hezekiah Summary and Overview

whom Jehovah has strengthened. (1.) 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). (See SENNACHERIB T0003273.) 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). (See ISAIAH T0001895.)

(the might of Jehovah). 1. Twelfth king of Judah, son of the apostate Ahaz and Abi or Abijah, ascended the throne at the age of 25, B.C. 726. Hezekiah was one of the three most perfect kings of Judah. #2Ki 18:5| Ecclus. 49:4. His first act was to purge and repair and reopen with splendid sacrifices and perfect ceremonial the temple. He also destroyed a brazen serpent, said to have been the one used by Moses in the miraculous healing of the Israelites, #Nu 21:9| which had become an object of adoration. When the kingdom of Israel had fallen, Hezekiah invited the scattered inhabitants to a peculiar passover, which was continued for the unprecedented period of fourteen days. #2Ch 29:30,31| At the head of a repentant and united people, Hezekiah ventured to assume the aggressive against the Philistines and in a series of victories not only rewon the cities which his father had lost, #2Ch 28:18| but even dispossessed them of their own cities except Gaza, #2Ki 18:8| and Gath. He refused to acknowledge the supremacy of Assyria. #2Ki 18:7| Instant war was imminent and Hezekiah used every available means to strengthen himself. #2Ki 20:20| It was probably at this dangerous crisis in his kingdom that we find him sick and sending for Isaiah, who prophesies death as the result. #2Ki 20:1| Hezekiah's prayer for longer life is heard. The prophet had hardly left the palace when he was ordered to return and promise the king immediate recovery and fifteen years more of life. #2Ki 20:4| An embassy coming from Babylon ostensibly to compliment Hezekiah on his convalescence, but really to form an alliance between the two powers, is favorably received by the king, who shows them the treasures which he had accumulated. For this Isaiah foretells the punishment that shall befall his house. #2Ki 20:17| The two invasions of Sennacherib occupy the greater part of the scripture records concerning the reign of Hezekiah. The first of these took place in the third year of Sennacherib, B.C. 702, and occupies only three verses. #2Ki 18:13-16| Respecting the commencement of the second invasion we have full details in #2Ki 18:17| seq.; 2Chr 32:9 seq.; Isai 36:1 ... Sennacherib sent against Jerusalem an army under two officers and his cupbearer, the orator Rabshakeh, with a blasphemous and insulting summons to surrender; but Isaiah assures the king he need not fear, promising to disperse the enemy. #2Ki 19:6,7| Accordingly that night "the angel of the Lord went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred fourscore and five thousand." Hezekiah only lived to enjoy for about one year more his well-earned peace and glory. He slept with his fathers after a reign of twenty-nine years, in the 56th year of his age, B.C. 697. 2. Son of Neariah, one of the descendants of the royal family of Judah. #1Ch 3:23| 3. The same name, though rendered in the Authorized Version HIZKIAH, is found in #Zep 1:1| 4. Ater of Hezekiah. [ATER]

HEZEKI'AH (strength of Jehovah). 1. A distinguished king of Judah, the son and successor of the apostate Ahaz. He ascended the throne b.c. 726, at the age of 25, and ruled 29 years, till b.c. 697. He was one of the three best kings of Judah, and an eminently godly man. 2 Kgs 18:5; 2 Chr 29:2. He restored the Mosaic institutions to honor. He accomplished the abolition of idolworship in his kingdom, 2 Kgs 18:4, 2 Kgs 18:22, and tore down the high places, which had been dedicated to idolatry. He also broke in pieces the brazen serpent of Moses, which had become the object of idolatrous regard, 2 Kgs 18:4. During his reign the temple was repaired, 2 Chr 29:3 sqq., and the Passover celebrated with festivities that had not been equalled for magnificence and solemnity since the days of Solomon and David, 2 Chr 30:26. A proclamation was sent from Dan to Beersheba inviting the tribes to come to Jerusalem to keep the Passover, 2 Chr 30:5, and as a result of the convocation a national religious zeal broke out, 2 Chr 31:1. Another illustration of Hezekiah's godly zeal in the cause of religion is found in the high esteem in which he held Isaiah the prophet, whom he frequently consulted, 2 Kgs 19:3; Isa 37:2. The political career of Hezekiah was an active one. He warred against the Philistines, and regained what his father had lost, 2 Kgs 18:8. He rebelled against the domination of Assyria, 2 Kgs 18:7. In the fourteenth year of his reign Sennacherib invaded his kingdom with an immense army. Rabshakeh was sent out in advance, and endeavored to intimidate Hezekiah into submission, and insolently insulted him under the walls, 2 Kgs 18:19 sqq. Hezekiah had recourse to Isaiah, who gave assurance of the assistance of the Lord, 2 Kgs 19:6. The prediction came true, and by a sudden judgment of the Almighty the Assyrian host was decimated and put to flight, 2 Kgs 19:35. This event is referred to by the three historians of Hezekiah's reign as a supernatural event. 