Hilkiah

The name Hilkiah is borne by several distinct figures in the Hebrew Bible, almost all of them priests or Levites. The most prominent is the high priest under Josiah who finds the Book of the Law in the house of Yahweh. Others include the father of Hezekiah's palace steward Eliakim, two Levites in the Chronicler's lists, two priests of the second-temple era, and the father of the prophet Jeremiah.

Hilkiah the High Priest under Josiah

Hilkiah the high priest stands at the center of Josiah's reform. The king sends Shaphan the scribe to him to take inventory of temple silver: "Go up to Hilkiah the high priest, that he may sum the silver which is brought into the house of Yahweh, which the keepers of the threshold have gathered of the people" (2Ki 22:4). In the course of bringing out that silver Hilkiah makes the discovery that drives the rest of the chapter: "And Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the scribe, I have found the Book of the Law in the house of Yahweh. And Hilkiah delivered the book to Shaphan, and he read it" (2Ki 22:8). Shaphan then carries the find to the king — "Hilkiah the priest has delivered to me a book. And Shaphan read it before the king" (2Ki 22:10) — and Josiah responds by commissioning Hilkiah and a small delegation to inquire of Yahweh on his behalf (2Ki 22:12). The party goes "to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe" (2Ki 22:14), whose oracle then sets the terms of the covenant renewal.

Once the reform is underway, Hilkiah is again the agent of the temple purge. "And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, and the priests of the second order, and the keepers of the threshold, to bring forth out of the temple of Yahweh all the vessels that were made for Baal, and for the Asherah, and for all the host of heaven, and he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron, and carried the ashes of them to Beth-el" (2Ki 23:4). The narrator closes the arc by anchoring the entire reform back to Hilkiah's discovery: Josiah "put away" the spiritists, wizards, talismans, and idols "that he might confirm the words of the law which were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of Yahweh" (2Ki 23:24).

The Chronicler tells the same sequence with parallel emphases. "And they came to Hilkiah the high priest, and delivered the silver that was brought into the house of God, which the Levites, the keepers of the threshold, had gathered of the hand of Manasseh and Ephraim, and of all the remnant of Israel, and of all Judah and Benjamin, and of the inhabitants of Jerusalem" (2Ch 34:9). The discovery itself is glossed with explicit Mosaic provenance: "Hilkiah the priest found the Book of the Law of Yahweh [given] by Moses" (2Ch 34:14). Hilkiah's report to Shaphan repeats the language of 2 Kings — "I have found the Book of the Law in the house of Yahweh. And Hilkiah delivered the book to Shaphan" (2Ch 34:15) — and Shaphan in turn tells the king, "Hilkiah the priest has delivered a book to me" (2Ch 34:18). Josiah then commands "Hilkiah, and Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and Abdon the son of Micah, and Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah the king's slave" (2Ch 34:20), and Hilkiah goes with that delegation to Huldah, "the wife of Shallum the son of Tokhath, the son of Hasrah, keeper of the wardrobe" (2Ch 34:22).

Hilkiah's place in the priestly line is given by the Chronicler twice. In the Aaronide genealogy, "Shallum begot Hilkiah, and Hilkiah begot Azariah" (1Ch 6:13). The list of those who served the rebuilt house traces the line again: "Azariah the son of Hilkiah, the son of Meshullam, the son of Zadok, the son of Meraioth, the son of Ahitub, the leader of the house of God" (1Ch 9:11). Ezra's own pedigree runs back through this same Hilkiah: "Ezra the son of Seraiah, the son of Azariah, the son of Hilkiah" (Ezr 7:1). A son of his named Gemariah appears later as one of two emissaries Zedekiah sends to Babylon, carrying Jeremiah's letter to the exiles: "by the hand of Elasah the son of Shaphan, and Gemariah the son of Hilkiah (whom Zedekiah king of Judah sent to Babylon to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon), saying," (Jer 29:3).

Father of Eliakim, Hezekiah's Steward

A different Hilkiah is the father of Eliakim, the official "over the household" in Hezekiah's reign. When the Assyrian envoys come up against Jerusalem, the king's negotiators are introduced as "Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebnah the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder" (2Ki 18:18). Eliakim, with his colleagues, asks Rabshakeh to speak in Aramaic rather than the Jews' language (2Ki 18:26), and afterward "Eliakim the son of Hilkiah came, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder, to Hezekiah with their clothes rent, and told him the words of Rabshakeh" (2Ki 18:37). Isaiah's parallel reports the same delegation (Isa 36:3; Isa 36:22). The Hilkiah of this household is also named in Yahweh's prior oracle against Shebna, where Eliakim is announced as Shebna's replacement: "I will call my slave Eliakim the son of Hilkiah" (Isa 22:20).

Levites

The Chronicler lists two further Hilkiahs among the Levites. One stands in the Merarite genealogy of the singers: "the son of Hashabiah, the son of Amaziah, the son of Hilkiah" (1Ch 6:45). The other is among the gatekeepers, the sons of Hosah: "Hilkiah the second, Tebaliah the third, Zechariah the fourth: all the sons and brothers of Hosah were thirteen" (1Ch 26:11).

Post-exilic Priests and the Father of Jeremiah

In the post-exilic period the name reappears among priestly leaders. A Hilkiah stands beside Ezra at the public reading of the law: "And Ezra the scribe stood on a pulpit of wood, which they had made for the purpose; and beside him stood Mattithiah, and Shema, and Anaiah, and Uriah, and Hilkiah, and Maaseiah, on his right hand" (Ne 8:4). Nehemiah's lists name a Hilkiah among the priestly chiefs who came up with Zerubbabel — "Sallu, Amok, Hilkiah, Jedaiah. These were the chiefs of the priests and of their brothers in the days of Jeshua" (Ne 12:7) — and the next generation's record names the head of his house: "of Hilkiah, Hashabiah; of Jedaiah, Nethanel" (Ne 12:21).

The prophet Jeremiah's father bears the same name. The book opens, "The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin" (Jer 1:1).