Hezekiah
The short answer
Hezekiah ruled the southern kingdom of Judah in the late eighth century BC, and the Bible introduces him with unusually high praise. Second Kings 18 says he "trusted in Yahweh" like no king of Judah before or after him, and compares his faithfulness to David's. Coming after a long run of kings who compromised, Hezekiah stands out as a genuine reformer—someone who did not just talk about devotion to God but acted on it.
What did that reform look like? Hezekiah shut down the high places, the local shrines scattered across the countryside where worship had drifted away from what God commanded. He destroyed the standing stones and sacred poles associated with Canaanite religion. Most strikingly, he smashed the bronze serpent known as Nehushtan—an object with an impeccable pedigree, traced all the way back to Moses in the wilderness (Numbers 21), but one that people had begun treating as an object of worship in its own right, burning incense to it. Hezekiah recognized that even something with a sacred history can become an idol.
Yet Hezekiah's story is not a simple hero tale. As the narrative unfolds—through the Assyrian invasion, his illness, and his ill-judged display of the royal treasury to Babylonian envoys—the shining portrait gets more complicated. Like David, the very king he is compared to, Hezekiah turns out to be a mixture of remarkable faith and human weakness.
That mixture may be the point. Scripture rarely gives us flawless heroes. It gives us people who trusted God deeply and still stumbled, and it lets both sides of the story stand. Hezekiah shows what wholehearted reform looks like—and reminds us that God works through devoted, imperfect people.
What scholars say
John Goldingay considers why the Bible presents Hezekiah as both an exceptionally committed reformer and a somewhat ambiguous, David-like figure—arguing that Scripture offers readers both inspiring heroes and flawed, encouraging ones. Rainer Albertz then fills in what the reform actually involved: abolishing the high places, destroying the standing stones and sacred poles, and breaking apart the venerated bronze serpent Nehushtan, which had been traced back to Moses.
“That is Judah’s position, and Hezekiah’s position as its leader. At first you get the impression that Hezekiah is unequivocally a great guy, but then the portrait becomes a bit mistier. Maybe it’s appropriate that he is described as someone whose great uprightness compares with David’s, because David was actually a somewhat ambiguous person. The people who read the Bible are divided into those who find it helpful to have stories of great heroes who can be an inspiration and flawed heroes who can be an encouragement, and the Bible meets both needs in the way it describes its heroes. So Hezekiah is more radical in his commitment to Yahweh than any other Judahite king so far. He is the first king to close down the high places as well as to destroy the pillars (associated with Canaanite -style worship) and the Asherah .”
“In the view of the later Deuteronomists, this so-called ‘Hezekianic reform’ was above all a reform of the cult: Hezekiah, they say, abolished the cultic high places, destroyed massebas and asheras, 149 and broke in pieces the iron serpent which he called Nehushtan (II Kings 18.4). 150 The latter was evidently a venerated cultic symbol to which incense had hitherto uncritically been offered – probably in the precinct of the Jerusalem temple – by the population; it was even traced back to Moses (Num.21.4-9).”
What it means for you
Hezekiah's boldest act was destroying Nehushtan—something old, revered, and traced back to Moses himself. That raises an uncomfortable question for any of us: are there good things in our lives, even religious things, that have quietly become substitutes for God? Traditions, habits, or symbols can start as gifts and end as idols. Real renewal sometimes means letting go of what feels sacred but has stopped pointing us to God.
At the same time, Hezekiah's imperfections are their own kind of comfort. You do not have to be spotless to be faithful. God worked through a flawed king, and he works through flawed people still.
In context
Hezekiah's story runs through 2 Kings 18–20 (with parallels in 2 Chronicles 29–32 and Isaiah 36–39). He comes to the throne as the northern kingdom of Israel falls to Assyria—a catastrophe the narrator blames on unfaithfulness to God. Against that backdrop, Hezekiah's sweeping reforms in 2 Kings 18 read as Judah's chance to choose a different path. The chapters that follow test that faith: Sennacherib's Assyrian army besieges Jerusalem, Hezekiah falls deathly ill, and Babylonian envoys arrive with a glimpse of trouble to come.