn, etc.), but most probable in itself, from the crowded and terrified state of the camp. There is, therefore, no necessity to adopt the ingenious conjectures by which Doderlein, Koppe, and Wessler endeavor to get rid of the large number 185,000. It is not said where the event occurred: the prophecies concerning it, Isaiah 10-37, seem to denote the neighborhood of Jerusalem, as would Psalms 76, if it was written at that time. On the other hand, the narrative would probably have been fuller had the overthrow, with its attendant-opportunities of beholding the bodies of their dreaded enemies and of gathering great spoil, befallen near Jerusalem, or even within the immediate limits of Judah. That version of the story which reached Herodotus (2, 140) — for few after Josephus will hold with Ewald (Gesch. 3:336) that the story is not substantially the same-indicates the frontier of Egypt, near Pelusium, as the scene of the disaster. The Assyrian army would probably break up from Libnah on the tidings of Tirhakah's approach, and advance to meet him. In ascribing it to a vast swarm of field- mice, which, devouring the quivers and bow-strings of the Egyptians, compelled them to flee in the morning, Herodotus may have misinterpreted the symbolical language of the Egyptians, in which the mouse denotes annihilation (ἀφανισμός, Horapoll. 1, 50): though, as Knobel (u. s. p. 280) has shown by apposite instance, an army of mice is capable of committing such ravages, and also of leaving pestilence behind it. That the destruction was effected in the course of one night is clearly expressed in 2 Kings 19:35, where "that night" is plainly that which followed after the delivery of Isaiah's prophecy, and is evidently implied alike in Isaiah 37:36 ("when men arose early in the morning"), and ice the story of Herodotus.

After this reverse Sennacherib fled precipitately to Nineveh, where he revenged himself on as many Jews as were in his power (Tobit 1:18), and, after many years (not fifty-five days, as Tobit says, 1:21), was murdered by two of his sons as he drank himself drunk in the house of Nisroch (Assarac?) his god. He certainly lived till B.C. 695, for his 22nd year is mentioned on a clay tablet (Rawlinson, 1. c.); he must therefore have survived Hezekiah by at least one year. It is probable that several of the Psalms (e.g. 46-48, 76) allude to his discomfiture.

"In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death." So begins, in all the accounts, and immediately after the discomfiture of Sennacherib, the narrative of Hezekiah's sickness and miraculous recovery (2 Kings 20:1; 2 Chronicles 32:24; Isaiah 38:1). The time is defined, by the promise of fifteen years to be added to the life of Hezekiah, to the fourteenth year complete, or fifteenth current, of his reign of twenty-nine years. But it is stated to have been in the fourteenth year of Hezekiah that Sennacherib took the fenced cities of Judah, and thereafter threatened Jerusalem and came to his overthrow. The two notes of time, the express and the implied, fully accord, and place beyond question, at least, the view of the writer or last redactor in 2 Kings 18, 19; Isaiah 36, 37, that the Assyrian invasion began before Hezekiah's illness, and lies in the middle of his reign. In the received chronology, as the first year of Hezekiah precedes the fourth of Jehoiakim=-first of Nebuchadnezzar (i.e. B.C. 604 in the Canon, B.C. 606 in the Hebrew reckoning) by 29, 55, 2, 31, 3-120 years, the epoch of the reign is B.C. 724 or 726, and its 14th year B.C. 711 or 713.

