⁶ In one day Pekah^(A) son of Remaliah killed a hundred and twenty thousand soldiers in Judah^(B)—because Judah had forsaken the Lord, the God of their ancestors.

¹⁹ The Lord had humbled Judah because of Ahaz king of Israel,^[a] for he had promoted wickedness in Judah and had been most unfaithful^(A) to the Lord. ²⁰ Tiglath-Pileser^[b](B) king of Assyria^(C) came to him, but he gave him trouble^(D) instead of help.^{(E) 21} Ahaz^(F) took some of the things from the temple of the Lord and from the royal palace and from the officials and presented them to the king of Assyria, but that did not help him.^(G)

²² In his time of trouble King Ahaz became even more unfaithful^(H) to the Lord. ²³ He offered sacrifices to the gods^(I) of Damascus, who had defeated him; for he thought, “Since the gods of the kings of Aram have helped them, I will sacrifice to them so they will help me.”^(J) But they were his downfall and the downfall of all Israel.^(K)

²⁴ Ahaz gathered together the furnishings^(L) from the temple of God^(M) and cut them in pieces. He shut the doors^(N) of the Lord’s temple and set up altars^(O) at every street corner in Jerusalem. ²⁵ In every town in Judah he built high places to burn sacrifices to other gods and aroused the anger of the Lord, the God of his ancestors.