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Ahaz Reigns over Judah

16 In the seventeenth year of Pekah the son of Remaliah, (A)Ahaz the son of Jotham, king of Judah, became king. (B)Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem; and he did not do what was right in the sight of Yahweh his God, as David his father had done. But he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, (C)and even made his son pass through the fire, (D)according to the abominations of the nations whom Yahweh had dispossessed from before the sons of Israel. He also (E)sacrificed and burned incense on the high places and on the hills and under every green tree.

Then (F)Rezin king of Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to wage war; and they besieged Ahaz, (G)but could not [a]overcome him. At that time Rezin king of Aram restored (H)Elath for Aram and cleared the Judeans out of [b]Elath entirely; and the [c]Arameans came to Elath and have lived there to this day.

Ahaz Sends for Help from Assyria

(I)So Ahaz sent messengers to (J)Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, saying, “I am your servant and your son; come up and save me from the [d]hand of the king of Aram and from the [e]hand of the king of Israel, who are rising up against me.” (K)Ahaz also took the silver and gold that was found in the house of Yahweh and in the treasuries of the king’s house, and sent a gift to the king of Assyria. (L)So the king of Assyria listened to him; and the king of Assyria went up against Damascus and (M)seized it and took the people of it away into exile to (N)Kir, and put Rezin to death.

Ahaz Has Urijah Build an Altar

10 Now King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet (O)Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria and saw the altar which was at Damascus; and King Ahaz sent to (P)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, [f]before the coming of King Ahaz from Damascus. 12 So the king came from Damascus, and the king saw the altar; then (Q)the king drew near the altar and [g]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 (R)Now as for the bronze altar, which was before Yahweh, [h]he drew it away from the front of the house, from between (S)his altar and the house of Yahweh, and he put it on the north side of his altar. 15 Then King Ahaz [i]commanded Urijah the priest, saying, “Upon the great altar offer up in smoke (T)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 (U)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 (V)cut off the borders of the stands and removed the laver from them; he also (W)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.

Hezekiah Reigns over Judah

19 Now the rest of the acts of Ahaz which he did, are they not written (X)in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? 20 So (Y)Ahaz slept with his fathers and (Z)was buried with his fathers in the city of David; and Hezekiah his son became king in his place.

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Footnotes

  1. 2 Kings 16:5 Lit fight
  2. 2 Kings 16:6 Heb Eloth
  3. 2 Kings 16:6 As in some ancient versions; Heb Edomites
  4. 2 Kings 16:7 Lit palm
  5. 2 Kings 16:7 Lit palm
  6. 2 Kings 16:11 Lit until
  7. 2 Kings 16:12 Or went up on it
  8. 2 Kings 16:14 Lit he also
  9. 2 Kings 16:15 Lit commanded him, Urijah

Ahaz rules Judah

16 Ahaz, Jotham’s son, became king of Judah in the seventeenth year of Pekah, Remaliah’s son. Ahaz was 20 years old when he became king, and he ruled for sixteen years in Jerusalem. He didn’t do what was right in the Lord’s eyes, unlike his ancestor David. Instead, he walked in the ways of Israel’s kings. He even burned his own son alive, imitating the detestable practices of the nations that the Lord had driven out before the Israelites. He also sacrificed and burned incense at the shrines on every hill and beneath every shady tree. Then Aram’s King Rezin and Israel’s King Pekah, Remaliah’s son, came up to Jerusalem to fight. They surrounded Ahaz, but they weren’t able to defeat him. At that time Aram’s King Rezin recovered Elath for the Arameans, driving the Judeans out of Elath. The Edomites[a] came to Elath and settled there, and that’s still the case now.

Ahaz sent messengers to Assyria’s King Tiglath-pileser, saying, “I’m your servant and your son. Come up and save me from the power of the kings of Aram and Israel. Both of them are attacking me!” And Ahaz took the silver and the gold that was in the Lord’s temple and in the palace treasuries, and sent a gift to Assyria’s king. The Assyrian king heard the request and marched against Damascus. He captured it and sent its citizens into exile to Kir. He also killed Rezin.

10 Then King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet up with Assyria’s King Tiglath-pileser. King Ahaz noticed the altar that was in Damascus, and he sent the altar’s plan and details for its construction to the priest Uriah. 11 Uriah built the altar, following the plans that King Ahaz had sent from Damascus; he had it finished before King Ahaz returned from Damascus.

12 When the king arrived from Damascus, he inspected the altar. He came close to it, then went up on it, 13 burning his entirely burned offering and grain offering, pouring out his drink offering, and sprinkling the blood of his well-being sacrifices on the altar. 14 As for the bronze altar that used to stand before the Lord, Ahaz moved it away from the front of the temple where it had stood between the main altar and the Lord’s temple. He put it on the north side of the new altar. 15 Then King Ahaz ordered the priest Uriah, saying, “Burn the following sacrifices on the main altar:

in the morning, the entirely burned offering;

in the evening, the grain offering;

the king’s entirely burned offering and his grain offering;

the entirely burned offering for all the people of the land, their grain offering, and their drink offerings.

“Sprinkle all the blood of the entirely burned offerings and all the blood of the sacrifices on it. I will use the bronze altar for seeking guidance.”[b] 16 Uriah the priest did everything that King Ahaz commanded. 17 King Ahaz cut off the side panels from the stands and removed the basins from them. He took the Sea down from the bronze bulls that were under it and put it on a stone pavement. 18 He also took away the sabbath canopy that had been built in the temple. He removed the royal entrance outside the Lord’s temple. This was done because of the Assyrian king.

19 The rest of Ahaz’s deeds, aren’t they written in the official records of Judah’s kings? 20 Ahaz died and was buried with his ancestors in David’s City. His son Hezekiah succeeded him as king.

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Footnotes

  1. 2 Kings 16:6 Qere; Kethib Arameans
  2. 2 Kings 16:15 Heb uncertain