Amon was the king of Judah

Kingdom of Judah

The Kingdom of Judah was a Jewish state established in the Southern Levant during the Iron Age. It is often referred to as the "Southern Kingdom" to distinguish it from the northern Kingdom of Israel....

 who succeeded his father Manasseh of Judah

Manasseh of Judah

Manasseh was a king of the Kingdom of Judah. He was the only son of Hezekiah with Hephzi-bah. He became king at an age 12 years and reigned for 55 years. Edwin Thiele has concluded that he commenced his reign as co-regent with his father Hezekiah in 697/696 BC, with his sole reign beginning in...

 on the throne according to the Bible

Bible

The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...

. His mother was Meshullemeth, daughter of Haruz of Jotbah. He was married to Jedidah, the daughter of Adaiah of Bozkath

Bozkath

Bozkath is a town in the Kingdom of Judah mentioned in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. The town was located in the lowland hills of Judah, otherwise known as the Shephelah, and its location is presently unknown.-Ancient name:...

.

Amon began his reign at the age of 22, and reigned for two years. William F. Albright

William F. Albright

William Foxwell Albright was an American archaeologist, biblical scholar, philologist and expert on ceramics. From the early twentieth century until his death, he was the dean of biblical archaeologists and the universally acknowledged founder of the Biblical archaeology movement...

 has dated his reign to 642-640 BC, while E. R. Thiele offers the dates 643/642 – 641/640 BC.

Amon continued his father's practice of idolatry

Idolatry

Idolatry is a pejorative term for the worship of an idol, a physical object such as a cult image, as a god, or practices believed to verge on worship, such as giving undue honour and regard to created forms other than God. In all the Abrahamic religions idolatry is strongly forbidden, although...

, and set up the images as his father had done. (also , and 11) describes his reign as marked by moral depravity.

He was assassinated by his servants, who conspired against him, and was succeeded by his son Josiah

Josiah

Josiah or Yoshiyahu or Joshua was a king of Judah who instituted major reforms. Josiah is credited by most historians with having established or compiled important Jewish scriptures during the Deuteronomic reform that occurred during his rule.Josiah became king of Judah at the age of eight, after...

, who was eight years old.

At the end of Amon's reign, the international situation was in flux: to the east, the Assyria

Assyria

Assyria was a Semitic Akkadian kingdom, extant as a nation state from the mid–23rd century BC to 608 BC centred on the Upper Tigris river, in northern Mesopotamia , that came to rule regional empires a number of times through history. It was named for its original capital, the ancient city of Assur...

n Empire was beginning to disintegrate, the Babylon

Babylon

Babylon was an Akkadian city-state of ancient Mesopotamia, the remains of which are found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Province, Iraq, about 85 kilometers south of Baghdad...

ian Empire had not yet risen to replace it, and Egypt

Egypt

Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

 to the west was still recovering from Assyrian rule. In this power vacuum, Jerusalem was able to govern itself without foreign intervention.

He is also one of the kings mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus

Genealogy of Jesus

The genealogy of Jesus is described in two passages of the Gospels: Luke 3:23–38 and Matthew 1:1–17.* Matthew's genealogy commences with Abraham and then from King David's son Solomon follows the legal line of the kings through Jeconiah, the king whose descendants were cursed, to Joseph, legal...

 in the Gospel of Matthew

Matthew 1:10

Matthew 1:10 is the tenth verse of Matthew 1 of the Gospel of Matthew in the Bible. The verse is part of the section where the genealogy of Joseph, the father of Jesus, is listed....

.

Chronological notes

Thiele's dates for Amon are tied to the dates for his son Josiah, who reigned 31 years (2 Kings 22:1). Josiah's death at the hands of Pharaoh Necho II

Necho II

Necho II was a king of the Twenty-sixth dynasty of Egypt .Necho II is most likely the pharaoh mentioned in several books of the Bible . The Book of Kings states that Necho met King Josiah of the Kingdom of Judah at Megiddo and killed him...

 occurred in the summer of 609 BC. By Judean reckoning that began regnal years in the fall month of Tishri, this would be in the year 610/609 BC. Amon's last year, 31 years earlier, then calculates as 641/640 BC and his first year as 643/642 BC.