King James Bible Dictionary

A Benjamite.
1 Chronicles 8:17

(strong), a Benjamite, one of the Bene-Elpaal, a descendant of Shaaraim. (1 Chronicles 8:17) (B.C. 598.)

Whom Jehovah has strengthened.

1. Son of Ahaz (2 Kings 18:1; 2 Chronicles 29:1), whom he succeeded on the throne of the kingdom of Judah. He reigned twenty-nine years (B.C. 726-697). The history of this king is contained in 2 Kings 18:20, Isaiah 36-39, and 2 Chronicles 29-32. He is spoken of as a great and good king. In public life he followed the example of his great-granfather Uzziah. He set himself to abolish idolatry from his kingdom, and among other things which he did for this end, he destroyed the "brazen serpent," which had been removed to Jerusalem, and had become an object of idolatrous worship (Numbers 21:9). A great reformation was wrought in the kingdom of Judah in his day (2 Kings 18:4; 2 Chronicles 29:3-36).

On the death of Sargon and the accession of his son Sennacherib to the throne of Assyria, Hezekiah refused to pay the tribute which his father had paid, and "rebelled against the king of Assyria, and served him not," but entered into a league with Egypt (Isaiah 30; 31; 36:6-9). This led to the invasion of Judah by Sennacherib (2 Kings 18:13-16), who took forty cities, and besieged Jerusalem with mounds. Hezekiah yielded to the demands of the Assyrian king, and agreed to pay him three hundred talents of silver and thirty of gold (18:14).

But Sennacherib dealt treacherously with Hezekiah (Isaiah 33:1), and a second time within two years invaded his kingdom (2 Kings 18:17; 2 Chronicles 32:9; Isaiah 36). This invasion issued in the destruction of Sennacherib's army. Hezekiah prayed to God, and "that night the angel of the Lord went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians 185,000 men." Sennacherib fled with the shattered remnant of his forces to Nineveh, where, seventeen years after, he was assassinated by his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer (2 Kings 19:37). (See SENNACHERIB.)

The narrative of Hezekiah's sickness and miraculous recovery is found in 2 Kings 20:1, 2 Chronicles 32:24, Isaiah 38:1. Various ambassadors came to congratulate him on his recovery, and among them Merodach-baladan, the viceroy of Babylon (2 Chronicles 32:23; 2 Kings 20:12). He closed his days in peace and prosperity, and was succeeded by his son Manasseh. He was buried in the "chiefest of the sepulchres of the sons of David" (2 Chronicles 32:27-33). He had "after him none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor any that were before him" (2 Kings 18:5). (See ISAIAH.)

strength of the Lord

1. King of Judah:

General references
2 Kings 16:20; 2 Kings 18:1-2; 1 Chronicles 3:13; 2 Chronicles 29:1; Matthew 1:9

Religious zeal of
Matthew 14:29

Purges the nation of idolatry
2 Kings 18:4; 2 Chronicles 31:1; 2 Chronicles 33:3

Restores the true forms of worship
2 Chronicles 31:2-21

His piety
2 Kings 18:3; 2 Kings 18:5-6; 2 Chronicles 29:2; 2 Chronicles 31:20-21; 2 Chronicles 32:32; Jeremiah 26:19

Military operations of
2 Kings 18:19; 1 Chronicles 4:39-43; 1 Chronicles 14:32; 1 Chronicles 23:36

Sickness and restoration of
2 Kings 20:1-11; 2 Chronicles 32:24; Isaiah 38:1-8

His psalm of thanksgiving
Isaiah 38:9-22

His lack of wisdom in showing his resources to commissioners of Babylon
2 Kings 20:12-19; 2 Chronicles 32:25-26; 2 Chronicles 32:31; Isaiah 39:1-8

Prospered of God
2 Kings 18:7; 2 Chronicles 32:27-30

Conducts the brook Gihon into Jerusalem
2 Kings 18:17; 2 Kings 20:20; 2 Chronicles 32:4; 2 Chronicles 32:30; 2 Chronicles 33:14; Nehemiah 2:13-15; Nehemiah 3:13; Nehemiah 3:16; Isaiah 7:3; Isaiah 22:9-11; Isaiah 36:2

Scribes of
Proverbs 25:1

Death and burial of
2 Kings 20:21; 2 Chronicles 32:33

Prophecies concerning
2 Kings 19:20-34; 2 Kings 20:5-6; 2 Kings 20:16-18; Isaiah 38:5-8; Isaiah 39:5-7; Jeremiah 26:18-19

2. Son of Neariah
1 Chronicles 3:23

3. One of the exiles

General references
Ezra 2:16; Nehemiah 7:21

Called Hizkijah
Nehemiah 10:17

(the might of Jehovah).

1. Twelfth king of Judah, son of the apostate Ahaz and Abi or Abijah, ascended the throne at the age of 25, B.C. 726. Hezekiah was one of the three most perfect kings of Judah. (2 Kings 18:5) Ecclus. 49.4. His first act was to purge and repair and reopen with splendid sacrifices and perfect ceremonial the temple. He also destroyed a brazen serpent, said to have been the one used by Moses in the miraculous healing of the Isr'lites, (Numbers 21:9) which had become an object of adoration. When the kingdom of Isr'l had fallen, Hezekiah invited the scattered inhabitants to a peculiar passover, which was continued for the unprecedented period of fourteen days. (2 Chronicles 29:30,31) At the head of a repentant and united people, Hezekiah ventured to assume the aggressive against the Philistines and in a series of victories not only rewon the cities which his father had lost, (2 Chronicles 28:18) but even dispossessed them of their own cities except Gaza, (2 Kings 18:8) and Gath. He refused to acknowledge the supremacy of Assyria. (2 Kings 18:7) Instant war was imminent and Hezekiah used every available means to strengthen himself. (2 Kings 20:20) It was probably at this dangerous crisis in his kingdom that we find him sick and sending for Isaiah, who prophesies death as the result. (2 Kings 20:1) Hezekiah's prayer for longer life is heard. The prophet had hardly left the palace when he was ordered to return and promise the king immediate recovery and fifteen years more of life. (2 Kings 20:4) An embassy coming from Babylon ostensibly to compliment Hezekiah on his convalescence, but really to form an alliance between the two powers, is favorably received by the king, who shows them the treasures which he had accumulated. For this Isaiah foretells the punishment that shall befall his house. (2 Kings 20:17) The two invasions of Sennacherib occupy the greater part of the scripture records concerning the reign of Hezekiah. The first of these took place in the third year of Sennacherib, B.C. 702, and occupies only three verses. (2 Kings 18:13-16) Respecting the commencement of the second invasion we have full details in (2 Kings 18:17) seq.; 2 Chronicles 32:9 seq.; Isaiah 36:1 ... Sennacherib sent against Jerusalem an army under two officers and his cupbearer, the orator Rabshakeh, with a blasphemous and insulting summons to surrender; but Isaiah assures the king he need not fear, promising to disperse the enemy. (2 Kings 19:6,7) Accordingly that night "the angel of the Lord went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred fourscore and five thousand." Hezekiah only lived to enjoy for about one year more his well-earned peace and glory. He slept with his fathers after a reign of twenty-nine years, in the 56th year of his age, B.C. 697.
2. Son of Neariah, one of the descendants of the royal family of Judah. (1 Chronicles 3:23)
3. The same name, though rendered in the Authorized Version HIZKIAH, is found in (Zephaniah 1:1)
4. Ater of Hezekiah. [ATER]