Saint Hezekiah

From the first month following his accession, Hezekiah had the doors of the Temple of Solomon reopened, which had been closed by the order of Ahaz his father, and had them covered with plates of gold, as they were previously. He summoned the priests and the Levites to a solemn assembly in the great square to the east of the Court. "Children of Levi," he said to them, "listen to my word. Perform upon yourselves all the acts of legal purification; then you shall proceed to that of the Temple of Jehovah, God of your fathers, and you shall make the traces of the impurities that have defiled the holy place disappear. Our fathers have sinned; they have dared to give themselves over to evil and abandon Jehovah. They turned their heads at the sight of his tabernacle; the doors of the vestibule were closed, and the lamps extinguished; the incense ceased to burn on the altar of perfumes, and the burnt offerings were no longer offered at the altar of the God of Jacob. Th at is why Jérusalem Holy city where the Cross was lost and subsequently recovered. the wrath of the Lord was inflamed against Judah and Jerusalem; that is why he sowed trouble, ruin, and death in our path. You are witnesses to it. The sword has harvested our ancestors; and we have seen our sons, our daughters, and our wives dragged into captivity, in punishment for so many crimes. Now, therefore, I have resolved to renew the covenant of Israel with Jehovah, his God, and thus to turn away the wrath of the Lord. My beloved sons, help me with your zeal and your piety. It is you whom Jehovah has chosen to serve him in his sanctuary, to render him solemn worship, and to burn incense on the altar of perfumes!"

Thus spoke Hezekiah; the Levites responded with their pious eagerness to the royal confidence. "Mahath, son of Amasai, and Joel, son of Azariah, of the lineage of Kohath; Kish, son of Abdi, and Azariah, son of Jehallelel, of the lineage of Merari; Joah, son of Zimmah, and Eden, son of Joah, of the lineage of Gershom; Samri and Jahiel, descendants of Elizaphan; Zechariah and Mattaniah, descendants of Asaph; Jahiel and Shimei, descendants of Heman; Shemaiah and Uzziel, descendants of Jeduthun, took the lead in the movement of religious restoration that was taking shape. They gathered their brothers of the priestly and Levitical family, and performed upon themselves the ceremonies of legal purification. Then, entering the Temple, they proceeded to its rehabilitation. All traces of idolatrous cults and all objects defiled by any of the ritual impurities were carefully removed from the interior of the sacred edifice; they were brought under the outer vestibule; there, other Levites took charge of them and went to throw them into the Kidron Valley. The restorative work was begun on the first of the month of Nisan (March); on the eighth day, the interior of the Temple was purified; it took eight more to finish restoring to the courts their original splendor and purity. When everything was finished, the priests went to say to Hezekiah: "We have sanctified the entire house of the Lord, the Altar of burnt offering and all the instruments of sacrifice; the Table of the showbread and all the sacred vessels for its use; finally, all the furniture of the Temple that had been profaned under the reign of Ahaz, after the prevarication of that king. Everything is arranged, according to the prescribed order, before the altar of Jehovah!"

