2 Kings 16 - LSB Bible Online

2 Kings 16

Ahaz Reigns over Judah

In the seventeenth year of Pekah the son of Remaliah, ^aAhaz the son of Jotham, king of Judah, became king. 2 ^aAhaz 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. 3 But 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. 4 He also ^asacrificed and burned incense on the high places and on the hills and under every green tree.
5 Then ^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. 6 At 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

7 ^aSo 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 ¹hand of the king of Israel, who are rising up against me.” 8 ^aAhaz 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. 9 ^aSo 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

10 Now 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. 11 So 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. 12 So the king came from Damascus, and the king saw the altar; then ^athe king drew near the altar and ¹made offerings on it, 13 and 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. 14 ^aNow 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. 15 Then 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.” 16 So Urijah the priest did according to all that King Ahaz commanded.
17 Then 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. 18 And 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.

Hezekiah Reigns over Judah

19 Now the rest of the acts of Ahaz which he did, are they not written ^ain the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? 20 So ^aAhaz slept with his fathers and ^bwas buried with his fathers in the city of David; and Hezekiah his son became king in his place.

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