Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 5.djvu/817

 EZECHIAS

737

EZECHIEL

Ezechias (Heb. WpTn, or inpTn = "The Lord strengtheneth"; Sept. 'EftKi'as; in the cuneiform in- scriptions Ha-za-qi-ya-hu), King of Juda, son and successor of Achaz. We learn from IV Kings, xviii, that he began his reign in the third year of Osee, King of Israel, that he was then twenty-five years of age, that his reign lasted twenty-nine years, and that his mother was Abi, daughter of Zacharias. The account of his reign is beset with unsolved chronological diffi- culties, and there exists a difference of opinion among scholars as to the year in which he ascended the throne. The commonly received computation reck- ons his reign from 726 to 697 b. c. In character and policy, Ezechias was pious and agreeable to God. He was a strenuous civil and religious reformer, and on this account the sacred writer compares him to King David. The events of his reign are related in the Fourth Book of Kings, and also m the parallel account in the Second Book of Paralipomenon, but in the lat- ter, as might be expected, stress is laid chiefly on the religious reforms which he carried out, whereas the earlier account mentions these briefly, and dwells at greater length on the civil and political aspects of his reign.

Among the religious reforms are mentioned the purification of the Temple, which had been closed by Achaz, the irreligious predecessor of Ezechias (II Par., xxviii— xxLx), the resumption and proper celebration of the feast of the Passover which had been neglected (II Par., xxx), and in general the extirpation of idola- try, and the reorganization of the Hebrew worship (IV K., xviii, II Par., xxxi). In a title prefixed to the twenty-fifth chapter of Proverbs, it is stated that the sayings contained in the following collection (xxv- xxLx) were copied out by the "men of Ezechias". This would seem to indicate, on the part of the king, some literary interest and activity, and in the Talmu- dic tradition these "men of Ezechias" are credited with the composition of several books of the Old Tes- tament. Soon after his accession to the throne Ez- echias threw off the yoke of the Assyrians, to whom his father had become a vassal (IV K., xviii). Other notable events of his reign are his sickness and mirac- ulous cure, the embassy of Berodach Baladan, and the invasion of Sennacherib. The story of the sickness of Ezechias is narrated in IV K, xx, and in Is., xxxviii.

The king having been stricken with some mortal disease, the prophet Isaias comes in the name of Yah- weh to warn him to put his affairs in order, for he is about to die. But Ezechias prays to the Lord, Who sends the prophet back to announce to him that he will recover, and that fifteen years are to be added to his life. As a sign of the fulfilment of this promise, Isaias causes the shadow to recede a distance of ten lines on the sundial. Connected with this event is the sending of an embassy by Berodach Baladan, King of Babylon, who having heard of the illness of Ezechias, sent messengers to him with presents. The motive of this action on the part of the Babylonian king was probably to enlist the services of Ezechias in a league against Sennacherib, King of Assyria. Ez- echias received the envoys with great honour, and ex- hibited to them his variovis treasures and armaments of war. This spirit of ostentation was displeasing to the Lonl, and Isaias was sent to announce that the treasures, in which the king seemed to place his confi- flence, would be all carried off as plunder to Babylon. Not long after (according to the cuneiform inscrip- tions, in the year 701), Sennacherib undertook a great campaign against Syria and Egypt. The story of this expedition is told, from the Assyrian standpoint, in the official cuneiform inscription known as the Taylor prism. The plan of Sennacherib was, first, to van- quish the kings of Ascalon, Sidon and Juda who had formed a coalition against him, and then to turn his attention to the land of the Pharaohs.

After subduing Ascalon and Accaron, the Assyrian v.— 47

invader captured and plundered all the fortified towns of Juda, and carried their inhabitants into exile. Then he besieged Jerusalem, and Ezechias, finding himself shut up "like a bird in a cage", resolved to come to terms with his enemy. Sennacherib demanded thirty talents of gold and three hundred talents of sil- ver, and, in order to supply it, Ezechias was obliged to yield up not only the contents of the royal treasury, but also the silver belonging to the Temple, and the plates of gold which were on the doors thereof (IV K. xviii). But when in addition to this, the Assyrian de- manded the surrender of Jerusalem with a view to carrying its inhabitants into exile, the courage of Ezechias was revived, and he prepared himself for a vigorous resistance. Haughty demands of surrender were repulsed, and the king taking counsel with the prophet Isaias turned in supplication to Yahweh ; he received the assurance that the enemy would soon abandon the siege without doing any harm to the city. This prophecy was shortly verified when the angel of the Lord having slain in the night IS.5,000 of the be- sieging forces, the remainder fled with Sennacherib, and returned to Assyria. Ezechias survived this deliver- ance only a few years, and he was buried with great pomp in the tomb of the sons of David (IV K. xx, 21 ; II Par. xxxii, 33).

Mangenot in Vic, Diet, de la Bible, s. v.; La Bible el les D6- couverles Modemes. 6th ed. (1896). t. IV, pp. 12, 14-28; Hast- ings. Dictionary of the Bible, s. v. Hezekiah,

J,\jiES F. Driscoll.

Ezechiel, whose name, Yehdzq'el (pKptn') signi- fies "strong is God", or "whom God makes strong" (Ezech., i,3; iii, 8), was the son of Buzi, and was one of the priests who, in the year 598 B. c, had been de- ported together with Joachim as prisoners from Jeru- salem (IV Kings, xxiv, 12-16; cf. Ezech., xxxiii, 21, xl, 1). With the other exiles he settled in Tell-Abib near the Chobar (Ezech., i, 1 ; iii, 15) in Babylonia, and seems to have spent the rest of his life there. In the fifth year after the captivity of Joachim, and accord- ing to some, the thirtieth year of his life, Ezechiel re- ceived his call as a prophet (Ezech. i, 2, 4 etc.) in the vision which he describes in the beginning of his prophecy (Ezech. i, 4; iii, 15). From Ezech. xxix, 17 it appears that he prophesied during at least twenty- two years.

Ezechiel was called to foretell God's faithfulness in the midst of trials, as well as in the fulfilment of His promises. During the first period of his career, he foretold the complete destruction of the kingdom of Juda, and the annihilation of the city and temple. After the fulfilment of these predictions, he was com- manded to annoimce the future return from exile, the re-establishment of the people in their own country and, especially, the redemption within the Kingdom of the Messiah, the second David, so that the people would not abandon themselves to despair and perish as a nation, through contact with the Gentiles, whose gods had apparently triumphed over the God of Lsrael. This is the principal burden of Ezechiel 's prophecy, which is divided into three parts. After the intro- duction, the vision of the calling of the prophet (Ezech., i-iii, 21), the first part contains the prophe- cies against Juda before the fall of Jerusalem (Ezech., iii, 22-xxiv). In this part the prophet declares the hope of saving the city, the kingdom, and the temple to be vain, and announces the approaching judgment of God upon Juda. This part may be subdivided into five group of prophecies.

(1) Afterasecond revelation, in which God discloses to the prophet His course of action (iii, 22-27), the prophet foretells by symbolic acts (iv, v) and in words (vi-vii), the siege and capture of Jerusalem, and the banishment of Juda. (2) In a prophetic vision, in the presence of the elders of Israel, God reveals to him the cause of these punishments. In spirit he witnesses