2 *Chronicles 28

₁Ahaz was 20 years old when he became king and he was king in Jerusalem for 16 years. His forefather David did what the Lord loves, but Ahaz did not live like his forefather David. ₂Ahaz did bad things like the kings_of_Israel and he also made images of the Baal idols. ₃Ahaz sacrificed offerings to them in the Ben-Hinnom Valley and he also sacrificed his sons. He did things which the Lord hated. The people who had lived in the land before had done the same things, and God had chased them away so that the Israelites could come and live in the land. ₄Ahaz sacrificed and he burnt incense on the places_of_sacrifice and on the hills and under every green tree. ₅Then the Lord his God helped the king of Aram to defeat Ahaz in a war. The king of Aram caught a lot of Ahaz's people and he took them away to the city of Damascus. The Lord also made Ahaz lose the war_against Pekah, king_of_Israel. Pekah defeated him and killed a lot of his people. ₆Pekah, son of Remaliah, killed 120 000 people of Judah on one day. They were all good soldiers. This happened because the people of Judah turned away from the Lord, the God of their forefathers.

₇Zikri was a strong man from the Ephraim tribe. He killed prince Maaseiah and also Azrikam, the chief of the palace, and Elkanah, the 2nd leader of the people of Judah. ₈The Israelite soldiers caught 200 000 people of Judah and took them away, and they were family of the people of Judah. They took a lot of plunder from them and took away the women, boys and girls to the city of Samaria.

₉But there was a prophet of God whose name was Oded. When the army of Israel came back to Samaria, he went to them and he said: ‘Listen, the Lord God of your forefathers helped you defeat the people of Judah because He was angry with them. But you went too far. You kept on killing those people and you had no mercy on them. You made God very angry and He will punish you. ₁₀Now you want to make these people of Judah and Jerusalem your slaves and slave women. No, you have already done too many sins_against the Lord your God. ₁₁Now listen to me and take back the prisoners. They are your family and you have caught them. If you do not take those prisoners back, then the Lord will be very angry with you.’

₁₂Some of the leaders of the Ephraim tribe talked to the men who had come back from the war. The leaders were Azariah son of Jehohanan, Berekiah son of Meshillemoth, Jehizkiah son of Shallum and Amasa son of Hadlai. They stopped the men who had come back ₁₃and said to them: ‘You must not bring these prisoners here. We have already sinned a lot against the Lord and now you want to sin more. The Lord will be very angry with the people of Israel if we keep these prisoners here.’

₁₄The men then left the prisoners, and all the plunder that they had taken, with the officials and the congregation. ₁₅The officials and the congregation then chose men who helped the prisoners. Some prisoners had no clothes and the men gave them clothes and shoes. They gave them some of the clothes that the army took from Judah. They also gave the prisoners food and water, and they cleaned their wounds with olive oil. They helped the prisoners who were old and weak and let them ride on donkeys and they took all the prisoners to Jericho, the Palm City in Judah, where the prisoners were with their own people. Then the men of Israel went back to Samaria.

₁₆At that time King Ahaz of Judah asked the kings of Assyria to help him. ₁₇The Arameans came again and they defeated the people of Judah and they took away a lot of prisoners. ₁₈The Philistine soldiers came and attacked some of the towns in the lowlands and the southern part of the land_of_Judah. They defeated the towns of Beth-Shemesh, Aijalon, Gederoth, Soko, Timnah and Gimzo with their villages. ₁₉This happened because God wanted to humiliate the people of Judah. He wanted to do it because Ahaz, king_of_Judah, had done wrong. King Ahaz let the people of Judah do what they wanted to do and he was not faithful to the Lord. ₂₀King Tiglath-Pileser of Assyria came to Judah but he did not help King Ahaz. He made a lot of trouble for him and made Ahaz suffer even more. ₂₁Yes, Ahaz took everything that was in the temple and in the palace and everything that his officials had and he gave it all to the king of Assyria, but that did not help him. ₂₂When Ahaz suffered a lot and everything went wrong for him, he sinned more and became even more unfaithful to the Lord. ₂₃He sacrificed offerings to the gods of the people of Damascus who had defeated him. He said: ‘The gods of the kings of Aram have helped those kings. I will sacrifice offerings to them, then they will help me too.’

But when Ahaz sacrificed offerings to those gods, he and the people of Judah had sinned too much and the Lord decided to punish them. ₂₄Ahaz took all the tools for the temple, and broke them and cut them into pieces. He closed the doors of the temple and locked them, then he made altars in every street in Jerusalem. ₂₅He built places_of_sacrifice in every town of Judah and he sacrificed offerings to other gods. He made the Lord, the God of his forefathers, very angry and sad.

₂₆Everything that happened to Ahaz, and everything that he did, is written in the book of kings_of_Judah and Israel. ₂₇Ahaz died and they buried him in the city of Jerusalem, but they did not bury him in the tombs of the kings_of_Israel. His son, Hezekiah, became king after him.