EZECHIAS. - 1. King of Judah (Heb. Ḥizqijjāh [6], Gk. 'Eẕnīz, Akkadian Ḥazaqijau) from c. 718 to 689 B.C. Succeeding his father Ahaz at the age of twenty-five, he at first accommodated himself to the policy followed by him of subjection to Assyria, without however neglecting to give secretly every support to the prophetic circles, of which Isaiah was the spokesman, defenders at one and the same time of the nationalist and monotheistic ideals. As soon as it was possible for him, he carried out the religious reform to bring the people back to pure Yahwism, for which he is praised in biblical history as the most upright of the Davidic monarchs (II Kings 18:3, 5).
He abolished the idolatrous cults, erected even in the Temple itself, sought with some good success to win back to nationalism and Yahwism the remnants of the Samaritans, and attended to the collection of the spiritual and literary heritage of Israel by means of a special commission (Prov. 25:1). Meanwhile he strove to improve the finances of the State (II Kings 20:13), made some military preparations (armaments and fortifications), renewed the installations for the water supply of Jerusalem, building among other things a tunnel that brought the water into the city (a work remembered in an inscription in the tunnel, rediscovered in 1880; v. SILOAM).
Meanwhile events matured abroad that completely changed the relations with Assyria. H. did not take part in the anti-Assyrian revolt of 711, soon put down by Sargon: on that occasion, however, he had to show his loyalty with a larger tribute. In 704 the Babylonian agitator Merodach-Baladan, under the pretext of congratulating H. on his (miraculous: Is. 38:5) recovery from a serious illness (it is from that occasion that the "canticle" In dimidio, Is. 38:10 ff. dates), sent a legation to Jerusalem to conclude a military alliance; negotiations were also conducted by H. with Ethiopia (Is. 18:1) and Egypt (ibid. 30:1 ff.). In 703 the revolt took place, which Sennacherib, the new king of Assyria, easily got the better of.
Judah was attacked last: the Assyrian invaded the kingdom, deported many inhabitants and laid siege to Jerusalem, as the Assyrian documents themselves recall (H. Gressmann, Altor. Texte, 2nd ed., Berlin-Leipzig 1926, p. 353). What these documents do not narrate and is gathered from the Bible (confirmed by Herodotus, II, 141) is the end of the invasion: while Sennacherib, after having sought in vain to come to terms with the besieged H., was preparing to return to Assyria, where a revolt had broken out, one night the "angel of the Lord," perhaps by means of an epidemic, killed 185,000 of his soldiers in the camp (II Kings 19:0-37).
After the invasion, for about ten years more the king, substantially victorious, attended to the reconstruction of the kingdom, which became one of the most flourishing in western Asia.
Bibliography2 works
2. Name of various Jews who lived after the exile (I Chron. 3:23; Neh. 7:2; 10:18; in the Heb. form Jēḥizqijjāh: I Chron. 28:12; Ezra 2:16. Giovanni Rinaldi