And Uzziah the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah. Ahaz is the king whose reign Isaiah 7 addresses — the king who refused to ask for a sign and received the promise of Immanuel anyway (Isaiah 7:14). The child whose birth Isaiah announced in the time of Ahaz is the same Immanuel whose name Matthew will apply to Jesus in verse 23. The genealogy and the prophecy are already in conversation: Matthew is tracing the line that leads to the child who is God with us, threading through the very reign in which that promise was first given.

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