General Notes

He made Damascus a pagan city (2 Kings 16: 10-18).  Judah was attacked early in his reign by King Pekah of Israel and KingRezin of Syria, who att empted to force Ahaz into a coalition againstAssyria. Additional incursions were made into Ju daean territory by theEdomites, to whom Ahaz was forced to give up the important city of Elat h(now Aqaba, Jordan). Ahaz asked help of the Assyrian king Tiglath-pileserIII, who drove ou t the invaders but in return exacted tribute from Judah.Ahaz made various changes in the temp le service and paid homage to theAssyrian gods. He was denounced for infidelity to Jehovah b y the Hebrewprophet Isaiah, who opposed the alliance with Assyria. He was succeededby his so n Hezekiah. (Funk & Wagnalls)  BIOGRAPHY: a'-haz ('achaz, "he has grasped," 2 Kings 16; 2 Chronicles 28; Isaiah 7:10; Achaz) .   1. Name:   The name is the same as Jehoahaz; hence appears on Tiglath-pileser's Assyrian inscription o f 732 BC as Ia-u-ha-zi. The sacred historians may have dropped the first part of the name i n consequence of the character of the king.   2. The Accession:   Ahaz was the son of Jotham, king of Judah. He succeeded to the throne at the age of 20 year s (according to another reading 25). The chronology of his reign is difficult, as his son Hez ekiah is stated to have been 25 years of age when he began to reign 16 years after (2 Kings 1 8:2). If the accession of Ahaz be placed as early as 743 BC, his grandfather Uzziah, long una ble to perform the functions of his office on account of his leprosy (2 Chronicles 26:21), mu st still have been alive. (Others date Ahaz later, when Uzziah, for whom Jotham had acted a s regent, was already dead.)   3. Early Idolatries:   Although so young, Ahaz seems at once to have struck out an independent course wholly oppose d to the religious traditions of his nation. His first steps in this direction were the causi ng to be made and circulated of molten images of the Baalim, and the revival in the valley o f Hinnom, south of the city, of the abominations of the worship of Moloch (2 Chronicles 28:2, 3). He is declared to have made his own son "pass through the fire" (2 Kings 16:3); the chron icler puts it even more strongly:   he "burnt his children in the fire" (2 Chronicles 28:3). Other acts of idolatry were to follo w.   4. Peril from Syria and Israel:   The kingdom of Judah was at this time in serious peril. Rezin, king of Damascus, and Pekah, k ing of Samaria, had already, in the days of Jotham, begun to harass Judah (2 Kings 15:37); no w a conspiracy was formed to dethrone the young Ahaz, and set upon the throne a certain "so n of Tabeel" (Isaiah 7:6). An advance of the two kings was made against Jerusalem, although w ithout success (2 Kings 16:5; Isaiah 7:1); the Jews were expelled from Elath (2 Kings 16:6) , and the country was ravaged, and large numbers taken captive (2 Chronicles 28:5). Consterna tion was universal. The heart of Ahaz "trembled, and the heart of his people, as the trees o f the forest tremble with the wind" (Isaiah 7:2). In his extremity Ahaz appealed to the kin g of Assyria for help (2 Kings 16:7; 2 Chronicles 28:16).   5. Isaiah's Messages to the King:   Amid the general alarm and perturbation, the one man untouched by it in Jerusalem was the pro phet Isaiah. Undismayed, Isaiah set himself, apparently single-handed, to turn the tide of pu blic opinion from the channel in which it was running, the seeking of aid from Assyria. His a ppeal was to both king and people. By Divine direction, meeting Ahaz "at the end of the condu it of the upper pool, in the highway of the fuller's field," he bade him have no fear of "the se two tails of smoking firebrands," Rezin and Pekah, for, like dying torches, they would spe edily be extinguished (Isaiah 7:3). If he would not believe this he would not be establishe d (Isaiah 7:9). Failing to win the young king's confidence, Isaiah was sent a second time, wi th the offer from Yahweh of any sign Ahaz chose to ask, "either in the depth, or in the heigh t above," in attestation of the truth of the Divine word. The frivolous monarch refused the a rbitrament on the hypocritical ground, "I will not ask, neither will I tempt Yahweh" (Isaia h 7:10-12). Possibly his ambassadors were already dispatched to the Assyrian king. Whenever t hey went, they took with them a large subsidy with which to buy that ruler's favor (2 Kings 1 6:8). It was on this occasion that Isaiah, in reply to Ahaz, gave the reassuring prophecy o f Immanuel (Isaiah 7:13).   6. Isaiah's Tablet:   As respects the people, Isaiah was directed to exhibit on "a great tablet" the words "For Mah er-shalal-hash-baz" ("swift the spoil, speedy the prey"). This was attested by two witnesses , one of whom was Urijah, the high priest. It was a solemn testimony that, without any actio n on the part of Judah, "the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria shall be carried awa y before the king of Assyria" (Isaiah 8:1-4).   