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2 Kings

Ahaz’s Reign and Submission to Assyria

16
Chapter 16
1 In the seventeenth year of Pekah son of Remaliah, king of Israel, Ahaz son of Jotham, king of Judah. 2 Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. He did not do what was upright in the eyes of the LORD his God, like David his father. 3 He walked in the way of the kings of Israel, and he also made his son pass through the fire, like the abominations of the nations that the LORD dispossessed from before the sons of Israel. 4 He sacrificed and burned incense on the high places, on the hills, and under every lush tree. 5 Then Rezin king of Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel marched up to Jerusalem for war against it. They besieged Ahaz but could not conquer it. 6 At that time Rezin king of Aram returned Elath to Aram, and he drove out the Judeans from Elath. And Edomites came to Elath, and they dwelt there until this day. 7 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 have risen up against me." 8 Ahaz took the silver and gold that was found in the house of the LORD and in the treasuries of the king's house, and sent them to the king of Assyria as a bribe. 9 The king of Assyria heard him, and the king of Assyria went up against Damascus and captured it and exiled the people to Kir and put Rezin to death. 10 King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria. He saw the altar that was at Damascus. King Ahaz sent to Uriah the priest the likeness of the altar and its pattern, according to all its workmanship. 11 And Uriah the priest built the altar according to all that King Ahaz had sent from Damascus. Uriah the priest did in this way until King Ahaz came from Damascus. 12 The king came from Damascus, and the king saw the altar. The king approached the altar and offered up on it. 13 And he burned his burnt offering and his grain offering. And he poured out his libation and dashed the blood of his peace offerings on the altar. 14 And the bronze altar that was before the LORD, he brought near from beside the face of the house, between the altar and the house of the LORD, and he put it on the north side of the altar. 15 King Ahaz commanded Uriah the priest, saying, "On the great altar offer incense, the morning burnt offering and the evening grain offering and the king's burnt offering and his grain offering and the burnt offering of all the people of the earth and their grain offerings and their libations; and all blood of burnt offering and all blood of sacrifice on it you shall dash, and the bronze altar shall be for me for morning." 16 And Uriah the priest did according to all that King Ahaz commanded. 17 And King Ahaz cut off the frames of the stands and removed the laver and the Sea from them. He brought it down from the bronze oxen that were under it and put it on the stone pavement. 18 He covered the Sabbath structure that they had built in the House, and he turned around the outer king's entrance at the house of the LORD because of the king of Assyria. 19 And the rest of the deeds of Ahaz that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Words of the Days for the Kings of Judah? 20 Ahaz lay down with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David, and Hezekiah his son reigned in his place.