Lives of Scripture

Rezin ruled as king of Aram (Syria) from Damascus during the reign of Ahaz in Judah. He allied with Pekah, king of Israel, and together they marched against Jerusalem, intending to depose Ahaz and install a puppet king who would join their coalition against the rising Assyrian Empire (2 Kings 16:5; Isaiah 7:1-6). Though they besieged Jerusalem, they could not take it. Rezin also recaptured the port of Elath for Aram, driving out the Jews there (2 Kings 16:6). Terrified, Ahaz refused Isaiah's call to trust the LORD rather than foreign powers, and God gave the famous sign that a virgin would conceive and bear Immanuel before Rezin's and Pekah's threat had passed (Isaiah 7:10-16). Instead of trusting God, Ahaz stripped the temple treasury to buy Assyrian help. Tiglath-pileser III answered by attacking Damascus, capturing it, deporting its people, and killing Rezin (2 Kings 16:9). Isaiah later names Rezin's fall alongside Israel's as proof that the LORD's hand remains stretched out in judgment against those who oppose His people (Isaiah 9:11-12). Rezin's brief, violent career supplies the historical crisis behind one of Scripture's most quoted Messianic prophecies, even though he never intended any such thing.