Hezekiah (King)

King of Judah c.726-697 BC, Hezekiah is a central figure in OT history. Under his leadership, and the counsel of his contemporary and counselor, Isaiah, Judah weathered and survived the Assyrian onslaught, even as the northern tribes were hauled away into exile never to be heard of again.

☰ Open Family Tree (Generation 25)

Son of the weak and hapless King Ahaz, Hezekiah is particularly well-thought of by the author of the books of Kings, and is often seen by commentators as "the Second David" (he is warmly compared to David—"his father"—in 2 Ki 18:3). Apart from Solomon, more space is devoted to his story both in the book of Kings (3 chapters; 2 Ki 18-20) and Chronicles (4 chapters; 2 Chron 29-32) than any other king. Furthermore, the book of Isaiah makes him (his foolishness in this case) the turning point between the history of Israel past (Isa 1-39) and Israel future (Isa 40-66). All these point to the indisputable importance of Hezekiah in the theology of the OT, and the need for us preachers to pay attention to him and to preach from his annals.

Central to the chapters told about him is the invasion of the land by the Assyrians (first by Shalmaneser, and then Sennacherib) and his response to them. Taken together they serve to highlight three characteristics about him: 1) he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, 2) he removed the high places from Judah, and 3) he trusted in the Lord. The central and decisive event of his reign was the siege of Jerusalem by Sennacherib in 701 BC. Even there what the Assyrian embassadors, in an early application of psychological warfare—""Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, since we understand it. Don't speak to us in Hebrew in the hearing of the people on the wall." (2 Ki 18:26ff.)—focused on was Hezekiah's anti-idolatrous reforms and his trust in Yahweh. For his trust in Him, however, Jerusalem was delivered when some kind of plague ravaged the Assyrian camp and they fled.

The portrait of Hezekah, however, is not all positive. He was also a man with clay-feet. The fall of the Assyrians, when it came, came quickly. Already in Hezekiah's time the Babylonians were already sending out their spys to scout out the terrain. When they visited Hezekiah, the king showed them all the riches he possessed. When Isaiah learned about this and prophesied that all these riches would one day be looted by the Babylonians, Hezekiah simply comforted himself that there would at least be peace in his time (2 Ki 20:19; Isa 39:8).

Hezekiah's accomplishments are richly represented in a number of archaeological sites in Israel today. For these see the following:

Hezekiah's Tunnel: to prevent the sole source of water in Jerusalem (the Gihon Spring, which was situated outside the city walls, he stopped it up but dug a subterranean tunnel to divert its water to a pool (later known as Pool of Siloam) within the city. This is today known as "Hezekiah's Tunnel," and is easily visited today.

As refugees poured into Jerusalem in the wars with the Assyrians, Hezekiah also built a new wall to enclose the northern parts of the then extent city, razing down older houses as he did so. This is now called "Hezekiah's Broadwall. Parts of it has been excavated and is visible in the Jewish Quarters of modern Jerusalem.

Perhaps the most stunning of the archaeological resources we have today from Hezekiah's reign has nothing to do with Hezekiah per se, but with Sennacherib's razing of the city of Lachish (2 Chron 32:9) at about the same time of the events reported in 2 Ki 18. Sennacherib was so pleased with his destruction of Lachish, he had the walls of his palace decorated with bas-reliefs of the siege. These are now in the British Museum, London.