BIBLE HISTORY DAILY

King Hezekiah in the Bible: Royal Seal of Hezekiah Comes to Light

Hezekiah in the Bible and on the ground

hezekiah-bulla

HEZEKIAH IN THE BIBLE. The royal seal of Hezekiah, king of Judah, was discovered in the Ophel excavations under the direction of archaeologist Eilat Mazar. Photo: Courtesy of Dr. Eilat Mazar; photo by Ouria Tadmor.

The royal seal of King Hezekiah in the Bible was found in an archaeological excavation. The stamped clay seal, also known as a bulla, was discovered in the Ophel excavations led by Dr. Eilat Mazar at the foot of the southern wall of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The discovery was announced in a press release by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Institute of Archaeology, under whose auspices the excavations were conducted.

The bulla, which measures just over a centimeter in diameter, bears a seal impression depicting a two-winged sun disk flanked by ankh symbols and containing a Hebrew inscription that reads “Belonging to Hezekiah, (son of) Ahaz, king of Judah.” The bulla was discovered along with 33 other stamped bullae during wet-sifting of dirt from a refuse dump located next to a 10th-century B.C.E. royal building in the Ophel.

In the ancient Near East, clay bullae were used to secure the strings tied around rolled-up documents. The bullae were made by pressing a seal onto a wet lump of clay. The stamped bulla served as both a signature and as a means of ensuring the authenticity of the documents.

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Who Was King Hezekiah in the Bible?

King Hezekiah in the Bible, son and successor of Ahaz and the 13th king of Judah (reigning c. 715–686 B.C.E.), was known for his religious reforms and attempts to gain independence from the Assyrians.

ophel-excavation

The Ophel excavation area at the foot of the southern wall of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Photo: Andrew Shiva.

In Aspects of Monotheism: How God Is One (Biblical Archaeology Society, 1997), Biblical scholar P. Kyle McCarter, Jr., summarizes Hezekiah’s religious reforms:

According to 2 Chronicles 29–32, Hezekiah began his reform in the first year of his reign; motivated by the belief that the ancient religion was not being practiced scrupulously, he ordered that the Temple of Yahweh be repaired and cleansed of niddâ (impurity). After celebrating a truly national Passover for the first time since the reign of Solomon (2 Chronicles 30:26), Hezekiah’s officials went into the countryside and dismantled the local shrines or “high places” (bamot) along with their altars, “standing stones” (masseboth) and “sacred poles” (’aásûeµrîm). The account of Hezekiah’s reform activities in 2 Kings 18:1–8 is much briefer. Although he is credited with removing the high places, the major reform is credited to Josiah (2 Kings 22:3–23:25).

Hezekiah’s attempts to save Jerusalem from Assyrian king Sennacherib’s invasion in 701 B.C.E. are chronicled in both the Bible and in Assyrian accounts. According to the Bible, Hezekiah, anticipating the attack, fortified and expanded the city’s walls and built a tunnel, known today as Hezekiah’s Tunnel, to ensure that the besieged city could still receive water (2 Chronicles 32:2–4; 2 Kings 20:20).

sennacherib-prism

The Sennacherib Prism on display in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. Photo: Hanay’s image is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0/ Wikimedia Commons.

On the six-sided clay prism called the Sennacherib Prism as well as other annals of the Assyrian king, Sennacherib details in Akkadian his successful campaigns throughout Judah, bragging that he had Hezekiah trapped in Jerusalem “like a bird in a cage.” According to the Bible, however, Sennacherib ultimately failed to capture Jerusalem before his death (2 Kings 19:35–37).

The bulla discovered in the Ophel excavations represents the first time the royal seal of King Hezekiah has been found on an archaeological project.

“Although seal impressions bearing King Hezekiah’s name have already been known from the antiquities market since the middle of the 1990s—some with a winged scarab (dung beetle) symbol and others with a winged sun—this is the first time that a seal impression of an Israelite or Judean king has ever come to light in a scientific archaeological excavation,” Eilat Mazar said in the Hebrew University press release.

Bullae bearing the seal impressions of Hezekiah have been published in Biblical Archaeology Review. In the March/April 1999 issue, epigrapher Frank Moore Cross wrote about a bulla depicting a two-winged scarab. The bulla belonged to the private collection of antiquities collector Shlomo Moussaieff.1 In the July/August 2002 issue, epigrapher Robert Deutsch discussed a bulla stamped with the image of a two-winged sun disk flanked by ankh symbols—similar to the one uncovered in the Ophel excavations. Both bullae published by Cross and Deutsch bear a Hebrew inscription reading “Belonging to Hezekiah, (son of) Ahaz, king of Judah.”


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The Hebrew University press release explains the iconography on the Ophel bulla and other seal impressions of Hezekiah:

The symbols on the seal impression from the Ophel suggest that they were made late in his life, when both the royal administrative authority and the king’s personal symbols changed from the winged scarab (dung beetle)—the symbol of power and rule that had been familiar throughout the ancient Near East, to that of the winged sun—a motif that proclaimed God’s protection, which gave the regime its legitimacy and power, also widespread throughout the ancient Near East and used by the Assyrian kings.

ophel-medallion

The prize find of the so-called Ophel treasure unearthed in the Ophel excavations is a gold medallion featuring a menorah, shofar (ram’s horn) and a Torah scroll. Photo: Courtesy of Dr. Eilat Mazar; photo by Ouria Tadmor.

The renewed excavation of the Ophel, the area between the City of David and the Temple Mount, occurred between 2009 and 2013. Under the direction of third-generation Israeli archaeologist Eilat Mazar, the excavation unearthed another extraordinary find: the so-called Ophel treasure, a cache of gold coins, gold and silver jewelry and a gold medallion featuring a menorah, shofar (ram’s horn) and a Torah scroll.


This Bible History Daily feature was originally published on December 3, 2015.


Notes:

1. See also Meir Lubetski, “King Hezekiah’s Seal Revisited,” BAR, July/August 2001.


Related reading in Bible History Daily:

Hezekiah’s Religious Reform—In the Bible and Archaeology

Ancient Latrine: A Peek into King Hezekiah’s Reforms in the Bible?

Isaiah’s Signature Uncovered in Jerusalem

Hezekiah’s Tunnel Reexamined

The Ophel Treasure

Precursor to Paleo-Hebrew Script Discovered in Jerusalem

Discovering the Solomonic Wall in Jerusalem: A Remarkable Archaeological Adventure

Did I Find King David’s Palace?

