Hezekiah

Hezekiah (/ËŒhÉ›zɨˈkaɪ.É™/; Hebrew: חִזְקִיָּ֫×"וּ, חִזְקִיָּ֫×", יְחִזְקִיָּ֫×"וּ; Greek: Ἐζεκίας, Ezekias, in the Septuagint; Latin: :lang="la">Ezechias; also transliterated as Ḥizkiyyahu or Ḥizkiyyah) was, according to the Hebrew Bible, the son of Ahaz and the 13th king of Judah. Archaeologist Edwin Thiele has concluded that his reign was between c. 715 and 686 BC. He is also one of the most prominent kings of Judah mentioned in the Hebrew Bible and is one of the kings mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew.

According to the Hebrew Bible, Hezekiah witnessed the destruction of the northern Kingdom of Israel by Sargon's Assyrians in c. 720 BC and was king of Judah during the invasion and siege of Jerusalem by Sennacherib in 701 BC. Hezekiah enacted sweeping religious reforms, including a strict mandate for the sole worship of Yahweh and a prohibition on venerating other deities within the Temple in Jerusalem. Isaiah and Micah prophesied during his reign.

Etymology

Hezekiah, more properly transliterated as Ḥizkiyyahu (and sometimes as Ezekias) (Hebrew: חִזְקִיָּ֫×"וּ Ḥizqiyyāhu, Khizkiyahu; or יְחִזְקִיָּ֫×"וּ Yəḥizqiyyāhu, Y'khizkiyahu); ; or Ḥizkiyyah (Hebrew: חִזְקִיָּ֫×" Ḥizqiyyāh). The root of the name חִזְקִיָּ×"וּ Ḥizkiyyahu is חזק, a verb stem that can mean

"strengthen", "fortify" in the pi'él: חַזֵּק,

"hold", "seize" in the hif'il: ×"ַחֲזֵק, and

"gather one's strength", "take courage" in the hitpa'él: ×"ִתְחַזֵּק.

It also spawns a number of nouns, including

חוֹזֶק, חָזְקָ×", חֶזְקָ×" "strength", and

חֲזָקָ×" "taking hold", "seizing", "occupying", "presumption" [of entitlement].

as well as the adjectives

חָזָק, חָזֵק "strong".

Accordingly, חִזְקִיָּ×"וּ Ḥizkiyyahu can be said to mean something like "Strengthened by Yahweh".

Biblical sources

The main account of Hezekiah's reign is found in 2 Kings 18â€"20, Isaiah 36â€"39, and 2 Chronicles 29â€"32 of the Hebrew Bible. Proverbs 25:1 mentions that it is a collection of King Solomon's proverbs that were "copied" "by the officials of King Hezekiah of Judah". His reign is also referred to in the books of the prophets Jeremiah, Hosea, and Micah. The books of Hosea and Micah record that their prophecies were made during Hezekiah’s reign.

Family and life

Hezekiah was the son of King Ahaz and Abijah. His mother, Abijah (also called Abi), was a daughter of the high priest Zechariah. Based on Thiele's dating, Hezekiah was born in c. 741 BC. He was married to Hephzi-bah. (2 Kings 21:1) He died from natural causes at the age of 54 in c. 687 BC, and was succeeded by his son Manasseh (2 Kings 20:21).

Reign over Judah

According to the Hebrew Bible, Hezekiah assumed the throne of Judah at the age of 25 and reigned for 29 years (2 Kings 18:2). Some writers have proposed that Hezekiah served as coregent with his father Ahaz for about 14 years. His sole reign is dated by William F. Albright as 715â€"687 BC, and by Edwin R. Thiele as 716â€"687 BC (the last ten years being a co-regency with his son Manasseh).

