Hezekiah reigned at a time when the Assyrian empire was consolidating its control of Palestine and Syria. Hezekiah, Hebrew Ḥizqiyya, Greek Ezekias, (flourished late 8th and early 7th centuries BC), son of Ahaz, and the 13th successor of David as king of Judah at Jerusalem. The dates of his reign are often given as about 715 to about 686 BC, but inconsistencies in biblical and Assyrian cuneiform records have yielded a wide range of possible dates.
His father had placed Judah under Assyrian suzerainty in 735 BC. Hezekiah may have taken part in a rebellion against King Sargon II of Assyria (reigned 721–705 BC), which the Assyrians apparently crushed in the year 710. At the accession of Sennacherib (705–681 BC), further rebellions broke out all over the Assyrian empire. Hezekiah may have been the leader of the rebellion in Palestine, which included the city-states of Ascalon, and Ekron and gained the support of Egypt. In preparing for the inevitable Assyrian campaign to retake Palestine, Hezekiah strengthened the defenses of his capital, Jerusalem, and dug out the famous Siloam tunnel (2 Kings 20:20, 2 Chronicles 32:30), which brought the water of the Gihon springs to a reservoir inside the city wall.
Sennacherib finally put down the rebellion in 701 BC, overrunning Judah, taking 46 of its walled cities, and placing much conquered Judaean territory under the control of neighboring states. While Sennacherib was besieging the city of Lachish, Hezekiah sought to spare Jerusalem itself from capture by paying a heavy tribute of gold and silver to the Assyrian king, who nevertheless demanded the city’s unconditional surrender. At this point, Jerusalem was saved by a miraculous plague that decimated the Assyrian army.