northern ten-tribe kingdom of Israel was in even worse condition. For their gross sins Jehovah had allowed them to come into dire straits, becoming tributary to Assyria, and it would not be long until Assyria would swallow up Israel and carry her people into captivity.—2 Ki. 17:5-23.

HIS ZEAL FOR TRUE WORSHIP

Hezekiah demonstrated his zeal for Jehovah’s worship immediately on taking the throne at the age of twenty-five years. His first act was to reopen and repair the temple. Then, calling together the priests and Levites, he said to them: “It is close to my heart to conclude a covenant with Jehovah the God of Israel.” This was a covenant of faithfulness, as though the Law covenant, still in effect but neglected, was inaugurated anew in Judah. With great energy he proceeded to organize the Levites in their services, and reestablished the arrangements for musical instruments and singing of praises. It was Nisan, the month for Passover to be celebrated, but the temple and the priests and Levites were unclean. By the sixteenth day of Nisan the temple was cleansed and its utensils restored. Then a special atonement had to be made for all Israel. First, the princes brought sacrifices, sin offerings for the kingdom, the sanctuary and the people, followed by thousands of burnt offerings by the people.—2 Chron. 29:1-36.

Since the people’s uncleanness prevented their observance of the Passover at the regular time, Hezekiah took advantage of the law that allowed those who are unclean to celebrate the Passover one month later. He called, not only Judah, but also Israel, by means of letters sent by runners throughout the land from Beer-sheba to Dan. The runners met with derision from many; but individuals, particularly from Asher, Manasseh and Zebulun, humbled themselves to come, some from Ephraim and Issachar also attending. Besides this, many non-Israelite worshipers of Jehovah were on hand. It was likely a difficult matter for those in the northern kingdom who stood for true worship to attend. They, like the messengers, would meet opposition and ridicule, inasmuch as the ten-tribe kingdom was in a decadent state, sunk in false worship and harassed by the Assyrian menace.—2 Chron. 30:1-20; Num. 9:10-13.

After the Passover, the Festival of Unfermented Cakes was held for seven days with such attendant joy that the entire congregation decided to extend it seven days longer. Even in such perilous times Jehovah’s blessing prevailed so that “there came to be great rejoicing in Jerusalem, for from the days of Solomon the son of David the king of Israel there was none like this in Jerusalem.”—2 Chron. 30:21-27.

That this was a real restoration and revival of true worship and not merely a transient emotional gathering is seen in what followed. Before their return home the celebrants went out and destroyed the sacred pillars, pulled down the high places and the altars and cut down the sacred poles throughout Judah and Benjamin and even in Ephraim and Manasseh. (2 Chron. 31:1) Hezekiah set the example by crushing to pieces the copper serpent that Moses had made, because the people had made it an idol, burning sacrificial smoke to it. (2 Ki. 18:4) After the great festival, Hezekiah ensured the continuation of true worship by organizing the priestly divisions and arranging for the support of the temple services by the enforcement of the Law as to the tithes and firstfruit contributions to the Levites and priests, to which the people responded wholeheartedly.—2 Chron. 31:2-12.

ASSYRIAN PRESSURE BUILDS UP

In those strenuous times, when Assyria was sweeping everything in its path, Hezekiah trusted in Jehovah the God of Israel. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and struck down the Philistine cities, which had evidently become allied with Assyria. (2 Ki. 18:7, 8) Even though it was during this time that Tirhakah the king of Ethiopia (usually associated with Pharaoh Taharka, an Ethiopian who ruled Egypt) was a threat to Assyria’s domination of Palestine, Hezekiah never went “down to Egypt for assistance” by trusting in and making alliances with him. In this he was doubtless strengthened by the prophet Isaiah.—Isa. 31:1; 2 Ki. 19:5-9.

It was in Hezekiah’s third year that Shalmaneser of Assyria began the siege of Samaria. After holding out for three years, Samaria was taken, perhaps by Sargon II, Shalmaneser’s successor, in 740 B.C.E. The people of the ten-tribe kingdom were deported, the Assyrians moving in others to occupy the land. (2 Ki. 18:9-12) This left the kingdom of Judah, representing God’s theocratic government and true worship, like a small island surrounded by hostile enemies.

Sennacherib, Sargon’s son, was ambitious to add the conquest of Jerusalem to his trophies of war, especially in view of the fact that Hezekiah had withdrawn from the alliance that had been entered into with Assyria by his father King Ahaz. In the fourteenth year of Hezekiah’s reign (732 B.C.E.) Sennacherib “came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and proceeded to seize them.” Hezekiah offered to buy Sennacherib off to save the threatened city of Jerusalem, whereupon Sennacherib demanded the enormous sum of 300 silver talents and 30 gold talents (more than one and a half million dollars, according to gold and silver prices in 1965). To pay this amount, Hezekiah was obliged to give all the silver that was found in the temple and the royal treasury, besides the precious metals that Hezekiah himself had caused to be overlaid on the temple doors and posts. This satisfied the king of Assyria, but only temporarily.—2 Ki. 18:13-16.

