1In the seventeenth year of Pekah son of Remaliah, Ahaz son of Jotham, king of Judah, began to reign.2Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. He did not do what was right in the eyes of the LORD his God, as David his father had done.3He walked in the way of the kings of Israel and even passed his son through the fire according to the abominations of the nations whom the LORD had driven out before the sons of Israel.4He sacrificed and burned incense on the high places, on the hills, and under every luxuriant tree.5Then Rezin king of Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel went up to Jerusalem to wage war, and they besieged Ahaz but were unable to overcome him.6At that time Rezin king of Aram restored Elath to Aram and expelled the Jews from Eloth; the Syrians and the Edomites came to Elath and settled there to this day.7Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, saying, "I am your servant and your son. Come up and rescue me from the hand of the king of Aram and from the hand of the king of Israel who are rising against me."8Ahaz took the silver and the gold that were found in the house of the LORD and in the treasuries of the king's house and sent them as a gift to the king of Assyria.9The king of Assyria listened to him, marched against Damascus, captured it, deported its inhabitants to Kir, and put Rezin to death.10King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria. When he saw the altar that was in Damascus, King Ahaz sent to Uriah the priest the likeness of the altar and its pattern for all its work.11Uriah the priest built the altar according to everything King Ahaz had sent from Damascus. Uriah the priest did this until King Ahaz returned from Damascus.12When the king returned from Damascus, he saw the altar, approached the altar, and went up on it.13He offered his burnt offering and his grain offering, poured out his drink offering, and sprinkled on the altar the blood of the peace offerings that belonged to him.14He removed the bronze altar that was before the LORD from in front of the house, from between the altar and the house of the LORD, and set it on the north side of the altar.15King Ahaz commanded Uriah the priest, saying, "On the great altar offer the morning burnt offering and the evening grain offering, the king's burnt offering and his grain offering, and the burnt offerings of all the people of the land with their grain offerings and their drink offerings; and all the blood of the burnt offering and all the blood of sacrifice you shall sprinkle on it, and the bronze altar shall be for me to enquire."16Uriah the priest carried out all the commands that King Ahaz had given.17King Ahaz cut away the panels of the stands and removed from them the basin and the sea; he brought down the bronze bulls that were under it and set it on a pavement of stones.18He removed the covered portico of the Sabbath that had been built in the house and the outer royal entrance of the house of the LORD because of the king of Assyria.19The rest of the acts of Ahaz that he did, are they not written in the book of the days of the kings of Judah?20Ahaz lay down with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David, and his son Hezekiah reigned in his place.