"The next day, at dawn, Hezekiah, surrounded by all the princes of Jerusalem, went in the attire of royal majesty to the Temple of the Lord. By his order, seven bulls, seven rams, seven lambs, and seven goats were brought, offered as victims of propitiation for the sin, for the kingdom, for the sanctuary, and for the people. Addressing then the priests, descendants of Aaron, Hezekiah told them to proceed to the sacrifice of propitiation. The priests therefore sacrificed successively the bulls, the rams, and the lambs, and poured their blood on the altar. The goats, reserved for the expiatory sacrifice of sin, were then placed in the middle of the assembly; the king and all the people laid their hands on the victims which were sacrificed with this imposing rite, and their blood was poured before the altar as the atonement for the sins of Israel. For the king had requested that the burnt offering and the host for sin be offered in the name of the people of Israel as a whole, without taking into account the distinction of the two kingdoms. Meanwhile, the choirs of Levites, with cymbals, psalteries, and kinnors, had been reorganized according to the regulations of King David, of Gad the Seer, and of Nathan the Prophet. They stood in front of the Temple, with the various musical instruments as in the time of David; the priests, following the law of Moses, had the sacred trumpets in their hands. When fire was set to the pyre of the burnt offering on the altar of the Lord, the trumpets resounded, all the choirs of musicians began the singing of the sacred hymns composed by David and by Asaph the Seer. Meanwhile, the prostrate crowd adored the majesty of Jehovah. When the ceremony of the burnt offering was accomplished, Hezekiah said to the assembled people: "You have all wished to fill your hands with offerings for the Lord; approach therefore now; present to him your victims, and may the Temple of Jehovah receive again your sacrifices of thanksgiving." The multitude then offered, with pious eagerness, its victims, its hosts of praise, and its burnt offerings. Seventy bulls, one hundred rams, two hundred lambs were consumed on the altar of burnt offerings, six hundred oxen and three thousand sheep were sacrificed to the Lord on this solemn day. Thus was the worship of Jehovah restored; Hezekiah and the entire people were in joy; the manifestation was all the more striking as it had not been prepared in advance and had spontaneously occurred.

This demonstration, imbued to such a high degree with faith in Mosaic institutions, had indeed been entirely local. The inhabitants of Jerusalem, responding to the zeal of their pious king, had been the only ones to take part in it. But it was not to remain confined to such a narrow sphere. Hezekiah and the royal counselors, in a general assembly of the people, resolved to celebrate the Pass Pâque Major religious festival restored by Hezekiah for all Israel. over in the second month (Iyyar, April). This feast had not been solemnized on the precise date it fell because the priests had not yet been able to accomplish the purifications prescribed by the Law, and because, moreover, the people had not had time to gather in Jerusalem. It was therefore agreed to send messengers throughout the extent of Palestine, from Dan to Beersheba, to invite the multitude of the children of Israel to come and celebrate the Passover of Jehovah their God in Jerusalem. Special letters of convocation were addressed by Hezekiah to the two tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, the closest to the kingdom of Judah. The royal envoys carried out their mission. They traveled through the entire territory, announcing to the people of the cities and the countryside the command of Hezekiah. "Children of Israel," they said, "return to Jehovah, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; for his part, the Lord will consent to visit in his mercy the remnants escaped from the iron hand of the King of Assyria. Do not follow the example of your fathers and your brothers. They abandoned the worship of the Eternal, which is why the Lord let them perish before your eyes. Do not be imitators of our stiff-necked ancestors; give your hands to the covenant with Jehovah; hasten to the temple that he has consecrated forever by his holy majesty; serve the Lord, the God of your fathers, and he will turn away from you the arrows of his vengeance. If you return to him, your brothers and your sons, the captives of the Assyrian, will find grace before their master, and they will be returned to your love. Our God is the God of clemency and mercy; he will let himself be touched by your repentance." Thus spoke the messengers of Hezekiah, and they hastened to pass from city to city, through the tribes of Ephraim, Manasseh, and Zebulun; but most of the time they gathered only insult and irony from the peoples on their route. However, there were found in the tribe of Asher, and even in those of Manasseh and Zebulun, some faithful Israelites who welcomed their word with joy and took the road to Jerusalem!

