Ahaz Sends for Help from Assyria

^7 (A)So Ahaz sent messengers to ^(B)Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, saying, “I am your servant and your son; come up and save me from the ^[a]hand of the king of Aram and from the ^[b]hand of the king of Israel, who are rising up against me.”

Ahaz Has Urijah Build an Altar

¹⁰ Now King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet ^(A)Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria and saw the altar which was at Damascus; and King Ahaz sent to ^(B)Urijah the priest the likeness of the altar and its pattern, according to all its workmanship. ¹¹ So Urijah the priest built an altar; according to all that King Ahaz had sent from Damascus, thus Urijah the priest made it, ^[a]before the coming of King Ahaz from Damascus. ¹² So the king came from Damascus, and the king saw the altar; then ^(C)the king drew near the altar and ^[b]made offerings on it, ¹³ and offered his burnt offering and his meal offering up in smoke, and poured his drink offering and splashed the blood of his peace offerings on the altar. ^14 (D)Now as for the bronze altar, which was before Yahweh, ^[c]he drew it away from the front of the house, from between ^(E)his altar and the house of Yahweh, and he put it on the north side of his altar. ¹⁵ Then King Ahaz ^[d]commanded Urijah the priest, saying, “Upon the great altar offer up in smoke ^(F)the morning burnt offering and the evening grain offering and the king’s burnt offering and his grain offering, with the burnt offering of all the people of the land and their grain offering and their drink offerings; and splash on it all the blood of the burnt offering and all the blood of the sacrifice. But ^(G)the bronze altar shall be for me to inquire by.” ¹⁶ So Urijah the priest did according to all that King Ahaz commanded.

¹⁷ Then King Ahaz ^(H)cut off the borders of the stands and removed the laver from them; he also ^(I)took down the sea from the bronze oxen which were under it and put it on a pavement of stone. ¹⁸ And the covered way for the sabbath which they had built in the house, and the outer entry of the king, he removed from the house of Yahweh because of the king of Assyria.

Ahaz Sends to Assyria for Help

^16 (A)At that time King Ahaz sent to the ^[a]kings of Assyria for help.

²⁰ So ^(A)Tilgath-pilneser king of Assyria came against him and distressed him instead of strengthening him. ^21 (B)Although Ahaz took a portion out of the house of Yahweh and out of the house of the king and of the princes, and gave it to the king of Assyria, it did not help him.

²² Now in the time of his distress this same King Ahaz ^(C)became yet more unfaithful to Yahweh. ^23 (D)Indeed, he sacrificed to the gods of Damascus which had struck him, and said, “^(E)Because the gods of the kings of Aram helped them, I will sacrifice to them that they may help me.” But they became the stumbling of him and all Israel.

¹² She lusted after the ^[a](A)Assyrians, governors and officials, the ones near, magnificently dressed, horsemen riding on horses, all of them desirable choice men.