2 Kgs 19:35; 2 Chr 32:21; Isa 37:36. Hezekiah formed an alliance with Egypt, 2 Kgs 18:21, and was rich and prosperous. 2 Kgs 18:7; 2 Chr 32:27-29. In the events of his private life, one is noted of peculiar significance. The king became sick unto death, and Isaiah uttered his doom in the words, "Thou shalt die, and not live," 2 Kgs 20:1. Turning his face to the wall, he lamented the event and prayed God to avert it. Isaiah, passing out into the court, was checked by the word of the Lord, and commanded to return and to announce the prolongation of the king's life 15 years, 2 Kgs 20:5. As a sign of the cure the dial was made to go back ten degrees, 2 Kgs 20:10. Another event of note in Hezekiah's life was the punishment pronounced upon his house by Isaiah, 2 Kgs 20:17, for the display he made of his riches to the messengers of the king of Babylon, who had come to congratulate him upon his recovery. Hezekiah died in honor and was buried in the "highest of the sepulchres of the sons of David," 2 Chr 32:33. 1. A descendant of the royal house of Judah, 1 Chr 3:23. 2. Ezr 2:16; Neh 7:21. See Ater.

("strength of Jehovah".) 1. Twelfth king of Judah; son of the unbelieving Ahaz and Abi or Abijah; ascended the throne at the age of 25 in 726 B.C. Of his faithfulness it is written (2 Kings 18:5) "he trusted in the Lord God of Israel, so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor any that were before him, for he clave to the Lord, and departed not from following Him but kept His commandments." Probably his mother, being daughter of Zechariah "who had understanding in the visions of God" (2 Chronicles 26:5), was pious, and her influence counteracted the bad example of his father. In the very first year and first month of his reign the Lord put it "in his heart to make a covenant with the Lord God of Israel" (2 Chronicles 29), so he opened and repaired the doors of the Lord's house which had been "shut up," and charged the Levites not to be negligent but to "sanctify" the house and "carry forth the filthiness out of the holy place," and to light the lamps, to burn incense, and to offer burnt offerings as in former times; all which, to the shame and disaster of Judah, had latterly been neglected. They did so, and moreover sanctified all the vessels which Ahaz had "cast away in his transgression." Then an atonement was made for the kingdom, the sanctuary, and Judah, with a sin offering of seven bullocks, seven rams, seven lambs, and seven he-goats; then followed the burnt offering, while "the Levite singers sang with the words of David and Asaph the seer, and the trumpets sounded." The priests were too few to flay the burnt offerings which the congregation "of a free heart" brought in; therefore the Levites helped them "until the other priests had sanctified themselves, for the Levites were more upright in heart to sanctify themselves than the priests." So "Hezekiah rejoiced that God had prepared the people, for the thing was done suddenly." Then followed the Passover, in the second month, "because the priests had not sanctified themselves sufficiently, neither had the people gathered themselves together to Jerusalem," so as to keep it in the regular month (Numbers 9:10-11; compare Exodus 12:6; Exodus 12:18). Hezekiah by letter invited not only Judah, but also Ephraim and Manasseh, to it: "Ye children of Israel, turn again unto the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, and He will return to the remnant of you, escaped out of the hand of the king of Assyria." The majority "laughed the messengers to scorn; nevertheless, divers of Asher, Manasseh, and Zebulun (Ephraim and Issachar also) humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem." Also "in Judah the hand of God was to give them one heart to do the commandment of the king by the word of the Lord" (2 Chronicles 30:2; 2 Chronicles 30:12; 2 Chronicles 30:18; 2 Chronicles 30:23; Jeremiah 32:39). Owing to the want of priests several were not duly cleansed and sanctified, yet did eat the Passover; but Hezekiah prayed for them, "the good Lord pardon every one that prepareth his heart to seek God, though he be not cleansed according to the purification of