Hezekiah #62

Hezekiah was a king of Judah in the late eighth and early seventh centuries BC, the son of Ahaz, and the ruler during whose reign Jerusalem survived an Assyrian invasion. His story is told in 2 Kings 18 through 20, in 2 Chronicles 29 through 32, and in Isaiah 36 through 39. Traditional chronologies place his reign at roughly 715 to 686 BC, though scholars vary by a few years. The books of Kings give him unusually high praise: there was none like him among the kings of Judah before or after (2 Kings 18:5).

Biblical Significance

Hezekiah began his reign with religious reform. He cleansed the temple, removed the high places and sacred pillars, and broke the bronze serpent Moses had made, because the people had begun burning incense to it (2 Kings 18:1-8). The Chronicler adds that he invited people from across the divided land, including the northern tribes, to keep a great Passover in Jerusalem (2 Chronicles 30:1-9).

The central crisis came when Sennacherib of Assyria overran the fortified cities of Judah and threatened Jerusalem. Hezekiah paid tribute, but the Assyrians pressed on and mocked any trust in God (2 Kings 18:13-37). Hezekiah took the threatening letter to the temple, spread it before the Lord, and prayed (2 Kings 19:14-19). Isaiah answered that the city would be spared, and the text reports that the angel of the Lord struck the Assyrian camp overnight, after which Sennacherib withdrew to Nineveh (2 Kings 19:32-37). Assyrian records describe the same campaign and speak of shutting Hezekiah up in Jerusalem like a bird in a cage, without claiming to have captured the city, which is one of the better known points of overlap between the Bible and outside sources.

Hezekiah also fell gravely ill. After he prayed, Isaiah told him that fifteen years would be added to his life, and a sign was given in the shadow on the stairway (2 Kings 20:1-11). He is also credited with preparing Jerusalem’s water supply against siege, digging a tunnel that brought the spring into the city (2 Kings 20:20; 2 Chronicles 32:30). The record is not wholly flattering, however. When envoys from Babylon visited, he showed them his treasuries, and Isaiah warned that everything would one day be carried off to Babylon (2 Kings 20:12-19).

Legacy

Hezekiah is remembered as a model of a leader who acted first on religious conviction and then on practical preparation. His prayer over the letter has become a pattern for bringing a crisis directly to God. The prophets Isaiah and Micah worked during his reign, and Jeremiah later recalled that Hezekiah had listened to Micah instead of putting him to death (Jeremiah 26:17-19). His reforms were followed a few generations later by those of Josiah, whose reign, though similarly praised, ended with Judah still headed toward exile.