Det delade kungariketKingAncestor of Jesusc. 755–715 BC
Ahaz, known by the Hebrew name form Akas (Ahaz), was king over the kingdom of Judah and is listed in Matthew's genealogy as an ancestor in the messianic line from David to Jesus Christ. As son of King Jotham and father of the godly King Hezekiah, he reigned for sixteen years, from about 735 to 715 BC. Despite his place in the Davidic royal line, Ahaz stands out as one of Judah's most faithless kings. He introduced widespread idolatry, had his son pass through the fire as an offering to foreign gods, and altered the temple's sacred furnishings according to pagan patterns. During the Syro-Ephraimite war, when Aram and the northern kingdom of Israel threatened Jerusalem, he sought military support from Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser III rather than trusting in the Lord's promises delivered through the prophet Isaiah. It was in this tense situation that Isaiah proclaimed the famous sign of Immanuel. Ahaz's reign led Judah into political vassalage under Assyria and represented a profound spiritual decline. According to Chronicles, Judah also suffered serious military defeats as a result of the king's unfaithfulness. Nevertheless, God's faithfulness to the Davidic covenant was shown by the fact that the messianic line continued through his son Hezekiah, who carried out sweeping religious reforms and restored the worship of the Lord.
9Uzziah the father of Jotham, Jotham the father of Ahaz, Ahaz the father of Hezekiah,*
Översättning
Greek repeats the full formula in each clause: "and Uzziah begot Jotham, and Jotham begot Ahaz..." The rendering "the father of" replaces the archaic "begot" with everyday English, and the repeated verb is left unspoken after the first line of the genealogy, so that the reader's voice can carry the chain forward without stumbling. The connective δέ ("and, then") is likewise unvoiced; in a list like this it is a rhythm marker rather than a word with content. The royal names are given in their familiar English forms (Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah) rather than transliterated from Greek (Ozias, Ioatham, Achaz, Ezekias), so that hearers recognize the kings they know from the older Scriptures.
Språkligt
The verb ἐγέννησεν (aorist of γεννάω) is the standard male begetting term; used of a father it means "became the father of," and it does not by itself require immediate descent — it can span an omitted generation, which matters for this list. The names carry meaning in Hebrew: Uzziah, "the LORD is my strength"; Jotham, "the LORD is complete/perfect"; Ahaz, "he has grasped, held"; Hezekiah, "the LORD strengthens." Thus a chain of names confessing God's strength brackets the one king who trusted foreign strength instead.
Historiskt
These four are kings of Judah in the eighth century BC. Uzziah's long and prosperous reign ended with leprosy, so that Jotham governed alongside him; Ahaz abandoned trust in the LORD and bought Assyrian protection, even sacrificing at pagan altars; Hezekiah undertook a sweeping reform of the temple and survived the Assyrian siege of Jerusalem. This is precisely the era of Isaiah, Micah, Amos and Hosea, so the names here are the political backdrop of the prophetic books.
Textkritiskt
The name Ὀζίας in Greek corresponds to the Hebrew Uzziah, the king also called Azariah in some Old Testament records. Between Joram (v. 8) and Uzziah the Hebrew record places Ahaziah, Joash and Amaziah; the genealogy passes over them, most likely to keep the fourteen-generation pattern. The Greek manuscripts are essentially uniform for this verse; the only fluctuation is minor spelling of Ahaz (Ἀχάζ / Ἀχάς) and Hezekiah.
Teologiskt
The line runs through faithful reformers and through a notorious apostate alike. Ahaz stands in the direct ancestry of the Messiah, and it was to Ahaz that the sign of the virgin's son named "God with us" was first spoken — a promise this Gospel will apply to Jesus. The genealogy therefore preaches before it narrates: the promise advances not because the kings are worthy but because God keeps his word to David's house.
Ahaz became king of Judah at twenty years old and reigned for sixteen years in Jerusalem. Unlike his father Jotham and his ancestor David, he did not walk uprightly in the Lord's sight.
2Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. He did not do what was right in the eyes of the LORD his God, as his father David had done.
Ahaz followed the customs of the Canaanite peoples, sacrificed on the high places, and made his son pass through the fire – an abominable practice that the Lord had condemned.
2Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. He did not do what was right in the eyes of the LORD his God, as his father David had done.
3Instead he followed the ways of the kings of Israel. He even made his own son pass through the fire, following the detestable practices of the nations the LORD had driven out before the Israelites.
