2 *Kings 16

₁Ahaz, son of King Jotham of Judah, became king in the 17th year after Pekah, son of Remaliah, had become king_of_Israel. ₂Ahaz was 20 years old when he became king and he was king in Jerusalem for 16 years. He was not like his forefather David. He did what the Lord said was wrong. ₃He lived in the same way as the kings_of_Israel and he burnt his son as an offering to the idols. He did the same things as the sinful nations who had lived in the land long before had done. That was why the Lord had chased those people away and why He had given this land to the Israelites. ₄Ahaz sacrificed and burnt incense-offerings on the places_of_sacrifice and on the hills and under every green tree.

₅In the time when Ahaz was king, King Rezin of Aram and Pekah, son of Remaliah, the king_of_Israel, came to fight in a war_against Jerusalem. They put up their tents around the city and besieged the city, but their soldiers could not get into the city to defeat them. ₆At that time King Rezin of Aram took back the town of Elath and then Elath belonged to Aram again. Rezin chased all the people of Judah away from the town. Then the Edomite people came to Elath and they are still living there.

₇Ahaz sent messengers to King Tiglath-Pileser of Assyria and told him: ‘I will serve you and do anything you say, but please come and save me from the king of Aram and the king_of_Israel. They are attacking me.’

₈Ahaz took all the silver and gold that he could get from the temple and he sent it to the king of Assyria. It was a gift. ₉The king of Assyria did what Ahaz asked. He came and attacked the city of Damascus and he defeated the people. He caught the people of the town and took them away to the land of Kir, and he killed Rezin.

₁₀King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet King Tiglath-Pileser. When he came into Damascus and saw their altar, Ahaz made a drawing of the plans on how to build an altar that looked the same and he sent it to the priest Uriah. ₁₁The priest Uriah built the altar and it looked the same as the altar in Damascus. The altar was finished before Ahaz came back from Damascus. ₁₂When King Ahaz came back from Damascus and saw the altar, he went to it and sacrificed offerings on it. ₁₃He sacrificed burnt-offerings and grain-offerings on it himself, and he poured out his drink-offering and took the blood from his meal-offerings and sprinkled it against the altar.

₁₄He took away the bronze_altar that was in front of the temple and he moved it to the northern side of his new altar. ₁₅King Ahaz told the priest Uriah: ‘You must use the new big altar to sacrifice the burnt-offering every morning and the grain-offering in the evening. Use it also for the burnt-offerings of the king and his grain-offerings, and also for the burnt-offerings of all the people in the land, and their grain-offerings and their drink-offerings. You must sprinkle the blood of all the burnt-offerings and the blood of all the other offerings against this altar. I will use the bronze_altar to ask the Lord what will happen.’

₁₆The priest Uriah did everything that the king told him to do. ₁₇King Ahaz took off the plates from the sides of the small wagons in the temple. He took away the water-tank from the bronze oxen and he put it down onto flat stones. ₁₈He also took away the special tent that had been built for the Sabbath day and the door outside where the king went into the temple. He did everything that the king of Assyria wanted him to do.

₁₉All the other things that Ahaz did are written in the book of the history of the kings_of_Judah. ₂₀Ahaz died and his people buried him with his forefathers in the City of David. His son, Hezekiah, became king after him.