697. Death of Hezekiah. Accession of Manasseh. 681. Death of Sennacherib. 608. Battle of Megiddo. Death of Josiah. 607. Fall of Nineveh and Assyria. Triumph of Babylon. 605. Battle of Carchemish. Defeat of Pharaoh Necho by Nebuchadrezzar. 599. First deportation of Jews to Babylon by Nebuchadrezzar. 588. Destruction of Jerusalem. Second deportation. 538. Cyrus captures Babylon. 536. Decree of Cyrus. Return of Zerubbabel and the first Jewish exiles. 458. Return of Ezra. CHAPTER XXV _HEZEKIAH_ B.C. 715-686[480] 2 KINGS xviii "For Ezekias had done the thing that pleased the Lord, and was strong in the ways of David his father, as Esay the prophet, who was great and faithful in his vision, had commanded him,"--ECCLUS. xlviii. 22. The reign of Hezekiah was epoch-making in many respects, but especially for its religious reformation, and the relations of Judah with Assyria and with Babylon. It is also most closely interwoven with the annals of Hebrew prophecy, and acquires unwonted lustre from the magnificent activity and impassioned eloquence of the great prophet Isaiah, who merits in many ways the title of "the Evangelical Prophet," and who was the greatest of the prophets of the Old Dispensation. According to the notice in 2 Kings xviii. 2, Hezekiah was twenty-five years old when he began to reign in the third year of Hoshea of Israel. This, however, is practically impossible consistently with the dates that Ahaz reigned sixteen years and became king at the age of twenty, for it would then follow that Hezekiah was born when his father was a mere boy--and this, although Hezekiah does not seem to have been the eldest son; for Ahaz had burnt "his son," and, according to the Chronicler, more than one son, to propitiate Moloch. Probably Hezekiah was a boy of fifteen when he began to reign. The chronology of his reign of twenty-nine years is, unhappily, much confused.