Hezekiah: Second Kings 16 and 17 have suggested that Judah, like Israel, may be heading for exile unless it heeds the prophetic warnings and turns away from its sins. It is at this point in the narrative—after reading of several kings who were not quite like David (Joash to Jotham) and one who was utterly different from him (Ahaz)—that we are now presented with a king who is not merely similar to David in the way that Asa (explicitly, 1 Kgs. 15:11) and Jehoshaphat (by implication, 1 Kgs. 22:43) were, but resembles him more closely than any Davidic king so far. This is the king for whom we have been waiting, the second David who reforms Judean worship and makes it what it should be.

18:1–4 Even the most righteous of the Judean kings thus far have failed to act against the shrines outside Jer…