But it is contended that so early a year is irreconcilable with definite and unquestionable data of contemporary history, Egyptian, Assyrrian, and Babylonian. From these it has been inferred that during the siege of Samaria Shalmaneser died, and was succeeded by Sargon, who, jealous of Egyptian influence in Judaea, sent an army under a Tartan or general (Isaiah 20:1), which penetrated Egypt (Nahum 3:8-10) and destroyed No-Amon; although it is clear from Hezekiah's rebellion (2 Kings 18:7) that it can have produced but little permanent impression. Sargon, in the tenth year of his reign (which is regarded as parallel with the fourteenth year of the reign of Hezekiah), made an expedition to Palestine; but his annals make no mention of any conquests from Hezekiah on this occasion, and he seems to have occupied himself in the siege of Ashdod (Isaiah 20:1), and in the inspection of mines (Rosenmü ller, Bibl. Geogr. 9). This is therefore thought to be the expedition referred to in 2 Kings 18:13; Isaiah 36:1; an expedition which is merely alluded to, as it led to no result. But if the Scripture narrative is to be reconciled with the records of Assyrian history, it has been thought necessary to make a transposition in the text of Isaiah (and therefore of the book of Kings). That some such expedient must be resorted to, if the Assyrian history is trustworthy, is maintained by Dr. Hincks in a paper On the rectification of chronology, which the newly-discovered Apostles render necessary (in Jour. of Sac. Lit. Oct. 1858). "The text," he says, "as it originally stood, was probably to this effect (2 Kings 18:13): Now in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah the king of Assyria came up [alluding to the attack mentioned in Sargon's "Annals"], 20:1-19. In those days was king Hezekiah sick unto death, etc., 18:13. And Sennacherib, king of Assyria, came up against all the fenced cities of Judah, and took them, etc., 18:13; 19:37." It has been conjectured that some later transcriber, unaware of the earlier and unimportant invasion, confused the allusion to Sargon in 2 Kings 18:13 with the detailed story of Sennacherib's attack (2 Kings 18:14 to 2 Kings 19:37), and, considering that the account of Hezekiah's illness broke the continuity of the narrative, removed it to the end. According to this scheme, Hezekiah's dangerous illness (2 Kings 20; Isaiah 38; 2 Chronicles 32:24) nearly synchronized with Sargon's futile invasion, in the fourteenth year of Hezekiah's reign, eleven years before Sennacherib's invasion. That it must have preceded the attack of Sennacherib has also been inferred from the promise in 2 Kings 20:6, as well as from modern discoveries (Layard, Nin. and Bab. 1, 145); and such is the view adopted by the Rabbis (Seder Olam, cap. 23), Usher, and by most commentators, except Vitringa and Gesenius (Keil, ad loc.; Prideaux, 1, 22). It should be observed, however, that the difficulties experienced in reconciling the scriptural date with that of the Assyrian monuments rests on the synchronism of the fall of Samaria with the 1st or 2nd year of Sargon (q.v.). Col. Rawlinson has lately given reasons himself (Lond. Athenceum, No. 1869, Aug. 22, 1863, p. 246) for doubting this date; and it is probable that further researches and computations may fully vindicate the accuracy of the Biblical numbers.

Tirhakah is mentioned (2 Kings 19:9) as an opponent of Sennacherib shortly before the miraculous destruction of his army in the fourteenth year of Hezekiah, corresponding to B.C. 713. It has lately been proved from the Apis tablets that the first year of Tirhakah's reign over Egypt was the vague year current in B.C. 689 (Dr. Hincks, in the our. Sac. Lit. October, 1858, p. 130). There is, therefore, a prima' facie discrepancy of several years. Bunsen (Bibelwerk, 1, p. 306) unhesitatingly reduces the reign of Manasseh from fifty-five to forty-five years. Lepsius (Konigsbuch, p. 104) more critically takes the thirty-five years of the Sept. as the true duration. Were an alteration demanded, it would seem best to make Manasseh's computation of his reign commence with his father's illness in preference to taking the conjectural number forty-five, or the very short one thirty-five. The evidence of the chronology of the Assyrian and Babylonian-kings is, however, we think, conclusive in favor of the sum of fifty-five. In the Bible we are told that Shalmaneser laid siege to Samaria in the fourth year of Hezekiah, and that it was taken in the sixth year of that king (2 Kings 18:9-10). The Assyrian inscriptions indicate the taking of the city by Sargon in his first or second year, whence we must suppose either that he completed the enterprise of Shalmaneser, to whom the capture is not expressly ascribed in the Scriptures, or that he took the credit of an event which happened just before his accession. The first year of Sargon is shown by the inscriptions to have been exactly or nearly equal to the first of Merodach-Baladan, i.e. Mardocempadus: therefore it was current B.C. 721 or 720, and the second year, 720 or 719. This would place Hezekiah's accession B.C. 726, 725, or 724, the first of them being the very date the Hebrew numbers give. Again, Merodach-Baladan sent messengers to Hezekiah immediately after his sickness, and therefore in about his fifteenth year, B.C. 712. According to Ptolemy's Canon, Mardocempadus reigned 721-710, and, according to Berosus, seized the regal power for six months before Elibus, the Belibus of the Canon, and therefore in about 703, this being, no doubt, a second reign. (See Merodach-Baladan).

