Ahaz (Hastings' Dictionary)

Son and successor of .lothani king of Judah. His name is probably an abbreviated form of Jeho-ahaz (inx'iT), since it niipears on the Assyr. inseriiitions as la-u-tja-zi. 'I lie date of his accession has been fixed at 735 B.C.

His age at this time is given as twentj' (2 K 10') ; but this is barely reconcilable with the ol her chrono- logical ilala, which allow sixteen years lo his reign, and state the age of his son Hezekiah at 04 AHAZ AHAZIAH his accession as twenty-five, since it woold make Ahaz a father at the age of eleven.

The difficulty is increased if we suppose that the son passed through the fire by Aiiaz was his firstborn ; and if, with several authorities, we allow only eight years to his reign, it is quite insuperable. There can be little doubt that the figures need correc- tion. For twenty there is a slightly supported various reading, twenty, five, and this may be rifjht.

It is possible that the age of Hezekiah sliould be reduced, since Ahaz seems from Is 3" to have been still youthful at the beginning of his reign. The date of his death is probably 715 B.C., though many place it 728-727 B.C (see Chronology of OT). Quite early in his reign, Rezin king of Syria, and Pekah king of Israel, formed a coalition with the object of forcing Judah into an alliance against Assyria.

According tc our oldest authorities they met with little success, though the Syrians wrested (lie port of Elath from Judah, and Isaiah bade the king have no fear of ' these two tails of smoking firebrands.' To confirm the wisdom of his counsel, he in^nted him to ask any sign from God. Ahaz was too panic-stricken to listen to cool reason, and, under the pretext that he would not tempt God, refused the proffered sign, whereupon the prophet gave him the sign of Immanuel.

The king called in the aid of the king of Assyria, Tiglath- pileser, wlio gladly accepted such an opportunity, and relieved Ahaz of his foes. But the relief was purchased dearly. Judah could form no alliance with a great empire like Assyria ; it could only become tributary to it, even if the tribute was disguised under the name of a present. And tribute meant oppression of the poorer classes, which was already one of the most glaring of Jaiiah's sins.

Further, it was of vital importance that the nation should keep free from entangle- ment in the politics of large empires, since other- wise it lost its independence, and made even internal reform — which was the most pressing necessity —more difficult. The policy of A. illustrates the besetting weakness of the politicians of Judah, and was shortsighted and disastrous. If Isaiah's advice had been followed, A.

would have secured tlie same result without its disadvantages, since in her own interests Assyria would have been com- pelled to vanquish tne coalition, while Judah would have retained her independence. We next find A. at Damascus, where he rendered homage to Tiglath-pileser. While there he saw an altar which pleased him, and sent the pattern of it to the priest Urijah, ^^■ith instructions to build one like it.

On his return he offered on his new altar, and ordered it to be used for the sacri- tices, while the old brazen altar was used for the king to ' inq^uire by.' W. R. Smith has carefully discussed this innovation, and reached the result that it ' lay in the erection of a permanent alt-ar- hearth, and in the introduction of the rule that in ordinary cases this new altar should serve for the blood ritual aa well as for the fire ritual' {RS^ 48S-9).

The importance of this consists in the fact that the alteration seems to have been a {)ermanent one. For the other changes introduced ly A., see 2 K 16"-". In character A. was weak yet obstinate, frivolous nnd something of a dilettante, as we gather from his interest in his new altar, and from the associa- tion of his name with a dial or step-clock (see Dial). He was also superstitious, and probably a polytheist.

While no blame need attach— in the pre, Deuteronomic period — to his worship at numerous local sanctuaries, and while he was evidently a very zealous worshipper of J", yet the fact that he passed his son through the fire reveal;- the dark superstition to which he was a slave.

And the terrible picture of the condition of Judah, painted in Is 2-5 and other prophecies of this time, is clear as to the idolatry, drunkenness, luxury, oppression, perversion of justice, grasping avarice, and shamelessness that poisoned the national life. So far the account has been drawn entirely from 2 Kings and Isaiah, since they are our only trustworthy sources. In 2 Chron. the narrative has been thoroughly worked over.

The history of the Syro-Ephraimitish invasion is told quite differently. There is indeed no hint of a coalition, the two armies act independently. The Syrians carry away a large number of captives, and Pekah slays 120,000 in one day and carries away 200,000 captives, who, however, are sent back at the advice of a prophet. The invasions have no political motive assigned, they are a punishment for the king's sin, while the figures are altogether incredible.

Tiglath-pileser is called in, not to crush the coalition, but to help him against the Philistines and Edomites. He did not nelp him, however, but apparently came against him, and was bought off with tribute. The religious apos- tasy of A. comes out in much darker colours, ana the account is really in conflict with the older.

He bums his children, and not his son merely, in the fire ; closes the temple and destroys its vessels, though we know that he took great interest in its senices ; and worships the gods of Damascus because of the success of the Syrians in war, though when A. visited Damascus their power had been utterly broken.

Of all this the older history says nothing, and it is impossible to re- concile these later additions witn the earlier narrative, and they are so characteristic of the chronicler's method of re-writing history, that any attempt to do so would be superfluous. A. S. Peakk.