Chronological
Ahaz of Judah
28 Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king, and he ruled in Jerusalem for sixteen years. He did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord as his father David had done. 2 Instead, he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel. He even made cast images for the Baals 3 and sent up sacrifices in smoke in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom. He burned his sons in the fire, in keeping with the disgusting practices of the nations whom the Lord had driven out before the people of Israel. 4 He also sacrificed and burned incense on the high places, on the hills, and under every leafy tree.
5 So the Lord his God gave him into the hand of the king of Aram. The Arameans defeated him and captured a great number of prisoners, who were taken to Damascus. Ahaz was also given into the hand of the king of Israel, who dealt him a heavy blow.
6 In one day, Pekah son of Remaliah killed one hundred twenty thousand men in Judah, all of them strong warriors, because they had forsaken the Lord, the God of their fathers. 7 Zikri, a strong warrior from Ephraim, killed the king’s son Ma’aseiah, as well as Azrikam chief officer of the palace, and Elkanah second in command to the king.
8 The men from Israel took two hundred thousand of their fellow Israelites captive, including wives, sons, and daughters. They also seized a large amount of plunder from them and took it to Samaria.
9 There was a prophet of the Lord there, whose name was Oded. He went out to meet the army that came to Samaria and said to them, “Look! Because the Lord, the God of your fathers, was angry against Judah, he gave them into your hand. You have killed them in a rage that reaches up to heaven. 10 Now you intend to subjugate the people of Judah and Jerusalem as male and female slaves for yourselves. Do you not have enough guilt of your own against the Lord your God? 11 Now hear me. Send back the captives whom you have taken from your brothers, because the fierce anger of the Lord is upon you.”
12 Some of the leaders of Ephraim, Azariah son of Johanan, Berekiah son of Meshillemoth, Jehizkiah son of Shallum, and Amasa son of Hadlai, took a stand against those returning from the battle. 13 They said to them, “You must not bring the captives here, because it would make us guilty before the Lord. You are proposing to increase our sins and our guilt, because great guilt rests upon us and fierce anger burns against Israel.”
14 So the armed men left the captives and the plunder in front of the officials and the whole assembly. 15 The men who had been designated by name got up and took custody of the captives. From the spoils they provided clothing for all those who were naked. They clothed them and provided them with sandals, with food and drink, and with salve for their wounds. They transported all those who were weak on donkeys. They brought them to Jericho, the City of Palms, to their fellow Israelites. Then they returned to Samaria.
16 At that time King Ahaz sent a request for help to the kings of Assyria. 17 Once again the Edomites came and defeated Judah and carried away captives.
18 The Philistines also made raids on the cities in the Shephelah and the Negev of Judah. They captured Beth Shemesh, Aijalon, Gederoth, Soko with its villages, Timnah with its villages, and Gimzo with its villages, and they settled there.
19 The Lord brought Judah low, because Ahaz king of Israel[a] had led Judah to throw off all restraint. He had been very unfaithful to the Lord.
20 When Tiglath Pileser[b] king of Assyria came, he marched against Ahaz and oppressed him instead of strengthening him. 21 Ahaz took some things from the House of the Lord, from the palace of the king, and from the officials, and he gave them to the king of Assyria, but it did not help him.
22 In the time of his distress King Ahaz became even more unfaithful to the Lord. That was the way he was. 23 He sacrificed to the gods of Damascus that had defeated him. He said, “Because the gods of the kings of Aram helped them, I will sacrifice to them so that they may help me.” But they were his ruin and the ruin of all Israel.
24 Ahaz gathered the articles from the House of God and cut all these things from the House of God to pieces. He shut the doors of the House of the Lord and made altars for himself in every corner of Jerusalem. 25 In each and every city throughout Judah, he made high places to burn incense to other gods. He provoked the Lord, the God of his fathers, to anger.
26 As for the rest of his acts and all his ways, from first to last, you can find them written in the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel.
27 Ahaz rested with his fathers and was buried in the city of Jerusalem. They did not bury him in the tombs of the kings of Israel. His son Hezekiah ruled as king in his place.