Here the preponderance of evidence is in favor of the earlier dates of Hezekiah. Thus far the chronological data of Egypt and Assyria appear to clash in a manner that seems at first sight to present a hopeless knot, but not on this account to be rashly cut. An examination of the facts of the history has afforded Dr. Hincks (Jour. of Sac. Literature, Oct. 1858) what he believes to be the true explanation. Tirhakah, he observes, is not explicitly termed Pharaoh or king of Egypt in the Bible, but king of Cush or Ethiopia, from which it might be inferred that at the time of Sennacherib's disastrous invasion he had not assumed the crown of Egypt. The Assyrian inscriptions of Sennacherib mention kings of Egypt, and a contemporary king of Ethiopia in alliance with them. The history of Egypt at the time, obtained by a comparison of the evidence of Herodotus send others with that of Manetho's lists, would lead to the same or a similar conclusion, which appears to be remarkably confirmed by the prophecies of Isaiah. He holds, therefore, as most probable, that, at the time of Sennacherib's disastrous expedition, Tirhakah was king of Ethiopia in alliance with the king or kings of Egypt. In fact, in order to reconcile the discrepancy between the date of the fourteenth year of Hezekiah in B.C. 713, and its contemporaneousness with the reign of Tirhakah, who did not ascend the Egyptian throne till B.C. 689, we have only to suppose that the latter king was the ruler of Ethiopia some years before his accession over Egypt itself. (See Tirhakah).

In this way, however, we again fall into the other difficulty as to the coincidence of this date with that of Sennacherib's invasion. It is true, as above seen, that the warlike operations of Sennacherib recorded in the Bible have been conjectured (Rawlinson, Herodotus, 1, 383) to be those of two expeditions. (See Sennacherib).

The fine paid by Hezekiah is recorded in the inscriptions as a result of an expedition of Sennacherib's third year, which, by a comparison of Ptolemy's Canon with Berosus, must be dated B.C. 700, and this would fall so near the close of the reign of the king of Judah (B.C. 697) that the supposed second expedition, of which there would naturally be no record in the Assyrian annals on account of its calamitous end, could not be placed much later. The Biblical account would, however, be most reasonably explained by the supposition that the two expeditions were but two campaigns of the same war, a war but temporarily interrupted by Hezekiah's submission. Now as even the former (if there were two) of these expeditions of Selnacherib fell in B.C. 700, it would be thirteen years later than the synchronism of Tirhakah and Hezekiah as above arrived at. It is probable, therefore, that there is some miscalculation in these dates from the Egyptian and Assyrian monuments, as indeed seems to be betrayed by the discrepancy between Sennacherib's invasion (B.C. 700) and Tirhakah's reign (not earlier than B.C. 689), as thereby determined, whereas the above Biblical passage makes them contemporaneous. Dr. Hincks (ut sup.), however, proposes to solve this difficulty also by the uncritical supposition that the name of Sennacherib has been inserted in the Biblical account of the first Assyrian invasion of Judah (2 Kings 18:13; Isaiah 26:1; 2 Chronicles 32) by some copyist, who confounded this with the later invasion by that monarch, whereas the Assyrian king referred to was Sargon (Isaiah 20:1), his predecessor. A less violent hypothesis for the same purpose of reconcilement, and one in accordance with the custom of these Oriental kings, e.g. in the case of Nebuchadnezzar, is that Sargon sent Sennacherib as viceroy to execute this campaign in Palestine, and that the annals of the reign of the latter refer to different and later expeditions when actually king. (See Chronology).

