SERIES N --- THE EXILE --- LESSON 13

HEZEKIAH’S DEATH

THE DEATH OF KING HEZEKIAH

From 2 Kings 20; 2 Chronicles 32:24-33

King Hezekiah became so sick with a boil that he was dying. When Isaiah the prophet went to see the king, he told him, [Adonai says you are dying. You must put your affairs in order and prepare for death, for you are not going to get well.] Hearing that, Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and began to pray. [Remember how I have been faithful to You, Adonai,] he prayed. [Remember how I have walked before You with all my heart and how I have tried to do what You want.] And then he cried bitterly. Before Isaiah left the palace courtyard, Adonai spoke to him again. [Go back to King Hezekiah, leader of My people, and tell him that Adonai has heard his prayers and seen his tears and will heal him. On the third day he will be well enough to go to the temple, the house of Adonai. I will give Hezekiah fifteen more years of life and will spare Jerusalem from the king of Assyria for My sake and the sake of My servant David.] Isaiah returned to Hezekiah and told his servants, [Take a cake of figs and place it on his boil, and so he will get well.] [What sign will Adonai give that He will heal me?] Hezekiah asked. [How can I know that I shall go to the temple in three days?] [Adonai will give you a sign,] Isaiah said. [You may choose that the shadow of the sundial on the steps of Ahaz either go forward ten steps or backward ten steps.] At that time some of the sundials were made like small stairways. People could tell the time of day by the place where the shadow fell on the steps. [It is easy for the shadow to go forward,] Hezekiah answered. [Please let it go backward ten steps.] Isaiah prayed to Adonai, and He caused the shadow on the sundial of Ahaz to go backward ten steps. When Merodach-baladan, the son of King Baladan of Babylon, learned of Hezekiah’s sickness, he sent ambassadors with a letter and a gift. Hezekiah welcomed them and showed them his palace, including the treasure house with its silver, gold, spices, aromatic oil, and the king’s armoury. In fact, he showed them everything he had. Isaiah went to see Hezekiah and asked, [What did these men say, and where did they come from?] [From Babylon,] Hezekiah told him. [What did they see in your palace?] Isaiah asked. [Everything,] Hezekiah answered. [I showed them all my treasures.] [Then listen to the Word of Adonai,] said Isaiah. [A time will come when everything in your palace, including all the treasures of your ancestors, will be taken to Babylon. Nothing will be left. They will even take your sons and when they have made eunuchs of them, they will force them to serve in the palace of the king of Babylon.] [What Adonai says is good,] Hezekiah answered. For Hezekiah was thinking, [It is good that there will be peace as long as I live.] Hezekiah became rich and famous. He had so much treasure that he had to build special treasury buildings for his silver, gold, precious stones, spices, shields, and other precious articles. He also built storehouses for the grain, wine, and oil, as well as stalls for his cattle, herds, and flocks. He built special cities for himself, for Adonai gave him great wealth. Hezekiah closed the upper outlet of the Gihon Spring and directed it through a tunnel to the western side of the City of David portion of Jerusalem. Hezekiah prospered in everything he did. The other part of Hezekiah’s biography is found in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah and Israel and in the writings of Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz. When Hezekiah died, he was buried in the royal tombs in the hillside of Jerusalem, along with the previous kings. Jerusalem paid him great honour at his death. Then his son Manasseh became king in his place.

COMMENTARY

HEZEKIAH’S WATER TUNNEL

When Sargon II’s son Sennacherib took the Assyrian throne, the western countries revolted against Assyrian power. Among those who refused to surrender the required tribute was King Hezekiah of Judah. Hezekiah began preparing for an Assyrian assault, clearly expecting a long siege. He filled storehouses with food, reorganized his army, increased production of weapons, and reinforced Jerusalem’s walls. But the most outstanding of his defences was an underground tunnel built to channel water into the city. Jerusalem’s water came from the Gihon Spring, which lay in the undefended Kidron Valley. A reservoir was first prepared inside the city’s south-eastern defences. With one crew at the reservoir and another at the spring, workmen began chipping away at the limestone rock. Work space in the tunnel was barely large enough to swing an axe, and men working underground had neither instruments nor maps to guide them. Only some shafts, sunk hundreds of years earlier by the city’s Jebusite inhabitants and connected by corridors, made the work somewhat easier. Otherwise, the task was enormous. The entire mountain spur on which Jerusalem was built had to be tunnelled through, and veins of hard rock forced a winding route of almost double the actual distance. About six months were required to complete the tunnel. Hezekiah blocked the spring’s flow in the valley, so the Assyrians could not use the water or block Jerusalem’s life-giving supply.