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Class-Book of Old Testament History

<hr class="sect_35" /> <h3> CHAPTER <abbr title="5">V.</abbr> REIGN OF HEZEKIAH. <abbr title="Second">2</abbr> Kings <abbr title="chapters 18 through 20">xviii.–xx.</abbr>   <abbr title="Second Chronicles">2 Chron.</abbr> <abbr title="chapters 29 through 32">xxix.–xxxii.</abbr>   B.C. 726<abbr title="through">–</abbr>698.</h3> WHILE the kingdom of Israel thus came to an end, that of Judah seemed to have taken a fresh lease of vitality. At the close of the wicked reign of Ahaz, his son Hezekiah succeeded to the throne, B.C. 726, and proved one of the best of the monarchs of the line of David. His first act after his accession was to set on foot a thorough religious reformation. He removed the high places, brake down the images, and even destroyed the Brazen Serpent, the ancient relic of the Wanderings, which had become an object of idolatrous worship, under the name of Nehushtan414 (<abbr title="Second Kings">2 K.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 18">xviii.</abbr> 4). He then cleansed and purified the Temple, and re-opened it with splendid sacrifices, conducted by the reinstated priests and Levites (<abbr title="Second Chronicles">2 Chr.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 29">xxix.</abbr> 20<abbr title="through">–</abbr>36), and resolved to celebrate a peculiar Passover, and invite to it all throughout the land of Palestine, who bore the Hebrew name (<abbr title="Second Chronicles">2 Chr.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 30">xxx.</abbr> 1<abbr title="through">–</abbr>10). To this end he dispatched messengers throughout Judah, and northwards through Ephraim and Manasseh as far as Zebulun. The remnant of the once powerful house of Joseph treated his invitation with scorn, but all Judah and many of the smaller tribes assembled at Jerusalem, and took part in the great national rite, which was celebrated at an unusual but not an illegal period415, and lasted upwards of 14 days. The associations awakened by this ancient ordinance roused the people to a becoming zeal for the true God, and on their return from Jerusalem a general destruction of idolatrous images and temples was set on foot throughout Judah and Benjamin, and even some portions of the northern kingdom (<abbr title="Second Chronicles">2 Chr.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 31">xxxi.</abbr> 1). Seconded in his pious efforts by the noble-minded prophet Isaiah, the king proceeded to carry out other religious reforms, and was rewarded for his zeal by a large measure of prosperity. Venturing to assume the offensive against the Philistines, he not only recovered the territory which his father had lost, but gained other important advantages (<abbr title="Second Kings">2 K.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 18">xviii.</abbr> 7, 8). This success emboldened him to throw off the Assyrian yoke, and to decline forwarding the usual tribute. The late capture of Samaria by the Assyrians would render probable a speedy vengeance for this defection. But the wealthy city of Tyre, now the head of the Phœnician kingdom, was first to feel the weight of the Assyrian arms, and its inhabitants made such a stubborn resistance, that after operations extending over 5 years416, the design was given up as impracticable. The time thus gained was not thrown away by Hezekiah. He used every effort to strengthen his capital against the expected invasion; repaired the walls; built towers; set captains over the host; stopped up the wells; diverted the water-courses (<abbr title="Second Chronicles">2 Chr.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 32">xxxii.</abbr> 3, 4); forged weapons of war; and while most of his people trembled at the certain coming of the great Assyrian conqueror, and many of his advisers would have made an alliance with Egypt, the monarch was exhorted by Isaiah not to lose his confidence in God. At length in the <abbr title="fourteenth">14th</abbr>417 year of his reign (<abbr title="Second Kings">2 K.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 18">xviii.</abbr> 13), the invader appeared418. Sennacherib, the successor of Sargon, came up against all the fenced cities of Judah and took them (<abbr title="Second Kings">2 K.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 18">xviii.</abbr> 13). Thereupon Hezekiah thought it prudent to avert his wrath by a promise of submission, and consented to pay 300 talents of silver and 30 talents of gold, to raise which enormous sum he was obliged to spoil the Temple of many of its treasures, and even to strip the gold from the gates (<abbr title="Second Kings">2 K.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 18">xviii.</abbr> 14<abbr title="through">–</abbr>16). The respite thus obtained was only temporary. Two years had barely elapsed before Sennacherib, resolved to conquer the now flourishing kingdom of Egypt, commenced a second expedition through the dominions of Judah. While one of his generals attacked and captured Ashdod, he himself marched through Palestine, and laid siege to Libnah and Lachish, cities in the maritime lowland of Judah, and at this time subject to Egypt. From Lachish, however, he sent the Tartan or his “commander-in-chief,” the Rab-saris or his “chief eunuch,” and the Rab-shakeh, his “chief cupbearer,” with a large force to Jerusalem, to demand its surrender. On this occasion, the “chief cupbearer” seems to have been at the head of the embassy. Standing by the conduit of the upper pool and speaking in the Hebrew tongue, he proclaimed to the advisers of Hezekiah and the people assembled on the city walls the message of the king of Assyria, exhorting them not to look for deliverance from Egypt, or even to place any confidence in their God, for what god had yet been able to deliver his land and people out of the hand of his master? (<abbr title="Second Kings">2 K.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 18">xviii.