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 ().

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.

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

Ahaz, king of Judah, appealed to Tiglath-Pileser III, the king of Assyria, for help.

When Pekah allied with Rezin, king of Aram to attack Ahaz, the king of Judah, Ahaz appealed to Tiglath-Pileser III, the king of Assyria, for help.

(; ) Ahaz appealed to Tiglath-Pileser III, the king of Assyria, for help.

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.

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.

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.

" 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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

However, Ahaz appealed to Tiglath-Pileser III for help.

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.

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

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.

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 ".

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 ().

Isaiah 7: 1, 2 speaks of a league between Pekah and King Rezin of Aram that was a threat to Ahaz of Judah.

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.

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: 1-2 tells how the kings of Ephraim and Syria attack Jerusalem when Ahaz refuses to join them in their anti-Assyrian alliance.

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 ).

This is what Matthew has done with Isaiah 7: 14: the Hebrew has the child being given the name Immanuel by " she " ( presumably its mother ), while the commonly-used Greek translation of the time ( the Septuagint ) has " you " ( presumably king Ahaz, to whom the prophecy was addressed ).

: Then said the LORD unto Isaiah: ' Go forth now to meet Ahaz, thou, and Shear-jashub thy son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool, in the highway of the fullers ' field.

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 ).

* Isaiah 7: 1 " And it came to pass in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah ..."

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 (; ).

" 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.

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

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

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.

* One of the sons of Jehoadah, or Jarah, son of Ahaz ( 1 Chronicles 8: 36 ).

Jotham was succeeded by his son, Ahaz in the seventeenth year of Pekah's reign.

The child Maher-shalal-hash-baz is the second prophetic-name child after the birth of Immanuel-traditionally understood as the son of Abi the bride of king Ahaz, i. e. the future king Hezekiah, by many Jewish commentators, or of another woman.

At the time of Samaria's fall, there existed two kings in Judah — Ahaz and his son Hezekiah — who ruled as co-regents.

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

Albright, Jotham ruled from 742 BC until 735 BC and his son Ahaz ruled from his death until 715 BC.