Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign; he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. Unlike his father David, he did not do what was right in the eyes of the LORD his God — Ahaz's accession at twenty years, youthful but not unusually so, marks his entry into circumstances requiring mature judgment. The explicit negation—he "did not do what was right," unlike David—immediately establishes his fundamental unfaithfulness. The contrast with David (דָּוִד, *David*) invokes the Davidic covenant's expectations: the ideal king emulates David's devotion; Ahaz repudiates it. This explicit negation, placed before any substantive description of his acts, frames his reign theologically as apostasy from the beginning.

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