Chronological

Ahaz, King of Judah^(A)

28 Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he was king in Jerusalem for sixteen years. And he did not do what was correct in the eyes of the Lord as David his father. ² And he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, and he cast images for Baal worship. ³ And he made sacrifices in the Valley of Ben Hinnom, and he burned his sons in the fire according to the detestable acts of the nations that the Lord had displaced before the sons of Israel. ⁴ He even made sacrifices and offered incense on the high places of the hills and under every green tree.

Judah Defeated

⁵ So the Lord his God gave him into the hand of the king of Aram. They struck Ahaz and took captive many prisoners and brought them to Damascus.

He was even given into the hand of the king of Israel, and he attacked Ahaz with a great slaughter. ⁶ And Pekah the son of Remaliah killed one hundred and twenty thousand in Judah in one day, and they were all strong men, but they abandoned the Lord God of their fathers. ⁷ And Zikri, a mighty warrior from Ephraim, killed Maaseiah the son of the king, and Azrikam the official of the palace, and Elkanah second to the king. ⁸ And the sons of Israel took captive two hundred thousand of their kin, women, sons, and daughters. They also took much plunder and brought the plunder to Samaria.

⁹ And there was a prophet there whose name was Oded, and he went out to the army as it approached Samaria and said to them, “See that the anger of the Lord God of your fathers is against Judah, and He gave them into your hand, and you all have killed them in a rage that has reached even to heaven. ¹⁰ And now you are planning to subdue for yourselves the people of Judah and Jerusalem as male and female slaves. Do you all not surely have among you guilt before the Lord your God? ¹¹ And now listen to me. Return the captives whom you have taken captive from your relatives because the burning wrath of the Lord is on you all.”

¹² And some men who were heads of the people of Ephraim rose up before those coming from the war: Azariah the son of Jehohanan, Berekiah the son of Meshillemoth, Jehizkiah the son of Shallum, and Amasa the son of Hadlai. ¹³ And they said, “You will not bring the captives here, for guilt from the Lord will be on us, and you plan to add to our sin and guilt. Our guilt is great, and there is already a burning anger against Israel.”

¹⁴ So the soldiers left the captives and spoil before the officials and all the assembly. ¹⁵ Then the men who were designated by name took the captives and clothed those who were naked from the plunder. So they clothed them, gave them sandals, offered them food and drink, anointed them with oil, and led them on donkeys, even all those who stumbled. They brought them to Jericho, the city of palm trees, which was near their kinsmen. Then the officials returned to Samaria.

¹⁶ At that time King Ahaz sent to the king of Assyria for help. ¹⁷ The Edomites continually came and struck Judah and carried off captives. ¹⁸ Even the Philistines made raids on the cities of the lowlands of the Shephelah and the Negev of Judah. And they captured Beth Shemesh, Aijalon, Gederoth, Soko and its villages, Timnah and its villages, and Gimzo and its villages; and they settled there. ¹⁹ For the Lord humbled Judah because of Ahaz king of Judah, for he allowed depravity to spread in Judah and continually transgressed against the Lord. ²⁰ So Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria came against him, but he brought him distress and not strength. ²¹ For Ahaz took a portion from the house of the Lord and palace of the king and the officials, and he gave it to the king of Assyria, but the king did not help Ahaz.

The Death of Ahaz

²² And at the time that he was oppressed he increased in unfaithfulness against the Lord. ²³ So he sacrificed to the gods of Damascus that had devastated him, for he said, “Because the gods of the kings of Aram have helped them, I will sacrifice to them so that they might help me.” But they were his downfall in Judah and the downfall for all of Israel.

²⁴ And Ahaz gathered the vessels from the house of God, and he cut up the vessels. Then he shut the doors of the house of the Lord, and he made altars in every corner of Jerusalem. ²⁵ Then in every city in Judah he made high places to make offerings to other gods. So he provoked the Lord God of his fathers.

