Hezekiah
Son of Ahaz (2 Kings 18:1; 2 Chr. 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, Isa. 36-39, and 2 Chr. 29-32. 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 (Num. 21:9). A great reformation was wrought in the kingdom of Judah in his day (2 Kings 18:4; 2 Chr. 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 (Isa. 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 (Isa. 33:1), and a second time within two years invaded his kingdom (2 Kings 18:17; 2 Chr. 32:9; Isa. 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).
The narrative of Hezekiah’s sickness and miraculous recovery is found in 2 Kings 20:1, 2 Chr. 32:24, Isa. 38:1. Various ambassadors came to congratulate him on his recovery, and among them Merodach-baladan, the viceroy of Babylon (2 Chr. 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 Chr. 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).
Family
- Father
- Ahaz
- Mother
- Abijah
- Spouse
- Hephzi-bah
- Children
- Manasseh (son of Hezekiah)
- Siblings
- Maaseiah
Family tree
Events
- 725 BCReign of Hezekiah
- 696 BCDeath of Hezekiah
Mentioned in
2 Chronicles 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33
Proverbs 25
Hosea 1
Micah 1
Matthew 1
Unearthed
The Assyrian Eponym Canon and the eclipse of 763 BCFixed datec. 891–648 BC
Kings of Israel and Judah appear in Assyrian records that are dated to the exact year by this list. Biblical chronology is not dated in isolation — it is pinned to the same astronomical anchor secular historians use for the whole ancient Near East.
The dismantled horned altar of BeershebaConfirmed by the ground8th century BC
A monumental sacrificial altar at a Judahite provincial centre was deliberately dismantled and its stones reused, in the eighth century.
Sennacherib's Prism — Hezekiah shut up "like a bird in a cage"Named outside the Biblec. 691 BC
The invasion of Judah in 701 BC, Hezekiah by name, the siege of Jerusalem and the tribute are all recorded by the invader himself — and the city's survival is implicit in his own silence about taking it.
The Lachish Reliefs and the destruction of LachishConfirmed by the groundc. 700–692 BC
A siege the Bible mentions in a single verse can be seen carved by the besieger and dug out of the ground at the place it happened.
The lmlk storage jarsConfirmed by the groundlate 8th century BC
A kingdom-wide store of stamped royal jars, concentrated in the year Sennacherib invaded.
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The Broad WallConfirmed by the groundlate 8th century BC
A massive wall thrown up across the western hill, cutting through demolished houses, in the years Assyria was coming.
The Siloam Inscription and Hezekiah's tunnelConfirmed by the groundc. 700 BC
The tunnel described in one line of Kings exists, was cut in Hezekiah's era, and its diggers left a note inside it.
The seal impression of HezekiahNamed outside the Biblec. 727–698 BC
A named king of Judah, sealing documents in Jerusalem — recovered from stratified excavation rather than bought on the market.
Dating the Siloam tunnel without the inscriptionConfirmed by the groundc. 700 BC
The tunnel under Jerusalem was cut around 700 BC — the years the Bible assigns to Hezekiah's waterworks — on evidence that owes nothing to either text.