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2 Kings 16:1-20 — Ahaz King of Judah

2Kgs.16.1-20

¹In the seventeenth year of Pekah son of Remaliah, Ahaz son of Jotham became king of Judah. ²Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. He did not do what was right in the eyes of the LORD his God, as David his father had done. ³Instead, he walked in the way of the kings of Israel. He even made his son pass through the fire, according to the abominations of the nations whom the LORD had driven out before the people of Israel. ⁴He sacrificed and burned incense on the high places, on the hills, and under every green tree. ⁵Then Rezin king of Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel went up to Jerusalem to wage war, and they besieged Ahaz but were not able to conquer him. ⁶At that time Rezin king of Aram recovered Elath for Aram and drove the Judeans from Elath, and Edomites came to Elath and have lived there to this day. ⁷So 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.” ⁸Ahaz took the silver and the gold found in the house of the LORD and in the treasuries of the king's house, and sent it as a bribe to the king of Assyria. ⁹The king of Assyria listened to him; the king of Assyria went up against Damascus, captured it, carried its people into exile to Kir, and put Rezin to death. ¹⁰Then King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria. When he saw the altar that was in Damascus, King Ahaz sent Uriah the priest a model of the altar and its design, according to all its workmanship. ¹¹And Uriah the priest built the altar; according to all that King Ahaz had sent from Damascus, so Uriah the priest made it before King Ahaz came from Damascus. ¹²When the king came back from Damascus and saw the altar, the king drew near to the altar and went up on it. ¹³He burned his burnt offering and his grain offering, poured out his drink offering, and dashed the blood of his peace offerings on the altar. ¹⁴And the bronze altar that was before the LORD he brought from the front of the house, from between the altar and the house of the LORD, and put it on the north side of the altar. ¹⁵Then King Ahaz commanded Uriah the priest, saying, “On the great altar burn the 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, their grain offerings, and their drink offerings. And dash on it all the blood of the burnt offerings and all the blood of the sacrifices. But the bronze altar shall be for me to inquire by .” ¹⁶So Uriah the priest did according to all that King Ahaz commanded. ¹⁷King Ahaz cut off the frames of the stands and removed the basin from them, and he took down the Sea from the bronze oxen that were under it and put it on a stone pavement. ¹⁸And the Sabbath canopy that they had built in the house, and the outer entrance for the king, he altered at the house of the LORD because of the king of Assyria. ¹⁹Now the rest of the acts of Ahaz that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? ²⁰And Ahaz slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the City of David, and Hezekiah his son became king in his place.

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4/11/2026

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