king of Judah, the son of Jotham; remarkable for his vices and impieties. One of his sons he consecrated, by making him pass through and perish by the fire, in honour of the false god Moloch; and he offered sacrifices and incense upon the high places, upon hills, and in groves. Rezin king of Syria and Pekah king of Israel invaded Judah in the beginning of the reign of Ahaz; and having defeated his army and pillaged the country, they laid siege to Jerusalem. When they found that they could not make themselves masters of that city, they divided their army, plundered the country, and made the inhabitants prisoners of war. Rezin and his part of the confederate army marched with all the spoil to Damascus; but Pekah, with his division of the army having attacked Ahaz, killed 120,000 men of his army in one battle, and carried away men, women, and children, without distinction, to the number of 200,000. But as they were carrying those captives to Samaria, the prophet Oded, with the principal inhabitants of the city, came out to meet meet them; and their remonstrances prevailed with them to set their prisoners at liberty. At the same time, the Philistines and Edomites invaded other parts of his land, killed multitudes of the people, and carried off much booty. In this distressed condition, Ahaz finding no other remedy for his affairs, sent ambassadors to Tiglath-pileser king of the Assyrians; and to engage him to his interest, he stripped the temple and city of all the gold which he could meet with, and sent it as a present. Accordingly Tiglath-pileser marched to the assistance of Ahaz, attacked Rezin and killed him, took his capital Damascus, destroyed it, and removed the inhabitants thereof to Cyrene.

The misfortunes of this prince had no influence to make him better; on the contrary, in the times of his greatest affliction, he sacrificed to the Syrian deities, whom he looked upon as the authors of his calamities, and endeavoured to render propitious to him, by honouring them in this manner. He broke in pieces the vessels of the house of God, shut up the gates of the temple, and erected altars in all parts of Jerusalem. He set up altars likewise in all the cities of Judah, with a design to offer incense on them. At length he died, and was buried in Jerusalem, but not in the sepulchres of the kings of Judah his predecessors: which honour he was deprived of on account of his iniquitous course of life. Hezekiah his son succeeded him in the year of the world 3287, before Jesus Christ 726.