1    ^noteAhaz was twenty years old when he came to the throne, and he reigned in Jerusalem for sixteen years. He did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord like his forefather David, 2   but followed in the footsteps of the kings of Israel, and cast metal images for the Baalim. 3   He also burnt sacrifices in the Valley of Ben-hinnom; he even burnt his sons in ^note the fire according to the abominable practice of the nations whom the Lord had dispossessed in favour of the Israelites. 4   He slaughtered and burnt sacrifices at the hill-shrines and on the hill-tops and under every spreading tree.

5   The Lord his God let him suffer at the hands of the king of Aram, and the Aramaeans defeated him, took many captives and brought them to Damascus; he was also made to suffer at the hands of the king of Israel, who inflicted a severe defeat on him. 6   This was Pekah son of Remaliah, who killed in one day a hundred and twenty thousand men of Judah, seasoned troops, because they had forsaken the Lord the God of their fathers. 7   And Zichri, an Ephraimite hero, killed Maaseiah the king's son ^note and Azrikam the comptroller of the household and Elkanah the king's chief minister. 8   The Israelites took captive from their kinsmen two hundred thousand women and children; they also took a large amount of booty and brought it to Samaria.

9   A prophet of the Lord was there, Oded by name; he went out to meet the army as it returned to Samaria and said to them, ‘It is because the Lord the God of your fathers is angry with Judah that he has

The kings from Rehoboam to Ahaz given them into your power; and you have massacred them in a rage that has towered up to heaven. 10   Now you propose to force the people of Judah and Jerusalem, male and female, into slavery. Are not you also guilty men before the Lord your God? 11   Now, listen to me. Send back those you have taken captive from your kinsmen, for the anger of the Lord is roused against you.’ 12   Next, some Ephraimite chiefs, Azariah son of Jehohanan, Berechiah son of Meshillemoth, Hezekiah ^note son of Shallum, and Amasa son of Hadlai, met those who were returning from the war and said to them, 13   ‘You must not bring these captives into our country; what you are proposing would make us guilty before the Lord and add to our sins and transgressions. We are guilty enough already, and there is fierce anger against Israel.’ 14   So the armed men left the captives and the spoil with the officers and the assembled people. 15   The captives were put in charge of men nominated for this duty, who found clothes from the spoil for all who were naked. They clothed them and shod them, gave them food and drink, and anointed them; those who were tottering from exhaustion they conveyed on the backs of asses, and so brought them to their kinsmen in Jericho, in the Vale of Palm Trees. Then they themselves returned to Samaria.

16    17   At that time King Ahaz sent to the king ^note of Assyria for help. The Edomites had invaded again and defeated Judah and taken away prisoners; 18   and the Philistines had raided the cities of the Shephelah and of the Negeb of Judah and had captured Beth-shemesh, Aijalon, and Gederoth, as well as Soco, Timnah, and Gimzo with their villages, and occupied them. 19   The Lord had reduced Judah to submission because of Ahaz king of Judah; ^note for his actions in Judah had been unbridled and he had been grossly unfaithful to the Lord. 20   Then Tiglath-pileser ^note king of Assyria marched against him and, so far from assisting him, pressed him hard. 21   Ahaz stripped the house of the Lord, the king's palace and the houses of his officers, and gave the plunder to the king of Assyria; but all to no purpose.

22   This King Ahaz, when hard pressed, became more and more unfaithful to the Lord; 23   he sacrificed to the gods of Damascus who had defeated him and said, ‘The gods of the kings of Aram helped them; I will sacrifice to them so that they may help me.’ But in fact they caused his downfall and that of all Israel. 24   Then Ahaz gathered together the vessels of the house of God and broke them up, and shut the doors of the house of the Lord; he made himself altars at every corner in Jerusalem, 25   and at every single city of Judah he made hill-shrines to burn sacrifices to other gods and provoked the anger of the Lord the God of his fathers.

The kings from Rehoboam to Ahaz

26    ^noteThe other acts and all the events of his reign, from first to last, are recorded in the annals of the kings of Judah and Israel. 27   So Ahaz rested with his forefathers and was buried in the city of Jerusalem, but was not given burial with the kings of Judah. ^noteHe was succeeded by his son Hezekiah.

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