ACHAZ (Hebrew: “He [God] holds”). — King of Judah for 16 years, probably from 743 to 728, or from 741 to 726. Son of Joatham, he succeeded him at the age of 25.
Since A. had not adhered to the anti-Assyrian alliance, the allied kings waged war against him to depose him. From the west, the Philistines invaded the neighboring Judean cities, while from the north Pekah, king of Israel, pursued the routed Judeans, killing 20,000 of them, and Rezin (Razon), king of Damascus, having occupied the port of Elath, advanced northward, laying siege to Jerusalem, eager to install as king the “son of Tabeel,” his sympathizer. Isaiah, serene, while all trembled like leaves in the wind (Is. 7:2), urged a trusting wait, assuring that he could confirm, even by a miracle, that the Lord was ready to intervene in favor of His people. But since A. refused to ask for the confirming miracle, the prophet foretold the future birth of the Emmanuel. A. first sought to secure, through sacrifices and prayers, the aid and favor of the enemy deities, sacrificing his own son to Moloch and offering victims to the gods of Damascus (2 Chron. 28:23), then turned to Tiglath-Pileser III (autumn 733) through an embassy that, with the request for help, brought all the gold and silver of the royal palace and the Temple. The Assyrian king, having captured Damascus (732 B.C.), received the homage of the vassal kings, including that of A. (Iamhazi, in the Assyrian text), who, to pay the tribute, had to strip the Temple even of its precious furnishings.
A. introduced polytheism into the kingdom, favoring the cult of the high places (bamoth, q.V. BRAHMÃ) and imitating that of the patron deity of Nineveh. Removing the altar of burnt offerings, he had one built on the model of the Assyrian one he had seen in Damascus, on which he first offered sacrifices. Finally, he dared to close the Temple, setting up altars “in all the corners of Jerusalem” (2 Chron. 28:24). The impious king, at his death, was not buried in the royal tombs.
2 Kings 16:1–30; 2 Chron. 28:1–27.