1 In the seventeenth year of Pekah son of Remaliah, Ahaz son of Jotham king of Judah became king. 2 Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. He did not do what was right in the sight of the LORD his God, as his ancestor David had done. 3 He walked in the way of the kings of Israel and even made his son pass through the fire, following the detestable practices of the nations the LORD had driven out before the people of Israel. 4 He sacrificed and burned incense at the high places, on the hills, and under every green tree. 5 Then Rezin king of Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel went up to Jerusalem for war. They besieged Ahaz but could not overcome him. 6 At that time Rezin king of Aram recovered Elath for Aram and drove the Judeans out of Elath. Edomites came to Elath and have lived there to this day.

7 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 the hand of the king of Israel, who are rising against me.” 8 Ahaz took the silver and gold found in the house of the LORD and in the treasuries of the king’s palace and sent them as a bribe to the king of Assyria. 9 The king of Assyria listened to him. He went up against Damascus, captured it, carried its people into exile to Kir, and put Rezin to death. 10 King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria. When he saw the altar in Damascus, King Ahaz sent Uriah the priest a likeness of the altar and a plan with all the details of its construction. 11 Uriah the priest built the altar according to everything King Ahaz had sent from Damascus. He completed it before King Ahaz returned from Damascus. 12 When the king returned from Damascus, he saw the altar, approached it, and went up on it. 13 He burned his burnt offering and his grain offering, poured out his drink offering, and splashed the blood of his peace offerings against the altar. 14 He moved the bronze altar that stood before the LORD from the front of the house, from between the new altar and the house of the LORD, and placed it on the north side of the new altar. 15 King Ahaz commanded Uriah the priest, “On the great altar burn the morning burnt offering, the evening grain offering, the king’s burnt offering and grain offering, and the burnt offerings of all the people of the land with their grain offerings and drink offerings. Splash all the blood of the burnt offerings and sacrifices against it. I will use the bronze altar for inquiry.” 16 Uriah the priest did everything King Ahaz commanded. 17 King Ahaz cut off the panels of the stands and removed the basins from them. He also took down the Sea from the bronze oxen beneath it and placed it on a stone pavement. 18 Because of the king of Assyria, he altered the covered Sabbath structure they had built at the house, along with the king’s outer entrance at the house of the LORD. 19 As for the rest of the acts of Ahaz and what he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? 20 Ahaz rested with his ancestors and was buried with his ancestors in the City of David. His son Hezekiah reigned in his place.