Hezekiah in History and Tradition

The Judean monarch Hezekiah reigned from Nisan 725-Adar 696. Under his rule, Jerusalem was transformed from a small settlement into a major urban center. The lmlk storage jars represent a state-sponsored program of taxation to coincide with the increase in settlement and agricultural buildup throughout the region. The archaeological evidence for Hezekiah's reform is ultimately inconclusive, but 2 Kgs 18:4, 22 seem to preserve a national memory of centralization. The most logical social setting for this reformation lies as an aftereffect of the influx of refugees caused by the fall of the northern kingdom of Israel in 720 B.C.E. .;There was only one expedition by Sennacherib to Judah. While 2 Kgs 18:17-19:37/Isa 36-37 shows itself to be the work of Isaian tradents, 2 Kgs 20/Isa 38-39 betrays its origin in Kings. The prophetic sources B1 and B2 which record Sennecherib's blockade of Jerusalem should be divided into 2 Kgs 18:17a, 26-36; 19:1-9a, 36-37 and 2 Kgs 18:17b-25, 37; 19:9b-35, respectively. The sign of Isaiah in 2 Kgs 19:29/Isa 37:30 takes advantage of the Exodus theme to guarantee an extraordinary, divine deliverance, and aligns with the Levitical law concerning the sabbath and jubilee years.;All three of the central messianic passages in First Isaiah—Isa 7:14-16; 8:23-9:6; 11:1-9—are authentic prophecies of Isaiah ben Amoz with Hezekiah as their referent. Isaiah held a firm belief that YHWH 's defeat of Assyria would bring about the literal reversal of all that against which the prophet had inveighed, with Hezekiah as the Lord's anointed ruling justly and fairly over an impossibly vast dominion.;Hezekiah is cast in the book of Chronicles as a second David and Solomon, yet this account exhibits overwhelming evidence of reliance on earlier source material. This pro-Solomonic source originally concluded with the reign of Hezekiah, affirming that the Chronicler has faithfully preserved, not invented, the belief in Hezekiah as an ideal ruler. The Hezekiah of tradition was firmly rooted in the Hezekiah of history.