Hezekiah purified and repaired the Temple, purged its idols, and reformed the priesthood. In an effort to abolish what he considered idolatry from his kingdom, he destroyed the high places (or bamot) and "bronze serpent" (or "Nehushtan"), recorded as being made by Moses, which became an objects of idolatrous worship. In place of this, he centralized the worship of God at the Jerusalem Temple. Hezekiah also resumed the Passover pilgrimage and the tradition of inviting the scattered tribes of Israel to take part in a Passover festival. He sent messengers to Ephraim and Manasseh inviting them to Jerusalem for the celebration of the Passover. The messengers, however, were not only not listened to, but were even laughed at; only a few men of Asher, Manasseh, and Zebulun came to Jerusalem. Nevertheless the Passover was celebrated with great solemnity and such rejoicing as had not been in Jerusalem since the days of Solomon. Hezekiah is portrayed by the Hebrew Bible as a great and good king.

Political moves and Assyrian invasion

When Sargon II, the king of Assyria, died in 705 B.C., states, including Judah, that were subject to Assyria saw an opportunity to throw off their subservience to the Assyrian kings. He ceased to pay the tribute imposed on his father, and entered into a league with Egypt. In 703 B.C. Sennacherib, Sargon's son and successor, began a series of major campaigns to quash opposition to Assyrian rule. After dealing with rebels in the eastern part of the realm, in 701 B.C. he king turned toward those in the west. Though Hezekiah expected the Egyptians to come to his aid, they did not, and Hezekiah had to face the invasion of Judah by Sennacherib.

The Assyrians recorded that Sennacherib lifted his siege of Jerusalem after Hezekiah acknowledged Sennacherib as his overlord and paid him tribute. The Hebrew Bible records that Hezekiah tried to pay off Sennacherib with three hundred talents of silver and thirty of gold as tribute, even despoiling the doors of the Temple to produce the promised amount, but, after the payment was made, Sennacherib renewed his assault on Jerusalem. Sennacherib besieged Jerusalem and sent his Rabshakeh to the walls as a messenger. The Rabshakeh addressed the soldiers manning the city wall in Hebrew (YÄ•huwdiyth), asking them to distrust Yahweh and Hezekiah, pointing to Hezekiah's righteous reforms (destroying the High Places) as a sign that the people should not trust their god to be favorably disposed (2 Kings 18:17â€"35). 2 Kings 19:15 records that Hezekiah went to the Temple and there he prayed, the first king of Judah recorded to have done so in about 250 years, since the time of Solomon.

Hezekiah's construction

Knowing that Jerusalem would eventually be subject to siege, Hezekiah had been preparing for war for some time by fortifying the walls of Jerusalem, building towers, and constructing a tunnel to bring fresh water to the city from a spring outside its walls. He made at least two major preparations that would help Jerusalem to resist conquest: the construction of Hezekiah's Tunnel (also known as the Siloam Tunnel), and construction of the Broad Wall.

"When Sennacherib had come, intent on making war against Jerusalem, Hezekiah consulted with his officers and warriors about stopping the flow of the springs outside the city … for otherwise, they thought, the King of Assyria would come and find water in abundance" (2 Chronicles 32:2â€"4).

The narratives of the Hebrew Testament state that Sennacherib besieged Jerusalem (Isaiah 33:1; 2 Kings 18:17; 2 Chronicles 32:9; Isaiah 36).

Death of Sennacherib

Sennacherib failed to conquer Judah in full before his death.

2 Kings 19:37 says

"It came about as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer killed him [Sennacherib] with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son became king in his place."

Assyrian records say that Sennacherib was assassinated in 681 BC (20 years after the 701 BC invasion of Judah). A Neo-Babylonian letter corroborates with the biblical account a sentiment from Sennacherib’s sons to assassinate him, an event Assyriologists have reconstructed as historical. The son Ardi-Mulishi, who is mentioned in the letter as killing anyone who would reveal his conspiracy, successfully murders his father in c. 681 BC, and was most likely the Adrammelech in 2 Kings, though Sharezer is not known elsewhere. Assyryologists posit the murder was motivated because Esarhaddon was chosen as heir to the throne instead of Ardi-Mulishi, the next eldest son. Assyrian and Hebrew biblical history corroborate that Esarhaddon ultimately did succeed the throne.