 

All-Access members, read more in the BAS Library:

Aspects of Monotheism: How God Is One
King Hezekiah’s Seal Bears Phoenician Imagery
Lasting Impressions: New bullae reveal Egyptian-style emblems on Judah’s royal seals
King Hezekiah’s Seal Revisited
Hezekiah’s Tunnel Re-Opens
‘Signature’ of King Hezekiah’s Servant Recovered
First Impression: What We Learn from King Ahaz’s Seal
Sennacherib’s Siege of Jerusalem: Once or Twice?
Not a BAS Library or All-Access Member yet? Join today.

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44 Responses

  1. H Z says:

    Hezekiah was a great king and faithful to the LORD, but also prideful.

  2. […] [17] Rei Ezequias na Bíblia: Selo Real de Ezequias Vem à Luz – Sociedade de Arqueologia Bíblica … […]

  3. […] King Hezekiah in the Bible: Royal Seal of Hezekiah Comes to Light […]

  4. […] King Hezekiah in the Bible: Royal Seal of Hezekiah Comes to Light […]

    1. DAN BEACH says:

      Another possible way of looking at the enigmatic seal with Hezekiah’s name on it, could be, that the seal actually comes from Egypt, and means only that “this communique is being sent to Hezekiah; it is for his eyes only; see that he gets it”.

  5. Jodi Woodruff says:

    Chris, your point regarding women being naive in the fifties would have been taken seriously had you omitted your personal opinion of women (typical female airhead). Historically it has actually been MEN suppressing educational possibilities of women that would be the cause for naivety in women back then, not that women didn’t already possess the same intelligence level as the men back then. I guess you just proved my point, thanks.

    1. Elizabeth says:

      Thank you, Jodi.

  6. Chris Malan says:

    I noticed the ankh symbols, too and wondered about them. Maybe everything needs not be symbolic. Maybe Hezekiah just liked the symbol. In the fifties, a primary school classmate’s mother made doilies and sold them. Some of them were bordered with swastikas. She had a visit from the police who explained to her what they meant. To her, a typical female airhead, they just looked nice forming a border around her doilies. Great was her amazement…

  7. Eric says:

    There is an ancient Egyptian cross on the right had side of the seal.
    This is not something Hezekiah would have allowed since he reestablished pure worship in the land & got rid of any pagan symbols or statues. Definitely does not fit what we know about Hezekiah !

  8. Crimson says:

    The ‘winged disk’ is Egyptian and symbolic of Ra, the sun God. I’m not buying that King Hezekiah used this symbol. Something not right about this ‘find.’

    1. God Himself says:

      You think somebody planted it there 1800 years ago? The Jews were never really monotheistic until after the exile.

  9. Erin Bragg says:

    If Hezekiah renounced all the other gods and so on, why the Ankh symbol? This is not a symbol having any reverence for the Almighty God. Was it after he allowed it again?

  10. gerard maher says:

    Another piece of evidence confirming the Old Testament as historical

  11. Paul Ballotta says:

    Correct, Lee, the word of God is binding even in the unstable environment of the urban street and I’ve also witnessed how much stronger it was coming from the lectures of the ministers who counseled homeless drug-addicted men at shelter in Philadelphia and those words stayed with me, especially the part about how we needed to improve our own character that was “all slimy and manipulative.” Outside the shelter, though, that song was blaring in the ‘hood that disparaged black men who are cops as if they were cooperating with a perceived enemy, so there is a lot of negative Influence pervading society like so much dung out of which the seeds of the Word are planted and are destined to shine, having success in “taking the Devil’s stick and hitting him with it.”

  12. Lee B. Mack says:

    Witness: my years of journals of dreams include one that occurred in late 2014. That dream vividly impressed upon my imagination project into reality, five young negro men of ([Jew/Hebrew descent] colorfully setting in chairs or casually walking by tables placed randomly on a stage set {meditatively speaking The Word} in clubs and in barbershops). Young men alternately standing to speak the word lyrically and in continuous rhythm. And in an avant garde fashion.
    This last week of January 2016 and nearly a year later my studies lead to edification this past week by objective reading and spiritual teaching about stories of Hezekiah, the son of Ahaz, king(s) of Judah). Then, three days ago my eyes found an internet Youtube broadcast of five young negro Americans teaching the word on a street corner in Queens, NY; very nearly depicting and recreating what happened in my dream. This young men emphasized to identify themselves as the true Jews and descendants biological tribes of near east and west geographically by Khemet/Nubia Africa by David/Solomon/Judah enslaved as blacks stolen and auctioned off into the America(s). Then, this very morning my studies were focused on Hezekiah in the writings on I and II Kings, bible timing, laws and commands, histories, chronicles, and lineages down from Judah’s tribes. Also studying the theorem, black people in the Americas are the original and the reality of God’s jews.
    Then, my attention was drawn to an email sent last night from my sister with whom I had no previous experience discussing nor email nor other contact about this subject. This email from my sister is forwarding through me, through my sister by the power of imagination of God in communication with imagination in all forms within our blessed use..

  13. Paul Ballotta says:

    Correct, Truthseeker, the name of the solar deity Aton with its rays of sunlight ending in little hands may be alluded to in Exodus 15:17; “You will bring them and plant them in Your own mountain, the place You made to dwell in, Yahweh – the sanctuary, my Lord (adon) which Your hands established.”