7. Fall of Damascus and Its Results:   It was as the prophet had foretold. Damascus fell, Rezin was killed (2 Kings 16:9), and Israe l was raided (2 Kings 15:29). The action brought temporary relief to Judah, but had the effec t of placing her under the heel of Assyria. Everyone then living knew that there could be n o equal alliance between Judah and Assyria, and that the request for help, accompanied by th e message, "I am thy servant" (2 Kings 16:7,8) and by "presents" of gold and silver, meant th e submission of Judah and the annual payment of a heavy tribute. Had Isaiah's counsel been fo llowed, Tiglath-pileser would probably, in his own interests, have been compelled to crush th e coalition, and Judah would have retained her freedom.   8. Sun-Dial of Ahaz:   The political storm having blown over for the present, with the final loss of the important p ort of Elath on the Red Sea (2 Kings 16:6), Ahaz turned his attention to more congenial pursu its. The king was somewhat of a dilettante in matters of art, and he set up a sun-dial, whic h seems to have consisted of a series of steps arranged round a short pillar, the time bein g indicated by the position of the shadow on the steps (compare 2 Kings 20:9-11; Isaiah 38:8) . As it is regarded as possible for the shadow to return 10 steps, it is clear that each ste p did not mark an hour of the day, but some smaller period.   9. The Lavers and Brazen Sea:   Another act of the king was to remove from the elaborate ornamental bases on which they had s tood (compare 1 Kings 7:27-39), the ten layers of Solomon, and also to remove Solomon's molte n sea from the 12 brazen bulls which supported it (compare 1 Kings 7:23-26), the sea being pl aced upon a raised platform or pavement (2 Kings 16:17). From Jeremiah 52:20, where the proph et sees "the 12 brazen bulls that were under the bases," it has been conjectured that the obj ect of the change may have been to transfer the layers to the backs of the bulls.   10. The Damascus Altar:   To this was added a yet more daring act of impiety. In 732 Ahaz was, with other vassal prince s, summoned to Damascus to pay homage to Tiglath-pileser (2 Kings 16:10; his name appears i n the Assyrian inscription). There he saw a heathen altar of fanciful pattern, which greatl y pleased him. A model of this was sent to Urijah the high priest, with instructions to hav e an enlarged copy of it placed in the temple court. On the king's return to Jerusalem, he sa crificed at the new altar, but, not satisfied with its position, gave orders for a change. Th e altar had apparently been placed on the east side of the old altar; directions were now giv en for the brazen altar to be moved to the north, and the Damascus altar to be placed in lin e with it, in front of the temple giving both equal honor. Orders were further given to Urija h that the customary sacrifices should be offered on the new altar, now called "the great alt ar," while the king reserved the brazen altar for himself "to inquire by" (2 Kings 16:15).   11. Further Impieties:   Even this did not exhaust the royal innovations. We learn from a later notice that the door s of the temple porch were shut, that the golden candlestick was not lighted, that the offeri ng of incense was not made, and other solemnities were suspended (2 Chronicles 29:7). It is n ot improbable that it was Ahaz who set up `the horses of the sun' mentioned in 2 Kings 23:11 , and gave them accommodation in the precincts of the temple. He certainly built the "altar s .... on the roof of the upper chamber of Ahaz," perhaps above the porch of the temple, fo r the adoration of the heavenly bodies (verse 12). Many other idolatries and acts of nationa l apostasy are related regarding him (2 Chronicles 28:22).   12. Recurrence of Hostilities:   In the later years of his unhappy reign there was a recurrence of hostilities with the inhabi tants of Philistia and Edom, this time with disaster to Judah (see the list of places lost i n 2 Chronicles 28:18,19). New appeal was made to Tiglath-pileser, whose subject Ahaz, now was , and costly presents were sent from the temple, the royal palace, and even the houses of th e princes of Judah, but without avail (2 Chronicles 28:19-21). The Assyrian `distressed' Ahaz , but rendered no assistance. In his trouble the wicked king only "trespassed yet more" (2 Ch ronicles 28:22).   13. Death of Ahaz:   Ahaz died in 728, after 16 years of misused power. The exultation with which the event was re garded is reflected in Isaiah's little prophecy written "in the year that King Ahaz died" (Is aiah 14:28-32). The statement in 2 Kings 16:20 that Ahaz "was buried with his fathers in th e city of David" is to be understood in the light of 2 Chronicles 28:27, that he was buried i n Jerusalem, but that his body was not laid in the sepulchers of the kings of Israel. His nam e appears in the royal genealogies in 1 Chronicles 3:13 and Matthew 1:9.   W. Shaw Caldecott