AB - II Kings - 16

16:1  In the seventeenth year of Pekah son of Remaliah, Ahaz the son of Jotham king of Judah began to reign.

16:2  Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem; and he did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord his God faithfully, as David his father had done.

16:3  And he walked in the way of the kings of Israel; indeed, he made his son to pass through the fire, according to the abominations of the heathen whom the Lord cast out from before the children of Israel.

16:4  And he sacrificed and burnt incense on the high places, and upon the hills, and under every shady tree.

16:5  Then Rezin king of Syria and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel went up against Jerusalem to war, and besieged Ahaz, but could not prevail against him.

16:6  At that time Rezin king of Syria captured Elath for Syria, and drove out the Jews from Elath, and the Edomites came to Elath, and dwelt there to this day.

16:7  And Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-Pileser king of the Assyrians, saying, I am your servant and your son: come up, deliver me out of the hand of the king of Syria, and out of the hand of the king of Israel, who are rising up against me.

16:8  And Ahaz took the silver and the gold that was found in the treasures of the house of the Lord, and of the king's house, and sent gifts to the king.

16:9  And the king of the Assyrians hearkened to him. And the king of the Assyrians went up to Damascus and took it, and removed the inhabitants, and killed King Rezin.

16:10  And King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-Pileser king of the Assyrians at Damascus. And he saw an altar at Damascus. And King Ahaz sent the pattern of the altar, and its proportions, and all its workmanship to Urijah the priest .

16:11  And Urijah the priest built the altar, according to all the directions which King Ahaz sent from Damascus.

16:12  And the king saw the altar, and went up to it,

16:13  and offered his whole burnt offering, and his meat offering, and his drink offering, and poured out the blood of his peace offerings on the bronze altar that was before the Lord.

16:14  And he brought forward the one before the house of the Lord from between the altar and the house of the Lord, and he set it openly by the side of the altar northward.

16:15  And King Ahaz charged Urijah the priest, saying, Offer upon the great altar the whole burnt offering in the morning, and the meat offering in the evening, and the whole burnt offering of the king and his meat offering, and the whole burnt offering of all the people and their meat offering, and their drink offering; and you shall pour all the blood of the whole burnt offering, and all the blood of any other sacrifice upon it; and the bronze altar shall be for me in the morning.

16:16  And Urijah the priest did according to all that King Ahaz commanded him.

16:17  And King Ahaz cut off the borders of the bases, and removed the laver from off them, and took down the sea from the bronze oxen that were under it, and set it upon a base of stone.

16:18  And he made a base for the throne in the house of the Lord, and he turned the king's entrance outside in the house of the Lord because of the king of the Assyrians.

16:19  And the rest of the acts of Ahaz, even all that he did, are not these written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?

16:20  And Ahaz slept with his fathers, and was buried in the City of David. And Hezekiah his son reigned in his place.