References (37)
And Jotham slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David. And Ahaz his son reigned in his place.
[Ahaz was 23 years old when he became king and first reigned with Jotham from 735 to 732 BC, then alone for 16 years from 732 to 715 BC. In the 17th year of Pekahiah, son of Remaliah, Ahaz, son of Jotham, king of Judah, began to reign.]
Ahaz was 23 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned 16 years in Jerusalem, and he did not do what was right (upright) in the eyes of the Lord (Yahweh), his God (Elohim), as his father (ancestor) David had done. [Here, strong language is used to say that he did not do what was right, cf. . Only Manasseh () and Amon () who follow him receive harsher words among the kings of the Southern Kingdom.]
Then King Rezin of Aram (Syria) [740-733 BC] and King Pekah, son of Remaliah, of Israel [Northern Kingdom, 752-732 BC] came up to Jerusalem to wage war, and they besieged Ahaz but could not overcome him. []
And Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-Pileser, king of Assyria [Tiglath-Pileser III], saying, "I am your servant and your son; come and save me from the hand of the king of Aram and from the hand of the king of Israel, who are rising up against me."
And Ahaz took the silver and gold that was in the house of the Lord (Yahweh) and in the treasury of the king's house and sent it as a gift to the king of Assyria.
Then King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-Pileser, king of Assyria [and thank him]. When King Ahaz saw the altar that was in Damascus [he was impressed and] sent a sketch of it to Orija, the priest, with a detailed drawing (dimensions), in accordance with its entire craftsmanship.
And Orija, the priest, built the altar [in Jerusalem in the temple of God] according to all that King Ahaz had sent from Damascus, so Orija, the priest, did, and made it before King Ahaz came from Damascus.
And King Ahaz commanded Uzziah the priest, saying "On the great altar shall be offered the morning burnt offering and the evening grain offering, the king's burnt offering and his grain offering, with the burnt offering of all the people of the land and their grain offerings and their drink offerings, and sprinkle all the blood of the burnt offerings and all the blood of the sacrifices, but the bronze altar shall be for me to look upon."
And Orija, the priest, did all that King Ahaz commanded.
And King Ahaz cut off (broke into pieces) the edge of the foundation and removed the basin from it, and he removed the sea from the copper oxen that were under it and placed it on a foundation (floor) of stones.
The rest of the acts of Ahaz, and what he did, are written in the chronicles of the kings of Judah.
And Ahaz slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David. And Hezekiah his son reigned in his place.
[Hosea (Hebr. Hoshea) becomes the last king of Israel.]
In the twelfth year of Ahaz, king of Judah, Hosea, son of Elah, began to reign in Samaria and reigned over Israel nine years.
[Hezekiah reigned over Judah (the Southern Kingdom) for 29 years (726-697 BC).]
In the third year of the reign of Hoshea, son of Elah, in Israel, Hezekiah, son of Ahaz, king of Judah, began to reign.
And Isaiah the prophet cried out to the Lord (Yahweh), and he brought back the shadow ten steps that it had already gone on Ahaz's sundial.
And the altar that was on the roof of Ahaz's upper chamber, which the king of Judah had made, and the altars that Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the Lord (Yahweh), he broke in pieces and knocked them down from there and threw their dust into the Kidron Valley.
his son Ahaz,
his son Hezekiah,
his son Manasseh,
Jotham rested with his fathers, and they buried him in the City of David. His son Ahaz succeeded him as king.
[Ahaz first reigned with his father Jotham from 735 to 732 BC, then alone for 16 years from 732 to 715 BC.]
Ahaz was 20 years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem for 16 years. He did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as his father David had done.
At the same time, King Ahaz sent messengers to the kings of Assyria with a request for help,
The Lord wanted to humiliate Judah because of Ahaz, the Israelite king, because he was the cause of licentiousness in Judah and was unfaithful to the Lord (Yahweh).
Although Ahaz plundered the house of the Lord (Yahweh), the royal palace, and the princes and gave it to the king of Assyria, it did not help him.
In his distress, King Ahaz sinned even more by being unfaithful to the Lord (Yahweh).
And Ahaz gathered together the vessels that were in the house of God and broke the vessels in the house of God, closed the doors of the house of the Lord (Yahweh), and made altars at every street corner in Jerusalem.
Ahaz rested with his fathers, and they buried him in Jerusalem within the city, for they did not place him in the tombs of the kings of Israel. His son Hezekiah succeeded him as king.
[On the border between the mountainous region of Judah and the Negev in the south lies the strategically important Arad. New analyses in 2020 of the organic material found on two pillars in the temple during the first excavation in the 1960s have revealed traces of frankincense and cannabis. Mixed with the cannabis was dung, which was used to raise the temperature so that the cannabis smoke could produce smoke with hallucinogenic properties. The temple dates back to 750 BC. The temple was later destroyed, but not burned. This is consistent with Hezekiah's reforms, which began in 715 BC, see .]
