Chronological

28 ¶ Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem; but he did not do that which was right in the sight of the LORD, like David, his father.

² To the contrary he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel and also made molten images unto Baalim.

³ Moreover, he burnt incense in the valley of the sons of Hinnom and burnt his sons in the fire, after the abominations of the Gentiles whom the LORD had cast out before the sons of Israel.

⁴ He sacrificed also and burnt incense in the high places, and on the hills and under every green tree.

⁵ Therefore, the LORD his God delivered him into the hands of the king of Syria, and they smote him and carried away a great multitude of them captives and brought them to Damascus. And he was also delivered into the hands of the king of Israel, who smote him with a great slaughter.

⁶ ¶ For Pekah, the son of Remaliah, slew in Judah one hundred and twenty thousand in one day, who were all valiant men, because they had forsaken the LORD God of their fathers.

⁷ And Zichri, a mighty man of Ephraim, slew Maaseiah, the king’s son, and Azrikam, the governor of the house, and Elkanah, second after the king.

⁸ And the sons of Israel carried away captive of their brethren two hundred thousand, women, sons, and daughters, in addition to taking much spoil from them, which they brought to Samaria.

⁹ But a prophet of the LORD was there, whose name was Oded; and he went out before the host that came to Samaria and said unto them, Behold, because the LORD God of your fathers was angry with Judah, he has delivered them into your hand, and ye have slain them in a rage. This reaches up unto heaven.

¹⁰ And now ye purpose to keep subject the sons of Judah and Jerusalem for menslaves and womenslaves unto you, but are ye not guilty against the LORD your God?

¹¹ Now hear me therefore, and deliver the captives again, which ye have taken captive of your brethren; for the fierce wrath of the LORD is upon you.

¹² Then certain of the heads of the sons of Ephraim, Azariah, the son of Johanan, Berechiah, the son of Meshillemoth, and Jehizkiah, the son of Shallum, and Amasa, the son of Hadlai, stood up against those that came from the war

¹³ and said unto them, Ye shall not bring in the captives here, for the sin against the LORD shall be upon us. Ye intend to add more to our sins and to our guilt, for our guilt is great, and there is fierce wrath against Israel.

¹⁴ So the armed men left the captives and the spoil before the princes and all the congregation.

¹⁵ And the men which were expressed by name rose up and took the captives, and, with the spoil, clothed all that were naked among them and arrayed them and shod them and gave them to eat and to drink and anointed them and carried all the feeble of them upon asses and brought them to Jericho, the city of palm trees, to their brethren; then they returned to Samaria.

¹⁶ ¶ At that time King Ahaz sent unto the kings of Assyria to help him.

¹⁷ For in addition to this, the Edomites had come and smitten Judah and carried away captives.

¹⁸ The Philistines also had invaded the cities of the low country and towards the Negev of Judah and had taken Bethshemesh and Ajalon and Gederoth and Shocho with its villages and Timnah with its villages, Gimzo also and its villages, and they dwelt in them.

¹⁹ For the LORD brought Judah low because of Ahaz king of Israel, for he had made Judah naked and had completely rebelled against the LORD.

²⁰ And Tilgathpilneser, king of Assyria, came unto him, and distressed him but did not strengthen him.

²¹ For even though Ahaz took away a portion out of the house of the LORD and out of the house of the king and of the princes and gave it unto the king of Assyria, he did not help him.

²² Furthermore, king Ahaz in the time of his distress trespassed even more against the LORD,

²³ for he sacrificed unto the gods of Damascus, who had smitten him, and he said, Because the gods of the kings of Syria help them; therefore, I will also sacrifice to them that they may help me. But they were the ruin of him and of all Israel.

²⁴ And Ahaz gathered together the vessels of the house of God and cut in pieces the vessels of the house of God and shut up the doors of the house of the LORD, and he made himself altars in every corner of Jerusalem.

²⁵ And in all the cities of Judah he made high places to burn incense unto other gods, and provoked to anger the LORD God of his fathers.

²⁶ Now the rest of his acts and of all his ways, first and last, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel.