Some writers have thought to find a note of time in 2 Kings 19:29; Isaiah 37:30, "Ye shall eat this year such as groweth of itself," etc., assuming that the passage is only to be explained as implying the intervention of a sabbath-year, or even of a sabbath-year followed by a year of jubilee. All that can be said is that the passage may be interpreted in that sense; and it does happen that according to that view of the order of sabbatic and jubilaean years which is the best attested, a sabbath-year would begin in the autumn of B.C. 713 (Browne, Ordo Saeclorum, sec. 272-280), i.e. on the perhaps precarious assumption that the cycle persisted without interruption. At most, however, this no more fixes the fourteenth of Hezekiah to the year B.C. 713, than it does to 706, or 699, or any other year of the series. But, in fact, it is not necessary to assume any reference to a sabbath-year. Suppose the words to have been spoken in the autumn, then, the produce of the previous harvest (April, May) having been destroyed or carried off by the invaders, there remained only that which sprang naturally from the dropped or trodden-out seed (סָפַיח ), and as the enemy's presence in the land hindered the autumnal tillage, there could be no regular harvest in the following spring (only the סָחַישׁ, αὐτόματα). Hence there is no need to infer with Thenius, ad loc. that the enemy must have been in the land at least eighteen months. or, with Ewald, that Isaiah, speaking in the autumn, anticipated that the invasion would last through the following year (Die Propheten des A. B. 1, 301, and similarly Knobel, u. s. p. 278).

There seems to be no ground whatever for the vague conjecture so confidently advanced (Jahn, Hebr. Common. § 41), that the king's illness was the same plague which had destroyed the Assyrian army. The word שְׁחַין is not elsewhere applied to the plague, but to carbuncles and inflammatory ulcers (Exodus 9:9; Job 2:1, etc.). Hezekiah, whose kingdom was still in a dangerous state from the fear lest the Assyrians might return, who had at that time no heir (for Manasseh was not born till long afterwards, 2 Kings 21:1), and who regarded death as the end of existence (Isaiah 38), "turned his face to the wall and wept sore" at the threatened approach of dissolution. God had compassion on his anguish, and heard his prayer. Isaiah had hardly left the palace when he was ordered to promise the king immediate recovery, and a fresh lease of life, ratifying the promise by a sign, and curing the boil by a plaster of figs, which were often used medicinally in similar cases (Gesenius, Thes. 1, 311; Celsius, Hierobot. 2, 377; Bartholinus, De Morbis Biblicis, 10:47). What was the exact nature of the disease we cannot say; according to Meade, it was fever terminating in abscess. On this remarkable passage we must here be content to refer the reader to Carpzov, App. Crit. p. 351 sq.; Rawlinson, Herod. 2, 332 sq.; the elaborate notes of Keil on 2 Kings 20; Rosenmü ller and Gesenius on Isaiah 38, and especially Ewald, Geschichte 3, 638.