the sanctuary." So "the Lord hearkened to Hezekiah and healed the people." "And Hezekiah spoke comfortably unto all the Levites that taught the good knowledge of the Lord," assuring them of God's pardon upon their "making confession to the Lord God" for the people, so that "the whole assembly took counsel and kept other seven days with gladness." "So there was great joy in Jerusalem, for since Solomon's time there was not the like ... and the priests blessed the people ... and their prayer came up to the Lord's holy place, even unto heaven." Next, all Israel present went out to break the images, cut down the groves, and throw down the high places and altars out of all Judah and Benjamin, in Ephraim also and Manasseh, until they had utterly destroyed them all. (See ASHTORETH; Asheerah.) "Hezekiah also broke in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses made," for previously "Israel did burn intense to it, and he called it Nehushtan" (piece of brass, nothing better: 2 Kings 18:4); a practical condemnation of "relics" when superstitiously venerated. Yet in spite of the warning the brazen serpent was reverenced by professing Christians in the church of Ambrose at Milan! (Prideaux, Connex., 1:19). The Passover must have been five or six years later than the purification of the temple, which was in Hezekiah's first year; for it was not until the sixth year of Hezekiah that the king of Assyria took Samaria (ver. 9-10); its fall prepared many in Israel to accept humbly Hezekiah's invitation (2 Chronicles 30:6; 2 Chronicles 30:9). Hezekiah also provided for the maintenance of the priests and Levites by commanding the payment of tithes; he ordered also their courses of service, and "in every work that he began in the service of the house of God, and in the law, and in the commandments, to seek his God, he did it with all his heart and prospered": a good motto for Christians (Colossians 3:23). Isaiah the prophet was the great supporter of Hezekiah in his pious efforts; but not without opposition from drunken scoffers, who asked "whom shall he (Isaiah) teach knowledge? them that are weaned from the milk?" i.e., does he take us for babes just weaned, that he presumes to teach us? (Isaiah 28:9) "for precept upon precept, line upon line, here a little and there a little," i.e., for he is constantly repeating the same thing as if to little children, and as one teaching young beginners how to make the strokes of a letter and join line to line; the scorners imitated Isaiah's stammering like repetitions, in Hebrew tsaw latsar, qaw laqaw. The simplicity of divine teaching offends proud scorners (2 Kings 5:11-12; 1 Corinthians 1:23); but children in knowledge needed to be spoken to in children's language (Matthew 13:13). Isaiah replies, You will have a sterner teacher with stammering and foreign speech to convict you of unbelief (Isaiah 28). Ahaz the former king's counselors recommended worldly alliances and compromises of principle for political expediency, instead of Isaiah's counsel to rest on Jehovah alone. Shebna was one of these half hearted, self indulgent, and ostentatious officers at court. His father's name is not given, though his office is," the scribe" (2 Kings 18:18; 2 Kings 19:2); whereas the fathers of Eliakim and Joah, with Shebna, are named. The reason appears quite incidentally in Isaiah 22:15, "Say unto Shebna ... this treasurer over the house (prefect of the palace), What hast thou here? and whom hast thou here, that thou hast hewed thee out a sepulchre here?" i.e. as being a foreigner (his name is un-Hebrew like, he was probably a Syrian brought from abroad to Ahaz' court) thou hast no paternal burying place or kindred here. He was degraded; but (probably upon his repentance) the lower yet honourable office of "scribe" or secretary of state was given him, and in that office he is mentioned as if faithful (Isaiah 37:2, etc.), so that the sentence of exile and humiliation, "tossed like a ball into a large country, and there the chariots of his glory becoming the shame of his lord's house," was apparently reversed, though Jewish tradition says he was tied to the horses' tails by the enemy to whom he designed to betray Jerusalem, but who thought he mocked them. (See ELIAKIM.) It is possible that, unwarned by the past, he relapsed into treachery, and then were fulfilled Isaiah's prophetic threats, which but for his relapse would have been averted, and which were temporarily suspended. Hezekiah recovered from the Philistines all the cities which his father Ahaz had lost, namely, of "the low country and the S. of Judah, Bethshemesh, Ajalon, Gederoth, Shocho, Timnah, Gimzo" with their