Isaiah's first significant acts as a prophet occurred when Judah, under king Ahaz, faced invasion from Israel and Aram Damascus ( Syria ) after refusing to join them in a revolt against Assyria, the dominant imperial power of the age.

He ceased to pay the tribute imposed on his father, Ahaz, and " rebelled against the king of Assyria, and served him not ," but entered into a league with Egypt (; ).

Ahaz, thus humbled, sided with Assyria, and sought the aid of Tiglath-Pileser against Israel and Syria.

So long as Ahaz reigned, the kingdom of Judah was unmolested by the Assyrian power ; but on his accession to the throne, Hezekiah, who was encouraged to rebel " against the king of Assyria " (), entered into an alliance with the king of Egypt ().

Ahaz and Menahem of Israel ( Ephraim ) followed a pro-Assyrian policy and were therefore aligned against the coalition of Pekah and the Arameans that sought to withstand Assyria, thus explaining why Menahem felt insecure and sought to buy the support of Assyria.

Immanuel ( or Emmanuel or Imanu ' el, Hebrew ע ִ מ ָּ נו ּ א ֵ ל meaning " God is with us ") is a symbolic name which appears in chapters 7 and 8 of the Book of Isaiah as part of a prophecy assuring king Ahaz of Judah of God's protection against enemy kings ; it is quoted in the Gospel of Matthew as a sign verifying the divine status of Jesus.

Isaiah 7: 1-8: 15, although set in the time of king Ahaz, apparently dates from the reign of Ahaz's son Hezekiah some thirty years later, and its purpose was to persuade Hezekiah not to join with other kings who intended to rebel against their joint overlord, Assyria.

As for Immanuel, " God is with us ", Isaiah might mean simply that any young pregnant woman in 734 BCE would be able to name her child " God is with us " by the time he is born ; but if a specific child is meant, then it might be a son of Ahaz, possibly his successor Hezekiah ( which is the traditional Jewish understanding ); or, since the other symbolic children are Isaiah's, Immanuel might be the prophet's own son.

McLaughlin argues that Matthew recognizes that the prophecy Isaiah gave to King Ahaz in the referenced Old Testament passage concerned a virgin living at that time ( namely, Isaiah's wife ) and a child ( namely, Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz ), who was born as a sign to Ahaz ( Isaiah 8: 1 ), and he argues that Matthew saw the act of salvation of which Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz's birth was a sign as a " type " ( or pre-figuring ) of the salvation that would come through the virgin and child he was describing ( namely, Mary and Jesus ).

This means that he should trust God and not seek military help in the Assyrians which Ahaz nevertheless did.

A century later, in the time of Josiah, the prophecy was revised to present Ahaz as the faithless king who rejected God's promise of protection for Jerusalem and the house of David, with the result that God brought Assyria to devastate the land until a new and faithful king ( presumably Josiah ) would arise.

Of notable importance is Isaiah 7: 14, where the prophet is assuring king Ahaz that God will save Judah from the invading armies of Israel and Syria ; the sign that will prove this is the forthcoming birth of a child called Emmanuel, " God With Us ".

" Thus declaring that the burnt offering of both animals and humans ( which may have been practiced in Judah under Kings Ahaz and Manasseh ) is not necessary for God.

In this passage from the book of Isaiah the prophet predicts to king Ahaz that a young woman will give birth to a child who will be called " Immanuel ", meaning " God with us ", and that Ahaz's enemies will be destroyed before this child learns the difference between good and evil, i. e., before it reaches maturity.

Isaiah tells Ahaz of the sign by which he will know that this is a true prophecy: a young woman will give birth to a child whom she will name Immanuel ( another symbolic name, meaning " God is with us "), and the lands of the enemy will be laid waste before the child is old enough to " reject the wrong and chose the right " ( Isaiah 7: 13-16 ).

According to " God delivered the King of the Jews, Ahaz, into the hands of the King of Syria, who carried away a great multitude of them captives to Damascus.

When Hezekiah made reparation for the abominations of his father Ahaz, he invited all Israel to keep the Passover in the house of the Lord.

Ahaz, king of Judah, at this crisis refused to co-operate with the kings of Israel and Syria in opposition to the Assyrians, and was on that account attacked and defeated by Rezin of Damascus and Pekah of Israel (; ).