The sign given to Hezekiah in the going back of the shadow on the "sun- dial of Ahaz" can only be interpreted as a miracle. The explanation proposed by J. von Gumpach (Alt. Test. Studien, p. 181 sq.) is as incompatible with the terms of the narrative (Isaiah 38:8, especially the fuller one, 2 Kings 20:8-11) as it is insulting to the character of the prophet, who is represented to have managed the seeming return of the shadow by the trick of secretly turning the movable dial from its proper position to its opposite! Thenius (u. s. p. 403 sq.) would naturalize the miracle so as to obtain from it a note of time. The phenomenon was due, he thinks, to a solar eclipse, very small, viz. the one of 26th September, B.C. 713. Here, also, the prophet is taxed with a deception, to be justified by his wish to inspire the despairing king with the confidence essential to his recovery. The prophet employed for this purpose his astronomical knowledge of the fact that the eclipse was about to take place, and of the further fact that "at the beginning of an eclipse the shadow (e.g. of a gnomon) goes back, and at its ending goes forward:" an effect, however, so minute that the difference amounts at most to sixty seconds of time; but then the "degrees" would mark extremely small portions of time, possibly even 1080 to the hour (like the later Hebrew Chakim), and the so-called "dial" was enormously large! Not more successfully, Mr. Bosanquet (Trans. of R. Asiat. Soc. 15, 277) has recourse to the same expedient of an eclipse on Jan. 11, 689 B.C., which, in this writer's scheme, lies in the fourteenth of Hezekiah. "Whoever truly believes in the Old Testament, as Mr. Bosanquet evidently does, must also be prepared to believe in a miracle," is the just comment made by M. Niebuhr, Gesch. Assurs und Babels, p. 49. Mr. Greswell's elaborate attempt to prove from ancient astronomical records that the day of this miracle was preternaturally lengthened out to thirty-six hours will scarcely convince any one but himself (Fasti Temporis Catholici, etc., and Browne's "Remarks" on the same, 1852, p. 23 sq.). (See Dial).

Various ambassadors came with letters and gifts to congratulate Hezekiah on his recovery (2 Chronicles 32:23), and among them an embassy from Merodach-Baladan (or Berodach, 2 Kings 20:12; ὁ Βάλαδας , Josephus, 1. c.), the viceroy of Babylon, the Mardokempados of Ptolemy's canon. The ostensible object of this mission was to compliment Hezekiah on his convalescence (2 Kings 20:12; Isaiah 39:1), and "to inquire of the wonder that was done in the land" (2 Chronicles 32:31), a rumor of which could not fail to interest a people devoted to astrology. But its real purpose was to discover how far an alliance between the two powers was possible or desirable, for Mardokempados, no less than Hezekiah, was in apprehension of the Assyrians. In fact, Sargon expelled him from the throne of Babylon in the following year (the 16th of Hezekiah), although after a time he seems-to have returned and re-established himself for six months, at the end of which he was murdered by Belibos (Dr. Hincks, 1. c.; Rosenmü ller, uibl. Geograph. ch. 8; Layard, Nin. and Bab. 1, 141).

Community of interest made Hezekiah receive the overtures of Babylon with unconcealed gratification; and, perhaps, to enhance the opinion of his own importance as an ally he displayed to the messengers the princely treasures which he and his predecessors had accumulated. These stores remained even after the largesses mentioned in 2 Kings 18:14; 2 Kings 18:16. If ostentation were his motive it received a terrible rebuke, and he was informed by Isaiah that from the then tottering and subordinate province of Babylon, and not from the mighty Assyria, would come the ruin and captivity of Judah (Isaiah 39:5). This prophecy and the one of Micah (Micah 4:10) are the earliest definition of the locality of that hostile power, where the clouds of exile so long threatened (Leviticus 26:33; Deuteronomy 4:27; Deuteronomy 30:3) were beginning to gather. It is an impressive and fearful circumstance that the moment of exultation was chosen as the opportunity for warning, and that the prophecies of the Assyrian deliverance are set side by side with those of the Babylonian captivity (Davidson, On Prophecy, p. 256). The weak friend was to accomplish that which was impossible to the powerful foe. But, although pride was the sin thus vehemently checked by the prophet, Isaiah was certainly not blind to the political motives (Joseph. Ant. 10:2, 2) which made Hezekiah so complaisant to the Babylonian ambassadors. Into those motives he had inquired in vain, for the king met that portion of his question ("What said these men?") by emphatic silence. Hezekiah's meek answer to the stern denunciation of future woe has been most unjustly censured as "a false resignation which combines selfishness with silliness" (Newman, Hebr. Mon. p. 274). On the contrary, it merely implies a conviction that God's decree could not be otherwise than just and right, and a natural thankfulness for even a temporary suspension of its inevitable fulfillment.