All the vessels that King Ahaz rejected during his reign of unfaithfulness, we have restored and consecrated, and they now stand before the altar of the Lord."
The vision of Isaiah (Hebr. Yeshayahu), son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem (in those days, in those times) when
Uzziah [Hebr. Uzziyah; also called Azariah; 10th king of the Southern Kingdom, ca. 791-739 BC – a good king, but died a leper, see ], Jotham [11th king of the Southern Kingdom, ca. 759-742 BC – a good king, see ], Ahaz [12th ruler of the Southern Kingdom, ca. 735-715 BC – did evil, see ; ; ] and Hezekiah [Hebr. Chizkijaho; 13th king of the Southern Kingdom, ca. 715-686 BC – a good king and reformer, see ; ; ] were kings of Judah.
[Isaiah's father was named Amoz. His name is similar to that of the prophet Amos of Tekoa (who lived earlier in the mid-700s BC) and wrote the Book of Amos, see . Isaiah received his calling in 740 BC (, ) and his 50 years of service spanned the reigns of four kings until 686 BC. According to tradition, he was sawed in half as a martyr by Manasseh (Hezekiah's son), see ; .]
It happened in the days of Ahaz, son of Jotham, son of Uzziah (Hebr. Uzzijaho), king of Judah [735-715 BC], that King Rezin of Aram (Syria) [740-733 BC] and King Pekah, son of Remaliah, of Israel [Northern Kingdom, 752-732 BC] went up to Jerusalem to wage war against it. [; ]
Then the Lord
(Yahweh) said to Isaiah, "Go out now and meet
Ahaz, you and Shear Jashov
[meaning 'a remnant shall return'], your son, at the end of the aqueduct
[] by the upper pool, on the highway to
the Fuller's Field [place where textiles were washed and dried],
The Lord spoke further to Ahaz [king of Judah], saying:
But Ahaz replied, "I will not ask or test the Lord (Yahweh)." [This was false humility; the real reason was that he had already made a covenant with Assyria and their gods. He had sent all the silver and gold in the temple there as a gift so that they would protect him. He had even sacrificed his own son to idols, see .]
In the year that King Ahaz died [around 715 BC], this message (prophecy, this burden) came:
Behold, I will cause the shadow on the sundial, which has gone down on the sundial of Ahaz, to return backward ten steps." So the sun returned ten steps, by the steps it had gone down.
The word of the Lord (Yahweh) that came to [the prophet] Hosea (Hebr. Hoshea; meaning: salvation), son of Beeri, in the days of
Uzziah (Hebr. Uzzijaho) [10th ruler of the Southern Kingdom; reigned 788-736 BC],
Jotham [11th ruler of the Southern Kingdom; reigned approx. 758-742 BC, first ten years together with his leprous father (), then alone, and finally three years with his son Ahaz],
Ahaz [12th ruler of the Southern Kingdom; reigned c. 742-726 BC, the last years together with his son Hezekiah]
and Hezekiah (Hebr. Jechizqijah) [13th king of the Southern Kingdom; reigned 726-697 BC]
were kings of Judah [the Southern Kingdom]
and the days when
Jeroboam [the second, reigned 793-753 BC] was king of Israel [the 13th king of the Northern Kingdom].
[Hosea served as a prophet in the northern kingdom for about 40 years (760-722 BC). Only Jeroboam II of the northern kingdom is mentioned here. The last six kings are: Zechariah, Shallum, Menahem, Pekahiah, Pekah, and Hosea. They reigned from about 750 to 722 BC, when the capital Samaria was captured by the Assyrian ruler Sargon II and the population of the country was deported to Assyria.]
The word of the Lord
(Yahweh) that came to Micah
(Hebr. Michah), from Moresheth
[who conveyed these prophetic words] in those days
[758-698 BC] when Jotham,
Ahaz, and Hezekiah
(Hebr. Jechizqijah) were kings of Judah
[the southern kingdom]. This is what he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.
[Mic. came from the town of Moreshet Gat in southwestern Judah, see also . It is not entirely clear which town this is, but Jerome (347-419 CE) writes that it is located just over a kilometer east of Beit Guvrin, which makes Tell Goded a good candidate. Micah "saw" these prophecies concerning Samaria and Jerusalem. Interestingly, from the top of Tell Goded you can see many of the cities that Micah mentions, such as Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Lachish, etc. The three kings mentioned are:
• Jotham (did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, see ) reigned 758-743 BC.
• His son Ahaz (was an evil king, see ) reigned from 743 to 727 BC.
• Hezekiah (did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, see ) reigned from 726 to 697 BC.]Uzziah begot Jotham,
Jotham begot Ahaz,
Ahaz begot Hezekiah,
