The kings of Israel and Judah

King Ahaz

The kingdom of Judah (the south) · Reigned sixteen years (2 Kings 16:2) · Evil before God · 2 Kings 16; 2 Chronicles 28; Isaiah 7

Ahaz, the son of the good king Jotham, was one of the most wicked kings of Judah. He walked in the way of the kings of Israel, made molten images of Baal, and even burned his own children in the fire to pagan gods. When attacked, he stripped the temple to buy the help of Assyria rather than trust God, copied a pagan altar, and finally shut the doors of the house of the LORD. It was to Ahaz that Isaiah spoke the great prophecy of Immanuel.

And in the time of his distress did he trespass yet more against the LORD: this is that king Ahaz.2 Chronicles 28:22 (KJV)

A wicked departure from a good father

Ahaz did not that which was right in the sight of the LORD his God, like David his father. He walked in the way of the kings of Israel, made molten images for Baalim, burned incense in the valley of Hinnom, and did the most horrifying thing the kings did: he burnt his children in the fire, after the abominations of the heathen. He sacrificed on the high places and under every green tree. From the good and steady Jotham came a son who plunged Judah into the deepest idolatry it had yet known.

God gave him into the hand of his enemies. Syria and Israel came against him, and the northern kingdom killed a hundred and twenty thousand of Judah in one day and carried off two hundred thousand captives, until a prophet rebuked Israel and the captives were returned.

Trusting Assyria instead of God, and the sign of Immanuel

Under this pressure, God sent Isaiah to Ahaz with an astonishing offer: ask a sign of the LORD, and be delivered, only believe. But Ahaz refused, cloaking his unbelief in false piety, I will not ask, neither will I tempt the LORD. So the LORD gave a sign anyway, the greatest of all: Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel, God with us.

Ahaz would not trust that promise. Instead he took the silver and gold of the temple and his own house and sent it to the king of Assyria, saying, I am thy servant, buying an alliance with a pagan empire. The help became an oppression. Chronicles says Assyria distressed him, and helped him not.

The altar and the shut temple

Ahaz's unbelief deepened into open contempt for the worship of God. Visiting Damascus, he saw a pagan altar, sent its pattern to the priest Urijah, and had a copy built to replace the bronze altar in the temple of the LORD. He cut up the temple furnishings, and at last shut up the doors of the house of the LORD and set up altars in every corner of Jerusalem and in every city of Judah, provoking the God of his fathers to anger.

Chronicles gives the unforgettable verdict on his response to affliction: in the time of his distress did he trespass yet more against the LORD: this is that king Ahaz. Suffering, which softens some hearts, only hardened his.

The biblical verdict and where it points

Ahaz is one of the clearly evil kings, and the phrase this is that king Ahaz marks him with a special infamy. He sacrificed his own children, robbed and defiled and finally closed the temple, and met every trouble by sinning more and trusting God less. When he died, they buried him in the city, but not in the sepulchres of the kings of Israel.

Yet even here, in the reign of one of the worst kings, God gave the brightest promise. The sign of Immanuel, spoken to an unbelieving Ahaz, points past him across seven centuries to the virgin birth of Jesus, God with us. Judah's darkness only made the promised light more needed. Where Ahaz shut the doors of God's house, the coming King would open the way to God for ever, and where Ahaz would not trust, Immanuel would come to a people who could not save themselves.

A note on the record: everything here is drawn from the books of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles. Kings and Chronicles sometimes tell a reign differently, Chronicles often adding a king's repentance or building works, and where they differ this is said plainly rather than smoothed over. The exact lengths and overlaps of the reigns are genuinely complex, because kings often shared the throne with a son for a time, so the totals in Scripture do not always add up in a simple line. The verdict good or evil is the Bible's own assessment, whether a king did right or evil in the sight of the LORD.

Related: Jotham · Hezekiah · All the kings of Israel and Judah