After this embassy we have only a general account of the peace and prosperity in which Hezekiah closed his days. No man before or since ever lived under the certain knowledge of the precise length of the span of life before him. "He was buried in the going up (מָעִלֶה ) to the sepulchers of the sons of David," 2 Chronicles 32:33 : from this, and the fact that the succeeding kings were laid in sepulchers of their own, it may be inferred that after Ahaz, thirteenth from David, there was no more room left in the ancestral sepulcher (Thenius, u. s. p. 410). In later times, he was held in honor as the king who had "after him none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor any that were before him" (2 Kings 18:5); in Jeremiah 26:17 the elders of the land cite him as an example of pious submission to the word of the Lord spoken by Micah; and the son of Sirach closes his recital of the kings with this judgment-that of all the kings of Judah, "David, Hezekiah, and Josiah alone transgressed not, nor forsook the law of the Most High" (Sirach 49:4).

Besides the many authors and commentators who have written on this period of Jewish history (on which much light has been recently thrown by Mr. Layard, Sir G. Wilkinson, Sir H. Rawlinson, Dr. Hincks, and other scholars who have studied the Nineveh remains), see for continuous lives of Hezekiah, Josephus (Ant. 9:13-10, 2), Prideaux (Connect. 1, 16-30), Jahn (Hebr. Corn. 41), Ewald (Gesch. 3, 614-644, 2nd ed.), Stanley (Jewish Church, 2,305-540), Nicholson (Lectures on Hezekiah, Lond. 1839), Rochah Meditations on Hez. tr. by Hare, Lond. 1839), Michaelis (De Ezechia, Hal. 1717), Scheid (Canticum Ezechiae, Leyd. 1769), Nicolai (De terroribus Hiskiae, Helmst. 1749), Taddel (Precatio Chiskiae Tittenb. 1704). For sermons, etc., see Darling, Cyclopedia Bibliographica, col. 330, 340, 341.

Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblial Literature

Hezekiah, son of Ahaz, and thirteenth king of Judah, who reigned from B.C. 725 to B.C. 696.

From the commencement of his reign the efforts of Hezekiah were directed to the reparation of the effects of the grievous errors of his predecessors; and during his time the true religion and the theocratical policy flourished as they had not done since the days of David. The temple was cleared and purified; the utensils and forms of service were restored to their ancient order; all the changes introduced by Ahaz were abolished; all the monuments of idolatry were destroyed, and their remains cast into the brook Kidron. Among the latter was the brazen serpent of Moses, which had been deposited first in the tabernacle, and then in the temple, as a memorial of the event in which it originated: and it is highly to the credit of Hezekiah, and shows more clearly than any other single circumstance the spirit of his operations, that even this interesting relic was not spared when it seemed in danger of being turned to idolatrous uses. Having succeeded by his acts and words in rekindling the zeal of the priests and of the people, the king appointed a high festival, when, attended by his court and people, he proceeded in high state to the temple, to present sacrifices of expiation for the past irregularities, and to commence the reorganized services. A vast number of sacrifices evinced to the people the zeal of their superiors, and Judah, long sunk in idolatry, was at length reconciled to God (; 2 Chronicles 29).

