Home

HEZEKIAH

by Wikipedia

(All Bible "PROOF" edited out.)

Hezekiah is the common transliteration of a name more properly transliterated as "Ḥizkiyyahu." (Hebrew: חִזְקִיָּ֫הוּ or יְחִזְקִיָּ֫הוּ, Modern {{{2}}} Tiberian {{{3}}}; Greek: Ἐζεκίας, Ezekias, in the Septuagint; Latin: Ezechias).

Hezekiah witnessed the forced resettlement of the northern Kingdom of Israel by Sargon's Assyrians in c 720 BCE and was king of Judah during the invasion and siege of Jerusalem by Sennacherib in 701 BCE.

The invasion of Judah by Sennacherib and the Assyrian army was a major and well documented historical event. Sennacherib recorded on his monumental inscription, "The Prism of Sennacherib", how in his campaign against Hezekiah ("Ha-za-qi-(i)a-ú") he took 46 cities in this campaign (column 3, line 19 of the Sennacherib prism), and besieged Jerusalem ("Ur-sa-li-im-mu") with earthworks.[6] Herodotus wrote of the invasion and acknowledges many Assyrian deaths, which he claims were the result of a plague of mice.[7]

The Assyrians claimed that Sennacherib raised his siege of Jerusalem after Hezekiah acknowledged Sennacherib as his overlord and paid him tribute[9].

Assyrian records show that Sennacherib was assassinated by his sons, Adrammelech and Sharezer, in 681 BCE - ie., twenty years after the invasion of Judah in 701 BCE.[10] He was succeeded by Esarhaddon as the Assyrian king.

Evidence from archaeology show that Hezekiah built temples at Lachish and Arad, and allowed a high place to continue in operation at Beersheva.

Archaeological evidence



Stamped bulla sealed by a servant of King Hezekiah, formerly pressed against a cord; unprovenanced Redondo Beach collection of antiquities.

Seal

One class of seal impression has been found in modern Israel relating to King Hezekiah:

  • LMLK seals on storage jar handles, excavated from strata formed by Sennacherib's destruction as well as immediately above that layer suggesting they were used throughout his 29-year reign (Grena, 2004, p. 338)

Siloam Inscription

  • In the Siloam Tunnel we find the Siloam Inscription, which commemorates the meeting of the two teams.

References

6.^ James B. Pritchard, ed., Ancient Near Eastern Texts Related to the Old Testament (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1965) 287-288.
7.^ (19:35) Herodotus (Histories 2:141)
9.^ Sennacherib's Hexagonal Prism
10.^ J. D. Douglas, ed., New Bible Dictionary (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1965) 1160.

Return to Table of Contents