dependent villages, "the Lord having brought Judah low because Ahaz had made Judah naked, and transgressed sore against the Lord" (2 Chronicles 28:18-19). "Hezekiah smote them even unto Gaza (Gaza and Gath alone remained to them: Josephus, Ant. 9:13, section 3), from the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city" (2 Kings 18:8). This was foretold by Isaiah (Isaiah 14:29-30): "Rejoice not thou, whole Palestina, because the God of him that smote thee (Uzziah, 2 Chronicles 26:6) is broken (namely, under Ahaz), for out of the serpent's (as Uzziah was regarded by the Philistines) root shall come forth a cockatrice," an adder, to the Philistines, Hezekiah; "and the firstborn of the poor (the poorest) shall feed" in safety, instead of constant alarms of Philistine invasions. Hezekiah bore for a time the yoke of tribute imposed by the Assyrian Tiglath Pileser on Ahaz (2 Kings 16:7); but having spent much on the Philistine war, trusting in the aid of Egypt, be now ventured to withhold payment from Assyria. Shalmaneser had begun, and Sargon had just terminated, the siege of Samaria (Isaiah 20:1; Isaiah 20:4; Isaiah 20:6; 2 Kings 17:6; 2 Kings 17:24; 2 Kings 18:7; 2 Kings 18:7; 2 Kings 18:9-10 "THEY took it," 11). Sargon moreover removed some of the Israelites to "the cities of the Medes"; the Scripture herein being confirmed by Assyrian monuments which mention his seizing and annexing several Median cities, to which Assyrian policy would of course transplant distant colonists. Light years subsequent to Samaria's fall, in Hezekiah's fourteenth year, Sennacherib, in the third year of his reign according to Assyrian records, undertook his first expedition against Judah. In the interval between Samaria's fall and this invasion Tyre's gallant resistance under their king Elulaeus had forced the Assyrians to retire after a five years' siege. Hezekiah had used this interval to "stop the waters of the fountains without the city, stopping the upper watercourse (rather 'spring head') of Gihon (i.e. the spring source of the Kedron stream, Nachal being the valley E. of the city, Ge the valley W. and S. of the city), and bringing it straight down to the W. side of the city of David" (i.e into the valley separating mount Moriah and Zion from the upper city (2 Chronicles 32:3-4; 2 Chronicles 32:13; 2 Chronicles 32:30): Zion must therefore have lain on the N. not on the S.W. of the city, so that the water brought to the W. of it should be inside not outside the city); also building up the broken wall (using the materials of the houses which they broke down for the purpose), and raising it up to the towers, and another wall without, and repairing Millo in the city of David, and making darts and shields in abundance. Hezekiah also "gathered together the waters of the lower pool," i.e. brought into the city by subterranean passages in Zion rock the waters from the fountain which supplied the lower pool (Isaiah 22:9-11; Isaiah 7:3; 2 Kings 20:20). "He also made a ditch between the two walls for the water of the old pool," i.e. the lower pool's water he diverted to a new tank in the city between the two walls. His words too cheered the hearts of his captains and people, being the language of faith: "there be more with us than with him; with him is an arm of flesh, but with us is the Lord our God to fight our battles." So "the people rested themselves upon his words." (See JERUSALEM.) Sennacherib undertook two expeditions against Judah. In the first he took all Judah's fenced cities, and Hezekiah sent saying, "I have offended; return from me, that which thou puttest upon me I will bear"; and "the king of Assyria appointed 300 talents of silver, and 30 talents of gold." The monuments confirm this Scripture statement: "because Hezekiah king of Judah would not submit, I took 46 of his strong fenced cities ... and from these, as spoil, 200,150 people, with horses, asses, camels, oxen, and sheep; and Hezekiah himself I shut up in Jerusalem, like a bird in a cage, building towers round the city to hem him in, and raising banks of earth against the gates .... Then Hezekiah sent out to me the chiefs with 30 talents of gold and 800 talents of silver ... by way of tribute." The patriotism of the Hebrew historian (2 Kings 18) suppresses the ravages, advance on the capital, and the siege; but Isaiah (2 Kings 10:28-32; 2 Kings 22:1-14; 2 Kings 22:2 Kings 24; 2 Kings 29) more vividly than even Sennacherib's annalist, notices all. In the main facts there is a singular agreement between the sacred and the secular records, the variation in the number of talents of silver being probably due to the Hebrew recording the