Aram's king Rezin and Israel's king Pekah formed a coalition against Judah and threatened Jerusalem. The prophet Isaiah met Ahaz with a message to hold fast to faith in the Lord amid the crisis.
6At that time Rezin king of Aram recovered Elath for Aram and drove the Judeans out of Elath. Then the Edomites came to Elath and have lived there to this day.
1In the days of Ahaz son of Jotham, son of Uzziah, king of Judah, Rezin king of Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel marched up against Jerusalem to make war on it, but they could not prevail against it.
2When word came to the house of David, "Aram has joined forces with Ephraim," the heart of the king and the heart of his people shook like the trees of the forest before the wind.
3Then the LORD said to Isaiah, "Go out to meet Ahaz, you and your son Shear-Jashub,* at the end of the aqueduct of the Upper Pool, on the road to the Launderer's Field,
4and say to him: Be careful, keep calm, and do not be afraid. Do not lose heart over these two smoldering stubs of firewood—over the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram and the son of Remaliah.
When Ahaz refused to ask the Lord for a sign, the prophet Isaiah still gave the sign of Immanuel: that a young woman would conceive and bear a son named Immanuel ('God with us'). This prophecy was understood in Christian tradition as fulfilled at Jesus' birth.
Instead of trusting in God, Ahaz sent word to Tiglath-Pileser III, king of Assyria, asking for military help. He sent silver and gold from the temple and the royal treasury as tribute, thereby making Judah a vassal state.
7So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria with this message: "I am your servant and your son. Come up and rescue me from the hand of the king of Aram and the hand of the king of Israel, who are attacking me."
During Ahaz's reign, Judah suffered serious military losses against several enemies, including Aram, the northern kingdom of Israel, the Philistines, and the Edomites. The Chronicler presents this as direct consequences of the king's unfaithfulness to the Lord.
5So the LORD his God handed him over to the king of Aram, who defeated him, took a great many of his people captive, and brought them to Damascus. He was also handed over to the king of Israel, who struck him a heavy blow.
6In a single day Pekah son of Remaliah killed a hundred and twenty thousand men in Judah, all of them seasoned soldiers, because they had abandoned the LORD, the God of their fathers.
7Zichri, a warrior of Ephraim, killed Maaseiah the king's son, Azrikam the officer in charge of the palace, and Elkanah, second in command to the king.
8The Israelites took two hundred thousand of their own kindred captive—women, sons, and daughters. They also carried off a great deal of plunder and brought it to Samaria.
18while the Philistines raided the towns of the foothills and the Negev of Judah. They captured Beth Shemesh, Aijalon, and Gederoth, as well as Soco, Timnah, and Gimzo with their surrounding villages, and settled there.
After seeing a pagan altar in Damascus, Ahaz had a similar altar built in the Lord's temple in Jerusalem and altered the temple's original furnishings to please the king of Assyria.
10Then King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria. When he saw the altar that was in Damascus, King Ahaz sent Uriah the priest a sketch of the altar and a detailed plan of its construction.
11So Uriah the priest built an altar according to all the instructions King Ahaz had sent from Damascus, and he finished it before King Ahaz returned from Damascus.
13He burned his whole offering and his grain offering, poured out his drink offering, and sprinkled the blood of his fellowship offerings on the altar.
14As for the bronze altar that stood before the LORD, he moved it from the front of the temple—from between the new altar and the house of the LORD—and set it on the north side of the new altar.
15Then King Ahaz gave this command to Uriah the priest: "On the great altar burn the morning whole offering and the evening grain offering, the king's whole offering and his grain offering, and the whole offering of all the people of the land, with their grain offerings and their drink offerings. Sprinkle on it all the blood of the whole offerings and all the blood of the sacrifices. But the bronze altar I will use for seeking guidance."
17King Ahaz cut off the side panels of the movable stands and removed the basin from each of them. He took the Sea down from the bronze oxen that supported it and set it on a stone base.
18He also removed from the house of the LORD the covered Sabbath walkway that had been built there, and the king's outer entryway—all because of the king of Assyria.
Ahaz died and was buried, but according to the Books of Chronicles he was not laid among the graves of Israel's kings. His son Hezekiah succeeded him and carried out extensive religious reforms.
27Ahaz rested with his fathers and was buried in the city of Jerusalem, but he was not brought to the tombs of the kings of Israel. And Hezekiah his son succeeded him as king.