The restorative mission that thus failed before the idolatrous obstinacy of the kingdom of Israel was, on the contrary, welcomed with enthusiasm in that of Judah. "The blessing of the Lord manifested itself on this occasion and united all hearts in a unanimous sentiment of faith and piety. An immense crowd went to Jerusalem from all points of the kingdom, at the time fixed for the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The idolatrous altars whose presence still defiled the streets and squares of the holy city were destroyed; and everything that had been profaned by the incense of a sacrilegious cult was thrown by the people into the Kidron Valley. On the fourteenth day of the second month, the solemnity began. The priests and the Levites, sanctified according to the prescriptions of the Law, offered burnt offerings in the Temple of the Lord. Each of them performed the functions of his ministry in the order established by Moses, the man of God. The priests received from the hands of the Levites the paschal victims that were to be immolated. It had to be done this way because there were in the crowd a large number of families who had not had time to purify themselves from legal impurities; the priestly family therefore took it upon itself to immolate the paschal lamb for them. A large number of Israelites from the tribes of Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun, in their unthinking eagerness, did not take into account the regulations of Moses and believed themselves entitled to take part in the Passover feast without having previously accomplished the ritual purifications. Hezekiah interceded for them before the altar of Jehovah: "The Lord is clement," he said, "he will show mercy in favor of those who seek in the sincerity of their heart to return to the God of their fathers, and he will forgive them for having neglected the prescribed purifications." Indeed, this God of goodness heard the royal prayer and deigned to forgive the people. For seven days, the Feast of Unleavened Bread was celebrated with gladness by the multitude gathered in Jerusalem. The praises of the Lord did not cease to resound in the holy city, and the choirs of the Levites made the sacred chants heard as in the time of David. Hezekiah, proud of the success of the religious restoration to which he had so powerfully contributed, addressed the most zealous Levites and asked them to add one more week to the days prescribed by the Law. All the people welcomed this proposal with enthusiasm. The king placed at the disposal of the multitude a thousand bulls and seven thousand sheep; the princes of Judah gave, for their part, a thousand bulls and ten thousand sheep. The sacrifices and the sacred feasts that followed them therefore began again and continued for seven days, amidst the transports of joy of the priests, the Levites, and the immense crowd composed of proselytes from the kingdom of Israel and the faithful inhabitants of Judah. Since the days of Solomon, son of David, Jerusalem had not witnessed such a solemnity. The assembly of the people separated after the priests had called

¹ II Chron., XXX, 1-11.

upon it the heavenly blessing. God heard the voice of his ministers, and their prayer reached the foot of his throne.

After the great paschal solemnity, the people left Jerusalem and returned to their homes. Upon arriving in the various cities not only of the kingdom of Judah, but in those of Ephraim and Manasseh, the pilgrims destroyed the high places, set fire to the sacred groves of idolatrous cults, overthrew the altars of false gods, and thus, through a sincere return to Jehovah, reclaimed their homeland. Hezekiah had given the order and the example. The bronze serpent erected by Moses in the des Serpent d'airain Object made by Moses, destroyed by Hezekiah because it had become an idol. ert had become, in recent times, an object of idolatrous worship for the sons of Israel. They burned incense before this statue. The king had it broken into pieces, saying: "It is but a vile metal!"

