Lives of Scripture

Azrikam held the position of "ruler of the household" (also rendered governor of the palace) in the court of King Ahaz of Judah -- a senior royal steward overseeing the king's house. He is named only once, as a casualty in one of Judah's darkest military defeats. Because Ahaz "had made Judah act with abandon and had been very unfaithful to the LORD" (2 Chronicles 28:19), God allowed King Pekah of Israel to strike Judah severely, killing 120,000 in a single day (28:5-6). In that same catastrophe, an Ephraimite warrior named Zichri killed three men from Ahaz's inner court by name: Maaseiah, one of the king's own sons; Azrikam, the ruler of the household; and Elkanah, described as "the second to the king" (28:7). Israel's army went on to carry off 200,000 women and children as plunder before the intervention of the prophet Oded and the Ephraimite chiefs (among them Azariah, Berechiah, Jehizkiah, and Amasa) led to the captives being clothed, fed, and returned (28:9-15). Azrikam's brief, grim appearance -- named among the highest-ranking casualties of the disaster -- underscores how completely Ahaz's unfaithfulness cost his kingdom, reaching into his own household and taking even his son and closest officials.