Hezekiah (Nehemiah 10:17)

1. King of Judah from 715–686 BC. The account of Hezekiah’s reign is in 2 Kings 18:1–20:21, 2 Chronicles 29:1–32:33, and Isaiah 36:1–39:8.

Hezekiah succeeded to Judah’s throne at 25 and ruled for 29 years (2 Kgs 18:2; 2 Chr 29:1). His mother was Abi (2 Kgs 18:2; 2 Chr 29:1; “Abijah,” a longer form), a daughter of Zechariah. The chronology of Hezekiah’s reign is difficult to establish with certainty. The Bible says the Assyrian siege of Samaria, capital of the northern kingdom of Israel, began in the fourth year of his reign and that Samaria fell in the sixth year (2 Kgs 18:9–10), which would make his reign begin about 728 BC and end about 699 BC. Assyrian king Sennacherib besieged the fortified Judean cities during Hezekiah’s 14th year (2 Kgs 18:13), which would have been 714 BC. Assyrian records, however, indicate that Sennacherib came to the Assyrian throne in 705 BC and that his Judean campaign took place in 701 BC. The most generally accepted solution to the discrepancy is that Hezekiah came to the throne in 715 BC, probably after a co-regency with his father, Ahaz, that began in 728 BC. That solution harmonizes with the statement that Sennacherib’s siege took place in the 14th year of Hezekiah’s reign, or 701 BC.