[Avodah] Chizkiyahu's Reforms

[Micha Berger]

See "Hezekiahs Religious Reform -- In the Bible and Archaeology" on the
Biblical Archeology Society web site at <http://bit.ly/2t6C43s>.

Here is Mosaic Magazine's teaser. I noted how similar this was to Chazal's
portrayal of Chizqiyahu haMelekh's success and failue, in that the
archeological evidence is of destroying the AZ in public, but failed to
get rid of everything hidden in private homes.

    A large 9th-century horned altar was discovered [in Beersheba] --
    already dismantled. Three of its four "horns" [rectangular projections
    on the four corners of the top of the altar] were found intact,
    embedded in a wall. Their secondary use indicates that the stones
    were no longer considered sacred. The horned altar was dismantled
    during Hezekiah's reign, which we know because some of its stones
    were reused in a public storehouse that was built when the Assyrians
    threatened Judah and was destroyed by the Assyrian army in 701....

    Next we move to Lachish. The second most important city in Judah
    after Jerusalem, Lachish was a military and administrative center
    in the Judean hills.... In 2016, an 8th-century BCE cultic place
    at Lachish was uncovered next to the main city gate. Archaeologists
    have called this cultic place a "gate-shrine." In it were found two
    small horned altars, whose horns had been cut off and embedded in an
    adjacent wall. Further, a square toilet was found installed in the
    shrine but was never used. The toilet was more of a symbolic act of
    desecration (see 2Kings 10:27) -- part of Hezekiah's cultic reforms.

    The best candidate for the elimination [of these cultic sites and
    others] is King Hezekiah, who probably ordered the abolition of
    all official cultic sites. Only the Jerusalem Temple and small,
    household shrines were spared.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Life isn't about finding yourself.
micha at aishdas.org        Life is about creating yourself.
http://www.aishdas.org            - George Bernard Shaw
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