Information AboutHezekiah |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT HEZEKIAH | |
| 687 bc deaths | |
| 687 bce deaths | |
| kings of ancient judah | |
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Hezekiah (or '''Ezekias''') ( in the Gospel Of Matthew . William F. Albright has dated his reign to 715 BCE - 687 BCE , while E. R. Thiele offers the dates 716 BCE - 687 BCE . LIFE The account of this king in the Hebrew Bible is contained in ''2 Kings'' 18-20, '' Isaiah '' 36-39, and ''2 Chronicles'' 29-32. These sources portray him as a great and good king, following the example of his great-grandfather Uzziah . He introduced religious reform, reinstated religious traditions. 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 relocated at Jerusalem , and had become an object of idolatrous worship. A great reformation was wrought in the kingdom of Judah in his day (''2 Kings'' 18:4; ''2 Chronicles'' 29:3-36). The author of ''2 Kings'' ends his account of Hezekiah with praise (18:5). Between the death of of the Old City Of Jerusalem . "When Hezekiah saw that ", how in his campaign against Hezekiah ("''Ha-za-qi-(i)a-รบ''") he took 46 cities in this campaign (column 3, line 19 of Taylor Prism ), and besieged Jerusalem ("''Ur-sa-li-im-mu''") with earthworks. Eventually Hezekiah saw Sennacherib's determination, and offered to pay him three hundred Talent s of silver and thirty of gold in tribute, despoiling the Temple to produce the promised amount (18:14-16). The narrative in the Bible states Sennacherib invaded Judah (''Isaiah'' 33:1; ''2 Kings'' 18:17; ''2 Chronicles'' 32:9; ''Isaiah'' 36) and was assassinated by his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer , and Esarhaddon became the Assyrian king. There is also a less miraculous account from the Assyrian side, that Sennacherib raised his siege of Jerusalem after Hezekiah acknowledged Sennacherib as his overlord and paid him tribute. 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 Merodach-baladan , the king of Babylon (''2 Chronicles'' 32:23; ''2 Kings'' 20:12). SEALS Two distinct classes of seal impressions have been found in modern Israel relating to King Hezekiah:
RELIGIOUS REFORMS King Hezekiah introduced substantial religious reforms during his reign. They included the following:
CHRONOLOGICAL PROBLEMS There is considerable uncertainty about the actual dates of his reign. First, the Biblical records conflict, as they do for a number of rulers of Israel and Judah. ''2 Kings'' 18:10 dates the fall of Samaria to the sixth year of Hezekiah's reign, which would make 728 BCE the year of his accession. However, verse 13 of the same chapter states that Sennacherib invaded Judah in the fourteenth year of Hezekiah; the Assyrian records leave little doubt that this invasion took place in 701 BCE , which would fix 715 BCE as Hezekiah's initial year, which would be confirmed by the account of his illness. In chapter 18 of ''2 Kings'' it is stated that during the 14th year of his reign, Sennacherib had returned to pillage Samaria, setting up his base of operations at Lachish and threatening Jerusalem, forcing Hezekiah to pay tribute. As the description in chapter 20 of Hezekiah's illness immediately follows Sennacherib's departure, this would date his illness to his 14th year, which is confirmed by Isaiah's statement that he will live fifteen more years (29-15=14). His fourteenth year being 701 BCE , the first must have been 715 BCE . Another set of calculations show it is probable that Hezekiah did not ascend the throne before 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. Still another date is possible by astronomical calculations. ''2 Kings'' 20:8-11 speaks obscurely about "the shadow" moving "ten degrees" during the above mentioned illness of Hezekiah (as does ''Isaiah'' 38:7f). Professor that casts a shadow on a plane that is perpendicular to it. The shadow can move ahead for a while, then it can move backward on that plane. , so Isaiah comforted the king on May 3 . An alternative interpretation of Hezekiah's reign spans 's attack in 701 was either a second campaign or that the reference to it being in Hezekiah's 14th year is a corruption. RESOURCES
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