number appointed as permanent tribute, the Assyrian the whole that was actually carried off. The inscriptions record that Ekron had submitted to Hezekiah and delivered their king Padi up to him because of his adherence to Assyria. Sennacherib recovered Padi from Jerusalem and seated him again on the throne. Hezekiah's sickness must have occurred just before Sennacherib's expedition, for God assures him (Isaiah 38:6), "I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city," in the 14th year of Hezekiah's reign. Moreover, 15 years was the addition promised by God to his life, which added to the 14 years would give 29 years, the actual number of years in all that he reigned. His sickness was owing to an inflammatory carbuncle and abscess. Having then no heir, he shrank from death with a fear scarcely worthy of a believer. God granted his earnest prayer; "afore Isaiah had gone out into the middle court the word of the Lord came to him," i.e. when he had just left Hezekiah and Hezekiah was in the act of praying, after having heard God's message, "thou shalt die." God hears while His children are yet speaking (Isaiah 65:24; Psalm 32:5; Daniel 9:21). Our wishes, when gratified, often prove curses. Three years afterward Hezekiah had a son, Manasseh, the chief cause of God's wrath against Judah and of the overthrow of the kingdom (2 Kings 23:26-27). God gave Hezekiah as a sign of recovery the recession of the shadow ten degrees on Ahaz's (See DIAL, an obelisk in the midst of the court, the shadow of which could be seen by Hezekiah from his sick chamber, falling on the successive steps ascending to his palace. Hezekiah composed a thanksgiving hymn for his, recovery, based on the psalms of David, which he had restored to liturgical use in the temple. The beginning rests on Psalm 102:2, the first half of verse 11 on Psalm 27:13 (chedel), "the world" or age soon ceasing, is from chaadal "to cease"; usually written cheled, this transitory world, Psalm 49:1); verse 18 on Psalm 6:5; Psalm 30:9; the beginning of verse 20 on Psalm 70:1. (See HEPHZIBAH.) Hezekiah did not disbelieve in a future state, but regarded the disembodied state as one wherein men cannot declare the praises of God before men, it is as to this world an unseen land of stillness, the living alone can praise God on earth. That the true view was at the time held of the blessedness of the sleeping saints Isaiah 57:1-2 proves. A cake of figs was the instrument used for the cure; God can make effectual the simplest means. Sennacherib's object in his second expedition was Egypt, Hezekiah's ally. Hence with the great body of his army he advanced toward Egypt by S.W. Israel, and did not himself approach Jerusalem; this was two years after the former invasion. The Assyrian annals are silent as to Sennacherib's second expedition in the fifth year of his reign, which began by his "treacherously" (Isaiah 33:1) attacking Lachish, and which ended in the destruction recorded in 2 Kings 19:35; for, unlike the faithful Jewish historians, they never record any of their monarch's disasters. (See LACHISH.) But the disaster is tacitly deducible in the Assyrian records from the discontinuance subsequently of expeditions by Sennacherib westward further than Cilicia. The Assyrians did not resume aggression upon southern Syria and Egypt until the close of Esarhaddon's reign. Moreover the Egyptian priests told Herodotus, from their records, that, a century and a half before Cambyses, Sennacherib led a host of Assyrians and Arabs to the Egyptian border where king Sethos met them near Pelusium on the E. of the Nile; and that swarms of field mice ate the Assyrians' quivers, bowstrings, and shield thongs in the night, so in the morning, they fled, and multitudes fell, having no arms to defend themselves. Sethos erected a monument, a man in stone with a mouse in his hand, and the inscription, "Look on me and learn to reverence the gods." The mouse symbolized ruin (1 Samuel 6:4-5); the story arose out of this symbolical statue, not the statue out of the literal story. Sennacherib, according to Assyrian inscriptions, which mention the 22nd year of his reign, lived about 17 years after the invasion and was slain by his two sons. Isaiah, while disapproving of trust in Egypt, regarded the voluntarily offered aid of the tall and warlike Ethiopians as providential (Isaiah 18:1-2; Isaiah 18:7). "Ho (not Woe!) to the land of the winged bark," or else "to the land of the clanging sound of wings" (i.e. armies). To Ethiopia Isaiah announces the overthrow of Sennacherib the common foe, and desires the Ethiopian ambassadors, then at Jerusalem, to carry the tidings to their