2 Chronicles 29 · a question people ask
2 Kings tells Hezekiah's reign too. Does it tell of the doors and the cleansing?
Both books give his age, his years and his mother. 2 Kings: "He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Abi the daughter of Zechariah" (2 Kings 18:2). 2 Chronicles: "Hezekiah began to reign when he was twenty-five years old, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah" (29:1). Both give the same verdict: "He did that which was right in the LORD’s eyes, according to all that David his father had done" (2 Kings 18:3; 2 Chronicles 29:2). Then 2 Kings tells that "He removed the high places, broke the pillars, and cut down the Asherah" (2 Kings 18:4), broke the bronze serpent (2 Kings 18:4), and "trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel" (2 Kings 18:5). Those verses (2 Kings 18:1-8) don't tell of the doors opened, the cleansing, or the offerings of this chapter. 2 Chronicles tells of the high places broken down after the Passover, by "all Israel who were present" (31:1). 2 Kings names his mother Abi, and 2 Chronicles Abijah. These notes set the two tellings side by side and don't explain the differences.
The verses
“Hezekiah began to reign when he was twenty-five years old, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah. He did that which was right in the LORD’s eyes, according to all that David his father had done.”
“Now when all this was finished, all Israel who were present went out to the cities of Judah and broke the pillars in pieces, cut down the Asherah poles, and broke down the high places and the altars out of all Judah and Benjamin, also in Ephraim and Manasseh, until they had destroyed them all. Then all the children of Israel returned, every man to his possession, into their own cities.”