Everything had to be reorganized in the worship of Jehovah, since the disastrous apostasy of Ahaz had introduced idolatry into the Temple of Jerusalem. Hezekiah therefore had to reconstitute the priestly and Levitical families in the functions of their ministry and the degrees of their hierarchy, to establish order in the burnt offerings, the immolation of peace offerings, and the singing of sacred hymns. Following the example of David and Solomon, the king wished to provide himself the fat of his flocks for the daily burnt offering of the morning and evening; for that of the Sabbath, the New Moon, and the solemn feasts fixed by the law of Moses. He reinstated the legal prescriptions and ordered the inhabitants of Jerusalem to provide the priests and Levites with the tithes and first fruits that were due to them, in order to allow them to devote themselves exclusively to the study of the law of the Lord. As soon as the royal decree reached the knowledge of the people, the inhabitants of Jerusalem hastened to offer the first fruits of wheat, wine, and oil, and the tithe of all the productions of the earth. In the other cities of Judah, this pious zeal was imitated by sending to the Temple the tithe of oxen, sheep, and other products of the soil. From all points of the kingdom, these religious convoys were multiplied, so that the priests found it necessary to gather into enormous heaps the grains of all kinds and the olives thus sanctified. From the third month (Sivan) until the seventh (Tishri), the offerings did not cease. At the sight of these mountains of sheaves and olives, a testimony of the national faith, Hezekiah and the princes of Judah thanked the Lord and blessed the people of Israel. Why, asked Hezekiah of the priests and Levites, do you leave these heaps in the open air? The high priest Azariah, a descendant of Zadok, replied to the king: "Since we began to b ring th Azarias High priest and descendant of Zadok during the reign of Hezekiah. e first fruits to the Temple of the Lord, we have found there a resource more than sufficient for all our needs. Jehovah has manifestly blessed His people. What you see is the remainder of the offerings that we could not consume." Hezekiah immediately gave the order to prepare numerous granaries to deposit these riches. It was thus that the gifts of piety and faith were reserved for the needs of the future. The Levite Conaniah and his younger brother Shimei were placed in charge of their custody. They had under their orders Jehiel, Azariah, Nahath, Asahel, Jerimoth, Jozabad, Eliel, Ismachiah, Mahath, and Benaiah, who were directly under their authority. The two general stewards referred all important matters to the king himself and to the high priest Azariah. Besides the mandatory tribute of first fruits and tithes, the sons of Israel spontaneously brought to the Temple a large number of gifts and offerings to fulfill personal vows. The Levite Kore, son of Imnah, keeper of the Eastern Gate, was charged with collecting these special offerings. He had under his orders Eden, Miniamin, Jeshua, Shemaiah, Amariah, and Shecaniah, who, distributed among the priestly cities, ensured that the distributions made to the Levites were in proportion to the needs of the families and the hierarchical dignity of each of them. Such was the order that Hezekiah re-established in the worship of Jehovah, according to the precepts and rites of the Mosaic law. He applied it to the entire kingdom of Judah, and his administration was that of a pious and wise prince who sought in the sincerity of his heart to walk in the ways of virtue and justice!

God was with him and gave him the wisdom to direct all his undertakings. He made the Philistines feel the weight of his victorious arms, and drove them back as far as their maritime city of Gaza. Trusting in the goodness of the Lord, of which he had had so many proofs, he resolved to shake off the yoke of the king o f Assyria. Sennachérib King of Assyria, cruel toward Jewish captives. Sennacherib, son of Sargon, had succeeded his father on the throne of Nineveh. However, to fight with some advantage against this formidable enemy, Hezekiah relied too much on the support of purely human politics. By his orders, the leaders of Judah went to Tanis, in Lower Egy pt, to Égypte The place where the legendary meeting between Dismas and the Holy Family takes place. renew with the Pharaoh an alliance that had succeeded so poorly for the last king of Israel. The word of Isaiah did not delay in rising against this step which the Lord had not authorized. "Here is the word of Jehovah," he said. "Woe to the children who desert my law, who have deliberated without me in council; who have woven the web without being inspired by my Spirit and who have added a new fault to all those of the past; who have taken the road to Egypt, without having consulted my oracle, placing their trust in the help of Pharaoh, and in the phantom of Egyptian power. The Lord will incline his hand, and the ally will fall; he whose help is implored will be overthrown, and all will perish in his ruin!"

However, Sennacherib, king of the Assyrians, entered Judea in the fourteenth year of Hezekiah's reign; he came to lay siege to the principal cities of the kingdom of Judah and took possession of them. Then Hezekiah sent messengers to Lachish charged with saying to the Assyrian monarch: "I have sinned against you by rejecting your alliance, but indicate yourself the tribute you desire; I will submit to it. At this price, consent to move your army away from my territory." Sennacherib set the tax at three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold. To raise this sum, Hezekiah took all the silver deposited in the treasuries of the Temple and in those of the palace. He was even forced to break the gold plates with which he had had the door of the sanctuary covered, and sent them to the king of Assyria. Sennacherib was content for the moment with this submission. Hezekiah took advantage of this interval to fortify Jerusalem. "Defensive measures were concerted in the royal council, formed of the princes of Judah and the most skillful warriors. Unanimously, it was resolved to obstruct the external springs that watered the region. A numerous multitude was gathered to thus divert the water of all the springs, and that of the brook Kidron which, with its tributaries the Gihon and the fountain of Siloam, bathes the walls of the city. Hezekiah had work done actively on the repair of the outer wall, degraded in several places; he had new towers added to it and raised a second rampart in front of the first. The valley of Millo, connected to the hill of David by the bridge of Solomon, was furnished with defensive works. The king's arsenals were filled with shields and weapons of every kind; and experienced leaders were placed at the head of the army corps."