Isaiah points to the dreadful consequences that followed for Judah's northern neighbours, the kingdom of Israel and Aram-Damascus ( Syria ) when they rebelled in the days of Ahaz and brought the Assyrians down on themselves.

* 733 BC: According to the Bible, Jerusalem becomes a vassal of the Neo-Assyrian Empire after Ahaz of Judah appeals to Tiglath Pileser III of the Neo-Assyrian Empire to protect the city from Pekah of Israel and Rezin of Aram.

Traditionally Jotham is the man in green on the left and the child with him is his son Ahaz.

And he was also delivered into the hand of the King of Israel, who smote him with a great slaughter ". In the prophet says clearly that a prerequisite for the fulfillment of the prophecy is that Ahaz stands firm in his faith.

# Abijah ( queen ), the daughter of Zechariah ( 2 Chronicles 29: 1 ), who married King Ahaz of Judah.

Chapter 1: 1 identifies the prophet as " Micah of Moresheth " ( a town in southern Judah ), and states that he lived during the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, roughly 750-700 BC.

King Ahaz's Seal which is a piece of reddish-brown clay that belonged to King Ahaz of Judah, who ruled from 732 to 716 BCE.

In addition, Ahaz is specifically identified as " king of Judah.

" The Hebrew inscription, which is set on three lines, reads as follows: " l ' hz * y / hwtm * mlk */ yhdh ", which translates as " belonging to Ahaz ( son of ) Yehotam, King of Judah.

Hezekiah (;, Ezekias, in the Septuagint ; ; also transliterated as Ḥizkiyyahu or Ḥizkiyyah ) was the son of Ahaz and the 14th king of Judah.

It is stated in the first verse of the Book of Isaiah that he prophesied during the reigns of Uzziah ( or Azariah ), Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, the kings of Judah ().

* Ahaz, king of Judah ( 735 BC – 715 BC )

* 729 BC — Hezekiah succeeds Ahaz as king of Judah ( or 726 BC ).

* 726 BC — Hezekiah succeeds Ahaz as king of Judah ( or 729 BC ).

* 724 BC — Ahaz, king of Judah ( 740 BC – 726 BC ) dies.

Ahaz (; Akhaz ; ; an abbreviation of Jehoahaz, " Yahweh has held ") was king of Judah, and the son and successor of Jotham.

Ahaz was twenty when he became king of Judah and reigned for sixteen years.

The seal impression of Ahaz King of Judah

The inscription reads: “ Belonging to Ahaz ( son of ) Yehotam, King of Judah .” Given the process that created and preserved bullae, they are virtually impossible to forge.

It bears the seal of King Ahaz of Judah, who ruled from 732-716 BC. Another important source regarding the historicity of Ahaz comes from Tiglat Pileser III annals, mentioning tributes and payments he received from Ahaz, king of Judah and Menahem, king of Israel

On the death of Ahaz, c. 715 BCE, his son Hezekiah followed a policy which Isaiah saw as dangerous, waging war on the Philistine cities and on Edom even though territory under direct Assyrian control ( i. e., the former kingdom of Israel ) now came to within a few miles of Jerusalem.

Some writers have proposed that Hezekiah served as coregent with his father Ahaz for about 14 years, beginning during 729 BC.

Hezekiah was born in c. 739 BC as the son of King Ahaz and Abijah ().

Edwin Thiele concluded that Ahaz was coregent with Jotham from 736 / 735 BC, and that his sole reign began in 732 / 731 and ended in 716 / 715 BC.

In c. 732 BCE, when Pekah, king of Israel, allied with Rezin, king of Aram, threatened Jerusalem, Ahaz appealed to Tiglath-Pileser III, the king of Assyria, for help.

After Ahaz paid tribute to Tiglath-Pileser, () Tiglath-Pileser sacked Damascus and annexed Aram.

For Ahaz, the Scriptural data allow dating the beginning of his coregency with Jotham to some time in the six-month interval beginning of Nisan 1 of 735 BC.

ny record such as that recognized these last four years for Jotham must have come from the annals of the anti-Assyrian and anti-Ahaz court that prevailed after the death of Ahaz.

Ahaz is given sixteen years in these annals, measuring from the start of his sole reign, instead of the twenty or twenty-one years that he would be credited with if the counting started from 736t 736 / 735 BC, when he deposed Jotham.