2 Kings 16

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; and he did not do what was right in the sight of the LORD his God, like David his father.

³He walked in the way of the kings of Israel and also made his son pass through the fire, according to the abominable practices of the nations whom the LORD drove out from before the people of Israel.

⁴And he sacrificed and burned incense at the high places and on the hills and under every green tree.

⁵Then Rezin king of Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel came up to Jerusalem to wage war, and they besieged Ahaz but could not prevail against him.

⁶At that time Rezin king of Aram restored Elath to Aram and expelled the Judeans from Elath; and Arameans came to Elath and have dwelt there to this day.

⁷And 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.

⁸And Ahaz took the silver and the gold that was found in the house of the LORD and in the treasuries of the house of the king, and sent it to the king of Assyria as a bribe.

⁹And the king of Assyria listened to him, and the king of Assyria went up against Damascus and captured it and exiled its people to Kir, and he put Rezin to death.

¹⁰King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, and saw the altar that was in Damascus. King Ahaz sent to Uriah the priest a sketch of the altar and its plan, with all the details of its construction.

¹¹And Uriah the priest built the altar according to all that King Ahaz had sent from Damascus; so Uriah the priest did, until King Ahaz came from Damascus.

¹²And when the king came from Damascus, the king saw the altar, and the king drew near to the altar and offered upon it.

¹³He burned his burnt offering and his grain offering, poured out his drink offering, and dashed the blood of his peace offerings against the altar.

¹⁴And the bronze altar that was before the LORD he moved away from the front of the house, from between the altar and the house of the LORD, and placed it on the north side of the altar.

¹⁵And King Ahaz commanded Uriah the priest, saying, On the great altar burn the morning burnt offering and the evening grain offering, and the burnt offering of the king and his grain offering, and the burnt offering of all the people of the land and their grain offering and their drink offerings; and all the blood of the burnt offering and all the blood of the sacrifice you shall sprinkle upon it; but the bronze altar shall be for me to seek guidance.

¹⁶Uriah the priest did according to all that King Ahaz commanded.

¹⁷And King Ahaz cut off the frames of the stands and removed the basin from them; and the sea he took down from the bronze oxen that were under it and placed it on a stone pavement.

¹⁸The covered Sabbath colonnade that had been built in the house, and the outer royal entrance to the house of the LORD -- he removed these on account of the king of Assyria.

¹⁹And the rest of the acts of Ahaz, and all that he did, are they not written in the scroll of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?

²⁰Ahaz lay down with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David. Hezekiah his son reigned in his place.