In the seventeenth year of Pekah the son of Remaliah, Ahaz the son of Jotham, king of Judah, began to reign.
We have here a general character of the reign of Ahaz. Few and evil were his days - few, for he died at thirty-six - evil, for we are here told, 1. That he did not that which was right like David (Kg2 16:2), that is, he had none of that concern and affection for the instituted service and worship of God for which David was celebrated.
Commenting on 2 Kings 16:1-4
In the seventeenth year of Pekah the son of Remaliah Ahaz the son of Jotham king of Judah began to reign. Jotham began to reign in the second of Pekah, and he reigned sixteen years, and therefore his last year would fall in the eighteenth of Pekah; but as his first year might be at the beginning of the second of Pekah, his last was...
In the seventeenth year of Pekah the son of Remaliah Ahaz the son of Jotham king of Judah began to reign. (a) This was a wicked son of a godly father, as of him again came godly Hezekiah, and of him wicked Manasseh, save that God in the end showed him mercy. Thus we see how uncertain it is to depend on the dignity of our fathers.