Ahaz Son of Jotham, King of Judah
16 In the seventeenth year of Pekah son of Remaliah, Ahaz son of Jotham, king of Judah, became king. 2 Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king, and he ruled in Jerusalem for sixteen years. He did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord his God, as his father David had done. 3 He walked in the ways of the kings of Israel. He even made his son pass through the fire, according to the shameful practices of the nations which the Lord had driven out before the people of Israel. 4 He offered sacrifices and burned incense on the high places, on the hills, and under every leafy tree.
5 Then Rezin king of Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah, the king of Israel, came up to Jerusalem for war. They laid siege to Ahaz, but they could not defeat him. 6 At that time, Rezin king of Aram recovered Elat for Edom,[a] and he drove the people of Judah away from Elat. Then Edomites[b] came to Elat, and they have 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 and save me from the hand of the king of Aram and from the hand of the king of Israel, who have come up against me.” 8 Then Ahaz took the silver and the gold which were found in the House of the Lord and in the treasuries of the king’s palace, and he sent them to the king of Assyria as tribute. 9 So the king of Assyria listened to him and attacked Damascus. He exiled the inhabitants to Kir. He also killed Rezin.
The Altar of Ahaz
10 King Ahaz went to meet Tiglath Pileser king of Assyria in Damascus. He saw the altar which was in Damascus, and King Ahaz sent a model of the altar and instructions for making one like it to Uriah the priest. 11 So Uriah the priest built this altar. Uriah the priest did just as King Ahaz had instructed him from Damascus before King Ahaz returned from Damascus. 12 When the king returned from Damascus, he saw the altar. He approached it and ascended it. 13 He offered whole burnt offerings and grain offerings. He poured out drink offerings, and he sprinkled the blood of his fellowship offerings on the altar.
14 He moved the bronze altar, which had been in the presence of the Lord, away from its location in front of the temple building, from between his altar and the Lord’s house, and he put it on the north side of his altar.
15 Then King Ahaz commanded Uriah the priest, “Present the morning burnt offering, the evening grain offering, the king’s burnt offering, his grain offering, and all the people’s burnt offerings, grain offerings, and drink offerings on the great altar. Sprinkle all the blood of the burnt offering and all the blood of the sacrifices on it. But the bronze altar will be mine for divination.” 16 So Uriah the priest did everything just as King Ahaz commanded.
17 Then King Ahaz cut off the side panels of the carts, and he removed the basins that were on them. He took the sea down from its position on the bronze cattle that were under it and put it on a stone pavement. 18 In deference to the king of Assyria, he also removed the Sabbath canopy that had been built for the house[c] and removed the king’s entrance on the outside of the Lord’s house.
19 As for the rest of the acts of Ahaz, the things he did, are they not written in the annals of the kings of Judah? 20 Ahaz rested with his fathers, and he was buried with his fathers in the City of David. Then his son Hezekiah became king in his place.
Hoshea Son of Elah, the Last King of Israel
17 In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah, Hoshea son of Elah became king over Israel in Samaria and ruled for nine years. 2 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, but not like the kings of Israel who came before him.
3 Shalmaneser king of Assyria went up against him, and Hoshea became his vassal and paid tribute to him. 4 But the king of Assyria caught Hoshea in a conspiracy. He had sent messengers to So[d] king of Egypt, and he did not send tribute to the king of Assyria as he had done in previous years. That is why the king of Assyria arrested him and confined him in prison.
5 Then the king of Assyria invaded the whole land. He went up against Samaria and laid siege to it for three years. 6 In Hoshea’s ninth year, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and exiled Israel to Assyria. He made them live in Halah and along the Habur River, which is the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.[e]
7 This happened because the people of Israel sinned against the Lord their God, who had brought them up from the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and they feared other gods. 8 They walked in the practices of the nations, whom the Lord had driven out before the people of Israel, and the practices which the kings of Israel had introduced. 9 The people of Israel did secret things against the Lord their God, which were not right. They also built high places for themselves in all their cities, from watchtower to fortified city. 10 They set up sacred memorial stones and Asherah poles for themselves upon every high hill and under every leafy tree. 11 They offered sacrifices at all the high places, like the nations that God drove out before them. They did evil things, provoking the Lord to anger. 12 They served filthy idols even though the Lord had said to them, “You must not do this.”