The revival of the great annual festivals was included in this reformation. The Passover, which was the most important of them all, had not for a long time been celebrated according to the rites of the law; and the day on which it regularly fell, in the first year of Hezekiah, being already past, the king, nevertheless, justly conceiving the late observance a less evil than the entire omission of the feast, directed that it should be kept on the 14th day of the second month, being one month after its proper time. Couriers were sent from town to town, inviting the people to attend the solemnity; and even the ten tribes which formed the neighboring kingdom were invited to share with their brethren of Judah in a duty equally incumbent on all the children of Abraham. Of these some received the message gladly, and others with disdain; but a considerable number of persons belonging to the northernmost tribes (which had more seldom than the others been brought into hostile contact with Judah) came to Jerusalem, and by their presence imparted a new interest to the solemnity. A profound and salutary impression appears to have been made on this occasion; and so strong was the fervor and so great the number of the assembled people, that the festival was prolonged to twice its usual duration; and during this time the multitude was fed abundantly from the countless offerings presented by the king and his nobles. Never since the time of Solomon, when the whole of the twelve tribes had used to assemble at the Holy City, had the Passover been observed with such magnificence (2 Chronicles 30).

The good effect of this procedure was seen when the people carried back to their homes the zeal for the Lord which had thus been kindled, and proceeded to destroy and cast forth all the abominations by which their several towns had been defiled; thus performing again, on a smaller scale, the doings of the king in Jerusalem. Even the 'high places,' which the pious kings of former days had spared, were on this occasion abolished and overthrown; and even the men of Israel, who had attended the feast, were carried away by the same holy enthusiasm, and, on returning to their homes, broke all their idols in pieces .

The attention of this pious and able king was extended to whatever concerned the interests of religion in his dominions. He caused a new collection of Solomon's proverbs to be made, being the same which occupy Proverbs 25-29 of the book, which bears that name. The sectional divisions of the priests and Levites were reestablished; the perpetual sacrifices were recommenced, and maintained from the royal treasure; the stores of the temple were once more filled by the offerings of the people, and the times of Solomon and Jehoshaphat seemed to have returned (2 Chronicles 31).

This great work having been accomplished and consolidated (, etc.), Hezekiah applied himself to repair the calamities, as he had repaired the crimes, of his father's government. He took arms, and recovered the cities of Judah which the Philistines had seized. Encouraged by this success, he ventured to withhold the tribute which his father had paid to the Assyrian king; and this act, which the result shows to have been imprudent, drew upon the country the greatest calamities of his reign. Only a few years before, namely, in the fourth of his reign, the Assyrians had put an end to the kingdom of Israel and sent the ten tribes into exile; but had abstained from molesting Hezekiah, as he was already their tributary. Seeing his country invaded on all sides by the Assyrian forces under Sennacherib, and Lachish, a strong place which covered Jerusalem, on the point of falling into their hands, Hezekiah, not daring to meet them in the field, occupied himself in all necessary preparations for a protracted defense of Jerusalem, in hope of assistance from Egypt, with which country he had contracted an alliance . Such alliances were not favored by the Divine sovereign of Israel and His prophets, and no good ever came of them. But this alliance did not render the good king unmindful of his true source of strength; for in quieting the alarms of the people he directed their attention to the consideration that they in fact had more of power and strength in the divine protection than the Assyrian king possessed in all his host. Nevertheless, Hezekiah was himself distrustful of the course he had taken, and at length, to avert the calamities of war, sent to the Assyrian king offers of submission. Sennacherib, who was anxious to proceed against Egypt, consented to withdraw his forces on the payment of three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold; which the king was not able to raise without exhausting both his own treasury and that of the temple, and stripping off the gold with which the doors and pillars of the Lord's house were overlaid .

