2Ki 18:1, 2Ki 18:2. In the third year of Hoshea of Israel, Hezekiah became king over Judah, when he was twenty-five years old. According to 2Ki 18:9, 2Ki 18:10, the fourth and sixth years of Hezekiah corresponded to the seventh and ninth of Hoshea; consequently his first year apparently ran parallel to the fourth of Hoshea, so that Josephus (Ant. ix. 13, 1) represents him as having ascended the throne in the fourth year of Hoshea’s reign. But there is no necessity for this alteration. If we assume that the commencement of his reign took place towards the close of the third year of Hoshea, the fourth and sixth years of his reign coincided for the most part with the sixth and ninth years of Hoshea’s reign. The name הזקיּה or הזקיּהוּ (2Ki 18:9, 2Ki 18:13, etc.) is given in its complete form יהזקיּהוּ, “whom Jehovah strengthens,” in 2 Chr. 29ff. and Isa 1:1; and והזקיּה in Hos 1:1 and Mic 1:1. On his age when he ascended the throne, see the Comm. on 2Ki 16:2. The name of his mother, אבי, is a strongly contracted form of אבי (2Ch 29:1).
Verses 3-4
As ruler Hezekiah walked in the footsteps of his ancestor David. He removed the high places and the other objects of idolatrous worship, trusted in Jehovah, and adhered firmly to Him without wavering; therefore the Lord made all his undertakings prosper. הבּמות, המּצּבית, and האשׁרה (see at 1Ki 14:23) embrace all the objects of idolatrous worship, which had been introduced into Jerusalem and Judah in the reigns of the former kings,
