King Ahaz’ Response to Assyria’s Hegemony

Neo-Assyrian expansion in the ancient Near East commences its most aggressive phase under Tiglath-Pileser III (747–727 B.C.). His incursions into Syria and Palestine put on edge local kings such as Ahaz who ruled Judah. Syria’s King Rezin and the Northern Kingdom of Israel’s King Pekah seek to bring Judah into an alliance against Assyria’s domination of the Levant. Ahaz’ refusal leads to these kings’ military incursion into Judea and their slaughter of Ahaz’ people (2 Kings 16:5; 2 Chronicles 28:5–7). Isaiah notes Ahaz’ fear: “The king’s mind and the minds of his people were shaken, as trees in a forest are shaken by a gale” (Isaiah 7:2).

Instead of joining the northern kings’ alliance against Assyria, Ahaz appeals to Tiglath-Pileser to come and deliver him from them. By calling himself Tiglath-Pileser’s “servant and son,” paying him tribute moneys with the temple’s gold and silver, he makes himself his vassal (2 Kings 16:7–8). Isaiah’s version of these events in the second part of his Seven-Part Structure (Isaiah 6–8; 36–40) is limited to structurally contrasting Ahaz’ disloyal response to Israel’s God under the terms of the Davidic Covenant with King Hezekiah’s loyal response at a similar incidence of Assyrian aggression a generation later. To Isaiah, history serves a typological purpose.

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