²⁷ And Ahaz slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of Jerusalem, but they did not bring him into the sepulchres of the kings of Israel; and Hezekiah, his son, reigned in his stead.

16 ¶ In the year seventeen 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 reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem and did not do that which was right in the sight of the LORD his God like David, his father.

³ But he walked in the way of the kings of Israel and even made his son pass through the fire, according to the abominations of the Gentiles, whom the LORD cast out from before the sons of Israel.

⁴ Likewise he sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places and 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 war; and 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 dwelt there unto this day.

⁷ So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglathpileser, king of Assyria, saying, I am thy slave and thy 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 have risen up against me.

⁸ And Ahaz took the silver and gold that was found in the house of the LORD and in the treasury of the king’s house and sent it for a bribe to the king of Assyria.

⁹ And the king of Assyria hearkened unto him, for the king of Assyria went up against Damascus and took it and carried the people of it captive to Kir and slew Rezin.

¹⁰ ¶ And King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglathpileser, King of Assyria, and saw the altar that was at Damascus; and king Ahaz sent to Urijah, the priest, the fashion of the altar and the pattern of it, according to all the workmanship of it.

¹¹ And Urijah, the priest, built an altar according to all that King Ahaz had sent from Damascus; so Urijah, the priest, made it while King Ahaz returned from Damascus.

¹² And when the king was come from Damascus, the king saw the altar; and the king came near to the altar and offered upon it.

¹³ And he burnt his burnt offering and his present and poured his drink offering and sprinkled the blood of his peace offerings, next to the altar.

¹⁴ And the brasen altar which had been before the LORD, he caused to be moved in front of the forefront of the house, from between the altar and the house of the LORD, and he put it beside the altar towards the Aquilon.

¹⁵ And King Ahaz commanded Urijah, the priest, saying, Upon the great altar burn the morning burnt offering and the evening present and the king’s burnt sacrifice and his present, and likewise the burnt offering of all the people of the land and their present and their drink offerings, and sprinkle upon it all the blood of the burnt offering and all the blood of the sacrifice; and the brasen altar shall be mine to enquire by.

¹⁶ Thus did Urijah, the priest, according to all that King Ahaz commanded him.

¹⁷ ¶ And King Ahaz cut off the borders of the bases and removed the lavers from off them and took down the sea from off the brasen oxen that were under it and put it upon a pavement of stones.

¹⁸ And the covert for the sabbath that they had built in the house and the king’s entry outside, he moved behind the house of the LORD, for the sake of the king of Assyria.

¹⁹ Now the rest of the acts of Ahaz which he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?

²⁰ And Ahaz slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David; and Hezekiah, his son, reigned in his stead.

17 ¶ In the twelfth year of Ahaz, king of Judah, Hosea, the son of Elah, began to reign in Samaria over Israel nine years.

² And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, but not as the kings of Israel that were before him.

³ Against him came up Shalmaneser, king of Assyria; and Hosea became his slave and gave him presents.

⁴ And the king of Assyria found conspiracy in Hosea; for he had sent messengers to So, king of Egypt, and brought no present to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year; therefore, the king of Assyria shut him up and bound him in prison.

⁵ Then the king of Assyria came up throughout all the land and went up to Samaria and besieged it three years.

⁶ In the ninth year of Hosea, the king of Assyria took Samaria and carried Israel away into Assyria and placed them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan and in the cities of the Medes.

⁷ ¶ For so it was that the sons of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, who had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods

⁸ and walked in the statutes of the Gentiles, whom the LORD had cast out from before the sons of Israel, and in the statutes of the kings of Israel, which they had made.

⁹ And the sons of Israel had secretly done those things that were not right against the LORD their God, building themselves high places in all their cities, from the towers of the watchmen to the fenced cities.

¹⁰ And they had set themselves up images and groves in every high hill and under every green tree;

¹¹ and there they burnt incense in all the high places like the Gentiles, whom the LORD had carried away before them, and wrought wicked things to provoke the LORD to anger:

¹² serving idols, of which the LORD had said unto them, Ye shall not do this.