  14. Paul Ballotta says:

    As commentator Robert #8 mentioned the Deuteronomist writer prohibited references to the Egyptian “ankh” symbol since it was a symbol of human sexuality, not unlike the ceramic models of fertility gods and goddesses with over-emphasized reproductive organs (not exactly good role models) from the nations around them, the return to the province of Judah after seven decades of captivity in Babylonia had led to a ban on ceramic Asherah/Astarte goddesses in the 5th century B.C.E. In fact it has become obvious from the magical incantation ceramic bowls used by Jews in Babylonia in the 8th century C.E. that the owl goddess Lilith was perceived as a demon who mated with a serpent demon named Samael along with their constant mating calls that would permeate the Babylonian culture like listening to that shrieking noise of a man and woman on nearly every radio in the ‘hood singing “it takes two to make it all right, it takes two to make it out o’ sight.” So it’s interesting that the pre-reform King Hezekiah had the two “ankh” symbols of procreative power below each wing of the solar disk which were this seal’s representation of the protective power of Yahweh of (heavenly) Hosts over the northern and southern kingdoms of Israel. It would have been politically correct for Hezekiah to adopt these symbols to legitimize his rule because of the synchronizing the account of the forming of Adam out of clay with the creation of humanity by the Egyptian ram-headed god Khnum who is depicted creating the Pharaoh Hatshepsut on a potter’s wheel at her mortuary temple at Deir el-Bahri, along with another identical figure who represents her “ka” or spirit and is also attended by the protective frog-headed goddess Heket who holds the “ankh” sign in each hand (“Ancient Egypt” by Lorna Oaks & Lucia Gahlin, pp. 346-347). This seal of the winged solar disk was likely fashioned at the zenith of Hezekiah’s power with the completion of the Siloam Tunnel water project in preparation for Sennacherib’s campaign, making the earlier seal depicting the beetle at a stage during his reign in which Hezekiah, whose name means “Yahweh is my Strength,” strengthened his resolve in response to Sennacherib’s predecessor, Sargon II and the Assyrian Empire’s ambitions to “cut off not a few nations” (Isaiah 10:7).
    Commentator Truthseeker is correct and it’s possible that the reference in Exodus 17:15-16 about name of the altar “Adonay Nissi” which means “my lord (adon) is my standard” may be an unedited reference to the “Aton,” the official deity of Pharaoh Akhenaton, who is depicted along with his queen and princesses as being the only ones depicted in art as recipients of the divine rays of the creator deity. The hands at the end of each ray of sunlight is likely behind the meaning of the interpretation provided concerning the the name of the official battle standard used in the war against the Amalekites; “It means, ‘Hand upon the throne of Yah!’ Yahweh will be at war with Amalek throughout the ages.” Hershel Shanks writes in his article, “The Mystery of the Nechustan,” about yet another seal impression from Hezekiah’s reign that depicted a two wing scarab beetle with an inscription that reads: “Belonging to Hezekiah, (son of) Ahaz, King of Judah” (BAR, March/April 2007, p.62) Above the beetle the inscription reads “yhdh,” or “Judah,” which contains the root word “yad” meaning “hand,” which could explain the meaning of “hand upon the throne of Yah” in the light of this beautiful discovery showing the evolution of a popular king’s reign in Jewish history as he solidified his anti-Assyrian alliances and borrowed the symbols of authority for his royal seal from Judah’s ally Egypt, symbols that were also adopted by the contemporary Nubian Pharaohs, who, like Hezekiah, also ruled over the united two lands of upper and lower Egypt. There’s more discussion:
    http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-topics/exodus/who-was-moses-was-he-more-than-an-exodus-hero/

    1. Elizabeth says:

      Is there a linguistic link between Egyptian Aton (Aten) and Hebrew Adon?

  15. Truthseeker says:

    Could this find give more credence to Sigmund Freud’s theory that the ancient Hebrews’ religion was an offshoot of Egyptian King Akhenaten’s revolutionary concept of monotheism?
    Here is Akhenaten’s shabti holding ankhs in each hand:
    http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/544684
    Here are Akhenaten, his wife Nefertiti and their daughter basking in the rays of the sun disk representing the one true God:
    http://cciv244sp2013.site.wesleyan.edu/files/2013/04/AIC_9600022.jpg

  16. Paul Ballotta says:

    (Your comment is awaiting moderation)
    Be careful, Doug, we don’t want to offend atheists by making them feel left out. Particularly the rock musician who is a self-described “radical atheist” who believes in the physics of Stephen Hawkings (though no one else can understand it) and who also made a comment that Christians need to be taught a lesson (though he doesn’t say why but it probably has to do with the fact that fundamentalist Christians are generally supporters of the nation of Israel, against whom this artist has been a vocal critic). But then again this performer likes to dress up as a Nazi and seemed to want to incite schoolchildren to rise in revolt against their teacher in a film that he made about himself three decades ago. It just so happens that I visited the area in Nuremberg, Germany, three decades ago (that was near the train station along the winding jogging path decorated with flowers) I saw through the fence the podium from which Hitler incited anti-Jewish hatred at Zeppelin Field with ranks of uniformed men who carried their symbol of hatred mounted on standards that were similar to those carried by Neo-Assyrian soldiers which were spears mounted by circular emblems. The same type of battle standard was likely adopted by the Israelites in their battle against the Amalekites, as is alluded to in the name of the memorial altar built by Moses; “The Lord is my Standard” (Exodus 17:15). The serpent mounted on a pole in Numbers 21:9 is also a type of standard that represents the image of the cobra god Thoth whom the goddess Isis invoked when healing her son, the god Horus, after he was afflicted with a scorpion bite.
    Apparently the seer was well educated about the botanical theme parks that were a hallmark of Neo-Assyrian kings (not unlike Germany being famous for its flowers) when he says that they would be destroyed; “both soul and body, and they shall be as when a standard-bearer fainteth” (Isaiah 10:18, KJV).
    https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:98-animate.gif#mw-jump-to-license

  17. Doug says:

    Wow, so much verifiable history concerning the young king Hezekiah. Gotta be tough being an atheist today….

  18. Quora says:

    Why do Jehovah’s Witnesses not celebrate Christmas?

    Oh btw the Sun God you were referring to…a winged sun symbol was included in righteous king Hezekiah’s seal. See picture here: http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-sites-places/jerusalem/king-hezekiah-in-the-bible-royal-seal-of-hezekiah…

  19. Paul Ballotta says:

    Good point, Down-under-writer, and all the other commentators who also refer to the so-called “reforms” of King Hezekiah (while unknowingly heaping up undeserved accolades on Hezekiah for his waste of human resources in this regard), as is mentioned in 2 Kings 18:4, in which Hezekiah oversaw the destruction of the high places (bamot),the sacred pillars (matzevot), the Asherah poles (asherah)and the bronze serpent (Nechushtan) that was venerated since the time of the wanderings in the wilderness (Numbers 21:4-9). However, in an article written by the editor of BAR entitled “The Mystery of the Nechushtan,” from the March/April 2007 issue of BAR, mention is made of the fact that although King Hezekiah had rebelled against the Assyrian King Sennacherib, he eventually capitulated as was recorded in 2 Kings 18:14-16, and gave much more tribute to Assyria than was mentioned in the Bible, according to the account of Sennacherib on a prism written in cuneiform. Thus:
    “The destruction of the Nechustan, a removal of Egyptian symbolism, was part of the overall elimination of Egyptian symbolism, demonstrating Judah’s loyalty to the new, all-powerful Assyrian hegemon” (p.63).

