WHO IS AHAZ?

Ahaz was king of Judah 732-716. He was considered to be an evil king

Ahaz was

• The son of Jotham 748-732 - a good king
and
• The grandson of Uzziah (also known as Azariah) 767-740 BC (basically a good king)

Ahaz was king of Judah until about 6 years before the Assyrians conqured the northern kingdom of Israel. The king of Israel who reigned during this time was Pekah, who reigned in Israel during the reign of Jotham and Ahaz.

During the reign of Ahaz, king of Judah. The Assyrians had already begun conquering the lands to the north and east of Judah.

Rezin was the king who ruled over Damascus. He formed a coalition with Pekah, king of Israel, to stand against the Assyrians. They wanted Judah to join with them, but Ahaz refused. As a result, they sought to force Ahaz to join them by beseiging Jerusalem. But they were not able to conquer it or force Ahaz to help them against the Assyrians.

God promissed Ahaz, through the prophet Isaiah that Rezin and Pekah would both be destroyed:

In the second year he [Tiglath-Pileser III of Assyria] devastated the land of Aram and the Arabs living in the Trans-Jordan under Queen Shamsi. Although he beat the Arameans in the field, he failed to take Damascus. In the third year he managed to take Damascus, where he slew King Rezin. He also destroyed and leveled the villages in Northern Israel. He boasted of slaying King Pekah, and he installed Hoshea on the throne. Only the fortified capital of Samaria remained, and the entire land was brought low. Archaeology confirms[citation needed] that many cities destroyed during this time period were never rebuilt. {Wikipedia, Article entitled "Rezin" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rezin)

After the Assyrians conquered the northern kingdom of Israel, Ahaz yeilded himself to the Assyrians:

Ahaz yielded readily to the glamour and prestige of the Assyrians in religion as well as in politics. In 732, he went to Damascus to swear homage to Tiglath-Pileser and his gods; and, taking a fancy to an altar which he saw there, he had one like it made in Jerusalem, which, with a corresponding change in ritual, he made a permanent feature of the Temple worship. Changes were also made in the arrangements and furniture of the Temple, "because of the king of Assyria" (2 Kings 16:18). Furthermore, Ahaz fitted up an astrological observatory with accompanying sacrifices, after the fashion of the ruling people. In other ways Ahaz lowered the character of the national worship.

2 Kings 16:3 records that Ahaz offered his son by fire to Moloch (or made his son pass through fire), a practice condemned by Leviticus 18:21.[8] The words may refer to a ceremony of purification or a sacrificial offering.[9] The account in 2 Chronicles 28:3 refers to sons (plural).

His government is considered by the Deuteronomistic historian as having been disastrous for the religious state of the country, and a large part of the reforming work of his son Hezekiah was aimed at undoing the evil that Ahaz had done.[8]

Succession He died at the age of 36 and was succeeded by his son, Hezekiah. Because of his wickedness he was "not brought into the sepulchre of the kings" (2 Chronicles 28:27). An insight into Ahaz's neglect of the worship of the Lord is found in the statement that on the first day of the month of Nisan that followed Ahaz's death, his son Hezekiah commissioned the priests and Levites to open and repair the doors of the Temple and to remove the defilements of the sanctuary, a task which took 16 days.[10]
(Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahaz)