2 Kings 20:20,21

IV. CONCLUSION TO THE REIGN OF HEZEKIAH 20:20-21

TRANSLATION

(20) And the rest of the acts of Hezekiah and all of his might, and how he made a pool and a conduit that the water might come to the city, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? (21) And Hezekiah slept with his fathers; and Manasseh his son reigned in his place.

COMMENTS

Hezekiah was a powerful as well as a pious king. The author of Kings declines to discuss his might but refers the reader to his source of information, the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah. Hezekiah's might was chiefly displayed in the early part of his reign during which time he was able to make incursions into Philistine territory (cf. 2 Kings 18:8). Hezekiah was, of course, no match for Assyria, and would have been crushed by them were it not for the miraculous deliverance of God.

Hezekiah also constructed a pool or reservoir within the city of Jerusalem. That pool is probably to be identified with the pool of Siloam. Water from the Well of the Virgin in the Kidron valley was transported to this pool by an amazing conduit carved out of solid rock beneath Mt. Ophel. This twisting tunnel is 1708 feet in length and has a height varying from four to five feet and a width of about two feet. In this marvelous engineering feat, workmen began at either end of the hill and tunneled through the rock until they met in the middle. At that point they left an inscription which recounts the joy which marked the completion of the project.[627]

[627] For the inscription see DOTT, p. 210. The inscription is now preserved in the Museum of the Ancient Orient at Istanbul.

To the brief death notice of 2 Kings 20:21, the Chronicler adds, And they buried him in the chiefest (i.e., top most) of the sepulchers of the sons of David (2 Chronicles 32:33). It would seem that the catacomb of David was now full and that Hezekiah had to be buried over that catacomb or perhaps on the ascent which led to it.

SPECIAL STUDY
CHRONOLOGICAL PROBLEMS IN THE LAST HALF OF THE EIGHTH CENTURY

The period from Uzziah to Manasseh bristles with difficulties. These seven decades present the most perplexing problems to be found in Hebrew chronology. In this period even Edwin Thiele goes astray and concludes that the Hebrew text in at least four verses (2 Kings 17:1; 2 Kings 18:1; 2 Kings 18:9-10) is in error.[628] The most satisfactory reconstruction of this chronology is that offered by Harold G. Stigers.[629] The brief notes which follow and the chart which accompanies this special study are based on the study of Stigers.

[628] Thiele, MNHK, pp. 118ff.
[629] The Interphased Chronology of Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah and Hoshea, BETS, IX-(Spring, 1966), pp. 81-90.

The following explanatory notes should be studied carefully along with the accompanying chart. For amplification and defense of the various points made, see the article by Stigers cited above.

1. 1 Kings 15:27. Pekah commenced his independent reign in the fifty-second year of Uzziah (Azariah). Pekah ruled a total of twenty years counting from 752 B.C. when he set up a rival dynasty in Gilead. Thus his rule in Samaria actually lasted twelve years.

2. 2 Kings 15:30. Hoshea began to reign in the twentieth and final year of Jotham (732 B.C.). Jotham's reign is counted from the time he virtually assumed the reins of government from his father in 750 B.C.

3. 2 Kings 17:1. Hoshea ruled nine years, from 732-722 B.C. The beginning of his reign fell in the twelfth year of Ahaz. In this synchronism the years of Ahaz are counted from the beginning of his coregency in 743 B.C.

4. 2 Kings 15:32-33. Jotham reigned sixteen years, com mencing in the second year of Pekah, 750 B.C. The last four years of the reign of Jotham are here disregarded (cf. 2 Kings 15:30) because Ahaz had seized all the royal power from his father in 735 B.C. As the prophetic historians in Israel viewed things, Jotham reigned twenty years; but the prophetic histor ians in Judah regarded his active or effectual reign as being only sixteen years.

5. 2 Kings 16:1-2. Ahaz ruled sixteen years commencing in the seventeenth year of Pekah (735 B.C.). Here again the Judaean prophetic historians were concerned only with the actual years of Ahaz's power. They disregard here twelve years of his coregency with Jotham and four years of his emeritus reign after his son Hezekiah had seized the royal power. The sixteen years in view here are 735-720 B.C. Counting the years of Ahaz's coregency and his emeritus years his dates would be 743-715 B.C.

6. 2 Kings 18:1-2. Hezekiah began to reign as coregent in the third year of Hoshea (728 B.C.). But his absolute reign of twenty-nine years is counted from 715 B.C. when Hezekiah became sole king. Thus the twenty-nine years of Hezekiah would terminate in 686 B.C. The key here is 2 Kings 18:13 which indicates that the 701 B.C. invasion of Sennacherib took place in the fourteenth year of Hezekiah.

7. 2 Kings 18:9-10. The seventh and ninth years of Hoshea are here equated with the fourth and sixth years of Hezekiah's coregency.

8. The total number of years assigned to the kings following Hezekiah and down to the deportation of Jehoiachin in 597 B.C. is ninety-nine years and six months. Yet from the end of Hezekiah's reign in 686 unto 597 B.C. is ninety years. Therefore, one (or more) of the six kings who reigned between 686 and 597 B.C. must have ruled for nine years as coregent with his father. Because of the circumstances of their accession, five of these kings could not possibly have reigned as coregents. By the process of elimination one can conclude that Manasseh must have served as coregent with Hezekiah for about nine years before he ascended the throne in 686 B.C.