13 The Lord had warned Israel and Judah through all his prophets and seers, saying, “Turn back from your evil ways and keep my commands and my regulations, according to the entire law which I commanded your fathers and which I sent to you through my servants the prophets.” 14 But they did not listen. They made their necks just as stiff as their fathers, who did not trust in the Lord their God.
15 They rejected his regulations and the covenant which he made with their fathers and the testimony with which he warned them. They followed useless idols, and they became useless themselves. They followed the other nations around them, about whom the Lord had commanded them, “Do not do as they do.” 16 They deserted all the commands of the Lord their God, and they made for themselves cast metal images, two calves. They made Asherah poles, and they bowed down to the whole army of the heavens,[f] and they served Baal. 17 They made their sons and daughters pass through the fire. They engaged in divination and sought omens and sold themselves to do evil in the eyes of the Lord, provoking him to anger. 18 So the Lord was furious with Israel, and he removed them from his presence. None was left—only the tribe of Judah.
19 Even Judah did not keep the commands of the Lord their God. They walked in the practices which Israel introduced. 20 So the Lord rejected all the seed of Israel, and he afflicted them. He gave them into the hand of plunderers until he cast them out of his presence.
21 When the Lord tore Israel away from the house of David, they made Jeroboam son of Nebat king. But Jeroboam drove Israel away from following the Lord. He caused them to commit a great sin. 22 The people of Israel walked in all the sins which Jeroboam did. They did not turn from them 23 until the Lord removed Israel from his presence, just as he had said through all his servants the prophets. So Israel went to Assyria, into exile from her homeland to this day.
New Settlers in Israel
24 The king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Kuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim, and he settled them in the cities of Samaria in the place of the people of Israel. They took possession of Samaria and lived in its cities. 25 When they began to settle there, they did not fear the Lord, so the Lord sent lions among them. The lions were killing people, 26 so they said to the king of Assyria, “The peoples whom you deported and settled in the cities of Samaria do not know the customs of the god of the land. That is why he has sent lions among them, and the lions are killing people, because there aren’t any people left who know the customs of the god of the land.”
27 So the king of Assyria commanded, “Get one of the priests who was exiled from there. He will go and live there and teach the customs of the god of the land.” 28 So one of the priests who had been exiled from Samaria came and lived in Bethel. He was teaching them how they should fear the Lord.
29 But each nation was still making its own gods and setting them in the shrines[g] of the high places which the Samaritans had made, each nation in their cities where they were dwelling. 30 The people from Babylon made Sukkoth Benoth. The people from Kuth made Nergal. The people from Hamath made Ashima. 31 The people from Avvah made Nibhaz and Tartak. The people from Sepharvaim were burning their sons in the fire to Adrammelek and Anammelek, the gods of Sepharvaim. 32 [h]They were fearing the Lord, but they were making priests for their high places from all kinds of people, who were serving them in the shrines on the high places. 33 They were fearing the Lord, but they were also serving their gods according to the customs of the nations from which they had been deported.
34 To this day they are acting according to their former customs. There are none of them who fear the Lord, and there is no one who acts according to the regulations, ordinances, law, and commands which the Lord had commanded the children of Jacob, to whom he gave the name Israel. 35 The Lord had made a covenant with them and commanded them, “Do not fear other gods. Do not bow down to them. Do not serve them. Do not sacrifice to them. 36 Rather fear the Lord, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt with great power and an outstretched arm. Fear him and bow down to him and offer sacrifices to him. 37 Keep the regulations, ordinances, law, and commands, which he wrote for you, and do not fear other gods. 38 Do not forget the covenant I made with you, and do not fear other gods. 39 Fear only the Lord your God. He is the one who will save you from the hand of all your enemies.”
40 But these nations did not listen. Instead, they acted according to their former customs. 41 These nations were fearing the Lord, and they were serving their idols. Their children and their grandchildren did just as their fathers had done. They are doing this up to this day.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.