²⁶ Now the remainder of the acts and all his ways, from first to last, are written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel. ²⁷ So Ahaz slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of Jerusalem because they did not bring him to the tombs of the kings of Israel. Then Hezekiah his son was king in his place.

Ahaz, King of Judah^(A)

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 reigned for sixteen years in Jerusalem. He did not do what was right in the sight of the Lord his God like David his father. ³ 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 nations whom the Lord dispossessed before the children of Israel. ⁴ He sacrificed and made offerings on the high places, on the hills, and under every green tree.

⁵ Then Rezin king of Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah, king of Israel, came up to Jerusalem to battle, and they besieged Ahaz but could not subdue him. ⁶ At that time Rezin king of Aram recovered Elath for Aram and expelled the Judeans from Elath. The Edomites came to Elath and live 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 from the hand of the king of Aram and from the hand of the king of Israel, who are rising up against me.” ⁸ Then Ahaz took the silver and gold that was found in the house of the Lord and in the treasures of the king’s house, and sent a present to the king of Assyria. ⁹ So the king of Assyria listened to him. The king of Assyria went up to Damascus, captured it, exiled the people to Kir, and killed Rezin.

¹⁰ Then King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria and saw an altar that was in Damascus. King Ahaz sent to Uriah the priest a pattern of the altar and model of it, according to the manner of its construction. ¹¹ Uriah the priest built an altar according to all that King Ahaz had sent from Damascus. Thus Uriah the priest worked until King Ahaz came from Damascus. ¹² When the king came back from Damascus and saw the altar, the king approached the altar and made offerings on it. ¹³ He offered his burnt offering and his grain offering, poured out his libations, and sprinkled the blood of his peace offerings upon the altar. ¹⁴ And the bronze altar that was before the Lord he moved from the front of the house, from between the altar and the house of the Lord. He put it on the north side of the new altar.

¹⁵ Then King Ahaz commanded Uriah the priest, “Upon the great altar offer the morning burnt offering, the evening grain offering, the king’s burnt offering, and his grain offering with the burnt offering of all the people of the land, their grain offering, and their libations. Sprinkle on it all the blood of the burnt offering and all the blood of the sacrifice, and the bronze altar will be for me to inquire by.” ¹⁶ So Uriah the priest did everything that King Ahaz commanded.

¹⁷ King Ahaz cut off the bases of the stands and removed the basin from them. He took down the sea from off the bronze oxen that were under it and put it on stone pavement. ¹⁸ The structure for the Sabbath that they had built in the house and the king’s outer entrance he removed from the house of the Lord for the king of Assyria.

¹⁹ Now the rest of the deeds of Ahaz that he did, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah? ²⁰ Ahaz slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the City of David. Then Hezekiah his son reigned in his place.

Hoshea, King of Israel^(B)

17 In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah, Hoshea son of Elah became king in Samaria over Israel for nine years. ² He did evil in the sight of the Lord, only not as the kings of Israel who were before him.

³ Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against him. Hoshea became his servant and gave him gifts. ⁴ But the king of Assyria found conspiracy in Hoshea, for he had sent messengers to So king of Egypt and offered up no gift to the king of Assyria as he had done year by year. So the king of Assyria detained him, and then put him in prison.

Israel Exiled to Assyria

⁵ Then the king of Assyria went throughout all the land, went up to Samaria, and besieged it for three years. ⁶ In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria seized Samaria and exiled Israel to Assyria. He put them in Halah, in Habor by the River of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.

⁷ This happened because the children of Israel had 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. They had feared other gods ⁸ and walked in the statutes of the nations, whom the Lord dispossessed before the children of Israel, and walked in the statutes which the kings of Israel had made. ⁹ The children of Israel ascribed things to the Lord their God that were not so, and they built for themselves high places in all their cities from the watchtower to the fortified city. ¹⁰ They set up standing stones and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every green tree. ¹¹ There they burned incense on all the high places, as the nations did whom the Lord had carried away before them. And they did wicked things to provoke the Lord to anger, ¹² for they served idols, of which the Lord had said to them, “You shall not do this thing.” ¹³ But the Lord warned Israel and 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 My servants the prophets.”