  20. downunderwriter David says:

    After reading Ezekiel 8, and the abomination of God’s people worshipping the sun(oh, is that why Judah was now in Babylonian captivity??), one wonders why anyone would have any depiction of a sun or anything Egyptian on a seal or anything else. You wouldn’t come within a bull’s roar of it, would you???
    downunderwriter David

  21. Paul Ballotta says:

    Older is better, and the video for “Black Hole Sun” with the special effectd may seem a bit crude compared with the computer-generated graphics we’ve taken for granted and even allowed ourselves to become enamored of such artists and performers who have exploited the cutting edge of technology, even though they may lack talent-wise (like the Biblical serpent who was more crafty than all the beasts of the field that Yahweh Elohim had made, yet he was slimy and manipulative, Genesis 3:1) and even a film producer was recently recognized for the accurate depictions of humans being preyed upon by prehistoric reptiles. So it’s refreshing to see an even cruder representation of what could represent a black hole during the musical sequence of “I am the Walrus” on the film, “Magical Mystery Tour,” that is shown in the upper left among the passengers on the mystery trip, while the sacred procession moved off in the distance comprised of “egg-people” accompanied by a retinue of dancing animals and cops and a person of low stature who follows behind and just takes it all in.

  22. Tekla says:

    Debra Bern – or Gavriel?

    Could you please name your source? I would love to read more about this way of looking at the discovery.
    Thank you.

  23. Paul Ballotta says:

    My apologies, it’s Meir Lubetsky as author of the article “King Hezekiah’s Seal Revisited.”

  24. Paul Ballotta says:

    In response to commentator Roland, Lubetsy states (BAR July/August 2001, p.50) that “if the analogy suggested by the prophet had been drawn outside ancient Israel, Malachi would have chosen motifs from art and religion of the dominant culture of the time: Persia. Indeed, we have examples of the Persian deity Ahura Mazda rising from a winged sun-disk. Such decorations were widespread during the reign of the Persian kings and even reached Thebes, the cradle of sun worship.”
    Another source comes from “Was Yahweh Worshipped as the Sun?” by J. Glen Taylor, BAR May/June 1994, p.90:
    “The first-century C.E. Jewish historian Flavius Josephus tells us that, much later, the Essenes would offer to their God – unquestionably Yahweh – certain prayers before dawn ‘as though entreating him to rise.’ We also find depictions of Helios, the Greek sun-god, on the mosaic pavements of numerous ancient synagogues, such as Beth Alpha in the Jezreel Valley and Hammath Tiberias on the Sea of Galilee. Further, Solomon’s Temple was oriented to the east (as later, were Christian churches – Christ too was sometimes pictured as a sun-god).”

  25. Roland Ramsdale says:

    I suspect that a verse that I do not really understand from Malachi might have some relevance to parts of this discussion:
    But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings; ….(Malachi 4:2)
    I assume Malachi was using symbolism that is perfectly appropriate for a believer to use – even though I am not sure to whom or to when he is referring. If to God – when? If to Jesus – his first coming or his second coming?

  26. Paul Ballotta says:

    Actually, commentator Robert is right about these Egyptian motifs as being only political symbolism in regard to the legitamacy of kingship with this seal’s solar disk and two wings lowered to symbolize Yahweh’s protection over the royal house of King Hezekiah in his endeaver to unite the northern tribes of Israel with the southern kingdom of Judah. This according to the article that is linked above; “King Hezekiah’s Seal Revisited,” from the July/August 2001 issue of BAR, where Meir Lubetski explains the clay impression made by Hezekiah’s Seal depicting a beetle with two raised wings and its front legs holding a ball of its own dung which in Egyptian myth occurs every morning when the beetle’s eggs emerge out of the dung as the sun.
    This aspect of the sun, known as Khepri, is described by Lubetsy:
    “When the beetle, or scarab, as it is often called, replaces the sun-disk, a ball carried by the beetle represents the daily rising solar ball that the sun god rolls from east to west. The name ‘Hprr,’ or Khopri, designates the young sun god in the morning. The deity appears in a beetle guise and his chief attribute is to ‘become’ or ‘to come into existance.’ The amalgam fused the sense if the sun’s daily renewel with the perception of the scarab’s constant rebirth to form the Egyptian concept of life and life after death” (p.46).
    This notion of a deity that re-creates itself is not incompatible the revelation of “Ehyeh-asher-Ehyeh,” or “I will be what I will be,” (Exodus 3:14), that is an alternative divine name that is related to Yahweh, whose name a later priest added to this Elohist account from the Northern Israelite Kingdom in Exodus 3:15, when originally it was the name Ehyeh that denoted what cannot be named, namely expressing God’s attribute of existance:
    “Then God taught Moses how to teach them, and how to establish amongst them the belief in the existence of Himself, namely, by saying Ehyeh asher Ehyeh, a name derived from the verb ‘hayah’ in the sense of ‘existing,’ for the verb ‘hayah’ denotes ‘to be,’ and in Hebrew no difference is made between the verbs ‘to be’ and ‘to exist'” (“The Guide for the Perplexed,” by Moses Maimonides, Dover Books, p. 94).
    It’s fascinating how a recent scan of a portion of space in the constellation of Aquarius revealed how galaxies first formed embedded in dark matter like beetle eggs in dung.

  27. Renee says:

    Thank you Robert – I was also wondering why Egyptian symbols would be on a seal from a king who tried to get rid of the worship of foreign gods…

  28. Sister Geraldine M. Wagner says:

    Thank you Robert for your clarification and you, Debra Berns for your essay. I have always liked King Hezekiah for his very human longing to live and trust in YHWH Who granted his request.

  29. Robert Newman says:

    Hi Ray
    I appreciate your reluctance to accept this bulla as a genuine seal of a king who was faithful to YHWH. The ankh (or crux ansata) is thought be be a representation of a joining of male and female organs. The use of such a symbol in worship would contravene the law at De 4:16.
    However, at the time of Hezekiah these symbols may not have had the religious significance they had in Egypt. Their use on a seal does not indicate use in worship, rather the symbols may have had a secular meaning in Hezekiah’s day.
    Today, our conscience may be sensitive to the connection these symbols had to false worship. Whilst Hezekiah was a man of outstanding faith his conscience may not have been sensitive to this connection. He lived during a transition, he made great strides in wiping out false worship, yet he may not have perfectly identified everything that was connected to false worship, especially if the connection was subtle. Again, these symbols may primarily have had a non-religious meaning in the eyes of most people.
    It’s best not to read too much into the symbolism, doing so is somewhat speculative.