But after he had received the silver and gold, the Assyrian king broke faith with Hezekiah, and continued to prosecute his warlike operations. While he employed himself in taking the fortresses of Judea, which it was important to secure before he marched against Egypt, he sent three of his generals, Rabshakeh, Tartan, and Rabsaris, with part of his forces, to threaten Jerusalem with a siege unless it were surrendered, and the inhabitants submitted to be sent into Assyria; and this summons was delivered in language highly insulting not only to the king and people, but to the God they worshipped. When the terms of the summons were made known to Hezekiah, he gathered courage from the conviction that God would not fail to vindicate the honor of His insulted name. In this conviction he was confirmed by the prophet Isaiah, who, in the Lord's name, promised the utter discomfiture and overthrow of the blasphemous Assyrian: 'Lo, I will send a blast upon him, and he shall hear a rumor, and shall return to his own land, and I will cause him to die by the sword in his own land' . The rumor which Sennacherib heard was of the advance of Tirhakah the Ethiopian to the aid of the Egyptians, with a force which the Assyrians did not deem it prudent to meet; but, before withdrawing to his own country, Sennacherib sent a threatening letter to Hezekiah, designed to check the gladness which his retirement was likely to produce. But that very night the predicted blast—probably the hot pestilential south wind—smote 180,000 men in the camp of the Assyrians, and released the men of Judah from all their fears (;;; Isaiah 36-37).

It was in the same year, and while Jerusalem was still threatened by the Assyrians, that Hezekiah fell sick of the plague; and the aspect which the plague-boil assumed assured him that he must die. In this he was confirmed by Isaiah, who warned him that his end approached. The love of life, the condition of the country—the Assyrians being present in it, and the throne of David without an heir—caused him to grieve at this doom, and to pray earnestly that he might be spared. And his prayer was heard in heaven. The prophet returned with the assurance that in three days he should recover, and that fifteen additional years of life should be given to him. This communication was altogether so extraordinary, that the king required some token by which his belief might be justified; and accordingly the 'sign' which he required was granted to him. The shadow of the sun went back upon the dial of Ahaz the ten degrees it had gone down [DIAL]. This was a marvel greater than that of the cure which the king distrusted; for there is no known principle of astronomy or natural philosophy by which such a result could be produced. A cataplasm of figs was then applied to the plague-boil, under the direction of the prophet, and on the third day, as foretold, the king recovered (;; Isaiah 38) [PLAGUE].

The destruction of the Assyrians drew the attention of foreign courts for a time towards Judea, and caused the facts connected with Hezekiah's recovery, and the retrogression of the shadow on the dial, to be widely known. Among others, Merodach Baladan, king of Babylon, sent ambassadors with presents to make inquiries into those matters, and to congratulate the king on his recovery. Since the time of Solomon the appearance of such embassies from distant parts had been rare at Jerusalem; and the king, in the pride of his heart, made a somewhat ostentatious display to Baladan's ambassadors of all his treasures, which he had probably recovered from the Assyrians, and much increased with their spoil. Josephus (Antiq. x. 2. 2) says that one of the objects of the embassy was to form an alliance with Hezekiah against the Assyrian empire; and if so, his readiness to enter into an alliance adverse to the theocratical policy, and his desire to magnify his own importance in the eyes of the king of Babylon, probably furnished the ground of the divine disapprobation with which his conduct in this matter was regarded. He was reprimanded by the prophet Isaiah, who revealed to him the mysteries of the future, so far as to apprise him that all these treasures should hereafter be in the possession of the Babylonians, and his family and people exiles in the land from which these ambassadors came. This intimation was received by the king with his usual submission to the will of God; and he was content to know that these evils were not to be inflicted in his own days. He has sometimes been blamed for this seeming indifference to the fate of his successors; but it is to be borne in mind that at this time he had no children. This was in the fourteenth year of his reign, and Manasseh, his successor, was not born till three years afterwards (;; Isaiah 39). The rest of Hezekiah's life appears to have been peaceable and prosperous. No man before or since ever lived under the certain knowledge of the precise length of the span of life before him. When the fifteen years had expired, Hezekiah was gathered to his fathers, after a reign of twenty-nine years. He died sincerely lamented by all his people, and the public respect for his character and memory was testified by his corpse being placed in the highest niche of the royal sepulcher .

The Nuttall Encyclopedia

A king of Judah; reigned from 725 to 697 B.C.; distinguished for his zeal in the celebration of the worship of Jehovah and for his weakness in making a parade of his wealth; reigned in the golden age of Hebrew prophecy, Isaiah and Micah being his contemporaries.