King Hezekiah's inscription

What a University of Haifa professor of biblical studies and ancient history has called “one of the most important archaeological discoveries in Israel of all time” – five monumental, new royal inscriptions of King Hezekiah of Judah, which together include dozens of lines and hundreds of letters have been deciphered.



Prof. Gershon Galil, a former chairman of the university’s department of Jewish history, said that the inscriptions mention the name of Hezekiah, and summarize his main actions during the first 17 years of his reign, including the water project (the cutting of the Siloam Tunnel and the pool), the ritual reform, the conquest of Philistia and the accumulation of property.



The inscriptions, he maintained, also indicate the exact date on which the water project was completed – 2 Tammuz in the 17th year Hezekiah = 709 BCE.

This is a verbatim quote of the inscription that includes 11 lines, 64 words, and 243 letters:



Hezekiah, the son of Ahaz, king of Judah,

made the pool and the conduit.

In the seventeenth year, in the second (day), in the fourth (month),

of king Hezekiah, the king brought

the water into the city by a tunnel, the king led

the water into the pool. He smote the Philistines

from Ekron to Gaza and placed there the OREB unit of

the army of Judah. He braked the images and braked in ˹pieces˺ the Nehu˹sh˺tan

and he removed the high ˹places and˺ cut down the Asherah. Hezek˹ia˺h, the king,

accumulated in all his treasure houses and in the house of YHWH

a lot of silver and gold, perfumes and good ointment.


This “summary inscription,” Galil continued, “is arranged in literary order, not chronologically, and is divided into five components: title, the water project, the wars against Philistia, the reform and the accumulation of property. It includes scriptures that appear verbatim or with slight changes in the Bible, such as: ‘Hezekiah son of Ahaz, king of Judah,’ ‘Make the pool and the conduit,’ ‘brought ... the water into the city,’ ‘smote the Philistines ... as far as Gaza,’ ‘braked the images and braked in pieces the … Nehushtan and he removed the high places and cut down the Asherah… in all his treasure houses and in the house of YHWH, silver ... and gold, perfumes and good ointment’ (see 2 Kings 18: 1, 4, 8; 20: 13, 20).


All the inscriptions will soon be published in Hebrew and English, accompanied by high-quality photographs with detailed linguistic, historical and paleographical discussions, in their forthcoming book: Gershon Galil and Eli Shukrun, The Inscriptions of Hezekiah King of Judah, which was accepted for publication, and will be published in the coming year.