King Hezekiah (715-686 BC) succeeded his father Ahaz on the throne of the Southern Kingdom, Judah, at the age of twenty-five as the 14th Judean king and ruled twenty-nine years (2 Kings 18:2; 2 Chron. 29:1). His mother was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah. Hezekiah’s theophoric name is based on the Hebrew root ḥzq, “to be strong” so the name might have meant “Yahweh (is) my strength” or “Yahweh is strong.”
A large number of biblical records portray Hezekiah as a highly religious man and initiator-of religious reforms (2 Kings 18–20; 2 Chron. 29–32; Isa. 36–39). Even more, it was about him 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; 2 Chron. 29:2, respectively). The same was said about King Josiah of Judah (2 Kings 23:25). It is an idiomatic expression indicating the superlative character of the king; it must not be taken literally. However, at one point, Hezekiah acted contrary to his common pious attitude (2 Chron. 32:25). Hezekiah was involved in the critical international affairs with the Assyrian king Sennacherib during his, most likely, two invasions of Judah sometime after 705 and in 701 BC. He became mortally ill but recovered most likely after Sennacherib’s first invasion. God granted him an extra 15 years of life ruling over Judah (2 Kings 20). Hezekiah also initiated significant construction projects (2 Kings 20:20; 2 Chron. 32:30; Isa. 22:9-11). Also, the numerous extrabiblical sources give substantial insights into Hezekiah’s political activities and personal life.
At the time Hezekiah succeeded Ahaz on the throne, Judah was a vassal of Assyria. In his attempts to please Assyria, Ahaz did not even shy away from modifying the Judean religion (2 Kings 16:10-18), and at one point, he even stopped the services in the Jerusalem temple and closed it (2 Chron. 28:24).
Several years after coming to the throne, Hezekiah initiated the religious reforms that reversed all the pagan elements his father introduced. He removed the high places, demolished Canaanite religious symbols, and destroyed Nehushtan, the bronze serpent made by Moses in the desert, due to its misuses (2 Kings 18:4). Hezekiah also ordered the purification and restoration of Jerusalem’s temple and its cult (2 Chron. 29:3-36). The celebration of the forgotten religious festivals such as Passover (2 Chron. 30:1-27) and the reorganization of the priesthood (2 Chron. 31:2-19) gave a strong impetus to his reforms. The impact of Hezekiah’s reforms was evident even among the remnant of the destroyed Northern Kingdom since they were also invited to celebrate the Passover in Jerusalem (2 Chron. 30:1-11).
Both the biblical and extrabiblical records testify about Hezekiah’s revolt against Assyria during the reign of Sargon II. Among several factors that could have led Hezekiah to such a courageous action against the Assyrian kingdom, two are crucial. First, the Assyrian king Sargon II died on the battlefield in 705 BC. Second, his successor Sennacherib had to deal with numerous revolts throughout the empire after he took the throne. Hezekiah’s rebellion was well and timely planned. He managed to make a series of alliances, with the cities of Ekron and Ashkelon. He most likely had treaties with Babylon, Tyre, and Egypt (2 Kings 18:21; 20:12-15; Isa. 18:1-2; 30:2; 31:1).
Hezekiah also fortified Jerusalem and some of the other Judean cities. However, after Sennacherib managed to pacify the eastern part of his empire, he marched westward. He first dealt with Tyre and Philistia, while the Egyptian army was stationed near Eltekeh (a city north of Jerusalem) and did not support Judah. Assyrian annals claim that Sennacherib besieged and captured 46 cities in Judah and transported their populations to remote parts of his kingdom.
Biblical records also confirm that Hezekiah asked for peace and paid a hefty fine (2 Kings 18:13-16). Judah lost its independence, yet Jerusalem was not destroyed nor captured. King Hezekiah became an Assyrian vassal again but kept his throne. Sennacherib’s annals record a total victory over Judah, and, in contrast to the Old Testament accounts, he did not mention the slaughter of 185 thousand Assyrian soldiers by God’s angel (2 Kings 19:35; Isa. 37:36; cf. 2 Chron. 32:21). The Old Testament also states that political or military unrest-forced Sennacherib to return to the Assyrian capital Nineveh (2 Kings 19:7; Isa. 37:7), where he was killed by two of his sons (2 Kings 19:36-37; Isa. 37:37-38; 2 Chron. 32:21).
Epigraphic records from Syria-Palestine and Assyrian cuneiform texts make multiple references to Hezekiah’s reign. First, over 1,700 storage jars with inscription lmlk, “belonging to the king,” stamped on the handle, were discovered throughout Judah. It seems that these lmlk jars are related to Hezekiah’s preparations for the Assyrian invasion(s), or they point to a time when the jars were used to transport merchandise throughout Judah as soon as Hezekiah rebelled against Assyria. In any case, a wide distribution of these jars in the well-established late eighth-century BC suggests the existence of a central administrative or military center along with the royal involvement in governing Judah. Both of these potential scenarios are related to the reign Hezekiah.
Next was Hezekiah’s tunnel that supplied Jerusalem with a primary water source, the Gihon Spring in the Kidron Valley, inside the city walls to the Pool of Siloam (2 Kings 20:20; 2 Chron. 32:30). It remains accepted by the majority of current biblical scholars, regardless of the challenges. The six-line inscription in classical Hebrew, discovered in 1880 on the tunnel’s wall, describes and celebrates the final phase of the tunnel’s construction in which two teams of workers who dug from opposite ends met in the middle. The tunnel is dated to Hezekiah’s reign and was a part of the national preparations for defending the city against Sennacherib’s invasion.
Third, besides the biblical records (2 Kings 18:13–19:37; Isa. 36-37; 2 Chron. 32:1-22), Herodotus (Hist. 2.141) and Josephus (Ant. 9.13; 10.1–3), the annals of Sennacherib himself (large barrel-shaped cylinders, or prisms, several bull inscriptions, and a fragmentary letter to the god Assur), also contains records of the campaign against Judah. The two most important and complete accounts are found on the Oriental Institute Prism and the Rassam Cylinder, both provide details into Sennacherib’s military activity, including his invasion of Judah, after the death of Sargon II. Assyrian records largely coincide with the biblical report about the plundering of forty-six fortified cities and Sennacherib’s claim that he besieged Jerusalem confining “Ḫa-za-qi-a-ú KUR Ia-ú-da-a-a,” “Hezekiah, the Judean” in the capital like “a caged bird.”
Hezekiah’s religious reforms were significantly undone by the long reign of his son Manasseh, but his example of zeal for and faithfulness to God laid the foundation for the success of future reforms under King Josiah (2 Kings 22-23).