During Isaiah’s prophetic service to Judah, especially in the days of King Ahaz, the kingdom was in a deplorable moral state. It was full of revolt on the part of both princes and people, and in Jehovah’s eyes the nation was sick in the heart and in the head. The rulers were called “dictators of Sodom” and the people likened to “people of Gomorrah.” (Isa 1:2-10) Isaiah was told in advance that their ears would be unresponsive. Jehovah said that this situation would continue until the nation would come to ruin and that only “a tenth,” “a holy seed,” would be left like the stump of a massive tree. Isaiah’s prophetic work must have comforted and strengthened the faith of that small number, even though the rest of the nation refused to take heed.​—Isa 6:1-13.

Historical Background. Isaiah 1:1 informs us that Isaiah visioned these things in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. This was a period of severe international tension and one in which false religious attitudes had a profound effect on the people of Judah. Near the beginning of Isaiah’s career King Uzziah died a leper because of his presumptuousness in taking over priestly duties. (2Ch 26:16, 19-21) It is reported that during the reign of Uzziah’s son Jotham, while the king did what was right, “the people were yet acting ruinously.”​—2Ch 27:2; 2Ki 15:34.

Next came King Ahaz, who for 16 years set a bad example for the nation, carrying on Baal worship with its rites of human sacrifice. There was “great unfaithfulness toward Jehovah.” (2Ch 28:1-4, 19) It was at this time that the allied kings of Syria and Israel besieged Jerusalem so that Ahaz, ignoring the counsel of Isaiah the prophet, sent to Tiglath-pileser III, the king of Assyria, for military assistance. (2Ki 16:5-8; Isa 7:1-12) By this Ahaz ‘made flesh his arm, his heart turning away from Jehovah.’ (Jer 17:5) Assyria agreed to an alliance, but, of course, was interested mainly in expanding its own power. The Assyrian army captured Damascus of Syria and apparently took into exile those inhabitants of religiously apostate Israel that lived E of the Jordan.​—1Ch 5:26.

Later, when Samaria failed to pay tribute, it too was besieged and its inhabitants were deported. (2Ki 16:9; 17:4-6; 18:9-12) This ended the ten-tribe kingdom and left Judah surrounded on all sides by Gentile nations. Later Assyrian rulers kept up military operations in the W, assaulting cities of Judah and of surrounding nations. Sennacherib even demanded the capitulation of Jerusalem itself. But under the kingship of Hezekiah the situation there had changed. Hezekiah trusted in Jehovah, and Jehovah proved to be with him.​—2Ki 18:5-7; Isa chaps 36, 37.