Hezekiah’s name means “The Lord is my strength.” He was the son of Ahaz and Abi and the twelfth king of the southern kingdom (Judah), not counting the illegal reign of Athaliah. Based on the evidence given in the Bible, it is difficult to pinpoint the exact dates when Hezekiah ruled. For fourteen years, beginning about 729 B.C., Hezekiah ruled together with his father. From about 716 B.C., at the age of twenty-five, and continuing through 687 B.C., he ruled alone.

Hezekiah's time as king was notable for its religious reforms and steadfast resistance against the powerful Assyrian Empire to the east. In addition to being the first Judean king to remove the local shrines to Canaanite gods and goddesses, he reopened the doors of the temple that his father had closed in Jerusalem (2 Chr 28.24). He also removed the Assyrian idols that his father had placed in the temple. He broke the bronze serpent Moses had lifted up in the wilderness (Num 21.4-9), because it had become an object of worship in itself and people were burning incense to it. Hezekiah brought back the holy vessels his father had removed, reorganized the Levite priesthood, and had the priests purify the altar so that they could make all sacrifices commanded by the Law of Moses. In an honest gesture of concern, Hezekiah invited the people of the northern kingdom (Israel), who had been under Assyria’s power, to join him in celebrating the Passover (2 Kgs 18.1-8; 2 Chr 29.1–31.21).

Ignoring the warnings of the prophet Isaiah, Hezekiah's father Ahaz, had allowed Judah to become dependent upon the more powerful Assyria. Breaking with the policies of his father, Hezekiah organized a rebellion against the Assyrian control of Palestine and Syria. When Sargon II, who had conquered the northern kingdom in 721 B.C. (2 Kgs 17; Isa 20.1), captured the city of Ashdod, Hezekiah began to prepare Jerusalem for the next attack. He strengthened the walls, organized an army, and dug a tunnel through solid rock from the Gihon Spring to the waters of Shiloah to ensure the city’s water supply. In 701 B.C., the Assyrian king Sennacherib, Sargon's son, crushed the rebellion and captured forty-six walled cities in Judah. Hezekiah paid a large sum of gold and silver in the hope that it would make Sennacherib spare Jerusalem. In spite of Hezekiah's gift of tribute, Sennacherib demanded Jerusalem's total surrender. But Jerusalem was saved by a plague that miraculously broke out among the Assyrian army (2 Kgs 18.17–19.37; 2 Chr 32.1-33; Isa 36-39).

The Bible tells us that shortly after these events, Hezekiah fell ill and was near death (2 Kgs 20.1; Isa 38.1). In his distress, he prayed to the Lord and his prayer was answered. The Lord sent the prophet Isaiah with a message for him, promising that Hezekiah and Jerusalem would be protected from the Assyrians. Isaiah instructed the king's servants to put mashed figs on Hezekiah's wounds and he recovered. Hezekiah then wrote the “Song of Praise” recorded in Isaiah 38.10-20.