Hezekiah's illness and death

The narrative of Hezekiah's sickness and miraculous recovery is found in 2 Kings 20:1, 2 Chronicles 32:24, Isaiah 38:1. Various ambassadors came to congratulate him on his recovery, among them from Merodach-baladan, the king of Babylon (2 Chronicles 32:23; 2 Kings 20:12). Hezekiah is also remembered for giving too much information to Baladan, king of Babylon (or perhaps for boasting about his wealth), for which he was confronted by Isaiah the prophet (2 Kings 20:12â€"19).

According to the Talmud, the disease came about because of a dispute between him and Isaiah over who should pay whom a visit and over Hezekiah's refusal to marry and have children. According to Isaiah 38:5, Hezekiah lived another 15 more years of life after praying to God. Some Talmudists also considered that it might have come about as a way for Hezekiah to purge his sins or due to his arrogance in assuming his righteousness.

Extra-Biblical records

Extra-Biblical sources do much more for us than give us a pan-Mid Eastern picture into which we contextualize Hezekiah: there are extra-Biblical sources that specify Hezekiah by name, along with his reign and influence. "Historiographically, his reign is noteworthy for the convergence of a variety of biblical sources and diverse extrabiblical evidence often bearing on the same events. Significant data concerning Hezekiah appear in the Deuteronomistic History, the Chronicler, Isaiah, Assyrian annals and reliefs, Israelite epigraphy, and, increasingly, stratigraphy". Archaeologist Amihai Mazar calls the tensions between Assyria and Judah "one of the best-documented events of the Iron Age" (172). Hezekiah's story is one of the best to cross-reference with the rest of the Mid Eastern world's historical documents.

Archaeological record

A lintel inscription, found over the doorway of a tomb, has been ascribed to his secretary, Shebnah 2 Kings 18:18). LMLK store jars along the border with Assyria "demonstrate careful preparations to counter Sennacherib's likely route of invasion" and show "a notable degree of royal control of towns and cities which would facilitate Hezekiah's destruction of rural sacrificial sites and his centralization of worship in Jerusalem". Evidence suggests they were used throughout his 29-year reign (Grena, 2004, p. 338). There are some Bullae from sealed documents that may have belonged to Hezekiah himself (Grena, 2004, p. 26, Figs. 9 and 10). There are also some that name his servants (ah-vah-deem in Hebrew, ayin-bet-dalet-yod-mem). However, they are all from the antiquities market and subject to authentication disputes (see Biblical archaeology).

Increase in the power of Judah

According to the work of archaeologists and philologists, the reign of Hezekiah saw a notable increase in the power of the Judean state. At this time Judah was the strongest nation on the Assyrian-Egyptian frontier. There were increases in literacy and in the production of literary works. The massive construction of the Broad Wall was made during his reign, the city was enlarged to accommodate a large influx, and population increased in Jerusalem up to 25,000, "five times the population under Solomon." Archaeologist Amihai Mazar explains, "Jerusalem was a virtual city-state where the majority of the state's population was concentrated," in comparison to the rest of Judah's cities (167). Archaeologist Israel Finkelstein says, "The key phenomenonâ€"which cannot be explained solely against the background of economic prosperityâ€"was the sudden growth of the population of Jerusalem in particular, and of Judah in general" (153). He says the cause of this growth must be a large influx of Israelites fleeing from the Assyrian destruction of the northern state. It is "[t]he only reasonable way to explain this unprecedented demographic development" (154). This, according to Finkelstein, set the stage for motivations to compile and reconcile Hebrew history into a text at that time (157). Mazar questions this explanation, since, he argues, it is "no more than an educated guess" (167).

Siloam inscription

Hezekiah's Siloam Tunnel was chiseled through 533 meters (1,750 feet) of solid rock in order to provide Jerusalem underground access to the waters of the Gihon Spring or Siloam Pool, which lay outside the city.

