Ahaz

Ahaz (also spelled Achaz) was a king of Judah, son of Jotham and grandson of Uzziah, whose reign is set in the days of Isaiah and is remembered in Scripture for apostasy and for turning to Assyria for help (2 Kings 16:3, 7; Isaiah 1:1; 7:1).

The narrative in Kings says that Ahaz “walked in the way of the kings of Israel” and “made his son to pass through the fire” (2 Kings 16:3); Chronicles says he burned incense in the valley of the son of Hinnom and “burned his children in the fire” (2 Chronicles 28:3). When Rezin of Syria and Pekah of Israel attacked Jerusalem, they could not prevail (Isaiah 7:1), but Ahaz sent to Tiglath Pileser king of Assyria, saying, “I am your servant and your son. Come up and save me” (2 Kings 16:7). The Assyrian king took Damascus, carried its people captive to Kir, and killed Rezin (2 Kings 16:9). Chronicles adds that Pekah killed one hundred twenty thousand in Judah in one day because they had forsaken Yahweh (2 Chronicles 28:6), and that in his distress Ahaz “trespassed yet more against Yahweh” (2 Chronicles 28:22).

In Isaiah the sign of Immanuel is addressed to Ahaz and the house of David: “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin will conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:13-14). Isaiah 38:8 also refers to “the sundial of Ahaz,” a royal object in Jerusalem. Historically, Tiglath-Pileser III reigned 745–727 BCE and Damascus fell in 732 BCE, consistent with the sequence in 2 Kings 16:7-9; Ahaz’s reign is commonly placed in the late eighth century BCE. Achaz is the Greek and Latin form of the Hebrew name.

Christian tradition has read Isaiah 7:14 in more than one way. The Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, renders the Hebrew word almah as parthenos, “virgin,” and Matthew 1:23 applies the verse to Jesus; many Christian traditions therefore read it as a messianic prophecy, often while also allowing a nearer sign in Ahaz’s own day. Jewish interpretation and some Christian interpreters read it as referring primarily to a birth in the prophet’s time and dispute the rendering “virgin.” Ahaz is evaluated negatively in both Kings and Chronicles (2 Kings 16:3; 2 Chronicles 28:22), but traditions differ over whether the emphasis falls on his judgment or on the persistence of the Davidic promise spoken to the house of David (Isaiah 7:13-14).

AI-generated reference entry, grounded in the passages where this term appears — history and Scripture stated as such, interpretation labeled as interpretation. Not a substitute for the text itself.