However, the physical strength of Hezekiah could not withstand so many terrible anxieties and preoccupations. An ulcer broke out with the most alarming symptoms; the malady made rapid progress, and consternation was painted on every face. The prophet Isaiah came to find the king: Isaïe Major prophet and spiritual advisor to King Hezekiah. "Set your house in order," he said to him, "for the hour approaches and you are going to cease to live." At these words, Hezekiah, turning his face toward the wall, prayed to the Lord. "Jehovah, my God!" he said, "deign to remember that I have walked before you in the sincerity and uprightness of my heart, and that I have taken your holy will as the rule for all my actions." After speaking thus, Hezekiah let a torrent of tears flow from his eyes. However, Isaiah had taken leave of the king; he was under the vestibule of the palace when the Lord made him hear His voice. "Return to Hezekiah, the leader of my people, and say to him: Here is the word of Jehovah, the God of David, your ancestor: I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears, and I am going to heal you. In three days you will go to render me your thanks in my Temple, and I will add fifteen years more to the number of your days. I will deliver your kingdom and your capital from the yoke of the Assyrians; my protection will cover this city, for the honor of my name and in memory of David, my servant." Isaiah returned to the royal invalid, communicated the divine message to him, and addressing the servants of Hezekiah: "Bring me a basket of figs," he said to them. They hastened to execute this order. The Prophet took some of these fruits, had them applied to the open wound of Hezekiah, while renewing to him the promise that the Lord would heal him. "But what sign will you give me," asked the king, "to prove to me that my healing will be so prompt, and that, in three days, I will be able to go to thank God in His Temple?" — "Here is," replied Isaiah, "the prodigy that the Lord is going to perform before your eyes to attest to the truth of His word. Do you want the shadow to descend or to ascend ten degrees on this sundial?" — "It would be easy to make the shadow ascend ten degrees," replied Hezekiah. "That is therefore not what I wish to choose. Make the shadow suddenly retrocede ten degrees." — The Prophet invoked the name of Jehovah, and instantly the shadow retroceded ten degrees on the sundial built long ago in the palace by Ahaz.

Hezekiah recovered his health within the time fixed by the Prophet. While going on the third day to the Temple, to thank the Lord there, the pious king made this canticle of thanksgiving heard: "I had said: The middle of my days will mark the end; I am going to descend to the gates of the tomb; and I sought in vain to tie again the thread of my years. Alas! I said, I will no longer see Jehovah, my God, in the land of the living; my extinguished gaze will no longer fix itself upon the inhabitants of this earth and will no longer contemplate mortals. But my bitterness has changed into gladness, you have delivered my soul from the terrors of death. The tomb will not glorify you, death will not sing your praises. It is a living one, a living one as I am today, who will sing your mercy; the father will tell his sons of the wonders of your clemency. Lord, preserve for me the life that you have restored to me, and every day your Temple will resound with our hymns of gratitude!"

