Page:Light and truth.djvu/177

Rh, king of Judah, who was struck with a leprosy for offering to burn incense in the temple.

, a king of Judah, successor to Uzziah. He reigned 16 years, during the latter part of which, Rome was founded.

(2 Chron. xxviii. 1) was the son of Jotham, and at the age of twenty succeeded him as king of Judah. Ahaz gave himself up to gross idolatry, and even sacrificed his own children to the gods of the heathen. This course of wickedness brought upon him, and upon his kingdom, severe judgments. They suffered under a succession of disastrous wars, and their allies often proved unfaithful, and involved them in great distress. Ahaz, at last, abandoned himself to the most desperate iniquity, and the kingdom of Judah was brought low, and made waste, because of his great sin. Early in his reign [probably the second year,] the kings of Syria and Israel, who, just at the close of Jotham's reign and life, had confederated for the destruction of Judah, and actually invaded the kingdom with a powerful and victorious army, were about to lay siege to Jerusalem.

, a pious prince of Judah, who by prayer and intercession had his life prolonged, and as a sign of which the sun went back ten degrees. (2 Kings xx. 6, and 11.)

, an impious king of Judah, who upon the death of his father Hezekiah, rebuilt the altars of Baal, and re-established idolatry among the Jews. (2 Chron. xxxiii. 3.)

. (2 Kings xxi. 13 — 26.) The fourteenth king of Judah. He was killed in his palace by his own servants. (2 Kings xxi. 23.)

, (2 Kings xxi. 24,) the son and successor of Amon king of Judah, began to reign when he was but eight years of age, and was remarkable for his integrity and piety. He gradually abolished the idolatrous customs of his predecessors, and, in the eighteenth year of his reign, began a thorough repair of the temple. In the progress of this work, Hilkiah the high-priest, found a complete copy of the law of Moses; a rare treasure in those days of degeneracy and corruption, when God and his institutions were forsaken and