  30. johanes says:

    It helps me to understand Bible easier. Thank you, BAS. Bring us more discoveries. God bless you. Salam from Indonesia

  31. Mark Tabor says:

    I can’t believe that a piece of clay lasted this long I am amassed at that I would.have loved to have seen it being g found just laying there thanks to god who wanted it found

  32. Degraft says:

    King Hesekiah was a great King who had intimate relationship with God.He received a message from God through Prophet Isaiah,He talked back to God and YAWEH granted him 15 more years to live again.This discovery must spur on many BELEIVERS on to fix their hope in God and be assured that that same God is so near to answer our prayer when we call on Him.
    SHALOM!

  33. Ray says:

    Probably fake – I don’t see how King Hezekiah would use symbols of Egyptian gods especially with his reputation of hating them. The two winged sun and the ankh (the cross with a circle on the right side) are both Egyptian religious symbols that Jews would have seen as false worship of false gods. King Hezekiah was know for eradicating that type of worship from Judah and Israel. You can’t be know in Jewish History for eradicating something and at the same time use it. I wouldn’t be surprised that’s why she found it in rubbish or trash.

  34. Gavriel says:

    What has been overlooked in this significant announcement regarding the “winged sun disk and an ankh being a symbol of life” is the fact that God set backwards the path the Sun travels the ecliptic, 18 years fulfilling two “signs” He gave the prophet Isaiah to tell Hezekiah. [1]

    The “second sign” extended his life 15 years, while the 3 years of the “first sign” that include a shmitah and Jubilee year are reaching their “last day” fulfillment today! These two miraculous prophetic “signs” are written in three separate books of the Bible. [2]

    Here’s the most important “overlook”; God extended Hezekiah’s life 15 years because he had NOT produced an heir to continue the “seed of Jesse”.

    Do you think that maybe the reason Hezekiah changed his seal or signet at this time from the winged scarab or dung beetle, to the symbol of the “winged sun” was to proclaim and thank God for protecting Jerusalem and destroying 185,000 soldiers of Sennacherib’s army and giving Him the glory for “returning backward” the path of the SUN and extending his LIFE 15 years!

    Hezekiah’s symbol of a sun with sheltering wings DOES point to a Messiah he would have NEVER SIRED had not God extended his life 15 years so he could CONTINUE the “seed of Jesse” who returns on the day of the LORD as that “Sun of righteousness” with healing in his wings! [3]

    Had not God set backwards His ecliptic 18 years in 701BCE, the 6000 years of man would have come to an end on 1 Nisan 2000 or April 6, 2000, so in reality we have been and are living in the 18 returning years God returned backward His ecliptic for Hezekiah, that will end on or before 1 Nisan 2018 or March 17, 2018.

    The two “signs” return in reverse order, the 15 years extended to Hezekiah counted out on 1 Nisan 2015 or March 22, 2015 and the 3 years of the “first sign” began their count out on March 23, 2015.

    [1] 2 Kings 19:29-31 and 2 Kings 20:6-11
    [2] 2 Kings 18-20, 2 Chronicles 29-32 and Isaiah 37-39
    [3] Malachi 4:1-6
    Shalom, Gavriel

  35. Robert Newman says:

    What’s most astonishing to me is that the archeologists failed to identify this bulla when they found it in 2009. According to their own account, they mid-read it! Yet it is such a distinctive object and one they should have been familiar with because of the other examples that are known. Either they are totally incompetent or they had a reason to hold this back until now. One thing it for sure – this find confirms the authenticity of other bulla that where not found in an archeological context.

  36. ijeoma ireneo says:

    wooow, am so thrilled!!!! do bring out more discoveries…

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44 Responses

  1. H Z says:

    Hezekiah was a great king and faithful to the LORD, but also prideful.

  2. […] [17] Rei Ezequias na Bíblia: Selo Real de Ezequias Vem à Luz – Sociedade de Arqueologia Bíblica … […]

  3. […] King Hezekiah in the Bible: Royal Seal of Hezekiah Comes to Light […]

  4. […] King Hezekiah in the Bible: Royal Seal of Hezekiah Comes to Light […]

    1. DAN BEACH says:

      Another possible way of looking at the enigmatic seal with Hezekiah’s name on it, could be, that the seal actually comes from Egypt, and means only that “this communique is being sent to Hezekiah; it is for his eyes only; see that he gets it”.

  5. Jodi Woodruff says:

    Chris, your point regarding women being naive in the fifties would have been taken seriously had you omitted your personal opinion of women (typical female airhead). Historically it has actually been MEN suppressing educational possibilities of women that would be the cause for naivety in women back then, not that women didn’t already possess the same intelligence level as the men back then. I guess you just proved my point, thanks.

    1. Elizabeth says:

      Thank you, Jodi.

  6. Chris Malan says:

    I noticed the ankh symbols, too and wondered about them. Maybe everything needs not be symbolic. Maybe Hezekiah just liked the symbol. In the fifties, a primary school classmate’s mother made doilies and sold them. Some of them were bordered with swastikas. She had a visit from the police who explained to her what they meant. To her, a typical female airhead, they just looked nice forming a border around her doilies. Great was her amazement…

  7. Eric says:

    There is an ancient Egyptian cross on the right had side of the seal.
    This is not something Hezekiah would have allowed since he reestablished pure worship in the land & got rid of any pagan symbols or statues. Definitely does not fit what we know about Hezekiah !

  8. Crimson says:

    The ‘winged disk’ is Egyptian and symbolic of Ra, the sun God. I’m not buying that King Hezekiah used this symbol. Something not right about this ‘find.’

    1. God Himself says:

      You think somebody planted it there 1800 years ago? The Jews were never really monotheistic until after the exile.

  9. Erin Bragg says:

    If Hezekiah renounced all the other gods and so on, why the Ankh symbol? This is not a symbol having any reverence for the Almighty God. Was it after he allowed it again?

  10. gerard maher says:

    Another piece of evidence confirming the Old Testament as historical

  11. Paul Ballotta says:

    Correct, Lee, the word of God is binding even in the unstable environment of the urban street and I’ve also witnessed how much stronger it was coming from the lectures of the ministers who counseled homeless drug-addicted men at shelter in Philadelphia and those words stayed with me, especially the part about how we needed to improve our own character that was “all slimy and manipulative.” Outside the shelter, though, that song was blaring in the ‘hood that disparaged black men who are cops as if they were cooperating with a perceived enemy, so there is a lot of negative Influence pervading society like so much dung out of which the seeds of the Word are planted and are destined to shine, having success in “taking the Devil’s stick and hitting him with it.”