The Siloam Inscription from the Siloam Tunnel is now in the Istanbul Archeological Museum. It "commemorates the dramatic moment when the two original teams of tunnelers, digging with picks from opposite ends of the tunnel, met each other" (564). It is "[o]ne of the most important ancient Hebrew inscriptions ever discovered." Finkelstein and Mazar cite this tunnel as an example of Jerusalem's impressive state-level power at the time.

Archeologists like William G. Dever have pointed at archaeological evidence for the iconoclasm during the period of Hezekiah's reign. The central cult room of the temple at Arad (a royal Judean fortress) was deliberately and carefully dismantled, "with the altars and massebot" concealed "beneath a Str. 8 plaster floor". This stratum correlates with the late 8th century; Dever concludes that "the deliberate dismantling of the temple and its replacement by another structure in the days of Hezekiah is an archeological fact. I see no reason for skepticism here."

Lachish relief

Under Rehoboam, Lachish became the second most important city of the kingdom of Judah. During the revolt of king Hezekiah against Assyria, it was captured by Sennacherib despite determined resistance (see Siege of Lachish).

As the Lachish relief attests, Sennacherib began his siege of the city of Lachish in 701 BC. The Lachish Relief graphically depicts the battle, and the defeat of the city, including Assyrian archers marching up a ramp and Judahites pierced through on mounted stakes. "The reliefs on these slabs" discovered in the Assyrian palace at Nineveh "originally formed a single, continuous work, measuring 8 feet ... tall by 80 feet ... long, which wrapped around the room" (559). Visitors "would have been impressed not only by the magnitude of the artwork itself but also by the magnificent strength of the Assyrian war machine."

Sennacherib's Prism of Nineveh

Sennacherib's Prism was found buried in the foundations of the Nineveh palace. It was written in cuneiform, the Mesopotamian form of writing of the day. The prism records the conquest of 46 strong towns and "uncountable smaller places," along with the siege of Jerusalem where Sennacherib says he just "shut him up...like a bird in a cage," subsequently enforcing a larger tribute upon him. The Hebrew Bible states that during the night, an angel of Yahweh brought death to 185,000 Assyrians troops. There is no account of that in the prism, nor is there any evidence that Sennacherib's army was defeated. Certainly, Sennacherib's campaign continued with further successful attacks on Elam and Babylon, suggesting his army left Jerusalem at full strength.

Sennacherib also recorded a payment of 800 silver talents to him at the end of the conflict, which suggests a capitulation to end a siege of 500 silver talents, rather than a victory for the Judeans. Furthermore the annals record a list of booty sent from Jerusalem to Nineveh. Hezekiah remained on his throne as a vassal ruler. (The campaign is recorded with differences in the Assyrian records and in the biblical Books of Kings; there is general agreement that the Assyrian sources should be given priority).

One theory that takes the biblical view as historical fact posits that a defeat was caused by "possibly an outbreak of the bubonic plague" (303). Another that this is a composite text which makes use of a 'legendary motif' analogous to that of the exodus story.

• Where the 2 Kings account explains giving 300 talents of silver, Sennacherib's prism records 800 talents. "This discrepancy may be the result of differences in the weight of Assyrian and Israelite silver talents, or it may simply be due to the Assyrian propensity for exaggeration" (558).

Other records

The Talmud (Bava Batra 15a) credits Hezekiah with overseeing the compilation of the biblical books of Isaiah, Proverbs, Song of Songs and Ecclesiastes.

According to Jewish tradition, the victory over the Assyrians and Hezekiah's return to health happened at the same time, the first night of Passover.

