Ezechias

Ezechias (Hebrew = "The Lord strengtheneth"; Septuagint Ezekias; 
in the cuneiform inscriptions Ha-za-qi-ya-hu). 

King of Juda, son and successor of Achaz. We learn from Second 
Kings, Chapter 18, that he began his reign in the third year of 
Osee, King of Israel, that he was then twenty-five years of age, 
that his reign lasted twenty-nine years, and that his mother was 
Abi, daughter of Zecharias. The account of his reign is beset with 
unsolved chronological difficulties, and there exists a difference 
of opinion among scholars as to the year in which he ascended the 
throne. The commonly received computation reckons his reign from 
726 to 697 B.C. In character and policy, Ezechias was pious and 
agreeable to God. He was a strenuous civil and religious reformer, 
and on this account the sacred writer compares him to King David. 
The events of his reign are related in the Fourth Book of Kings, 
and also in the parallel account in the Second Book of Chronicles, 
but in the latter, as might be expected, stress is laid chiefly on 
the religious reforms which he carried out, whereas the earlier 
account mentions these briefly, and dwells at greater length on 
the civil and political aspects of his reign. 

Among the religious reforms are mentioned the purification of the 
Temple, which had been closed by Achaz, the irreligious 
predecessor of Ezechias (II Chronicles 28-29), the resumption and 
proper celebration of the feast of the Passover which had been 
neglected (II Chronicles 30), and in general the extirpation of 
idolatry, and the reorganization of the Hebrew worship (II Kings 
18, II Chronicles 31). In a title prefixed to the twenty-fifth 
chapter of Proverbs, it is stated that the sayings contained in 
the following collection (25-29) were copied out by the "men of 
Ezechias." This would seem to indicate, on the part of the king, 
some literary interest and activity, and in the Talmudic tradition 
these "men of Ezechias" are credited with the composition of 
several books of the Old Testament. Soon after his accession to 
the throne Ezechias threw off the yoke of the Assyrians, to whom 
his father had become a vassal (II Kings 18). Other notable events 
of his reign are his sickness and miraculous cure, the embassy of 
Berodach Baladan, and the invasion of Sennacherib. The story of 
the sickness of Ezechias is narrated in II Kings 20, and in Isaiah 
28. 

The king having been stricken with some mortal disease, the 
prophet Isaiah comes in the name of Yahweh to warn him to put his 
affairs in order, for he is about to die. But Ezechias prays to 
the Lord, Who sends the prophet back to announce to him that he 
will recover, and that fifteen years are to be added to his life. 
As a sign of the fulfilment of this promise, Isaiah causes the 
shadow to recede a distance of ten lines on the sundial. Connected 
with this event is the sending of an embassy by Berodach Baladan, 
King of Babylon, who having heard of the illness of Ezechias, sent 
messengers to him with presents. The motive of this action on the 
part of the Babylonian king was probably to enlist the services of 
Ezechias in a league against Sennacherib, King of Assyria. 
Ezechias received the envoys with great honour, and exhibited to 
them his various treasures and armaments of war. This spirit of 
ostentation was displeasing to the Lord, and Isaiah was sent to 
announce that the treasures, in which the king seemed to place his 
confidence, would be all carried off as plunder to Babylon. Not 
long after (according to the cuneiform inscriptions, in the year 
701), Sennacherib undertook a great campaign against Syria and 
Egypt. The story of this expedition is told, from the Assyrian 
standpoint, in the official cuneiform inscription known as the 
Taylor prism. The plan of Sennacherib was, first, to vanquish the 
kings of Ascalon, Sidon and Juda who had formed a coalition 
against him, and then to turn his attention to the land of the 
Pharaohs. 

After subduing Ascalon and Accaron, the Assyrian invader captured 
and plundered all the fortified towns of Juda, and carried their 
inhabitants into exile. Then he besieged Jerusalem, and Ezechias, 
finding himself shut up "like a bird in a cage," resolved to come 
to terms with his enemy. Sennacherib demanded thirty talents of 
gold and three hundred talents of silver, and, in order to supply 
it, Ezechias was obliged to yield up not only the contents of the 
royal treasury, but also the silver belonging to th e Temple, and 
the plates of gold which were on the doors thereof (II Kings 18). 
But when in addition to this, the Assyrian demanded the surrender 
of Jerusalem with a view to carrying its inhabitants into exile, 
the courage of Ezechias was revived, and he prepared himself for a 
vigorous resistance. Haughty demands of surrender were repulsed, 
and the king taking counsel with the prophet Isaiah turned in 
supplication to Yahweh; he received the assurance that the enemy 
would soon abandon the siege without doing any harm to the city. 
This prophecy was shortly verified when the angel of the Lord 
having slain in the night 185,000 of the besieging forces, the 
remainder fled with Sennacherib, and returned to Assyria. Echezias 
survived this deliverance only a few years, and he was buried with 
great pomp in the tomb of the sons of David (II Kings 20:21; II 
Chronicles 32:33). 

JAMES F. DRISCOLL 
Transcribed by Sean Hyland 


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