Ahaz (King)

Ahaz was the king of Judah from 735 to 715 BC. He was known for turning away from God. "Ahaz" (Matthew 1:9) is a shortened form of Ahaziah or Jehoahaz. The three main stories about Ahaz all describe him as one of the most evil kings of the southern kingdom of Judah (2 Kings 16; 2 Chronicles 28; Isaiah 7). He was buried without honor (2 Chronicles 28:27). His son Hezekiah was king after him (2 Kings 18:1).

Scholars do not agree on when these events happened. The dates that seem to work best suggest Ahaz became king in 735 BC. He might have ruled together with his father, Jotham, from 735 to 732 BC. If so, his whole time as king was about 20 years, ending in 715 BC.

Ahaz reigned over Judah during a dangerous time. Assyria was attacking nearby countries. Pekah, king of Israel, and Rezin, king of Syria, were hostile towards Assyria and invaded Judah to replace Ahaz with a king who would join their alliance.

Instead of trusting God, Ahaz asked Tiglath-pileser III, king of Assyria, for help. This made the prophet Isaiah angry. The following war led to Isaiah’s prediction of the birth of Immanuel as a sign that Israel and Syria would be destroyed (Isaiah 7). Tiglath-pileser did destroy the two countries over the next two years, from 734 to 732 BC.

Before Israel and Syria were destroyed, their invasion of Judah caused many problems (2 Chronicles 28:8). They took many people and things from Judah. A prophet named Obed stopped them from keeping 200,000 captives as slaves and made them return the people to Jericho (2 Chronicles 28:9). He was joined by several leaders of Israel (2 Chronicles 28:12), who returned the prisoners to Jericho some of the spoil that was stolen.

During this time, Judah may have been attacked from the south, too. The Edomites, who Judah used to control, may have tried to become independent because Judah was getting weaker. The Hebrew Bible talks about Syria (called Aram in Hebrew) attacking the town of Elath by the Red Sea (2 Kings 16:6). But, the name Aram is similar to the name Edom in Hebrew, so many scholars think that invasion was actually by Edomites.

By allying with Assyria, Ahaz put Judah in danger. Judah became like a slave country to Tiglath-pileser. Ahaz went to Damascus, which used to be Syria's capital, to meet Tiglath-pileser. He probably went to show that he would obey the king his country now had to pay (2 Kings 16:10).

In Damascus, Ahaz saw an Assyrian altar. He had one like it built in Jerusalem to replace the original altar. He made other changes in the temple, showing he was turning away from Jewish religion.

The "stairway of Ahaz" was important in a prophecy given to his son Hezekiah (2 Kings 20:11; Isaiah 38:8). The set of stairs was probably used to tell time by the movement of a shadow across it.

Ahaz’s failure to trust God seems to have come from his complete rejection of the law of Moses and the traditional faith of Israel. It did not come mainly from the dangerous political situation. Second Chronicles says that Ahaz made images for the Baals, gods connected with Baal, a Canaanite god of fertility. Ahaz also practiced human sacrifice by offering his sons in pagan worship. The writer of Chronicles presents these practices as the reason God allowed Israel and Syria to invade Judah (2 Chronicles 28:1–5).

See also King; Books of First and Second Kings; History of Israel; Sundial; Timeline of the Bible (Old Testament).