people. frontTIRHAKAH'S coming forth to encounter Sennacherib created a diversion in favor of Judaea. In the former invasion Sennacherib in his first, expedition inflicted a decisive blow on the united forces of Egypt and Ethiopia at Altagu (possibly the Eltekon of Joshua 15:59); but now he was forced to raise the siege of Pelusium by Tirhakah, and send an imperious letter to Hezekiah by Rabshakeh, whose sneers at his religious reforms in removing the high places (2 Kings 18:22-32) and flattering promises in fluent Hebrew to the people favor the idea that he was a renegade Jew. Hezekiah's simple childlike faith appears in his spreading the foe's insolent, letter before the Lord. His faith received an immediate answer of peace; 185,000 were slain by the angel of the Lord in the "night," perhaps by "the plague that, walketh in darkness" (2 Kings 19:35, with which Isaiah 37:36 undesignedly accords, "when they arose early in the morning".) In this second expedition, according to Jehovah's word, Sennacherib did not "come before the city with shields, nor cast a bank against it" (Isaiah 37:33); whereas in the first he shut Hezekiah up as a "bird in a cage" also "raising banks of earth against the gates." It is possible Rabshakeh took the army with him from Jerusalem to Libnah on the borders of Egypt (ver. 8), and that the destruction occurred there, which accords with the Egyptian story to Herodotus above; the Lord's words "he shall not shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shields" seem corrupted into the Egyptian legend of the mice gnawing the bowstrings and shield straps. In Sennacherib's account of his wars with Hezekiah, inscribed with cuneiform characters in the hall of the palace of Koyunjik built by him (140 ft. long by 120 ft. wide), wherein the Jewish physiognomy of the captives is discernible, after mentioning the capture of the 200,150 Jews he adds, "then I prayed unto God," the only instance of God's name in an inscription without a pagan adjunct. On returning to Nineveh Sennacherib, according to Tobit 1:18, revenged himself on the Jews then in his power; but that apocryphal book makes him die 55 days afterward, whereas 17 years elapsed: see above. In Isaiah 39, an embassy from Merodach Baladan to Hezekiah is recorded. He congratulated Hezekiah on his recovery, and sent also a present. About this time precisely it was that Babylon had revolted from Assyria, and set up an independent kingdom. Scripture calls him "king of Babylon," though both before and after him Babylon was subject to Assyria. This is an undesigned coincidence of Scripture with secular history, confirming the truth of the former. The Assyrian inscriptions say he reigned twice, and that Sennacherib in his first year expelled him and set up Belib in his stead. Probably he recovered the Babylonian kingdom when Sennacherib was weakened by his disaster in Judea, and sent the embassy not merely to congratulate Hezekiah on his recovery but mainly to court Hezekiah's alliance, as having like himself cast off the Assyrian yoke. Hence arose Hezekiah's excessive attention to his ambassadors. But how had Hezekiah such a store of precious things? Either the transaction was before Hezekiah's straits when he had to cut off the gold from the doors and pillars of the temple, to give to the Assyrian king. (Then Merodach Baladan's embassy would be during his earlier reign at Babylon, in Sargon's time, 713 B.C.; whereas his second reign fell in 703 B.C., five or six years before the date of Hezekiah's death (these dates are deduced from the Assyrian records, if they be trustworthy). The chronology favors the view that Hezekiah's sickness and Merodach Baindan's embassy were some years before Sennacherib, in the first reign of Merodach Baladan). Or the more probable (though the dates cause difficulty) explanation is in 2 Chronicles 32:22-23; "thus the Lord saved Hezekiah from Sennacherib .... And many brought gifts unto the Lord (doubtless impressed with His great majesty and power in the miraculous destruction of the Assyrians) to Jerusalem, and presents to Hezekiah king of Judah; so that he was magnified in the sight of all nations from thenceforth." The spoils of the Assyrian army left in panic, as on a different occasion (2 Kings 7:15), would add to Hezekiah's wealth. The sending of the embassy so long after his recovery is accounted for by Babylon being then regarded in respect to Judah as "a far country" (Isaiah 39:3), also by the impossibility of sending sooner during Sennacherib's invasion; moreover another object of the princes of Babylon, which was famed for astronomy, was "to enquire of the wonder that was done