2 Kings 16

Translated from the Hebrew of the Westminster Leningrad Codex. Tap a verse to see why it reads as it does. Tap a small letter to read its footnote.

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Ahaz king of Judah

¹In the seventeenth year of Pekah son of Remaliah, Ahaz son of Jotham became king of Judah. ²Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. He did not do what was right in the sight of the LORD his God, as his ancestor David had done. ³He walked in the way of the kings of Israel. He even made his son pass through the fire, following the detestable practices of the nations that the LORD had driven out ahead of the Israelites. ⁴He offered sacrifices and burned incense at the high places, on the hills and under every leafy tree. ⁵Then Rezin king of Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah, king of Israel, came up to Jerusalem to make war. They besieged Ahaz, but they were not able to take the city. ⁶At that time Rezin king of Aram recovered Elath for Aram and drove the people of Judah out of Elath. Edomites came to Elath, and they have lived there to this day.

Ahaz turns to Assyria

⁷Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria with this message: “I am your servant and your son. Come up and rescue me from the power of the king of Aram and the king of Israel, who are attacking me.” ⁸Ahaz took the silver and gold to be found in the house of the LORD and in the palace treasuries, and he sent it as a bribe to the king of Assyria. ⁹The king of Assyria agreed to his request. He marched up against Damascus and captured it. He took its people into exile to Kir and put Rezin to death. ¹⁰King Ahaz went to meet Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria at Damascus. There he saw the altar that stood in Damascus. Then King Ahaz sent Uriah the priest a model and a design of the altar, with all the details of how it was made. ¹¹Uriah the priest built the altar following everything King Ahaz had sent from Damascus. He had it finished by the time King Ahaz came back from Damascus. ¹²On his return from Damascus the king saw the altar; he approached it and offered sacrifices on it. ¹³He burned his burnt offering and grain offering, poured his drink offering, and splashed the blood of his peace offerings on the altar. ¹⁴As for the bronze altar that stood before the LORD, he moved it from the front of the temple, from its place between the new altar and the house of the LORD, and set it beside the new altar on the north. ¹⁵Then King Ahaz gave orders to Uriah the priest: “On the great altar burn the morning burnt offering and the evening grain offering, the king’s burnt offering and his grain offering, and the burnt offering of all the people of the land with their grain offerings and drink offerings. Splash on it all the blood of the burnt offerings and of the sacrifices. But the bronze altar will be for me to seek guidance by.” ¹⁶Uriah the priest did everything King Ahaz commanded. ¹⁷King Ahaz cut off the panels of the stands and removed the basins from them. He took the Sea down from the bronze oxen that held it up and set it on a stone pavement. ¹⁸He also removed from the house of the LORD the covered place for the Sabbath that had been built at the temple, and the king’s outer entrance. He did this because of the king of Assyria. ¹⁹The rest of the acts of Ahaz, what he did, are written in the Book of the History of the Kings of Judah. ²⁰Then Ahaz rested with his ancestors and was buried with them in the City of David. His son Hezekiah became king in his place.