Good day, brother Jeffrey!<\/p>\n
About Hezekiah, we read in II\u00a0Kings 18:5-6:<\/p>\n
Hezekiah trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel. There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before him or after him. He held fast to the LORD and did not cease to follow him; he kept the commands the LORD had given Moses.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
But then about Josiah, a couple of chapters later in II\u00a0Kings 23:25:<\/p>\n
Neither before nor after Josiah was there a king like him who turned to the LORD as he did – with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his strength, in accordance with all the Law of Moses.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
How can the reigns of Hezekiah and Josiah both be the greatest, especially when it is said that neither before nor after him was there a king like him? Is this a contradiction?<\/p>\n\t
Answer:<\/h2>\n
It depends on what you are measuring. Hezekiah was the greatest king who demonstrated trust<\/strong> in God. Josiah was the greatest king who demonstrated zeal<\/strong> for God. Solomon was unique among the kings for the love<\/strong> God showed to him (Nehemiah 13:26).<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: Good day, brother Jeffrey! About Hezekiah, we read in II\u00a0Kings 18:5-6: Hezekiah trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel. There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before him or after him. He held fast to the LORD and did not cease to follow him; he kept the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[793,1128],"class_list":["post-69300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-apparent-contradictions","tag-ii-kings"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":27145,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/were-hezekiahs-sons-punished-for-their-fathers-sins\/","url_meta":{"origin":69300,"position":0},"title":"Were Hezekiah’s sons punished for their father’s sins?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 7, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: It's quite clear that the Bible says the fathers are not to be punished for the son's sins and the sons not to be punished for the father's sins.\u00a0 However, throughout the Old Testament, we see that when a king sinned, because either they repented or because of a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":52825,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-did-god-tell-hezekiah-to-set-his-house-in-order-before-he-died\/","url_meta":{"origin":69300,"position":1},"title":"Why did God tell Hezekiah to set his house in order before he died?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 17, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I want to know why God asked Hezekiah to set his house in order for he will die? Second, did Hezekiah actually set his house in order before he died after God added more years for him to live? Answer: While most of us do not know when we\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":56908,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/hezekiahs-comforting-words\/","url_meta":{"origin":69300,"position":2},"title":"Hezekiah’s Comforting Words","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 15, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"by Lewis Willis via\u00a0Truth Magazine\u00a0Vol. XLIV: 6 p. 14, March 16, 2000 Bible students are aware of that time when the nation of Israel divided into the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. Samaria was the capital of Israel, and Jerusalem was the capital of Judah. Israel was very wicked, living\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":80708,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/kings-in-jerusalem\/","url_meta":{"origin":69300,"position":3},"title":"Kings in Jerusalem","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 30, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by S. Scott Smelser Saul was handsome, Saul was tall, Sad to say, that was all, from the throne he was rejected, and a shepherd was selected. David took Goliath down. David's line would keep the crown. King Saul's daughter was David's wife, What Saul wanted was David's life. David\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14340,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-did-god-extend-hezekiahs-life\/","url_meta":{"origin":69300,"position":4},"title":"Why did God extend Hezekiah’s life?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 15, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Why did God extend Hezekiah's life? Answer: \"In those days Hezekiah was sick and near death. And Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, went to him and said to him, \"Thus says the LORD: 'Set your house in order, for you shall die, and not live.'\" Then he\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":67990,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/young-king-josiah\/","url_meta":{"origin":69300,"position":5},"title":"Young King Josiah","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 9, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Zeke Flores Think about it: An eight-year-old boy takes the reins of a country but doesn't shrink back in intimidation. Instead, young Josiah goes head-first into serving his God personally, then nationally. By the time he's 26, Josiah is leading a full-blown revival not seen since the days of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69300\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}