Hezekiah

HEZEKI'AH (strength of Jehovah). 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. A descendant of the royal house of Judah, 1 Chr 3:23. Ezr 2:16; Neh 7:21. See Ater.