2 Kings 18:1

THE GOOD KING HEZEKIAH COMES TO THE THRONE OF JUDAH

"Now it came to pass in the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, that Hezekiah the son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign. Twenty and five years oid was he when he began to reign; and he reigned twenty and nine years in Jerusalem: and his mother's name was Abi the daughter of Zechariah. And he did that which was right in the eyes of Jehovah, according to all that David his father had done. He removed the high places, and brake the pillars, and cut down the Asherah: and he brake in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had made; for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it; and he called it Nehushtan. He trusted in Jehovah the God of Israel; so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor among them that were before him. For he clave to Jehovah; he departed not from following him, but kept his commandments, which Jehovah commanded Moses. And Jehovah was with him; whithersoever he went forth he prospered: and he rebelled against the king of Assyria, and served him not. He smote the Philistines unto Gaza and the borders thereof from the tower of the watchmen to the fortified city."

"His mother's name was Abi the daughter of Zechariah" (2 Kings 18:2). "Thirty O.T. characters bore the name Zechariah."[1]

"He removed the high places ..." (2 Kings 18:4). Whitcomb gives us a summary of the reforms of Hezekiah: "(1) He opened the temple doors which Ahaz had closed (2 Chronicles 28:24; 29:3); (2) He ordered the cleansing of the temple (2 Chronicles 29:4-19); (3) He offered appropriate sacrifices (2 Chronicles 29:20-36); (4) He invited Israelites of every tribe to come to Jerusalem (2 Chronicles 30:5-12)."[2] (5) He also celebrated a Passover that had to be delayed a month to allow the worshippers to become clean (2 Chronicles 30:1-12).

Wonderful as these reforms of Hezekiah were, they were soon nullified by the actions of kings like Manasseh and Amon. "Even God's prophets came to see the inevitability of Judah's destruction. Jeremiah, for example, did not believe that Judah would change; and, in view of her obstinacy advised men no longer to pray for her (Jeremiah 14:11; 15:1).[3]

"He brake in pieces the brazen serpent" (2 Kings 18:4). Once more we have a powerful incidental witness of the long prior existence of the Pentateuch. We reject the snide critical references to this `serpent' as a tradition. John 3:14-15 even gives us N.T. witness of the absolute authenticity of what is written here and in the Pentateuch.

"After him was none like him among all the kings of Judah" (2 Kings 18:5). The critical canard to the effect that, "This statement is contradicted by 2 Kings 23:25,"[4] is based upon a failure to read exactly what the text says. "The verdict that, `after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah,' is a reference to Hezekiah's confidence in God, in which he had no equal; whereas in the case of Josiah it was his conscientious adherence to the Law of Moses that is extolled in the same words (2 Kings 23:25); so that there is no grounds for saying that there is a contradiction in these verses."[5] As a matter of fact there was no other king either before or after either one of these good kings who was in any sense "like unto them."

"He smote the Philistines" (2 Kings 18:8). These victories of Hezekiah against the Philistines doubtless occurred in the interim between the death of Sargon II and the establishment of his son Sennacherib's authority in Nineveh. That interval was a period of about four or five years, but by 701 B.C. Sennacherib was ready to punish his rebellious vassals in the west. This and 2 Kings 19 will deal with his threat to Jerusalem.

"From the tower of the watchmen to the fortified city" (2 Kings 18:8). (See our comment on this expression under 2 Kings 17:9, above.) Another equivalent is, "From one end of the country to the other."