1In the seventeenth year of Pekah, Remaliah's son, Ahaz, Jotham's son, became king of Judah.
2Ahaz 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 eyes of Yahweh his God, unlike his ancestor David.
3Instead, he followed the ways of the kings of Israel. He even sacrificed his own son in the fire, following the detestable practices of the nations whom Yahweh had driven out from before the people of Israel.
4He offered sacrifices and burned incense on the high places, on the hills, and under every green tree.
5Then King Rezin of Syria and Pekah, Remaliah’s son, king of Israel, came up to Jerusalem to wage war. They surrounded Ahaz, but they could not defeat him.
6At that time, King Rezin of Syria took Elath back for Syria and drove the Jewish people out of Elath. The Syrians then moved into Elath and have lived there ever since.
7So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath Pileser, king of Assyria, saying, “I am your servant and your son. Come up and rescue me from the power of the king of Syria and from the power of the king of Israel, who are attacking me.”
8Ahaz took the silver and gold found in Yahweh’s temple and in the royal treasury, and he sent them as a gift to the king of Assyria.
9The king of Assyria listened to him. The king of Assyria attacked Damascus, captured it, took its people captive to Kir, and killed Rezin.
10King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath Pileser, king of Assyria. While there, he saw an altar in Damascus. King Ahaz then sent a drawing of the altar and plans for its construction to Urijah the priest.
11Urijah the priest built an altar exactly as King Ahaz had sent the plans from Damascus. Urijah finished it before King Ahaz returned from Damascus.
12When the king returned from Damascus, he saw the altar. The king approached the altar and offered sacrifices on it.
13He burned his burnt offering and his grain offering, poured out his drink offering, and sprinkled the blood of his fellowship offerings on the altar.
14He moved the bronze altar, which was before Yahweh, from the front of the temple, from between his new altar and Yahweh’s temple, and placed it on the north side of his new altar.
15King Ahaz commanded Urijah the priest, saying, “On the large altar, burn the morning burnt offering, the evening grain offering, the king’s burnt offering, his grain offering, along with the burnt offering of all the people of the land, their grain offering, and their drink offerings. Sprinkle on it all the blood of the burnt offering and all the blood of the sacrifice. But the bronze altar will be for me to use for inquiry.”
16Urijah the priest did everything King Ahaz commanded.
17King Ahaz cut off the side panels of the movable stands and removed the basins from them. He also took down the Large Basin from the bronze oxen that supported it and placed it on a stone pavement.
18The king removed the covered area for the Sabbath that they had built in the house, and the king’s outer entrance to Yahweh’s house, because of the king of Assyria.
19The rest of the things Ahaz did are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah.
20Ahaz died and was buried with his ancestors in David’s city, and his son Hezekiah became king in his place.