Todays Covenant Person of Scriptural history is: Hezekiah /ˌhɛzɨˈkaɪ.ə/ (Hebrew: חִזְקִיָּ֫הוּ, חִזְקִיָּ֫ה, יְחִזְקִיָּ֫הוּ; Greek: Ἐζεκίας, Ezekias, in the Septuagint; Latin: Ezechias; also transliterated as Ḥizkiyyahu or Ḥizkiyyah) was the son of Ahaz and the 13th king of Judah. 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 Sargons 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, during which he removed the worship of foreign deities from the Temple in Jerusalem, and restored the worship of Yahweh, God of Israel, in accordance with the Torah. Isaiah and Micah prophesied during his reign. Hezekiah, more properly transliterated as Ḥizkiyyahu (and sometimes as Ezekias) (Hebrew: חִזְקִיָּ֫הוּ Ḥizqiyyāhu, Khizkiyahu; or יְחִזְקִיָּ֫הוּ Yəḥizqiyyāhu, Ykhizkiyahu); ; or Ḥizkiyyah (Hebrew: חִזְקִיָּ֫ה Ḥizqiyyāh). The root of the name חִזְקִיָּהוּ Ḥizkiyyahu is חזק, a verb stem that can mean - strengthen, fortify in the piél: חַזֵּק, hold, seize in the hifil: הַחֲזֵק, and gather ones strength, take courage in the hitpaél: הִתְחַזֵּק. It also spawns a number of nouns, including חוֹזֶק, חָזְקָה, חֶזְקָה strength, and חֲזָקָה taking hold, seizing, occupying, presumption [of entitlement]. as well as the adjectives חָזָק, חָזֵק strong. Accordingly, חִזְקִיָּהוּ Ḥizkiyyahu can be said to mean something like Strengthened by Yahweh. The main account of Hezekiahs reign is found in 2 Kings 18-20, Isaiah 36-39, and 2 Chronicles 29-32 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. Remnants of the Broad Wall of biblical Jerusalem, built during Hezekiahs days against Sennacheribs siege. According to the Hebrew Bible, Hezekiah assumed the throne of Judah at the age of 25 (2 Chronicles 29:1) 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 in 729 BCE. His sole reign is dated by Albright as 715 – 687 BCE, and by Thiele as 716 – 687 BCE (the last ten years being a co-regency with his son Manasseh). According to the Hebrew Bible, Hezekiah introduced religious reform and reinstated religious traditions. He resolved to abolish idolatry from his kingdom, and among other things that he did to this end, he destroyed the high places (or bamot) and bronze serpent (or Nehushtan), recorded as being made by Moses according to the command of God (Numbers 21:8), which became an object of idolatrous worship (2 Kings 18:4. ). 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. (2 Chronicles 30:5,10,13,26). Hezekiah is portrayed by the Hebrew Bible as a great and good king. He is one of the few kings praised so highly as to have “trusted in the Lord the God of Israel; so that there was no one like him among all the kings of Judah after him, or among those who were before him” (2 Kings 18:5). Hezekiah was the son of King Ahaz and Abijah (2 Chronicles 29:1). His mother, Abijah (also called Abi), was a daughter of the high priest Zechariah (2 Kings 18:1-2). Based on Thieles dating, Hezekiah was born in c. 741 BCE. He was married to Hephzi-bah. (2 Kings 21:1) He died from natural causes at the age of 54 in c. 687 BCE, and was succeeded by his son Manasseh (2 Kings 20:21). Between the death of the Assyrian king Sargon II, and the succession of his son Sennacherib, Hezekiah sought to throw off his subservience to the Assyrian kings. He ceased to pay the tribute imposed on his father, Ahaz, and rebelled against the king of Assyria, and served him not, but entered into a league with Egypt (Isaiah 30-31; 36:6-9). Though Hezekiah expected the Egyptians to come to his aid, they did not come, and Hezekiah had to face the invasion of Judah by Sennacherib (2 Kings 18:13-16) in the 4th year of Sennacherib (701 BC). 2 Kings 19:35 records that during the siege the Angel of the Lord killed 185,000 Assyrian soldiers in a single night. Hezekiah initially paid tribute to Assyria, but then rebelled. 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. (2 Kings 18:14-16) Sennacherib besieged Jerusalem and sent his Rabshakeh to the walls as a messenger. The Rabshakeh addressed the soldiers manning the city wall in Hebrew (Yĕhuwdiyth), asking them to distrust Yahweh and Hezekiah, pointing to Hezekiahs righteous reforms (destroying the High Places) as a sign that the people should not trust their king (2 Kings 18:17-35). The fundamental law in Deuteronomy 12:1-32 prohibits sacrifice at every place except the Temple in Jerusalem. 2 Kings 19:15 records that Hezekiah went to the Temple and there he prayed, the first king of Judah to do so in about 250 years, since the time of Solomon. Hezekiah made at least two major preparations that would help Jerusalem to resist conquest: the construction of Hezekiahs 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 32:2-4). The narratives of the Hebrew Testament state that Sennacherib besieged Jerusalem (Isaiah 33:1; 2 Kings 18:17; 2 Chronicles 32:9; Isaiah 3 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 BCE (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 BCE, 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. The narrative of Hezekiahs 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 20:12-19). 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 Hezekiahs 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. According to Jewish tradition, the victory over the Assyrians and Hezekiahs return to health happened at the same time, the first night of Passover. The Greek historian, Herodotus (c.484 BC – 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. 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. 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 Hezekiahs 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 Abrights or Thieles dating are correct, then Hezekiahs 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 Hezekiahs reign. Dating based on Assyrian records date this invasion to 701 BC, and Hezekiahs reign would therefore begin in 716/715 BC. This dating would be confirmed by the account of Hezekiahs illness in chapter 20, which immediately follows Sennacheribs departure (2 Kings 20). This would date his illness to Hezekiahs 14th year, which is confirmed by Isaiahs statement (2 Kings 20:6) that he will live fifteen more years (29-15=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 Albrights calculations, Jehus initial year is 842 BC; and between it and Samarias 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 (165-120), has been accounted for in various ways; but every one of those theories must allow that Hezekiahs 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. Hezekiahs 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 fathers reign, or gives Hezekiahs 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.
Posted on: Sun, 03 Nov 2013 23:37:46 +0000
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