The Greek historian, Herodotus (c. 484 BC â€" c. 425 BC), wrote of the invasion and acknowledges many Assyrian deaths, which he claims were the result of a plague of mice. The Jewish historian, Josephus, followed the writings of Herodotus. These historians record Sennacherib's failure to take Jerusalem is "uncontested

Chronological interpretation

Understanding the biblically recorded sequence of events in Hezekiah's life as chronological or not is critical to the contextual interpretation of his reign. According to scholar Stephen L. Harris, chapter 20 of 2 Kings does not follow the events of chapters 18 and 19 (161). Rather, the Babylonian envoys precede the Assyrian invasion and siege. Chapter 20 would have been added during the exile, and Harris says it "evidently took place before Sennacherib's invasion' when Hezekiah was "trying to recruit Babylon as an ally against Assyria.' Consequently, "Hezekiah ends his long reign impoverished and ruling over only a tiny scrap of his former domain.' Likewise, The Archaeological Study Bible says, "The presence of these riches' that Hezekiah shows to the Babylonians "indicates that this event took place before Hezekiah's payment of tribute to Sennacherib in 701 B.C." (564). Again, "Though the king's illness and the subsequent Babylonian mission are described at the end of the accounts of his reign, they must have occurred before the war with Assyria. Thus, Isaiah's chastening of Hezekiah is due to his alliances made with other countries during the Assyrian conflict for insurance, if you will. To a reader who interprets the chapters chronologically, it would appear that Hezekiah ended his reign at a climax, but with a scholarly analysis, his end would contrarily be interpreted as a long fall from where he began.

Other chronological notes

There has been considerable academic debate about the actual dates of reigns of the Israelite kings. Scholars have endeavored to synchronize the chronology of events referred to in the Hebrew Bible with those derived from other external sources. In the case of Hezekiah, scholars have noted that the apparent inconsistencies are resolved by accepting the evidence that Hezekiah, like his predecessors for four generations in the kings of Judah, had a coregency with his father, and this coregency began in 729 BC.

As an example of the reasoning that finds inconsistencies in calculations when coregencies are a priori ruled out, 2 Kings 18:10 dates the fall of Samaria (the Northern Kingdom) to the 6th year of Hezekiah's reign. William F. Albright has dated the fall of the Kingdom of Israel to 721 BC, while E. R. Thiele calculates the date as 723 BC. If Abright's or Thiele's dating are correct, then Hezekiah's reign would begin in either 729 or 727 BC. On the other hand, 18:13 states that Sennacherib invaded Judah in the 14th year of Hezekiah's reign. Dating based on Assyrian records date this invasion to 701 BC, and Hezekiah's reign would therefore begin in 716/715 BC. This dating would be confirmed by the account of Hezekiah's illness in chapter 20, which immediately follows Sennacherib's departure (2 Kings 20). This would date his illness to Hezekiah's 14th year, which is confirmed by Isaiah's statement (2 Kings 20:6) that he will live fifteen more years (29 âˆ' 15 = 14). As shown below, these problems are all addressed by scholars who make reference to the ancient Near Eastern practice of coregency.

Following the approach of Wellhausen, another set of calculations shows it is probable that Hezekiah did not ascend the throne before 722 BC. By Albright's calculations, Jehu's initial year is 842 BC; and between it and Samaria's destruction the Books of Kings give the total number of the years the kings of Israel ruled as 143 7/12, while for the kings of Judah the number is 165. This discrepancy, amounting in the case of Judah to 45 years (165â€"120), has been accounted for in various ways; but every one of those theories must allow that Hezekiah's first six years fell before 722 BC. (That Hezekiah began to reign before 722 BC, however, is entirely consistent with the principle that the Ahaz/Hezekiah coregency began in 729 BC.) Nor is it clearly known how old Hezekiah was when called to the throne, although 2 Kings 18:2 states he was twenty-five years of age. His father died at the age of thirty-six (2 Kings 16:2); it is not likely that Ahaz at the age of eleven should have had a son. Hezekiah's own son Manasseh ascended the throne twenty-nine years later, at the age of twelve. This places his birth in the seventeenth year of his father's reign, or gives Hezekiah's age as forty-two, if he was twenty-five at his ascension. It is more probable that Ahaz was twenty-one or twenty-five when Hezekiah was born (and suggesting an error in the text), and that the latter was thirty-two at the birth of his son and successor, Manasseh.