BUILDING AND ENGINEERING WORKS

In the face of imminent attack by greedy Sennacherib, Hezekiah displayed wisdom and military strategy. He stopped up all the springs and water sources outside the city of Jerusalem, so that, in event of a siege, the Assyrians would be short on water supplies. He strengthened the city’s fortifications and, “made missiles in abundance and shields.” But his trust was not in this military equipment, for in gathering together the military chieftains and the people, he encouraged them, saying: “Be courageous and strong. Do not be afraid nor be terrified because of the king of Assyria and on account of all the crowd that is with him; for with us there are more than there are with him. With him there is an arm of flesh, but with us there is Jehovah our God to help us and to fight our battles.”—2 Chron. 32:1-8.

One of the outstanding engineering feats of ancient times was the aqueduct of Hezekiah. It ran from the well of Gihon E of the northern part of the city of David in a rather irregular course, extending 1,749 feet (533 meters) to the Pool of Siloam in the Tyropean Valley below the city of David but within a new wall added to the S part of the city. (2 Ki. 20:20; 2 Chron. 32:30) An inscription in Hebrew monumental script was found by archaeologists on the wall of the narrow tunnel, which was six feet (1.8 meters) in average height. The inscription reads, in part: “And this was the way in which it was cut through:—While [. . . ] (were) still [. . . ] axe(s), each man toward his fellow, and while there were still three cubits to be cut through, [there was heard] the voice of a man calling to his fellow, for there was an overlap in the rock on the right [and on the left]. And when the tunnel was driven through, the quarrymen hewed (the rock), each man toward his fellow, axe against axe; and the water flowed from the spring toward the reservoir for 1,200 cubits, and the height of the rock above the head(s) of the quarrymen was 100 cubits.” (Ancient Near Eastern Text, Pritchard, p. 321) So the tunnel was cut through the rock from both ends, meeting in the middle—a real engineering accomplishment.

SENNACHERIB’S FAILURE AT JERUSALEM

Fulfilling Hezekiah’s expectations, Sennacherib determined to attack Jerusalem. While Sennacherib was with his army besieging the strongly fortified city of Lachish, he sent a part of his army along with a deputation of military chiefs to demand capitulation of Jerusalem. The spokesman for the group was Rabshakeh (not the man’s name, but his military title), who spoke Hebrew fluently. He loudly ridiculed Hezekiah and taunted Jehovah, boasting that Jehovah could no more deliver Jerusalem than the gods of the other nations had been able to save the lands of their worshipers from the king of Assyria.—2 Ki. 18:13-35; 2 Chron. 32:9-15; Isa. 36:2-20.

Hezekiah was greatly distressed, but continued to trust in Jehovah and appealed to Him at the temple, also sending some of the head ones of the people to the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah’s reply, from Jehovah, was that Sennacherib would hear a report and would return to his own land, where he would be slain. (2 Ki. 19:1-7; Isa. 37:1-7) At this time Sennacherib had pulled away from Lachish to Libnah, where he heard that Tirhakah the king of Ethiopia had come out to fight against him. Nevertheless, Sennacherib sent letters by messenger to Hezekiah, continuing his threats and taunting Jehovah the God of Israel. On receipt of the highly reproachful letters, Hezekiah spread them before Jehovah, who again answered through Isaiah, taunting Sennacherib in return and assuring that the Assyrians would not enter Jerusalem, for Jehovah himself would “certainly defend this city to save it for my own sake and for the sake of David my servant.”—2 Ki. 19:8-34; Isa. 37:8-35.

During the night Jehovah sent his angel, who destroyed 185,000 of the cream of Sennacherib’s troops, “every valiant, mighty man and leader and chief in the camp of the king of Assyria, so that he went back with shame of face to his own land.”—Later “it came about that as he was bowing down at the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer, his own sons, struck him down with the sword.” Thus Sennacherib’s threat to Jerusalem was effectually removed.—2 Chron. 32:21; Isa. 37:36-38.

An inscription on a prism has been discovered describing Sennacherib’s defeat of the Ethiopian forces; it also says: “As to Hezekiah, the Jew, he did not submit to my yoke, I laid siege to 46 of his strong cities, . . . and conquered (them) . . . Himself I made a prisoner in Jerusalem, his royal residence, like a bird in a cage.” He does not claim to have captured the city. This supports the Bible account of Hezekiah’s revolt against Assyria and Sennacherib’s failure to take Jerusalem. In the custom of the inscriptions of the pagan kings, to exalt themselves, Sennacherib in this inscription exaggerates the amount of silver paid by Hezekiah, as 800 talents, in contrast with the Bible’s 300.

