Ahaz Reigns in Judah

¹fAhaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. And he did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as his father David had done, ²but he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel. He even made gmetal images for hthe Baals, ³and ihe made offerings in the jValley of the Son of Hinnom and kburned his sons as an offering,1 according to lthe abominations of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel. ⁴And he sacrificed and imade offerings on the high places and on the hills and under every green tree.

Judah Defeated

⁵mTherefore the Lord his God gave him into the hand of the king of Syria, who defeated him and took captive a great number of his people and brought them to Damascus. He was also given into the hand of the king of Israel, who struck him with great force. ⁶For nPekah the son of Remaliah killed 120,000 from Judah in one day, all of them men of valor, because they had forsaken the Lord, the God of their fathers. ⁷And Zichri, a mighty man of Ephraim, killed Maaseiah the king's son and Azrikam the commander of the palace and Elkanah the next in authority to the king.

⁸The men of Israel took captive 200,000 oof their relatives, women, sons, and daughters. They also took much spoil from them and brought the spoil to Samaria. ⁹But a prophet of the Lord was there, whose name was Oded, and he went out to meet the army that came to Samaria and said to them, “Behold, because the Lord, the God of your fathers, pwas angry with Judah, he gave them into your hand, but you have killed them in a rage qthat has reached up to heaven. ¹⁰And now you intend to subjugate the people of Judah and Jerusalem, male and female, as your slaves. Have you not sins of your own against the Lord your God? ¹¹Now hear me, and send back the captives ofrom your relatives whom you have taken, for the fierce wrath of the Lord is upon you.”

¹²Certain chiefs also of the men of Ephraim, Azariah the son of Johanan, Berechiah the son of Meshillemoth, Jehizkiah the son of Shallum, and Amasa the son of Hadlai, stood up against those who were coming from the war ¹³and said to them, “You shall not bring the captives in here, for you propose to bring upon us guilt against the Lord in addition to our present sins and guilt. For our guilt is already great, and there is fierce wrath against Israel.” ¹⁴So the armed men left the captives and the spoil before the princes and all the assembly. ¹⁵And rthe men who have been mentioned by name rose and took the captives, and with the spoil they clothed all who were naked among them. They clothed them, gave them sandals, sprovided them with food and drink, and anointed them, and carrying all the feeble among them on donkeys, they brought them to their kinsfolk at Jericho, tthe city of palm trees. Then they returned to Samaria.

¹⁶uAt that time King Ahaz sent to the king2 of Assyria for help. ¹⁷For the Edomites had again invaded and defeated Judah and carried away captives. ¹⁸vAnd the Philistines had made raids on wthe cities in the Shephelah and the Negeb of Judah, and had taken Beth-shemesh, Aijalon, Gederoth, Soco xwith its villages, Timnah with its villages, and Gimzo with its villages. And they settled there. ¹⁹For the Lord humbled Judah because of Ahaz king of Israel, for he had made yJudah act sinfully3 and had been very unfaithful to the Lord. ²⁰So zTiglath-pileser4 king of Assyria came against him and afflicted him instead of strengthening him. ²¹aFor Ahaz took a portion from the house of the Lord and the house of the king and of the princes, and gave tribute to the king of Assyria, but it did not help him.

Ahaz's Idolatry

²²In the time of his distress he became yet more faithless to the Lord—this same King Ahaz. ²³For bhe sacrificed to the gods of Damascus that had defeated him and said, c“Because the gods of the kings of Syria helped them, I will sacrifice to them that they may help me.” But they were the ruin of him and of all Israel. ²⁴And Ahaz gathered together the vessels of the house of God and dcut in pieces the vessels of the house of God, and he shut up the doors of the house of the Lord, and he made himself ealtars in every corner of Jerusalem. ²⁵In every city of Judah he made high places to fmake offerings to other gods, provoking to anger the Lord, the God of his fathers. ²⁶gNow the rest of his acts and all his ways, from first to last, behold, they are written in the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel. ²⁷And Ahaz slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city, in Jerusalem, for hthey did not bring him into the tombs of the kings of Israel. And Hezekiah his son reigned in his place.