2 Kings 16

Modern English Version

Ahaz, King of Judah^(A)

16 In the seventeenth year of Pekah son of Remaliah, Ahaz son of Jotham, king of Judah, became king. ² Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king, and he reigned for sixteen years in Jerusalem. He did not do what was right in the sight of the Lord his God like David his father. ³ He walked in the way of the kings of Israel and even made his son pass through the fire according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord dispossessed before the children of Israel. ⁴ He sacrificed and made offerings on the high places, on the hills, and under every green tree.

⁵ Then Rezin king of Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah, king of Israel, came up to Jerusalem to battle, and they besieged Ahaz but could not subdue him. ⁶ At that time Rezin king of Aram recovered Elath for Aram and expelled the Judeans from Elath. The Edomites came to Elath and live there to this day.

⁷ So 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 are rising up against me.” ⁸ Then Ahaz took the silver and gold that was found in the house of the Lord and in the treasures of the king’s house, and sent a present to the king of Assyria. ⁹ So the king of Assyria listened to him. The king of Assyria went up to Damascus, captured it, exiled the people to Kir, and killed Rezin.

¹⁰ Then King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria and saw an altar that was in Damascus. King Ahaz sent to Uriah the priest a pattern of the altar and model of it, according to the manner of its construction. ¹¹ Uriah the priest built an altar according to all that King Ahaz had sent from Damascus. Thus Uriah the priest worked until King Ahaz came from Damascus. ¹² When the king came back from Damascus and saw the altar, the king approached the altar and made offerings on it. ¹³ He offered his burnt offering and his grain offering, poured out his libations, and sprinkled the blood of his peace offerings upon the altar. ¹⁴ And the bronze altar that was before the Lord he moved from the front of the house, from between the altar and the house of the Lord. He put it on the north side of the new altar.

¹⁵ Then King Ahaz commanded Uriah the priest, “Upon the great altar offer the morning burnt offering, the evening grain offering, the king’s burnt offering, and his grain offering with the burnt offering of all the people of the land, their grain offering, and their libations. Sprinkle on it all the blood of the burnt offering and all the blood of the sacrifice, and the bronze altar will be for me to inquire by.” ¹⁶ So Uriah the priest did everything that King Ahaz commanded.

¹⁷ King Ahaz cut off the bases of the stands and removed the basin from them. He took down the sea from off the bronze oxen that were under it and put it on stone pavement. ¹⁸ The structure for the Sabbath that they had built in the house and the king’s outer entrance he removed from the house of the Lord for the king of Assyria.

¹⁹ Now the rest of the deeds of Ahaz that he did, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah? ²⁰ Ahaz slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the City of David. Then Hezekiah his son reigned in his place.