The Reign of Ahaz

161 In the seventeenth e year of Pekah the son of Remaliah , Ahaz the son of Jotham , king of Judah , became king . 2 Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king , and he reigned sixteen e years in Jerusalem ; and he did not do what was right in the sight of the Lord his God , as his father David had done. 3 But 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 had driven out from before the sons of Israel . 4 He sacrificed and burned incense on the high places and 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 wage war ; and they besieged e Ahaz , but could not overcome him. 6 At that time Rezin king of Aram recovered Elath for Aram , and cleared the Judeans out of Elath entirely; and the Arameans came to Elath and have lived 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 deliver 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 Ahaz took the silver and gold that was found in the house of the Lord and in the treasuries of the king's house , and sent a present to the king of Assyria . 9 So the king of Assyria listened to him; and the king of Assyria went up against Damascus and captured it, and carried the people of it away into exile to Kir , and put Rezin to death .

10 Now King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria , and saw the altar which was at Damascus ; and King Ahaz sent to Urijah the priest the pattern of the altar and its model , according to all its workmanship . 11 So Urijah the priest built an altar ; according to all that King Ahaz had sent from Damascus , thus Urijah the priest made it, before the coming of King Ahaz from Damascus . 12 When the king came from Damascus , the king saw the altar ; then the king approached the altar and went up to it, 13 and burned his burnt offering and his meal offering , and poured his drink offering and sprinkled the blood of his peace offerings on the altar . 14 The bronze altar , which was before the Lord , he brought from the front of the house , from between his altar and the house of the Lord , and he put it on the north side of his altar . 15 Then King Ahaz commanded Urijah the priest , saying , "Upon the great altar burn the morning burnt offering and the evening meal offering and the king's burnt offering and his meal offering , with the burnt offering of all the people of the land and their meal offering and their drink offerings ; and sprinkle on it all the blood of the burnt offering and all the blood of the sacrifice . But the bronze altar shall be for me to inquire by." 16 So Urijah the priest did according to all that King Ahaz commanded .

17 Then King Ahaz cut off the borders of the stands , and removed the laver from them; he also took down the sea from the bronze oxen which were under it and put it on a pavement of stone . 18 The covered way for the sabbath which they had built in the house , and the outer entry of the king , he removed from the house of the Lord because e of the king of Assyria . 19 Now the rest of the acts of Ahaz which he did , are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles e of the Kings of Judah ? 20 So Ahaz slept with his fathers , and was buried with his fathers in the city of David ; and his son Hezekiah reigned in his place .