King Hezekiah’s story is that of a leader faced with tough choices. It’s when he starts getting welts all over his body and is seriously ill, as the political crisis with Assyria worsens -- that he faces the really big questions of life and death, and is consumed by doubts.
As Alex Israel writes “Hezekiah is caught in a complex tug of war between faith-oriented decisions on the one hand and navigating the kingdom’s course on the basis of hard strategy and skilled diplomacy on the other. When should Hezekiah use the one, and when should he employ the other?”
Isaiah is summoned to the ill king’s bedside to offer comfort. But the words that come out of his mouth, at first, are nothing like hope. “You will die soon”, he tells the king whose birth he oversaw. The pious king turns his face to the wall and weeps, reciting what would become his most famous prayer of all.
Isaiah turns to go, but while he’s still in the corridor of the palace, YHWH speaks within him, with urgency, and he returns to the king’s bedside to let him know that the prayer was effective: He will live another fifteen years, and will not suffer Assyrian assault while he lives.
Isaiah also orders that a paste of figs be applied all over the king’s swollen body, for healing and relief.
The king, now covered in fig paste, is likely relieved to hear the updated prophecy -- but is also, understandably, a little suspicious. He asks the prophet for a sign that will prove the prophetic promise of healing.
Isaiah comes up with a sign: He declares that the sun’s shadow will move backwards ten degrees.
And this is when the first clock in Biblical history makes its appearance. It’s a sundial created by the king’s father, Ahaz. Although Hezekiah purged Jerusalem of all of his father’s pagan and idolatrous icons and symbols, this time piece, very likely with astrological intentions, somehow survived. The earliest sundials known from the archaeological record are shadow clocks 1500 BC, from ancient Hittite, Egyptian and Babylonian astronomy. Presumably, humans were telling time from shadow-lengths at an even earlier date, but this is hard to verify.
The Sun-dial of Ahaz has intrigued scholars throughout the ages and recent discoveries from the Dead Sea Scrolls shed some new evidence on what this object may have looked like and what its purpose may have been - beyond the telling of time during the day.
Isaiah mentioned it in his own prophecies but in this chapter the dial is used as mystical means to a greater end -- proof that YHWH is listening, and that this god is greater than nature, can heal the dying, and even turn back the sun’s shade:
The word for ‘steps’ indicates that these may have been actual steps as in a staircase (or Babylonian style Ziggurat) although the Hebrew word ‘Maalot’ may indicate what we today refer to as degrees.
Either way - the king is convinced, relieved and indeed lives long enough to be buried in relative peace along his ancestors in Jerusalem, fifteen years later. The destruction will wait another few years as well.
Hezekiah will be remembered for being a powerful prayer, a pious believer in YHWH and a religious reformer -- but there is a curious story about him, and a mysterious book of remedies, that is also connected to today’s story of near death experience.
“King Hezekiah did six things. Concerning three the sages agreed with him, and concerning three they did not agree with him: He dragged his father’s corpse on a rope bier, and they agreed with him. He crushed the bronze serpent, and they agreed with him. He hid the Book of Spells and Remedies, and they agreed with him.
And concerning three they did not agree with him: He cut down the doors of the Temple and sent them to the king of Assyria, and they did not agree with him. He blocked the waters of the upper Gihon, and they did not agree with him. He intercalated the month of Nisan in Nisan, and they did not agree with him. “
Without getting to all the details here, this much we know: The sages approve of Hezekiah’s war on idolatry - including how he buried his idol-worshiping father and disposed of the serpent totem attributed to Moses. The things they didn’t agree with him about are also fascinating but we’ll leave these aside for now.
But what’s the Book of Healing Spells that isn’t mentioned anywhere else? And why would he destroy it - and be considered wise for doing so? How is this lost book connected to today’s chapter?
The medieval commentator Rashi explains that the “Book of Remedies” supplied spells and medicinal solutions to any ailment: “It was hidden away due to the fact that people’s hearts were not subdued regarding illness, and they were healed immediately.”
Other interpreters including modern ones also weigh in on what this Book of Remedies may be all about.
What’s interesting is that the king who went against all that his father stood for - including the superstitious book of spells and healing serpent -- still adheres to the celestial sun-dial when it comes to his own healing. And even then - only if it works - in reverse.
What are these stories, told so long after this king died and his legacy remembered - about what his war on religion and its practice was really all about? And what of this war between science and spirit, signs and spells, fact and faith - remains today?
Alex Israel echoes these questions as we wrap up today’s intriguing chapter:
“The question that looms over Hezekiah’s reign is the balance between human initiative and reliance on God. Hezekiah is a man of great faith and commitment who leaves a powerful legacy as one of the greatest of the Judahite kings, and precisely a king of his stature needs to advance his nation on rational political lines.
Where indeed is the correct balance between human effort and faith?”
TOMORROW: The (Actual) Birth of the Bible!
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