2 Kings 16

King Ahaz: A Hard Fall in Judah

1 In the seventeenth year of Pekah son of Remaliah’s rule, Ahaz son of Jotham, king of Judah, took over as 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, unlike his daddy David.

3 Instead, he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel. He even put his own son through the fire, following the disgusting practices of the nations that the Lord had kicked out from in front of the Israelites.

4 He offered sacrifices and burned incense 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, rolled up to Jerusalem to fight. They laid siege to Ahaz but could not get the win.

6 At that time, Rezin king of Aram got Elath back for Aram and kicked the Judeans out of Elath. And the Arameans came to Elath and 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 on up and save me from the hand of the king of Aram and from the hand of the king of Israel, who are coming against me.”

8 Ahaz took the silver and gold that was found in the Lord’s temple and in the treasuries of the king’s palace and sent it as a gift to the king of Assyria.

9 The king of Assyria listened to him. The king of Assyria rolled up against Damascus and took it. He deported its people to Kir and killed Rezin.

10 King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria. When King Ahaz saw the altar that was in Damascus, King Ahaz sent Urijah the priest a blueprint and a detailed plan for the whole altar’s construction.

11 And Urijah the priest built an altar exactly according to everything King Ahaz sent from Damascus. Urijah the priest finished it before King Ahaz came back from Damascus.

12 When the king came back from Damascus, the king saw the altar. The king went up to the altar and offered sacrifices on it.

13 He burned his burnt offering and his grain offering, and poured out his drink offering, and splashed the blood of his peace offerings on the altar.

14 As for the bronze altar that was before the Lord, he moved it from the front of the temple, from between his altar and the Lord’s temple, and put it on the north side of his altar.

15 King Ahaz commanded Urijah the priest, saying, “On the big altar, burn the morning burnt offering and the evening grain offering, and the king’s burnt offering and his grain offering, along with the burnt offering of all the people of the land, their grain offering, and their drink offerings. And splash all the blood of the burnt offering and all the blood of the sacrifices on it. But the bronze altar will be for me to inquire by.”

16 So Urijah the priest did everything King Ahaz commanded.

17 King Ahaz also chopped off the side panels of the stands and removed the basins from them. He took the Sea off the bronze oxen that were under it and put it on a stone base.

18 And the covered walkway for the Sabbath that they had built in the temple, and the king’s outer entrance, he moved from the Lord’s temple, because of the king of Assyria.

19 As for the rest of Ahaz’s story, what he did, is it not written in the book of the Annals of the Kings of Judah,

20 Ahaz passed away and joined his ancestors, and was buried with his ancestors in the City of David. And his son Hezekiah took over as king.