Hezekiah
King of Judah during the Assyrian siege of Jerusalem
- Reign
- Late 8th – early 7th century BCE (c. 715–686 BCE)
- Kingdom
- Judah
- Known for
- Religious reform; surviving Sennacherib's siege (701 BCE)
- Works
- Siloam tunnel in Jerusalem
- Outside the Bible
- Sennacherib's annals; royal seal impressions
- Main texts
- 2 Kings 18–20; Isaiah 36–39; 2 Chronicles 29–32
The king of Judah who destroyed the bronze serpent and survived Sennacherib's siege, recorded in both the Bible and Assyrian annals.
What is Hezekiah known for?
Hezekiah ruled Judah around the end of the 8th century BCE. 2 Kings 18 credits him with a religious reform that included breaking up the bronze serpent Moses had made, called Nehushtan, because people were burning incense to it.
In 701 BCE the Assyrian king Sennacherib invaded Judah. The Bible says that while Jerusalem was besieged, the angel of the Lord struck 185,000 men in the Assyrian camp in one night, and Sennacherib went home (2 Kings 19:35). Sennacherib's own annals, preserved on clay prisms, boast that he shut Hezekiah up in Jerusalem "like a bird in a cage" and took tribute, but do not claim to have captured the city. Herodotus preserves a separate story of mice destroying an Assyrian army's equipment.
Hezekiah is well attested. Seal impressions bearing his name have been excavated in Jerusalem, and the Siloam tunnel, which brought water into the city, is usually credited to him.
Hezekiah appears in the site's pages on the bronze serpent and on the overnight destruction of Sennacherib's army.
Mentioned on these pages
- Passage185,000 dead in one night (2 Kings 19:35)
- PassageThe bronze serpent (Numbers 21:6–9)
- PersonIsaiah
- PersonSennacherib
Sources
- 2 Kings 18–19 (KJV), Bible GatewayPrimary text
- Wikipedia, 'Hezekiah'Reference
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