Since Albright and Friedman, several scholars have explained these dating problems on the basis of a coregency between Hezekiah and his father Ahaz between 729 and 716/715 BC. Assyriologists and Egyptologists recognize that coregency was a practice both in Assyria and Egypt, After noting that coregencies were only used sporadically in the northern kingdom (Israel), Nadav Na'aman writes,

In the kingdom of Judah, on the other hand, the nomination of a co-regent was the common procedure, beginning from David who, before his death, elevated his son Solomon to the throne…When taking into account the permanent nature of the co-regency in Judah from the time of Joash, one may dare to conclude that dating the co-regencies accurately is indeed the key for solving the problems of biblical chronology in the eighth century B.C."

Among the numerous scholars who have recognized the coregency between Ahaz and Hezekiah are Kenneth Kitchen in his various writings, Leslie McFall, and Jack Finegan. McFall, in his 1991 article, argues that if 729 BC (that is, the Judean regnal year beginning in Tishri of 729) is taken as the start of the Ahaz/Hezekiah coregency, and 716/715 BC as the date of the death of Ahaz, then all the extensive chronological data for Hezekiah and his contemporaries in the late eighth century BC are in harmony. Further, McFall found that no textual emendations are required among the numerous dates, reign lengths, and synchronisms given in the Hebrew Testament for this period. In contrast, those who do not accept the Ancient Near Eastern principle of coregencies require multiple emendations of the Scriptural text, and there is no general agreement on which texts should be emended, nor is there any consensus among these scholars on the resultant chronology for the eighth century BC. This is in contrast with the general consensus among those who accept the Biblical and near Eastern practice of coregencies that Hezekiah was installed as coregent with his father Ahaz in 729 BC, and the synchronisms of 2 Kings 18 must be measured from that date, whereas the synchronisms to Sennacherib are measured from the sole reign starting in 716/715 BC. The two synchronisms to Hoshea of Israel in 2 Kings 18 are then in exact agreement with the dates of Hoshea's reign that can be determined from Assyrian sources, as is the date of Samaria's fall as stated in 2 Kings 18:10. An analogous situation of two ways of measurement, both equally valid, is encountered in the dates given for Jehoram of Israel, whose first year is synchronized to the 18th year of the sole reign of Jehoshaphat of Judah in 2 Kings 3:1 (853/852 BC), but his reign is also reckoned according to another method as starting in the second year of the coregency of Jehoshaphat and his son Jehoram of Judah (2 Kings 1:17); both methods refer to the same calendrical year.

Scholars who accept the principle of coregencies note that abundant evidence for their use is found in the biblical material itself. The agreement of scholarship built on these principles with both biblical and secular texts was such that the Thiele/McFall chronology was accepted as the best chronology for the kingdom period in Jack Finegan's encyclopedic Handbook of Biblical Chronology.

References

Resources

• Grena, G.M. (2004). LMLKâ€"A Mystery Belonging to the King vol. 1. Redondo Beach, California: 4000 Years of Writing History. ISBN 0-9748786-0-X. 
• Austin, Lynn. Gods And Kings. ISBN 0-7642-2989-3.  a fictionalized account of Hezekiah's rise to power, Book 1 in Austin's "Chronicles of the Kings" series

External links

• "Hezekiah." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
• King Hezekiah from Jerusalem Mosaic
• Hezekiah See all Bible verses pertaining to King Hezekiah
• The Reign Of Hezekiah by John F. Brug
•  "Ezechias". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913. 
• Sennacherib's Invasion of Hezekiah's Judah in 701 BC - by Craig C. Broyles
• Interactive Map of Sennacherib's Invasion of Hezekiah's Judah, including the accounts of Sennacherib, Herodotus, 2 Kings, Isaiah and Micah