However, the King of Assyria was returning victorious from his expedition in Egypt. Upon returning to Lachish, and having undoubtedly learned of the defensive preparations carried out in Jerusalem, he sent to Hezekiah the Tartan of his army, to whom he added the Rabsaris (chief of the eunuchs) and the Rabshakeh (chief cupbearer), with a powerful escort. The Assyrian deputies presented themselves in the name of Sennacherib, their master, before the eastern wall, near the aqueduct of the upper pool, on the road to the Fuller's Field. They asked to speak to the king and delivered a speech full of insolence. When Hezekiah had heard it, he tore his royal mantle, put on a sackcloth of mourning, and came to prostrate himself in the Temple of the Lord. At the same time, he sent Eliakim and Shebna with the elders of the sanctuary, covered like him in the haircloth of penance, to Isaiah, son of Amoz. Arriving before the Prophet, they said to him: "Behold, the day of anguish, of terror, and of blasphemy. Has Jehovah, your God, heard the outrages against his holy majesty that have come from the lips of the Rabshakeh sent by the King of the Assyrians? Offer up your prayer to him, so that he may deign to save the remnants of his people." Isaiah replied: "Go and tell your master: Here is the message of Jehovah: Cease to fear the insolence of the servants of the King of Assyria, and do not be alarmed by the blasphemies they have uttered against me. I will send upon him a spirit of terror; he will hear news of death, he will return to his own land, and when he is back in his homeland, I will make him fall, bathed in his blood, by a murderous sword." The events verified the Prophet's prediction. The fact of the destruction, in a single night, of the Assyrian army, is expressly affirmed by the Bible.

Delivered by a miracle from the yoke of the Assyrians, Hezekiah lived in peace during the final years of his reign. Offerings multiplied at the Temple of Jerusalem; people came from all parts to sacrifice victims to the Almighty God, and to bring the tributes of loyalty to the King of Judah. The name of Hezekiah became famous among all the nations neighboring Judea. The riches of this prince increased with his reputation. He accumulated in his treasuries heaps of gold, silver, precious stones, spices, armor, and artistically chiseled vases. His storehouses overflowed with wheat, wine, and oil; he possessed immense herds and countless sheep. To suffice for the ever-growing development of his prosperity, he was obliged to build cities for his shepherds. Thus did the blessing of the Lord reward his zeal and piety. At that time, Merodach-Baladan, King of the Babylonians, sent him an embassy to congratulate him on h is miracu Babylonie City where the king converted and where the bodies were first deposited. lous recovery and the recent wonders that had been wrought in his favor. The deputies of the foreign prince were bearers of rich gifts and a letter from their sovereign. Hezekiah had great joy in receiving them. He showed them the House of Perfumes, the gold, the silver, the spices, and the precious vases that filled his treasuries, and displayed all his riches before them with a marked sense of ostentation. However, the prophet Isaiah came to find the king. "What did these foreigners say to you?" he asked him; "and what is their country?" — "They come from the distant regions of Babylonia," replied Hezekiah. "What have they seen in your palace?" added the Prophet. "They have seen all the magnificences of my dwelling," replied the king, "and there is nothing in my treasuries that I have not let pass before their eyes." — "Now therefore," resumed Isaiah, "here is the sentence of Jehovah, the Lord. Listen to what He has you told through my mouth. The days are approaching; soon all the riches of this palace, amassed by your ancestors and by yourself, will be transported to Babylon. Not a parcel of it will remain here. This is what the Lord says. Your descendants, born of your race, will be dragged into captivity; they will be seen as slaves in the palaces of the King of Babylon." — "The

Lord is just to punish my pride thus," replied Hezekiah. "May His mercy at least maintain peace in Jerusalem during the final days of my life!" It was thus that a thought of vanity swelled the heart of this pious king, and that the Lord permitted this temptation to test his fidelity.

The final years of Hezekiah's life were illuminated by the splendor of Isaiah's oracles. The sense of vain ostentation that had led this prince to display the treasures of his magnificence to the eyes of Merodach-Baladan's envoys undoubtedly found bitter compensation in the terrible prophecy of the Babylonian captivity announced by the man of God. Hezekiah ended his glorious reign in peace. He slept the sleep of his fathers, and he was given a place of honor in the tomb of David. The entire kingdom of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem celebrated his funeral.

Hezekiah is depicted wearing, like David, royal ornaments and holding in his hand a cartouche on which are written these words: "You are the only supreme Master of all kingdoms." These words are an allusion to the king's prayer when he was struck by the illness of which we have spoken.

Baillet: Vies des Saints de l'Ancien Testament; Darras: Histoire générale de l'Église.