2 Kings 18:1-12

I. GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO THE REIGN OF HEZEKIAH 18:1-12

TRANSLATION

(1) And it came to pass in the third year of Hoshea the son of Elah king of Israel, that Hezekiah the son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign. (2) He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. And the name of his mother was Abi the daughter of Zechariah. (3) And he did that which was right in the eyes of the LORD according to all which David his father had done. (4) He removed the high places, and broke in pieces the pillars, and cut down the Asherah, and smashed the bronze serpent which Moses had made; for unto those days the children of Israel were burning incense to it; and they called it Nehushtan. (5) In the LORD God of Israel did he trust, and after him there was none like him among all the kings of Israel, nor among those who were before him. (6) For he clung to the LORD; he did not turn aside from after Him, and he kept His com mandments which the LORD commanded Moses. (7) And the LORD was with him; whenever he went forth he prospered; and he rebelled against the king of Assyria, and did not serve him. (8) He smote the Philistines unto Gaza, and its borders from the tower of the watchmen unto the fortified city. (9) And it came to pass in the fourth year of King Hezekiahit was the seventh year of Hoshea the son of Elah king of IsraelShalmaneser king of Assyria went up against Samaria and besieged it. (10) And they captured it at the end of three years. In the sixth year of Hezekiahthat was the ninth year of Hoshea king of IsraelSamaria was captured. (11) And the king of Assyria carried Israel away captive to Assyria, and made them settle in Halah and in Habor at the river Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes; (12) because they did not hearken to the voice of the LORD their God, but transgressed His covenant, all which Moses the servant of the LORD com manded, and would not hear them, nor do them.

COMMENTS

From the narrative of the destruction of the Northern Kingdom the writer turns with evident relief to the accession of good King Hezekiah of Judah. On the synchronism between Hezekiah and Hoshea, see the special study at the end of this chapter. Hezekiah began to reign when he was twenty-five and reigned a total of twenty-nine years in Jerusalem, fourteen years before his severe illness and fifteen afterwards (2 Kings 18:2). He receives unqualified praise from the prophetic author of Kings (2 Kings 18:3). Such praise is assigned only to two other kings of JudahAsa (1 Kings 15:11) and Josiah (2 Kings 22:2). It is curious that all three of these godly men were the sons of wicked fathers. Hezekiah's godliness is due, no doubt, to the influence of the prophet Isaiah.

Twelfth King of Judah
HEZEKIAH BEN AHAZ
720-686 B.C.*
(Strength of Yahweh)

2 Kings 18-21; 2 Kings 2 Chronicles 29-32; Isaiah 38, 39

Synchronism
Hezekiah 1 = Hoshea 3
Contemporary Prophets Isaiah; Micah

Mother: Abi

Appraisal: Excellent

The king by judgment establisheth the land: but be that receiveth gifts overtbroweth it. Proverbs 29:4

*coregent from 728 B.C.

According to the Chronicler, the reformation of Hezekiah began on the very first day of his reign. He first reopened the Temple which Ahaz had shut up, removing all the filthiness which Ahaz had allowed to accumulate there (2 Chronicles 29:5). The Temple services were re-established with all due solemnity (2 Chronicles 29:20-35). In the second month of his reign, a grand Passover celebration was observed to which he invited not only his own subjects, but also the Israelites in the North who had not been carried off into captivity (2 Chronicles 30:9; 2 Chronicles 30:11; 2 Chronicles 30:18). It was only at this juncture that the first act of reformation mentioned in Kings took placethe high places of the land were removed. A multitude of those who had kept the Passover feast went forth with religious zeal into the cities of Judah and even several cities of Israel, and cut down the Asherim and smashed the pagan images (cf. 2 Chronicles 31:1). Even the bronze serpent which Moses had erected in the wilderness was destroyed by Hezekiah because it had become an object of worship. For over seven hundred years this serpent had been preserved probably among the furniture of the Tabernacle. The people affectionately referred to it as Nehushtan, the little bronze thing (2 Kings 18:4).

Hezekiah put his trust wholly in the Lord. This was exactly what God required as the condition upon which He would give his aid against the Assyrian (cf. Isaiah 30:1-7). No other king before or after Hezekiah manifested such complete confidence in the Almighty (2 Kings 18:5). Throughout his life he clung to the Lord and did not at the end of his reign fall into transgression like Asa and Azariah before him (cf. 2 Chronicles 16:7-12; 2 Chronicles 26:16-21). He faithfully observed the Law of Moses (2 Kings 18:6), and because of his obedience, the Lord was with him. Of no other king except David is this statement made (cf. 2 Samuel 5:10). The Lord caused the reign of Hezekiah to be prosperous, a point on which the Chronicler elaborates at length (2 Chronicles 32:27-30).

From the very outset of his reign, Hezekiah rebelled against the king of Assyria by withholding the annual tribute from him (2 Kings 18:7). He also attacked certain Philistine cities. These cities had been captured by the Assyrian king S argon and were ruled by Assyrian partisans. Hezekiah's Philistine campaign (2 Kings 18:8) does not seem to have aimed at territorial expansion, but was intended to free the area from Assyrian influence. His efforts in this direction succeeded as far as Gaza, and he was able to liberate the entire area from the smallest and most solitary place (tower of the watchman) to the largest and most populous (fortified city).

It was while godly King Hezekiah was ruling in Jerusalem that God brought the final judgment on Samaria in the person of King Shalmaneser (2 Kings 18:9). The siege lasted parts of three years. At the end of that period, they (not Shalmaneser, but the Assyrian army) took Samaria (2 Kings 18:10). The writer here hints at what generally is held by historians, viz., that it was Sargon rather than Shalmaneser who actually captured Samaria. The king of AssyriaSargoncarried the people of Israel away to the distant eastern provinces of his empire (2 Kings 18:11; cf. 2 Kings 17:6). While he who obeyed the Law of Moses and honored the prophets of God prospered in Jerusalem, those who disobeyed that law, broke the covenant and disregarded the servants of the Lord were punished most severely (2 Kings 18:12).