Ahaz, son of Jotham and grandson of Uzziah, was king of Judah, reigning from about 735 to 715 BC. He appears in the Nephite record only within the Isaiah chapters quoted by Nephi, where he is the king Isaiah confronts during the threat from Syria and Israel.
In Ahaz’s day Rezin, king of Syria, and Pekah son of Remaliah, king of Israel (Ephraim), marched against Jerusalem but could not take it (2 Nephi 17:1). When word came that Syria was allied with Ephraim, the king and his people were shaken. The Lord sent Isaiah, with his son Shearjashub, to meet Ahaz and tell him to take heed, be quiet, and not fear the two kings, for their plan to set the son of Tabeal on Judah’s throne would not stand (2 Nephi 17:3-4).
Isaiah told Ahaz to ask a sign of the Lord, either in the depths or the heights, but Ahaz refused, saying he would not tempt the Lord (2 Nephi 17:11-12). The Lord then gave the sign unprompted: a virgin would conceive and bear a son named Immanuel (2 Nephi 17:14).
The biblical record of Ahaz, outside the verses quoted in the Nephite text, charges him with idolatry, sacrificing his own son, and altering temple worship after foreign practice (2 Kings 16; 2 Chronicles 28). Isaiah’s later oracle against Palestina is dated to the year Ahaz died (2 Nephi 24:28).