John Gill Commentary 2 Kings 18

Now it came to pass in the third year of Hoshea son of Elah
king of Israel
That is, in the third year of his rebelling against the king of Assyria, when he shook off his yoke, and refused to be tributary to him any longer, see (2 Kings 17:1) ,

[that] Hezekiah the son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign ;
having finished the account of the kingdom of Israel, and the captivity of the people, the historian returns to the kingdom of Judah, and the things of it.

Twenty and five years old was he when he began to reign ,
&c.] Now as Ahaz his father began to reign at twenty, and reigned sixteen, he must die at thirty six; so that this son of his must be born to him when at eleven years of age, for only so many years there are between twenty five and thirty six, which may seem wonderful; but, as Grotius observes, Hezekiah had now entered into the twenty fifth year, and he might be just turned of twenty four, and so his father might be twelve years of age at his birth: besides, as it is usual for the divine historian to take away or add the incomplete years of kings, Ahaz might be near twenty one when he began to reign, and might reign almost seventeen, which makes the age of Ahaz to be about thirty eight; and Hezekiah being but little more than twenty four, at his death there were thirteen or near fourteen years difference in their age, and which was an age that need not be thought incredible for begetting of children. Bochart ^F6 and others ^F7 have given many instances of children begotten by persons under that age, even at ten years of age {h}:

four years after his birth, the famous city of Rome began to be founded ^F9 , A. M. 3256, and before Christ 748, as commonly received, though it is highly probable it was of a more early date; according to Dionysius Halicarnassensis, it was founded in the first year of the seventh Olympaid, in the times of Ahaz, A. M. 3118 ^F11 :

and he reigned twenty and nine years in Jerusalem ;
so that he reigned twenty three years or more after the captivity of the ten tribes:

his mother's name also was Abi the daughter of Zachariah ;
perhaps the daughter of the same that was taken by Isaiah for a witness, (Isaiah 8:3) who very probably was a very good woman, and took care to give her son a religious education, though he had so wicked a father.

FOOTNOTES:

• F6: Ep. Carbonell. tom. 1. oper. p. 920.
• F7: Vid. Hieronymi Opera, tam. 3. Ep. Vital. fol. 25. C.
• F9: Usser. Annal. p. 86, 87.
• F11: Vid. Breithaupt. Not. in Hist. Gorion. Heb. l. 5. c. 1.

And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord,
according to all that David his father did .
] Some of the kings of Judah, that were better than some others, are said to do that which was right, but not like David; or they did as he did, but not according to all that he did, as is here said of Hezekiah.

He removed the high places
Which the best of the kings of Judah never attempted, and which is observed of them to their discredit:

and broke the images, and cut down the groves ;
the idols his father set up and served, (2 Kings 16:4) (2 Chronicles 28:24 2 Chronicles 28:26) , groves and idols in them, were early instances of idolatry; (See Gill on Judges 3:7), and their use for temples are still continued, not only among some Indian nations ^F12 , but among some Christians in the northern parts of Europe ^F13 ;

and broke in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had made ;
which he made in the wilderness, and which was brought by the children of Israel with them into the land of Canaan, and was kept as a memorial of the miracle wrought by looking to it, being laid up in some proper place where it had been preserved to this day:

for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it
not from the time it was brought into Canaan, nor even in later times, in the days of Asa and Jehoshaphat, who would never have suffered it; very probably this piece of idolatry began in the times of Ahaz, who encouraged everything of that kind: for this serpent they had a great veneration, being made by Moses, and a means in his time of healing the Israelites; and they imagined it might be of some service to them, in a way of mediation to God; and worthy of worship, having some degree of divinity, as Kimchi and Ben Gersom; but Laniado ^F14 excuses them from all show of idolatry, and supposes what they did was for the honour of God only; hence sprung the heresy of the Ophites, according to Theodoret:

and he called it Nehushtan ;
perceiving they were ensnared by it, and drawn into idolatry to it, by way of contempt he called it by this name, which signifies "brass"; suggesting that it was only a mere piece of brass, had no divinity in it, and could be of no service to them in divine things; and, that it might no longer be a snare to them, he broke it into pieces; and, as the Jews ^F15 say, ground it to powder, and scattered it to every wind, that there might be no remains of it.

FOOTNOTES:

• F12: See Dampier's Voyage, vol. 1. p. 411.
• F13: Vid. Fabritii Bibliograph. Antiqu. c. 9. sect. 11.
• F14: Cli Yaker, fol. 538. 2.
• F15: T. Bab. Avodah Zarah, fol. 44. 1.

He trusted in the Lord God of Israel
To be his protector and defender, and had no dependence on idols as an arm of flesh; the Targum is, he trusted in the Word of the Lord God; not in Nehushtan, but in him the brazen serpent was a type of, even in the Word and Son of God, his alone Saviour and Redeemer:

so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah :
for though Josiah was like him in some things, yet not in all:

nor any that were before him ;
from the times of the division of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah; and Ben Gersom and Abarbinel think that David and Solomon are not to be excepted; David sinning in the case of Uriah, and Solomon falling into idolatry, crimes that Hezekiah was not guilty of.