MIRACULOUS EXTENSION OF HEZEKIAH’S LIFE

Around the time of Sennacherib’s threats against Jerusalem Hezekiah was struck down with a malignant boil. He was instructed by the prophet Isaiah to arrange his affairs in preparation for death. At this time Hezekiah had not yet had a son, and it therefore appeared that the royal Davidic line was in danger of being broken. Hezekiah prayed to Jehovah fervently, with tears, whereupon Jehovah sent Isaiah back to inform Hezekiah that he would have fifteen years added to his life. A miraculous sign was given, the shadow of the sun being caused to move ten steps backward on “the stairs of Ahaz.” (See SUNDIAL). In the third year afterward Hezekiah had a son called Manasseh, who later succeeded him on the throne.—2 Ki. 20:1-11, 21; 21:1; Isa. 38:1-8, 21.

HEZEKIAH’S MISTAKE AND REPENTANCE

The Scripture record states that “according to the benefit rendered him Hezekiah made no return, for his heart became haughty and there came to be indignation against him and against Judah and Jerusalem.” (2 Chron. 32:25) The Bible does not say whether or not this haughtiness was connected with his unwise act in showing the entire treasure of his house and all his dominion to the messengers of the Babylonian king Berodach-baladan (Merodach-baladan) who were sent to Hezekiah after he recovered from his illness. Hezekiah may have displayed all this wealth to impress the king of Babylon as a possible ally against the king of Assyria. This, of course, could tend to excite the greed of the Babylonians. The prophet Isaiah was against any alliance with or dependence on God’s age-old enemy Babylon. When Isaiah heard how Hezekiah had treated the Babylonian messengers, he uttered the inspired prophecy from Jehovah that the Babylonians in time would carry away everything to Babylon, including some of Hezekiah’s descendants. Hezekiah, however, humbled himself and God kindly allowed that the calamity would not come in his days.—2 Ki. 20:12-19; 2 Chron. 32:26, 31; Isa. 39:1-8.

Hezekiah was favorably spoken of in the days of the prophet Jeremiah by some of the heads of the people in Jerusalem, because of his humble quality of giving attention to Micah of Moresheth, the prophet of Jehovah.—Jer. 26:17-19.

2. An ancestor of the prophet Zephaniah, possibly King Hezekiah.—Zeph. 1:1.

3. A man of Israel whose descendants returned with Zerubbabel from the Babylonian exile. He was probably not the same person as King Hezekiah. (Ezra 2:1, 2, 16; Neh. 7:6, 7, 21) It may have been a descendant of this Hezekiah who was one of the headmen of the people attesting by seal the “trustworthy arrangement” in Nehemiah’s day.—Neh. 9:38; 10:1, 14, 17.

HEZION

(Heʹzi·on) [vision].

Grandfather of the first King Ben-hadad of Syria mentioned in the Bible. (1 Ki. 15:18) Hezion is thought by some to be the person called Rezon at 1 Kings 11:23.

HEZIR

(Heʹzir) [pig, boar].

1. The priest whose paternal house was chosen by lot for the seventeenth of the twenty-four priestly service divisions organized toward the end of David’s reign.—1 Chron. 24:1, 3, 5-7, 15.

2. One of the “heads of the people” whose descendant, if not himself, in Nehemiah’s time supported the resolution to be true to Jehovah.—Neh. 9:38; 10:1, 14, 20.

HEZRO

(Hezʹro) [blooming].

A Carmelite; one of the mighty men of David’s military forces.—2 Sam. 23:8, 35; 1 Chron. 11:26, 37.

HEZRON

(Hezʹron) [enclosure].

1. Son of Reuben and ancestral head of the “Hezronites.”—Gen. 46:9; Ex. 6:14; Num. 26:4-6; 1 Chron. 5:3.

2. Son of Perez and family head of the Judean “Hezronites”; ancestor of King David and of Jesus Christ. (Gen. 46:12; Num. 26:20, 21; Ruth 4:18-22; Matt. 1:3; Luke 3:33) At the age of sixty, Hezron took the daughter of Machir as wife and by her became father to Segub. (1 Chron. 2:21) His sons Jerahmeel, Ram and Chelubai (Caleb) apparently were born earlier.—1 Chron. 2:9, 18, 25.

According to the reading of 1 Chronicles 2:24 in the Masoretic text, Hezron died at Caleb-ephrathah, and after this his widow Abijah bore Ashhur, the father of Tekoa. However, many scholars believe that the Masoretic text does not preserve the original reading, since the name “Caleb-ephrathah” is apparently of ungrammatical Hebrew construction and such a place is not referred to elsewhere in Scripture. Further, Hezron is listed among the seventy “souls of the house of Jacob who came into Egypt,” and therefore must have died in that land. (Gen. 46:12, 26, 27) It seems unlikely that a place in Egypt bore the Hebrew name “Caleb-ephrathah.” Hence, numerous