2 Chronicles 28

¹Ahaz 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, like his father David, ²but walked in the ways of the kings of Israel. He even made molten images for the Baʹals; ³and he burned incense in the valley of the son of Hinnom, and burned his sons as an offering, according to the abominable practices of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel. ⁴And he sacrificed and burned incense on the high places, and on the hills, and under every green tree.

⁵Therefore the Lord his God gave him into the hand of the king of Syria, who defeated him and took captive a great number of his people and brought them to Damascus. He was also given into the hand of the king of Israel, who defeated him with great slaughter. ⁶For Pekah the son of Remaliʹah slew a hundred and twenty thousand in Judah in one day, all of them men of valor, because they had forsaken the Lord, the God of their fathers. ⁷And Zichri, a mighty man of Eʹphraim, slew Ma-aseiʹah the king’s son and Azriʹkam the commander of the palace and Elkaʹnah the next in authority to the king.

⁸The men of Israel took captive two hundred thousand of their kinsfolk, women, sons, and daughters; they also took much spoil from them and brought the spoil to Samarʹia. ⁹But a prophet of the Lord was there, whose name was Oded; and he went out to meet the army that came to Samarʹia, and said to them, “Behold, because the Lord, the God of your fathers, was angry with Judah, he gave them into your hand, but you have slain them in a rage which has reached up to heaven. ¹⁰And now you intend to subjugate the people of Judah and Jerusalem, male and female, as your slaves. Have you not sins of your own against the Lord your God? ¹¹Now hear me, and send back the captives from your kinsfolk whom you have taken, for the fierce wrath of the Lord is upon you.” ¹²Certain chiefs also of the men of Eʹphraim, Azariʹah the son of Johaʹnan, Berechiʹah the son of Meshilʹlemoth, Jehizkiʹah the son of Shallum, and Amaʹsa the son of Hadlai, stood up against those who were coming from the war, ¹³and said to them, “You shall not bring the captives in here, for you propose to bring upon us guilt against the Lord in addition to our present sins and guilt. For our guilt is already great, and there is fierce wrath against Israel.” ¹⁴So the armed men left the captives and the spoil before the princes and all the assembly. ¹⁵And the men who have been mentioned by name rose and took the captives, and with the spoil they clothed all that were naked among them; they clothed them, gave them sandals, provided them with food and drink, and anointed them; and carrying all the feeble among them on asses, they brought them to their kinsfolk at Jericho, the city of palm trees. Then they returned to Samarʹia.

¹⁶At that time King Ahaz sent to the king of Assyria for help. ¹⁷For the Eʹdomites had again invaded and defeated Judah, and carried away captives. ¹⁸And the Philistines had made raids on the cities in the Shepheʹlah and the Negeb of Judah, and had taken Beth-sheʹmesh, Aiʹjalon, Gedeʹroth, Soco with its villages, Timnah with its villages, and Gimzo with its villages; and they settled there. ¹⁹For the Lord brought Judah low because of Ahaz king of Israel, for he had dealt wantonly in Judah and had been faithless to the Lord. ²⁰So Tilʹgath-pilneʹser king of Assyria came against him, and afflicted him instead of strengthening him. ²¹For Ahaz took from the house of the Lord and the house of the king and of the princes, and gave tribute to the king of Assyria; but it did not help him.

²²In the time of his distress he became yet more faithless to the Lord—this same King Ahaz. ²³For he sacrificed to the gods of Damascus which had defeated him, and said, “Because the gods of the kings of Syria helped them, I will sacrifice to them that they may help me.” But they were the ruin of him, and of all Israel. ²⁴And Ahaz gathered together the vessels of the house of God and cut in pieces the vessels of the house of God, and he shut up the doors of the house of the Lord; and he made himself altars in every corner of Jerusalem. ²⁵In every city of Judah he made high places to burn incense to other gods, provoking to anger the Lord, the God of his fathers. ²⁶Now the rest of his acts and all his ways, from first to last, behold, they are written in the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel. ²⁷And Ahaz slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city, in Jerusalem, for they did not bring him into the tombs of the kings of Israel. And Hezekiʹah his son reigned in his stead.