¹³ Yet the LORD testified against Israel and against Judah, by all the prophets and by all the seers, saying, Turn from your evil ways and keep my commandments and my statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers and which I sent to you by the hand of my slaves the prophets.

¹⁴ Notwithstanding, they would not hear, but hardened their necks, like to the neck of their fathers, who had never believed in the LORD their God.

¹⁵ And they rejected his statutes and his covenant that he made with their fathers and his testimonies which he testified against them, and they followed vanity and became vain and went after the Gentiles that were round about them, concerning whom the LORD had charged them, that they should not do like them.

¹⁶ And they left all the commandments of the LORD their God and made themselves molten images, even two calves, and made groves and worshipped all the host of heaven and served Baal;

¹⁷ and they caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire and used divination and enchantments and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger.

¹⁸ Therefore, the LORD was very angry with Israel and removed them out of his sight; there was none left but the tribe of Judah only.

¹⁹ But not even Judah kept the commandments of the LORD their God; to the contrary, they walked in the statutes of Israel which they themselves had made.

²⁰ And the LORD rejected all the seed of Israel and afflicted them and delivered them into the hand of spoilers until he had cast them out of his presence.

²¹ For he rent Israel from the house of David, and they made Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, king; and Jeroboam drove Israel from following the LORD and made them commit a great sin.

²² For the sons of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did; they did not depart from them

²³ until the LORD removed Israel out of his sight, as he had said by all his slaves the prophets. So was Israel carried away out of their own land to Assyria unto this day.

²⁴ ¶ And the king of Assyria brought Gentiles from Babylon and from Cuthah and from Ava and from Hamath and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the sons of Israel; and they possessed Samaria and dwelt in the cities thereof.

²⁵ And so it was at the beginning of their dwelling there that they did not fear the LORD; therefore, the LORD sent lions against them, which slew some of them.

²⁶ Therefore, they spoke to the king of Assyria, saying, The Gentiles, which thou hast removed and placed in the cities of Samaria, do not know the judgment of the God of that land; therefore, he has sent lions among them, and, behold, they slay them because they do not know the judgment of the God of the land.

²⁷ Then the king of Assyria commanded, saying, Carry there one of the priests whom ye brought from there; and let them go and dwell there and teach them the judgment of the God of the land.

²⁸ Then one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and dwelt in Bethel and taught them how they should fear the LORD.

²⁹ However each nation made gods of their own and put them in the houses of the high places which those of Samaria had made, each nation in their city in which they dwelt.

³⁰ And the men of Babylon made Succothbenoth, and the men of Cuth made Nergal, and the men of Hamath made Ashima,

³¹ and the Avites made Nibhaz and Tartak, and the Sepharvites burnt their children in fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim.

³² So they feared the LORD and made unto themselves of the lowest of them priests of the high places, who sacrificed for them in the houses of the high places.

³³ They feared the LORD and served their own gods after the manner of the gentiles whom they carried away from there.

³⁴ Unto this day they do after the former manners; they do not fear the LORD, neither do they keep his statutes nor his ordinances nor the law and the commandments which the LORD commanded the sons of Jacob, whom he named Israel,

³⁵ with whom the LORD had made a covenant and charged them, saying, Ye shall not fear other gods, nor worship them, nor serve them, nor sacrifice to them,

³⁶ but only the LORD your God who brought you up out of the land of Egypt with great power and a stretched out arm, him shall ye fear, and him shall ye worship, and to him shall ye do sacrifice.

³⁷ And the statutes and rights and the law and the commandments, which he wrote for you, ye shall observe to do every day; and ye shall not fear other gods.

³⁸ And the covenant that I have made with you ye shall not forget; neither shall ye fear other gods.

³⁹ But the LORD your God ye shall fear; and he shall deliver you out of the hand of all your enemies.

⁴⁰ Howbeit they did not hearken; to the contrary they did after their former manner.

⁴¹ So these Gentiles feared the LORD and served their graven images, and likewise their sons and their grandsons; as did their fathers, so do they unto this day.