Abstract
This article suggests reading the reworked prophetical story of Hezekiah's prayer, which is now the third part of the report of Sennacherib's war against Judah (2 Kgs 19.9b–35), as part of the rather well-documented debate concerning the inviolability of Jerusalem that was propounded during the Babylonian crisis in the last days of the Judean kingdom. Offering slight modifications of two existing theories, this article argues that the royal prayer served as the motive that moved this story forward, and that the list of conquered cities recounted in 2 Kgs 19.12–13 reflects a Neo-Babylonian setting. Based upon this, the story is compared with a parallel account of the deliverance of Jerusalem in the days of Hezekiah recounted during the trial of Jeremiah (Jer. 26.16–19). It is deduced that the two stories reflect similar ideological thought, which suggests that they served the same polemical purpose in the same historical setting.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.