¹⁴ But they would not listen. They stiffened their necks, like the neck of their fathers, who did not believe in the Lord their God. ¹⁵ They rejected His statutes and His covenant that He had made with their fathers and the decrees He had given them. They followed idols, and became idolaters, and followed the surrounding nations, concerning whom the Lord commanded them, that they should not do like them.

¹⁶ They forsook all the commandments of the Lord their God, made themselves cast images (two calves), made an Asherah pole, worshipped all the host of heaven, and served Baal. ¹⁷ They caused their sons and daughters to pass through the fire, used divination and omens, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord to anger Him.

¹⁸ Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel and removed them from His presence. None remained except the tribe of Judah. ¹⁹ Judah also did not keep the commandments of the Lord their God, but walked in the statutes of Israel which they made. ²⁰ The Lord rejected all the seed of Israel, afflicted them, and gave them into the hand of plunderers until He had cast them out of His presence.

²¹ For He had torn Israel from the house of David, and they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king. Jeroboam diverted Israel from following the Lord and caused them to sin greatly. ²² For the children of Israel walked in all the sins which Jeroboam committed. They did not turn aside from them ²³ until the Lord removed Israel from His presence as He had said by all His servants the prophets. So Israel was exiled from their land to Assyria until this day.

Assyria Resettles Samaria

²⁴ Then the king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Kuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim and put them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel. They possessed Samaria and lived in its cities. ²⁵ Right at the beginning of their settling there, they did not fear the Lord, so the Lord sent lions among them, and they killed some of them. ²⁶ So they said to the king of Assyria, “The nations which you have exiled and settled in the cities of Samaria do not know the law of the god of the land. Therefore He has sent lions among them; they are killing them, because they do not know the requirements of the god of the land.”

²⁷ Then the king of Assyria commanded, “Escort back one of the priests whom you exiled from there and let him go and dwell there. Let him teach them the law of the god of the land.” ²⁸ Then one of the priests whom they had exiled from Samaria came and lived in Bethel. He taught them how they should fear the Lord.

²⁹ But each nation was making its own gods, and they put them in the houses of the high places that the people of Samaria had made, each nation in the cities where they were living. ³⁰ The men of Babylon made Sukkoth Benoth, the men of Kuthah made Nergal, the men of Hamath made Ashima, ³¹ the Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak. The Sepharvites were burning their children in fire to Adrammelek and Anammelek, the gods of Sepharvaim. ³² They feared the Lord and made from amongst themselves priests of the high places, who were working for them in the houses of the high places. ³³ They feared the Lord, and they were serving their own gods, after the manner of the nations whom they exiled from there.

³⁴ To this day they continue to practice their former customs. They do not fear the Lord, nor are they doing according to the statutes, requirements, the law or commandment that the Lord commanded the children of Jacob, whom He named Israel. ³⁵ The Lord had made a covenant and commanded them, saying, “You shall not fear other gods, nor bow yourselves to them. You shall not serve them or sacrifice to them. ³⁶ Rather, the Lord, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt with great power and an outstretched arm, Him you shall fear, to Him you shall bow down, and to Him you shall sacrifice. ³⁷ The statutes, the ordinances, the law, and the commandment, which He wrote for you, you shall observe to do forever. And you shall not fear other gods. ³⁸ The covenant that I have made with you, you shall not forget. You shall not fear other gods. ³⁹ Rather the Lord your God you shall fear, and He will deliver you from the hand of all your enemies.”

⁴⁰ But they did not listen; rather they were practicing their former customs. ⁴¹ So these nations feared the Lord and were serving their carved images, both their children and their grandchildren, as their fathers did, and so they are doing to this day.