</abbr> 33, 34). By command of Hezekiah his scornful message was received in profound silence. The king himself, on being informed of the purport of the Assyrian embassy, with clothes rent and robed in sackcloth, repaired to the Temple, and sent his minister similarly attired to Isaiah, to entreat him in his perilous hour to lift up his prayer in behalf of his people. That undaunted prophet in reply bade his master defy boldly all the efforts of the enemy. That God, whom the Assyrian had blasphemed, would avenge His insulted honour; He would send a blast upon him, and he should hear a rumour, and should return to his own land, there to fall by the sword. These trustful words encouraged both king and people, and the Assyrian ambassadors finding it impossible to terrify the capital of Judah into subjection returned to Sennacherib, whom they found at Libnah, having taken or raised the siege of Lachish (<abbr title="Second Kings">2 K.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 19">xix.</abbr> 8). But while he was thus employed, news reached the ears of that monarch that Tirhakah, or Tarakos, a powerful king of Ethiopia, was on the march against him. On this he resolved to make one more effort to terrify Hezekiah into submission, and sent a second embassy to him, with a letter demanding in the most peremptory terms the surrender of the city, recapitulating the cities whose gods had been powerless to deliver them out of his hands, and bidding him dismiss the notion that he could escape. On receiving this vaunting letter, Hezekiah again repaired to the Temple, and there spread it before the Lord, entreating in words of singular pathos and beauty the aid of the God of Israel, Who dwelt between the Cherubims (<abbr title="Second Kings">2 K.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 19">xix.</abbr> 15). His prayer was heard. Isaiah was commissioned to assure the king that the Virgin, the daughter of Zion, might laugh to scorn all the efforts of the invader. True it was that the Assyrian monarch had laid waste many cities into ruinous heaps, but it was only because Jehovah Himself had so willed it, and had raised him up to be an instrument for the accomplishment of His own purposes. And now He would put His hook419 in the Assyrian’s nose, and His bridle in his lips, and turn him back by the way he had come, nor suffer him even to approach the city, or shoot an arrow there, or cast up a bank against it (<abbr title="Second Kings">2 K.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 19">xix.</abbr> 32). His words were destined to have a speedy and terrible fulfilment. Having reduced Libnah, Sennacherib appears to have pushed forward towards Pelusium420, anxious to crush an Egyptian army under a native prince, named Sethos, before the dreaded Ethiopian monarch Terhak or Tirhakah could come to his aid. Within sight of each other the Assyrian and Egyptian hosts lay down, awaiting the morrow’s battle, but that very night the angel of the Lord, probably by a sudden pestilence, or some more awful manifestation of Divine power, poured contempt on all the pride of the Assyrian monarch. As they slept, a sudden destruction fell upon his hosts, and when he awoke next morning, behold 185,000 corpses lay dead in his camp421! On this Sennacherib fled with the shattered remnants of his forces to his own land, where, 17 years after, or B.C. 680422, he was assassinated by his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer, as he was worshipping in the temple of Nisroch his god, leaving his throne to another son Esarhaddon (<abbr title="Second Kings">2 K.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 19">xix.</abbr> 37). At some period after, or as some think, before423 this signal deliverance, Hezekiah was seized with a serious illness and was warned by the prophet Isaiah to put his house in order, for the decree had gone forth that he must die. This announcement caused the greatest distress to the good king. He had striven to set a good example while he lived, and had done much to reform his people and their religion, and now in the very midst of his work he must die! With many tears, therefore, he turned his face to the wall, and pleaded his case with God, praying that the prophet’s words might not be so immediately fulfilled. His prayer was heard. Isaiah was bidden to assure him that his life would be prolonged for a space of 15 years, and as a sign to confirm this assurance, the shadow on the great dial of his father Ahaz went 10 degrees backwards, and by the application of a plaster of figs, often used medicinally in such cases, his malady was healed. News of his recovery, and of the astronomical marvel accompanying it, was conveyed into many lands, and various ambassadors with letters and gifts came to his court. Amongst the rest came those of Merodach-Baladan424, king of Babylon, who with their retinue were escorted over the royal treasures. For the pride and ostentation with which he displayed his rich stores, Hezekiah was rebuked by Isaiah, who foretold that a day was coming, when all these treasures would be carried away into the country of the very king whose ambassadors had now come to congratulate him, and that his sons would be compelled to serve as eunuchs in the Babylonian court (<abbr title="Second Kings">2 K.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 20">xx.</abbr> 17<abbr title="through">–</abbr>19). The remainder of Hezekiah’s reign appears to have been spent in peace and security. His treasury was full; the agricultural resources of the country were developed; various new and useful improvements were carried out in his capital; and on his death, lamented by all Judah and Jerusalem, he was buried with especial honour in the chiefest of the sepulchres of the sons of David, B.C. 698 (<abbr title="Second Chronicles">2 Chr.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 32">xxxii.</abbr> 27<abbr title="through">–</abbr>33). <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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