16 In the seventeenth year of Pekah the son of Remaliah, Ahaz the son of Jotham king of Judah began to reign. ² Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. He didn’t do that which was right in Yahweh his God’s eyes, like David his father. ³ But he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, yes, and made his son to pass through the fire, according to the abominations of the nations whom Yahweh cast out from before the children of Israel. ⁴ He sacrificed and burned incense in the high places, on the hills, and under every green tree. ⁵ Then Rezin king of Syria and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel came up to Jerusalem to wage war. They besieged Ahaz, but could not overcome him. ⁶ At that time Rezin king of Syria recovered Elath to Syria, and drove the Jews from Elath; and the Syrians came to Elath, and lived there, to this day. ⁷ So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath Pileser king of Assyria, saying, “I am your servant and your son. Come up and save me out of the hand of the king of Syria, and out of the hand of the king of Israel, who rise up against me.” ⁸ Ahaz took the silver and gold that was found in Yahweh’s house, and in the treasures of the king’s house, and sent it for a present to the king of Assyria. ⁹ The king of Assyria listened to him; and the king of Assyria went up against Damascus, and took it, and carried its people captive to Kir, and killed Rezin. ¹⁰ King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath Pileser king of Assyria, and saw the altar that was at Damascus; and king Ahaz sent to Urijah the priest a drawing of the altar and plans to build it. ¹¹ Urijah the priest built an altar. According to all that king Ahaz had sent from Damascus, so Urijah the priest made it for the coming of king Ahaz from Damascus. ¹² When the king had come from Damascus, the king saw the altar; and the king came near to the altar, and offered on it. ¹³ He burned his burnt offering and his meal offering, poured his drink offering, and sprinkled the blood of his peace offerings on the altar. ¹⁴ The bronze altar, which was before Yahweh, he brought from the front of the house, from between his altar and Yahweh’s house, and put it on the north side of his altar. ¹⁵ King Ahaz commanded Urijah the priest, saying, “On the great altar burn the morning burnt offering, the evening meal offering, the king’s burnt offering, his meal offering, with the burnt offering of all the people of the land, their meal offering, and their drink offerings; and sprinkle on it all the blood of the burnt offering, and all the blood of the sacrifice; but the bronze altar will be for me to inquire by.” ¹⁶ Urijah the priest did so, according to all that king Ahaz commanded. ¹⁷ King Ahaz cut off the panels of the bases, and removed the basin from off them, and took down the sea from off the bronze oxen that were under it, and put it on a pavement of stone. ¹⁸ He removed the covered way for the Sabbath that they had built in the house, and the king’s entry outside to Yahweh’s house, because of the king of Assyria. ¹⁹ Now the rest of the acts of Ahaz which he did, aren’t they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? ²⁰ Ahaz slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in David’s city, and Hezekiah his son reigned in his place.

1 Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, to the assembly of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

² We always give thanks to God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers, ³ remembering without ceasing your work of faith and labor of love and perseverance of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, before our God and Father. ⁴ We know, brothers^[a] loved by God, that you are chosen, ⁵ and that our Good News came to you not in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit, and with much assurance. You know what kind of men we showed ourselves to be among you for your sake. ⁶ You became imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Spirit, ⁷ so that you became an example to all who believe in Macedonia and in Achaia. ⁸ For from you the word of the Lord has been declared, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith toward God has gone out, so that we need not to say anything. ⁹ For they themselves report concerning us what kind of a reception we had from you, and how you turned to God from idols, to serve a living and true God, ¹⁰ and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead: Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come.

2 For you yourselves know, brothers, our visit to you wasn’t in vain, ² but having suffered before and been shamefully treated, as you know, at Philippi, we grew bold in our God to tell you the Good News of God in much conflict. ³ For our exhortation is not of error, nor of uncleanness, nor in deception. ⁴ But even as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the Good News, so we speak: not as pleasing men, but God, who tests our hearts. ⁵ For neither were we at any time found using words of flattery, as you know, nor a cloak of covetousness (God is witness), ⁶ nor seeking glory from men (neither from you nor from others), when we might have claimed authority as apostles of Christ. ⁷ But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother cherishes her own children.

⁸ Even so, affectionately longing for you, we were well pleased to impart to you, not the Good News of God only, but also our own souls, because you had become very dear to us. ⁹ For you remember, brothers, our labor and travail; for working night and day, that we might not burden any of you, we preached to you the Good News of God. ¹⁰ You are witnesses with God how holy, righteously, and blamelessly we behaved ourselves toward you who believe. ¹¹ As you know, we exhorted, comforted, and implored every one of you, as a father does his own children, ¹² to the end that you should walk worthily of God, who calls you into his own Kingdom and glory. ¹³ For this cause we also thank God without ceasing, that when you received from us the word of the message of God, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also works in you who believe. ¹⁴ For you, brothers, became imitators of the assemblies of God which are in Judea in Christ Jesus; for you also suffered the same things from your own countrymen, even as they did from the Jews ¹⁵ who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and drove us out, and don’t please God, and are contrary to all men, ¹⁶ forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they may be saved, to fill up their sins always. But wrath has come on them to the uttermost.

¹⁷ But we, brothers, being bereaved of you for a short season, in presence, not in heart, tried even harder to see your face with great desire, ¹⁸ because we wanted to come to you—indeed, I, Paul, once and again—but Satan hindered us. ¹⁹ For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Isn’t it even you, before our Lord Jesus^[b] at his coming? ²⁰ For you are our glory and our joy.