In the seventeenth year of Pekah son of Remaliah, King Ahaz son of Jotham of Judah began to reign — Ahaz's accession, synchronized with Pekah's seventeenth year (near the end of Pekah's reign), marks Judah's transition to a far more turbulent period. Ahaz (אָחָז, *Achaz*) inherits the Syro-Ephraimite threat that emerged toward the end of Jotham's reign, a coalition of Rezin of Aram and Pekah of Israel that now directly confronts him. His accession at this critical juncture, coupled with the next verse's indication of youth, suggests he assumed the throne unprepared for the diplomatic and military crises that would define his reign. The synchronism with Pekah's seventeenth year places Ahaz among Israel's final kings.

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