  12. Lee B. Mack says:

    Witness: my years of journals of dreams include one that occurred in late 2014. That dream vividly impressed upon my imagination project into reality, five young negro men of ([Jew/Hebrew descent] colorfully setting in chairs or casually walking by tables placed randomly on a stage set {meditatively speaking The Word} in clubs and in barbershops). Young men alternately standing to speak the word lyrically and in continuous rhythm. And in an avant garde fashion.
    This last week of January 2016 and nearly a year later my studies lead to edification this past week by objective reading and spiritual teaching about stories of Hezekiah, the son of Ahaz, king(s) of Judah). Then, three days ago my eyes found an internet Youtube broadcast of five young negro Americans teaching the word on a street corner in Queens, NY; very nearly depicting and recreating what happened in my dream. This young men emphasized to identify themselves as the true Jews and descendants biological tribes of near east and west geographically by Khemet/Nubia Africa by David/Solomon/Judah enslaved as blacks stolen and auctioned off into the America(s). Then, this very morning my studies were focused on Hezekiah in the writings on I and II Kings, bible timing, laws and commands, histories, chronicles, and lineages down from Judah’s tribes. Also studying the theorem, black people in the Americas are the original and the reality of God’s jews.
    Then, my attention was drawn to an email sent last night from my sister with whom I had no previous experience discussing nor email nor other contact about this subject. This email from my sister is forwarding through me, through my sister by the power of imagination of God in communication with imagination in all forms within our blessed use..

  13. Paul Ballotta says:

    Correct, Truthseeker, the name of the solar deity Aton with its rays of sunlight ending in little hands may be alluded to in Exodus 15:17; “You will bring them and plant them in Your own mountain, the place You made to dwell in, Yahweh – the sanctuary, my Lord (adon) which Your hands established.”

  14. Paul Ballotta says:

    As commentator Robert #8 mentioned the Deuteronomist writer prohibited references to the Egyptian “ankh” symbol since it was a symbol of human sexuality, not unlike the ceramic models of fertility gods and goddesses with over-emphasized reproductive organs (not exactly good role models) from the nations around them, the return to the province of Judah after seven decades of captivity in Babylonia had led to a ban on ceramic Asherah/Astarte goddesses in the 5th century B.C.E. In fact it has become obvious from the magical incantation ceramic bowls used by Jews in Babylonia in the 8th century C.E. that the owl goddess Lilith was perceived as a demon who mated with a serpent demon named Samael along with their constant mating calls that would permeate the Babylonian culture like listening to that shrieking noise of a man and woman on nearly every radio in the ‘hood singing “it takes two to make it all right, it takes two to make it out o’ sight.” So it’s interesting that the pre-reform King Hezekiah had the two “ankh” symbols of procreative power below each wing of the solar disk which were this seal’s representation of the protective power of Yahweh of (heavenly) Hosts over the northern and southern kingdoms of Israel. It would have been politically correct for Hezekiah to adopt these symbols to legitimize his rule because of the synchronizing the account of the forming of Adam out of clay with the creation of humanity by the Egyptian ram-headed god Khnum who is depicted creating the Pharaoh Hatshepsut on a potter’s wheel at her mortuary temple at Deir el-Bahri, along with another identical figure who represents her “ka” or spirit and is also attended by the protective frog-headed goddess Heket who holds the “ankh” sign in each hand (“Ancient Egypt” by Lorna Oaks & Lucia Gahlin, pp. 346-347). This seal of the winged solar disk was likely fashioned at the zenith of Hezekiah’s power with the completion of the Siloam Tunnel water project in preparation for Sennacherib’s campaign, making the earlier seal depicting the beetle at a stage during his reign in which Hezekiah, whose name means “Yahweh is my Strength,” strengthened his resolve in response to Sennacherib’s predecessor, Sargon II and the Assyrian Empire’s ambitions to “cut off not a few nations” (Isaiah 10:7).
    Commentator Truthseeker is correct and it’s possible that the reference in Exodus 17:15-16 about name of the altar “Adonay Nissi” which means “my lord (adon) is my standard” may be an unedited reference to the “Aton,” the official deity of Pharaoh Akhenaton, who is depicted along with his queen and princesses as being the only ones depicted in art as recipients of the divine rays of the creator deity. The hands at the end of each ray of sunlight is likely behind the meaning of the interpretation provided concerning the the name of the official battle standard used in the war against the Amalekites; “It means, ‘Hand upon the throne of Yah!’ Yahweh will be at war with Amalek throughout the ages.” Hershel Shanks writes in his article, “The Mystery of the Nechustan,” about yet another seal impression from Hezekiah’s reign that depicted a two wing scarab beetle with an inscription that reads: “Belonging to Hezekiah, (son of) Ahaz, King of Judah” (BAR, March/April 2007, p.62) Above the beetle the inscription reads “yhdh,” or “Judah,” which contains the root word “yad” meaning “hand,” which could explain the meaning of “hand upon the throne of Yah” in the light of this beautiful discovery showing the evolution of a popular king’s reign in Jewish history as he solidified his anti-Assyrian alliances and borrowed the symbols of authority for his royal seal from Judah’s ally Egypt, symbols that were also adopted by the contemporary Nubian Pharaohs, who, like Hezekiah, also ruled over the united two lands of upper and lower Egypt. There’s more discussion:
    http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-topics/exodus/who-was-moses-was-he-more-than-an-exodus-hero/

    1. Elizabeth says:

      Is there a linguistic link between Egyptian Aton (Aten) and Hebrew Adon?

  15. Truthseeker says:

    Could this find give more credence to Sigmund Freud’s theory that the ancient Hebrews’ religion was an offshoot of Egyptian King Akhenaten’s revolutionary concept of monotheism?
    Here is Akhenaten’s shabti holding ankhs in each hand:
    http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/544684
    Here are Akhenaten, his wife Nefertiti and their daughter basking in the rays of the sun disk representing the one true God:
    http://cciv244sp2013.site.wesleyan.edu/files/2013/04/AIC_9600022.jpg

  16. Paul Ballotta says:

    (Your comment is awaiting moderation)
    Be careful, Doug, we don’t want to offend atheists by making them feel left out. Particularly the rock musician who is a self-described “radical atheist” who believes in the physics of Stephen Hawkings (though no one else can understand it) and who also made a comment that Christians need to be taught a lesson (though he doesn’t say why but it probably has to do with the fact that fundamentalist Christians are generally supporters of the nation of Israel, against whom this artist has been a vocal critic). But then again this performer likes to dress up as a Nazi and seemed to want to incite schoolchildren to rise in revolt against their teacher in a film that he made about himself three decades ago. It just so happens that I visited the area in Nuremberg, Germany, three decades ago (that was near the train station along the winding jogging path decorated with flowers) I saw through the fence the podium from which Hitler incited anti-Jewish hatred at Zeppelin Field with ranks of uniformed men who carried their symbol of hatred mounted on standards that were similar to those carried by Neo-Assyrian soldiers which were spears mounted by circular emblems. The same type of battle standard was likely adopted by the Israelites in their battle against the Amalekites, as is alluded to in the name of the memorial altar built by Moses; “The Lord is my Standard” (Exodus 17:15). The serpent mounted on a pole in Numbers 21:9 is also a type of standard that represents the image of the cobra god Thoth whom the goddess Isis invoked when healing her son, the god Horus, after he was afflicted with a scorpion bite.
    Apparently the seer was well educated about the botanical theme parks that were a hallmark of Neo-Assyrian kings (not unlike Germany being famous for its flowers) when he says that they would be destroyed; “both soul and body, and they shall be as when a standard-bearer fainteth” (Isaiah 10:18, KJV).
    https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:98-animate.gif#mw-jump-to-license

  17. Doug says:

    Wow, so much verifiable history concerning the young king Hezekiah. Gotta be tough being an atheist today….

  18. Quora says:

    Why do Jehovah’s Witnesses not celebrate Christmas?

    Oh btw the Sun God you were referring to…a winged sun symbol was included in righteous king Hezekiah’s seal. See picture here: http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-sites-places/jerusalem/king-hezekiah-in-the-bible-royal-seal-of-hezekiah…

  19. Paul Ballotta says:

    Good point, Down-under-writer, and all the other commentators who also refer to the so-called “reforms” of King Hezekiah (while unknowingly heaping up undeserved accolades on Hezekiah for his waste of human resources in this regard), as is mentioned in 2 Kings 18:4, in which Hezekiah oversaw the destruction of the high places (bamot),the sacred pillars (matzevot), the Asherah poles (asherah)and the bronze serpent (Nechushtan) that was venerated since the time of the wanderings in the wilderness (Numbers 21:4-9). However, in an article written by the editor of BAR entitled “The Mystery of the Nechushtan,” from the March/April 2007 issue of BAR, mention is made of the fact that although King Hezekiah had rebelled against the Assyrian King Sennacherib, he eventually capitulated as was recorded in 2 Kings 18:14-16, and gave much more tribute to Assyria than was mentioned in the Bible, according to the account of Sennacherib on a prism written in cuneiform. Thus:
    “The destruction of the Nechustan, a removal of Egyptian symbolism, was part of the overall elimination of Egyptian symbolism, demonstrating Judah’s loyalty to the new, all-powerful Assyrian hegemon” (p.63).

  20. downunderwriter David says:

    After reading Ezekiel 8, and the abomination of God’s people worshipping the sun(oh, is that why Judah was now in Babylonian captivity??), one wonders why anyone would have any depiction of a sun or anything Egyptian on a seal or anything else. You wouldn’t come within a bull’s roar of it, would you???
    downunderwriter David

  21. Paul Ballotta says:

    Older is better, and the video for “Black Hole Sun” with the special effectd may seem a bit crude compared with the computer-generated graphics we’ve taken for granted and even allowed ourselves to become enamored of such artists and performers who have exploited the cutting edge of technology, even though they may lack talent-wise (like the Biblical serpent who was more crafty than all the beasts of the field that Yahweh Elohim had made, yet he was slimy and manipulative, Genesis 3:1) and even a film producer was recently recognized for the accurate depictions of humans being preyed upon by prehistoric reptiles. So it’s refreshing to see an even cruder representation of what could represent a black hole during the musical sequence of “I am the Walrus” on the film, “Magical Mystery Tour,” that is shown in the upper left among the passengers on the mystery trip, while the sacred procession moved off in the distance comprised of “egg-people” accompanied by a retinue of dancing animals and cops and a person of low stature who follows behind and just takes it all in.

  22. Tekla says:

    Debra Bern – or Gavriel?

    Could you please name your source? I would love to read more about this way of looking at the discovery.
    Thank you.

  23. Paul Ballotta says:

    My apologies, it’s Meir Lubetsky as author of the article “King Hezekiah’s Seal Revisited.”

  24. Paul Ballotta says:

    In response to commentator Roland, Lubetsy states (BAR July/August 2001, p.50) that “if the analogy suggested by the prophet had been drawn outside ancient Israel, Malachi would have chosen motifs from art and religion of the dominant culture of the time: Persia. Indeed, we have examples of the Persian deity Ahura Mazda rising from a winged sun-disk. Such decorations were widespread during the reign of the Persian kings and even reached Thebes, the cradle of sun worship.”
    Another source comes from “Was Yahweh Worshipped as the Sun?” by J. Glen Taylor, BAR May/June 1994, p.90:
    “The first-century C.E. Jewish historian Flavius Josephus tells us that, much later, the Essenes would offer to their God – unquestionably Yahweh – certain prayers before dawn ‘as though entreating him to rise.’ We also find depictions of Helios, the Greek sun-god, on the mosaic pavements of numerous ancient synagogues, such as Beth Alpha in the Jezreel Valley and Hammath Tiberias on the Sea of Galilee. Further, Solomon’s Temple was oriented to the east (as later, were Christian churches – Christ too was sometimes pictured as a sun-god).”

  25. Roland Ramsdale says:

    I suspect that a verse that I do not really understand from Malachi might have some relevance to parts of this discussion:
    But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings; ….(Malachi 4:2)
    I assume Malachi was using symbolism that is perfectly appropriate for a believer to use – even though I am not sure to whom or to when he is referring. If to God – when? If to Jesus – his first coming or his second coming?