in the land" (2 Chronicles 32:25-26; 2 Chronicles 32:31), i.e. the recession of the shadow on Ahaz's dial. Hezekiah was "glad"; it was not the act but the ostentatious spirit, and the unbelief tempting him to rest on Babylon, proud of its alliance, instead of on Jehovah, which called forth God's retributive threat that Babylon, the instrument of his and Judah's sin, should be the instrument of their punishment (Isaiah 39:5-7); fulfilled 120 years afterward. Ingratitude to God, and pride, were his fault in this affair; "Hezekiah rendered not again according to the benefit done unto him, for his heart was lifted up," "God leaving him to try him, that He might kow all that was in his heart" (Deuteronomy 8:2). But when the believer's foot slides, it slides the deeper into humility. First, Hezekiah frankly confessed "all"; unlike Saul and Asa, submitting to God's servant though his subject (Isaiah 39:4; 2 Chronicles 16:7-10; 1 Samuel 15:20-21), and "humbling himself for the pride of his heart," and "accepting the punishment of his iniquity" (Leviticus 26:41) meekly, and even finding cause for thanksgiving in the mitigating fact foretold by implication, "there shall be peace and truth in my days." Not the language of mere selfishness, but of one feeling that the national corruption must at last lead to the threatened judgment, and thanking God for the stroke being deferred yet for a time. The prophecy of the carrying away to Babylon, in the form of a rebuke, forms the connecting link between the former portion of Isaiah's prophecies (Isaiah 1-39), which relate to the deliverance from Assyria, and the latter (Isaiah 40-66) as to the deliverance from Babylon, more than a century and a half later. Psalm 46 and Psalm 76 commemorate Sennacherib's overthrow. Two coincidences in Psalm 46 occur: "the city of God" (verse 4) is that wherein" God is in the midst," so that "she shall not be moved," just as history states that the mother city Jerusalem alone escaped, whereas "all the defensed cities of Judah" fell before Sennacherib (Isaiah 36:1); also in verse 10, "Be still and know that I am God, I will be exalted in the earth," is God's reply to Hezekiah's prayer, "O Lord our God save us, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that Thou art the Lord" (Isaiah 37:20). Also verse 5," God shall help her ... right early," Hebrew at the turning of the morning (Psalm 30:5 ff). On the previous night the cause of the city of God seemed desperate and the Assyrian triumphant, but "when they (the Jews) arose early in the morning, behold they (the Assyrians) were all dead corpses" (Isaiah 37:36). In Isaiah 37:8-10 Sennacherib's overthrow is made the earnest of the final cessation of wars throughout the earth under the Prince of Peace, after He shall have made "desolations" of the adversary. Psalm 76:3, "there broke He the arrows of the bow ... shield ... sword ... battle," implies that by one stroke at Jerusalem (which opposes the view that Libnah was the scene of the Assyrian overthrow) God ended completely the war. Psalm 76:6; Psalm 76:8 imply that it was by Jehovah's direct interposition. The "death sleep" of the host at God's rebuke is described vividly (Psalm 76:5-6), the camp so recently full of life now lying still as death. "The stout hearted are spoiled, they have slept their sleep .... At Thy rebuke, O God of Jacob, both the chariot and horse are cast into a dead sleep." God's "cutting off the breath (spirit) of princes" (Psalm 76:12) implies probably that Rabshakeh and other leaders fell on the same night. "Let all that be round about Him bring presents unto Him that ought to be feared" (Psalm 76:11) accords with the fact recorded 2 Chronicles 32:22-23. The assurance of God's help in Psalm 75 accords with Isaiah 37:21-35; also the omission of the N. among the quarters from from whence help is expected accords with the Assyrian attack being from the N. Hezekiah died in his 56th year after a 29 years' reign, 697 B.C. He was buried "in the chiefest (or highest) of the sepulchres of the sons of David, and all Judah and Jerusalem did him honour at his death" (Proverbs 10:7). His "acts and goodness were written in the vision of Isaiah ... and in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel" (2 Chronicles 32:32-33). A fitting accompaniment of the religious reformation he wrought was his setting" the men of Hezekiah" (Isaiah, Micah, Joah, etc.) to "copy out" some of the 3,000 proverbs which Solomon spoke 300 years before: thus he brought forth the word of God from its obscurity (1 Kings 4:32; Ecclesiastes 12:9; Proverbs 25:1). 2. Son of Neariah, of Judah (1 Chronicles 3:23; Zephaniah 1:1).