2 Kings 16
Ahaz Reigns over Judah
16In the seventeenth year of Pekah the son of Remaliah, aAhaz the son of Jotham, king of Judah, became king. 2aAhaz was twenty years old when he became king, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem; and he did not do what was right in the sight of Yahweh his God, as David his father had done. 3But he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, aand even made his son pass through the fire, baccording to the abominations of the nations whom Yahweh had dispossessed from before the sons of Israel. 4He also asacrificed and burned incense on the high places and on the hills and under every green tree.
5Then aRezin king of Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to wage war; and they besieged Ahaz, bbut could not 1overcome him. 6At that time Rezin king of Aram restored aElath for Aram and cleared the Judeans out of 1Elath entirely; and the 2Arameans came to Elath and have lived there to this day.
Ahaz Sends for Help from Assyria
7aSo Ahaz sent messengers to bTiglath-pileser king of Assyria, saying, “I am your servant and your son; come up and save me from the 1hand of the king of Aram and from the 2hand of the king of Israel, who are rising up against me.” 8aAhaz also took the silver and gold that was found in the house of Yahweh and in the treasuries of the king’s house, and sent a gift to the king of Assyria. 9aSo the king of Assyria listened to him; and the king of Assyria went up against Damascus and bseized it and took the people of it away into exile to cKir, and put Rezin to death.
Ahaz Has Urijah Build an Altar
10Now King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet aTiglath-pileser king of Assyria and saw the altar which was at Damascus; and King Ahaz sent to bUrijah the priest the likeness of the altar and its pattern, according to all its workmanship. 11So Urijah the priest built an altar; according to all that King Ahaz had sent from Damascus, thus Urijah the priest made it, 1before the coming of King Ahaz from Damascus. 12So the king came from Damascus, and the king saw the altar; then athe king drew near the altar and 1made offerings on it, 13and offered his burnt offering and his meal offering up in smoke, and poured his drink offering and splashed the blood of his peace offerings on the altar. 14aNow as for the bronze altar, which was before Yahweh, 1he drew it away from the front of the house, from between bhis altar and the house of Yahweh, and he put it on the north side of his altar. 15Then King Ahaz 1commanded Urijah the priest, saying, “Upon the great altar offer up in smoke athe morning burnt offering and the evening grain offering and the king’s burnt offering and his grain offering, with the burnt offering of all the people of the land and their grain offering and their drink offerings; and splash on it all the blood of the burnt offering and all the blood of the sacrifice. But bthe bronze altar shall be for me to inquire by.” 16So Urijah the priest did according to all that King Ahaz commanded.
17Then King Ahaz acut off the borders of the stands and removed the laver from them; he also btook down the sea from the bronze oxen which were under it and put it on a pavement of stone. 18And 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 Yahweh because of the king of Assyria.