  26. Paul Ballotta says:

    Actually, commentator Robert is right about these Egyptian motifs as being only political symbolism in regard to the legitamacy of kingship with this seal’s solar disk and two wings lowered to symbolize Yahweh’s protection over the royal house of King Hezekiah in his endeaver to unite the northern tribes of Israel with the southern kingdom of Judah. This according to the article that is linked above; “King Hezekiah’s Seal Revisited,” from the July/August 2001 issue of BAR, where Meir Lubetski explains the clay impression made by Hezekiah’s Seal depicting a beetle with two raised wings and its front legs holding a ball of its own dung which in Egyptian myth occurs every morning when the beetle’s eggs emerge out of the dung as the sun.
    This aspect of the sun, known as Khepri, is described by Lubetsy:
    “When the beetle, or scarab, as it is often called, replaces the sun-disk, a ball carried by the beetle represents the daily rising solar ball that the sun god rolls from east to west. The name ‘Hprr,’ or Khopri, designates the young sun god in the morning. The deity appears in a beetle guise and his chief attribute is to ‘become’ or ‘to come into existance.’ The amalgam fused the sense if the sun’s daily renewel with the perception of the scarab’s constant rebirth to form the Egyptian concept of life and life after death” (p.46).
    This notion of a deity that re-creates itself is not incompatible the revelation of “Ehyeh-asher-Ehyeh,” or “I will be what I will be,” (Exodus 3:14), that is an alternative divine name that is related to Yahweh, whose name a later priest added to this Elohist account from the Northern Israelite Kingdom in Exodus 3:15, when originally it was the name Ehyeh that denoted what cannot be named, namely expressing God’s attribute of existance:
    “Then God taught Moses how to teach them, and how to establish amongst them the belief in the existence of Himself, namely, by saying Ehyeh asher Ehyeh, a name derived from the verb ‘hayah’ in the sense of ‘existing,’ for the verb ‘hayah’ denotes ‘to be,’ and in Hebrew no difference is made between the verbs ‘to be’ and ‘to exist'” (“The Guide for the Perplexed,” by Moses Maimonides, Dover Books, p. 94).
    It’s fascinating how a recent scan of a portion of space in the constellation of Aquarius revealed how galaxies first formed embedded in dark matter like beetle eggs in dung.

  27. Renee says:

    Thank you Robert – I was also wondering why Egyptian symbols would be on a seal from a king who tried to get rid of the worship of foreign gods…

  28. Sister Geraldine M. Wagner says:

    Thank you Robert for your clarification and you, Debra Berns for your essay. I have always liked King Hezekiah for his very human longing to live and trust in YHWH Who granted his request.

  29. Robert Newman says:

    Hi Ray
    I appreciate your reluctance to accept this bulla as a genuine seal of a king who was faithful to YHWH. The ankh (or crux ansata) is thought be be a representation of a joining of male and female organs. The use of such a symbol in worship would contravene the law at De 4:16.
    However, at the time of Hezekiah these symbols may not have had the religious significance they had in Egypt. Their use on a seal does not indicate use in worship, rather the symbols may have had a secular meaning in Hezekiah’s day.
    Today, our conscience may be sensitive to the connection these symbols had to false worship. Whilst Hezekiah was a man of outstanding faith his conscience may not have been sensitive to this connection. He lived during a transition, he made great strides in wiping out false worship, yet he may not have perfectly identified everything that was connected to false worship, especially if the connection was subtle. Again, these symbols may primarily have had a non-religious meaning in the eyes of most people.
    It’s best not to read too much into the symbolism, doing so is somewhat speculative.

  30. johanes says:

    It helps me to understand Bible easier. Thank you, BAS. Bring us more discoveries. God bless you. Salam from Indonesia

  31. Mark Tabor says:

    I can’t believe that a piece of clay lasted this long I am amassed at that I would.have loved to have seen it being g found just laying there thanks to god who wanted it found

  32. Degraft says:

    King Hesekiah was a great King who had intimate relationship with God.He received a message from God through Prophet Isaiah,He talked back to God and YAWEH granted him 15 more years to live again.This discovery must spur on many BELEIVERS on to fix their hope in God and be assured that that same God is so near to answer our prayer when we call on Him.
    SHALOM!

  33. Ray says:

    Probably fake – I don’t see how King Hezekiah would use symbols of Egyptian gods especially with his reputation of hating them. The two winged sun and the ankh (the cross with a circle on the right side) are both Egyptian religious symbols that Jews would have seen as false worship of false gods. King Hezekiah was know for eradicating that type of worship from Judah and Israel. You can’t be know in Jewish History for eradicating something and at the same time use it. I wouldn’t be surprised that’s why she found it in rubbish or trash.

  34. Gavriel says:

    What has been overlooked in this significant announcement regarding the “winged sun disk and an ankh being a symbol of life” is the fact that God set backwards the path the Sun travels the ecliptic, 18 years fulfilling two “signs” He gave the prophet Isaiah to tell Hezekiah. [1]

    The “second sign” extended his life 15 years, while the 3 years of the “first sign” that include a shmitah and Jubilee year are reaching their “last day” fulfillment today! These two miraculous prophetic “signs” are written in three separate books of the Bible. [2]

    Here’s the most important “overlook”; God extended Hezekiah’s life 15 years because he had NOT produced an heir to continue the “seed of Jesse”.

    Do you think that maybe the reason Hezekiah changed his seal or signet at this time from the winged scarab or dung beetle, to the symbol of the “winged sun” was to proclaim and thank God for protecting Jerusalem and destroying 185,000 soldiers of Sennacherib’s army and giving Him the glory for “returning backward” the path of the SUN and extending his LIFE 15 years!

    Hezekiah’s symbol of a sun with sheltering wings DOES point to a Messiah he would have NEVER SIRED had not God extended his life 15 years so he could CONTINUE the “seed of Jesse” who returns on the day of the LORD as that “Sun of righteousness” with healing in his wings! [3]

    Had not God set backwards His ecliptic 18 years in 701BCE, the 6000 years of man would have come to an end on 1 Nisan 2000 or April 6, 2000, so in reality we have been and are living in the 18 returning years God returned backward His ecliptic for Hezekiah, that will end on or before 1 Nisan 2018 or March 17, 2018.

    The two “signs” return in reverse order, the 15 years extended to Hezekiah counted out on 1 Nisan 2015 or March 22, 2015 and the 3 years of the “first sign” began their count out on March 23, 2015.

    [1] 2 Kings 19:29-31 and 2 Kings 20:6-11
    [2] 2 Kings 18-20, 2 Chronicles 29-32 and Isaiah 37-39
    [3] Malachi 4:1-6
    Shalom, Gavriel

  35. Robert Newman says:

    What’s most astonishing to me is that the archeologists failed to identify this bulla when they found it in 2009. According to their own account, they mid-read it! Yet it is such a distinctive object and one they should have been familiar with because of the other examples that are known. Either they are totally incompetent or they had a reason to hold this back until now. One thing it for sure – this find confirms the authenticity of other bulla that where not found in an archeological context.

  36. ijeoma ireneo says:

    wooow, am so thrilled!!!! do bring out more discoveries…

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